ISSUE ALERT! ... The vinyl has a serious problem, it has either been near a heat source or stored really poorly because the vinyl has a serious warping issue!
Now this is not the end of the world for the album, most tracks remain playable but one simply cannot be played as the "wave" is too serious. Full details are listed below. Even if the vinyl is considered to be "not worth the trouble", the gatefold cover is in very good condition, just insert another copy of the vinyl!
For those who can remember (this was 50 years ago!) or those who love the history of Australian music and the icons of those days ... another wonderful artist taken from us far too early, he passed away just 4 years after this album was released, at only 43 years old.
This is yet another album from the "late great" Johnny O'Keefe, Australian pioneer in the music industry rock n roll genre and this album features a side photograph of his Silver Pontiac Firebird 400 (with twin scoops). Johnny had a passion for both music and his Firebirds, this particular car had a plate on the rear JOK
JOHNNY O'KEEFE - Johnny B. Goode
Festival Records
Cat# L35147
1974
Australian release
Gatefold cover is in very good condition, this means that there are no seam splits, no tears and no personal writing with only very light signs of handling wear over the years.
New inner plastic sleeve
Vinyl is in good (minus) condition, visually inspected under a bright white halogen light source and I can see no significant marks or scratches of any significance at all . Just looking at the vinyl is not a good method to judge the condition so I then played the ENTIRE album, every single track, and HELLO MOTHER! My goodness, there is serious vinyl warping here! Short "wave" type of warp which the tonearm just cannot cope with at all so one track is completely unplayable and others, the tonearm dances a fair bit
Here is a description of what I found when playing this vinyl...
SIDE 1
Track 1 ~ the "wave" is just too much for the poor old tonearm and it cannot track across this track properly at all
Track 2 ~ 6 the "wave" is still present but the height of the wave slowly decreases as the tonearm moves in towards the centre. This means that beginning from track 2, the vinyl DOES play without mis-tracking but the tonearm is riding the wave a fair bit, track 3 is the same but to a lesser extent as the wave reduces and on it goes until the last track where the wave effect is minimal.
In summary, track 1 is a write off quite frankly but the remaining 5 tracks on this side do play fine although your tonearm will do a bit of "dancing"
SIDE 2
Due to the nature of this warp, the effect is much less obvious on this side. In fact I also used a centre weight to improve things to the point where the tonearm barely "danced" at all.
Tracks 1 ~ 6 ALL play fine, without mistracking and the tonearm doesn't "ride the wave" anywhere as much as on Side 1
NOTES: Some folk do undertake/attempt to "flatten" their vinyl which has suffered warping and this copy COULD be a candidate for that process but unless you are well versed in "flattening" vinyl, I wouldn't suggest trying this ... it is a very delicate process to try and flatten warped vinyl. It is not just about making the vinyl flat but any possible groove mishaping that can occur, thus destroying the sound quality. If contemplating this procedure, do your homework and take extreme care!
In the meantime, I will be storing this vinyl "edge on" within a reasonably tightly packed case of other vinyls which MAY help flatten the vinyl over time, it certainly won't make it worse!
New outer clear plastic protective sleeve
TRACKS: High Rollin' Man (UNPLAYABLE), Over The Mountain, Johnny B. Goode, Mary Lee, Taste The Wine, Full Blooded Natural Man, Rock 'N' Roll Music, Over And Over, So Tough, Working Class People, Rock 'N' Roll Boogie, Mockingbird
