Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS

“If they kept sales charts on bootlegs, FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS and E TICKET [sic] would both easily be best sellers: They are the two records almost every collector will have.” [excerpted from a short article entitled “The essential bootleg album guide,” featured in the fanzine Backstreets no.6 (May 1983)].

How many different pressings are these 8 copies grouped into?
How many are red-colored, black or heavy vinyls?

As this quote exemplifies, these two vinyl LPs are a twin peak of Springsteen's early studio bootlegs: they are housed in well-done jackets using now-classic photos of the DARKNESS era and with excellent sound quality originated from low generation tapes of studio recording and a demo acetate disc. Content-wise, I prefer FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS to “E” TICKET because the album was full of the materials that were unreleased back then, rather than consisting of mostly alternate takes of released songs. Piracy activity increases in proportion to the popularity and demand of a given title, whether it is official or bootleg, and this fantastic bootleg was no exception. Over the years, various forms of reproduction have appeared, from straightforward copies to completely different packages of the original LP.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (concluded)

A fake stamped cover release with a different text string and inappropriate record labels

There has been another version of the stamped cover that looks like an early or advanced pressing (also check a brief note from brucespringsteen.it). From my viewpoint, this white cover LP represents a typical example of pirating a famous/popular bootleg. Apparently, the bootleggers have reproduced it without exactly knowing what the original form of LP was like, which resulted in a completely different stamp on a white cover (that reads "ADVANCE PRESSING - E TICKET - COLLECTORS ITEM") and incorrect labels on the wax  (that should have been Ruthless Rhymes rather than hörweite stereophonie for the very early pressing).

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (continued)

From the front sleeves of the first
and second pressings

The first pressing of "E" TICKET, which was just stamped on a white cover with a hand-written serial number, was, of course, unheard of back then. I well remember that I could not resist the temptation of having the special edition of this famous/legendary LP in the long history of Springsteen's bootleg, not only for its scarcity but also for a possible background story behind its pressing. Currently in my possession are two copies each of the first stamped cover and second black & white picture sleeve versions.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET

Two very first Bruceleg CD titles
released back in 1989

Since the advent of the first Springsteen bootleg CD in 1989, almost all of the sound sources of vinyl bootleg have been digitized in physical media like CD and CD-R and become widely available on-line as electronic files in mp3 and FLAC formats (by the way, I still keep the original copies of the two earliest Bruceleg CD releases, YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME by Great Dane Records and TUNNEL OF LUST by a fake Swingin' Pig label). The main focus here on revisiting classic bootleg vinyls does not concern the sound quality but rather attempts to clarify a frequently asked question of which is the first and which is the second (or which is earlier and which is later), because a vinyl bootleg had often been repressed or pirated over the years, regardless of whether it was great or mediocre.

THE RIVER Gate-fold sleeve 2LP: South African and Zimbabwean records

A few additional notes on the South African pressing and its relation to the possible Zimbabwean release. 

Postulated company logo and name on the rear sleeves
that might identify country of manufacture
(right top, South African; right bottom, Zimbabwean)

On the South African LP: Neither label nor sleeve indicates as to where the record is pressed. However, there is a logo character on the sleeve that seems to identify the South African pressings of vinyl records. On the bottom right-hand corner of the back sleeve is a blue-colored logo "interpak", possibly referring to the name of a printing service company in that country (not confirmed, but Google search suggested so), although the meaning of the accompanied number ("110") is totally unknown. To support this, the logo is also found on the rear sleeves of the South African LP pressings of various Pink Floyd albums that are released from the CBS label (this info is taken from here).