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VAN HALEN THE SELF-TITLED FIRST ALBUM VAN HALEN - ORIGINAL ? 1978 WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS STEREO LP BSK-3075
ORIGINAL ? U.S. PRESSING
STILL SEALED WARNER BROTHERS LP BELIEVED TO BE THE ORIGINAL FIRST PRESSING
BELIEVED TO BE PRESSED ON THE ORIGINAL BURBANK BOULEVARD PALM TREES WARNER BROTHERS LABEL, MID-70 s STYLE.
THE THICKNESS OF THE VINYL, THE APPEARANCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE COVER, LABEL S LOGO AND OTHER PERIPHERAL ELEMENTS OF THE COVER, ARE ALL PERFECTLY CONSISTENT WITH THE ORIGINAL, FIRST PRESSING OF THIS TITLE.
FOUR BREATHE AIR HOLES NOTED ON THE SHRINK WRAP
THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.
ORIGINAL, THIN CARDBOARD COVER
FAIRLY THICK VINYL PRESSING On the scale from 1 to 10 1 being the least thick, and 10 being the thickest , we assess the thickness of the vinyl as 7.
PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW
Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a recycled image from our previous auction. What you see is what you ll get. GUARANTEED
Among revolutionary rock albums, Van Halen s debut often gets short shrift. Although it altered perceptions of what the guitar could do, it is not spoken of in the same reverential tones as Are You Experienced? and although it set the template for how rock roll sounded for the next decade or more, it isn t seen as an epochal generational shift, like Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, or Never Mind the Bollocks Here s the Sex Pistols, which was released just the year before. But make no mistake, Van Halen is as monumental, as seismic as those records, but part of the reason it s never given the same due is that there s no pretension, nothing self-conscious about it. In the best sense, it is an artless record, in the sense that it doesn t seem contrived, but it s also a great work of art because it s an effortless, guileless expression of what the band is all about, and what it would continue to be over the years. The band did get better, tighter, over the years -- peaking with their sleek masterpiece 1984, where there was no fat, nothing untidy -- but everything was in place here, from the robotic pulse of Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen, to the gonzo shtick of David Lee Roth to the astonishing guitar of Eddie Van Halen. There may have been antecedents to this sound -- perhaps you could trace Diamond Dave s shuck-n-jive to Black Oak Arkansas Jim Dandy, the slippery blues-less riffs hearken back to Aerosmith -- but Van Halen, to this day, sounds utterly unprecedented, as if it was a dispatch from a distant star. Some of the history behind the record has become rock lore: Eddie may have slowed down Cream records to a crawl to learn how Clapton played Crossroads -- the very stuff legends are made of -- but it s hard to hear Clapton here. It s hard to hear anybody else really, even with the traces of their influences, or the cover of You Really Got Me, which doesn t seem as if it were chosen because of any great love of the Kinks, but rather because that riff got the crowd going. And that s true of all 11 songs here: they re songs designed to get a rise out of the audience, designed to get them to have a good time, and the album still crackles with energy because of it.
Sheer visceral force is one thing, but originality is another, and the still-amazing thing about Van Halen is how it sounds like it has no fathers. Plenty other bands followed this template in the 80s, but like all great originals Van Halen doesn t seem to belong to the past and it still sounds like little else, despite generations of copycats. Listen to how Runnin with the Devil opens the record with its mammoth, confident riff and realize that there was no other band that sounded this way -- maybe Montrose or Kiss were this far removed from the blues, but they didn t have the down-and-dirty hedonistic vibe that Van Halen did Aerosmith certainly had that, but they were fueled by blooze and boogie, concepts that seem alien here. Everything about Van Halen is oversized: the rhythms are primal, often simple, but that gives Dave and Eddie room to run wild, and they do. They are larger than life, whether it s Dave strutting, slyly spinning dirty jokes and come-ons, or Eddie throwing out mind-melting guitar riffs with a smile. And of course, this record belongs to Eddie, just like the band s very name does. There was nothing, nothing like his furious flurry of notes on his solos, showcased on Eruption, a startling fanfare for his gifts: Steve Howe may have tapped before, but nothing like Eddie s fluid, lightning runs. He makes sounds that were unimagined before this album, and they still sound nearly inconceivable. But, at least at this point, these songs were never vehicles for Van Halen s playing they were true blue, bone-crunching rockers, not just great riffs but full-fledged anthems, like Jamie s Cryin , Atomic Punk, and Ain t Talkin Bout Love, songs that changed rock roll and still are monolithic slabs of rock to this day. They still sound vital, surprising, and ultimately fun -- and really revolutionary, because no other band rocked like this before Van Halen, and it s still a giddy thrill to hear them discover a new way to rock on this stellar, seminal debut.
EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY STEPHEN THOMAS ERLEWINE, ALL MUSIC GUIDE /ALLMUSIC.COM/
For additional historical or discography information on this album, including track listing click here
CONDITION:
THE RECORD
IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded we grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight
a THE ALBUM IS STILL FACTORY SEALED AND IS BELIEVED TO BE PERFECTLY MINT. Please note: sealed items are assumed to be mint and are sold as-is, as we have no way of inspecting them. For our policy on still sealed records click here PLEASE READ BEFORE PLACING A BID .
b The record is believed to come in its original, custom, inner sleeve, which is UNIQUE to this album.
c The record is pressed on a RELATIVELY thick, inflexible vinyl. This is NOT a thin, flimsy dynaflex type , vinyl, but not the thickest, most rigid vinyl, either.
d Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording
THE COVER
COVER IS NEAR MINT, STILL SEALED AND COVERED IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK WRAP
PLEASE NOTE: THE SHRINK WRAP HAS SEPARATED ALONG ABOUT 10 OF THE OPENING SIDE, BUT THE ALBUM IS STILL VISIBLY SEALED
The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:
- Cover has a minor 1/4 tear/cut on the opening side VISIBLE ON FRONT SIDE ONLY NO PART OF THE COVER IS MISSING
- Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine BARELY VISIBLE
