Ticket to Ride LP Question

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I just picked up my first LP of the album, Ticket to Ride, It was a Sealed copy with a sticker on the front that reads A Musical Experience.

My question is this...I am wondering if this is a first pressing? Vs a 2nd pressing or a re-issue.

Here is what it says on the cover & label

Cover side says SP-4205
Label is white with the brown A&M initals with black words of track titles, at the bottom on side 1 it says SP-4205/Stereo (SP-4309, Side 2 says SP-4205/Stereo (SP-4310)

Would this be a first pressing?

I am amazed at how full & rich this LP sounds after all these years, It's weird that I can't find a date at all on the LP, No date on cover or label.

 

[Harry]

That's a '70s re-issue you're describing. In the mid-'70s, A&M changed its label style from the old ochre (mustard) color (like my avatar to the left, to the newer silvery colored label with the circular "A & M" in tan fading from top to bottom (like LPJim uses for his avatar). A first pressing of Ticket To Ride would be a bit of a mis-nomer anyway, since a true first pressing would have been called Offering. By its very nature, Ticket To Ride could be considered a second pressing at best.

Many older albums were re-pressed in the '70s and '80s using the newer style label. You have one of those re-issues. It's not unusual for an old '60's-early '70s album to have no dates on it. That's fairly common. The practice of adding dates to albums came about the same time that they added musician information - sometime around 1972 or 73, I'd guess.

Do me a favor. Hold this album up to a bright light. If it's totally black and you can't see through it, it would be a '70s pressing. If you can see a dark purplish hue through it, then it's an '80s pressing on that higher quality vinyl they were using jsut before CDs came in.

Harry
...on a dreary Tuesday morning, online...

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I held the lp up to a lightbulb & it is black, can't see through it at all. So it must be a 70's pressing.

On the other hand when I got the Lovelines LP, I did the same & I could see through that one sorta like a purpleish color.

Thanks for the explanation on this. I just found it odd that I couldn't find a date anywhere. But I guess this Ticket LP is from the 70's. and not the 80's.

 

[Rudy]

Do me a favor. Hold this album up to a bright light. If it's totally black and you can't see through it, it would be a '70s pressing. If you can see a dark purplish hue through it, then it's an '80s pressing on that higher quality vinyl they were using jsut before CDs came in.

I believe the purplish-hued vinyl was Quiex. I don't recall many A&Ms getting that vinyl, other than potentially large sellers. I know Synchronicity (The Police) was Quiex, possibly Kilroy Was Here by Styx...but I think all of the A&M/CTi "Audio Master Plus" reissues were on Quiex in addition to being half-speed mastered. One of Herb's albums (possibly Blow Your Own Horn was on Quiex vinyl as well. Were any Carpenters albums released with the good vinyl?

Supposedly, the premium vinyls like Quiex are purer vinyl (having fewer additives and, hence, lower background noise), and are a bit stiffer (to combat flexing of the grooves after being played, reducing groove wear, and helping it be a little less prone to warpage). I always thought the Quiex records sounded really good...better than the standard vinyl, I've found.

Mobile Fidelity also used a premium vinyl compound, but theirs is a brown-ish color. A&M's "Audiophile" half-speed mastered LPs also used similar vinyl to MoFi's...the few I have still sound like new after all these years, and I try to pick them up whenever I see them used.

 

[W.B.]

Many older albums were re-pressed in the '70s and '80s using the newer style label. You have one of those re-issues. It's not unusual for an old '60's-early '70s album to have no dates on it. That's fairly common. The practice of adding dates to albums came about the same time that they added musician information - sometime around 1972 or 73, I'd guess.

The (P) symbol and year was first introduced on U.S. pressings by Warner Bros./Reprise, Elektra, Atlantic/Atco/Cotillion, and the London labels (London, Parrot, Hi et al.) in late 1971 (Led Zeppelin's fourth "ZOSO" album, SD 7208, sported such notice on the right-hand side below the side number on the Atlantic label design). But it became a true standard within much of the industry in America after March 1, 1972. However, with A&M, I didn't notice the (P) notice on releases until those that came out after later in March or early April of that year. (Liza Minnelli's LP Live at the Olympia in Paris, SP-4345, does not have any publishing date, though certainly based upon the fonts used on my pressing -- from Columbia, natch -- it was most certainly '72. Especially when one considers that this was ten catalogue numbers after Procol Harum's Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, SP-4335, which did bear a (P) notice.)

Do me a favor. Hold this album up to a bright light. If it's totally black and you can't see through it, it would be a '70s pressing. If you can see a dark purplish hue through it, then it's an '80s pressing on that higher quality vinyl they were using jsut before CDs came in.

I.I.N.M., Columbia-pressed LP's never had any hue no matter what year they were pressed. Their 45's, especially the styrene ones, were another matter. Such pressings began sporting that "purplish hue" in the bright light around the spring of 1969 (by contrast, some other pressing plants that used styrene, like Monarch and Allied, first displayed such hue on 45's around 1967). However, some of the other plants A&M used to press their LP's may well have had that hue you describe, especially post-1978 or '79.