Can somebody please explain how this could happen? I could understand them accidentally putting two side one stamps in the press, but if they did that, the track bands should both be correct for side 1’s songs. But side 2 has has the correct track bands for side 2’s songs. It has the correct label for side 2 – but the audio content is from side 1! How did this happen, and is it worth anything? Feel free to comment (comments are disabled here – view video on YouTube to comment).

Here’s my theory: Columbia Records created a faulty lacquer for side 2 (when the actual audio was being cut into the lacquer by the cutting lathe). What gets me are the track bands. Google says they are manually created by the engineer to create the space between songs. The lacquer cutting is done in real-time as the audio is sent through the cutting amplifiers. Supposedly, the engineer listens for the end of a song a manually moves the cutting stylus over a bit to create the space between the songs. I don’t know…maybe Columbia Records had automated the creation of the track bands because they appear to be correct for the audio that should have been on side 2. In any case, the track bands on side 2 have audio cut into what should be the silent section between songs.

In the coin collecting field, such a manufacturing foul up of this magnitude would make the coins extremely valuable. I’m just wondering if the same is true in the vinyl collecting field. This is definitely a failure in the manufacturing and quality control processes at Columbia Records in the 70s. I wonder how many other ELP fans received one of these faulty records?