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.

The rear sleeves of the inky first
press (upper) and the nicely
designed second press (lower)

The cover of both two copies of the first pressing is generic white featuring just a simple hand-made stamp in black ink that reads BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 'E' TICKET (by the way, I can't help but think that the stamp could have been better made). These stamped covers were most likely stacked flat in a careless way before black ink had dried, because the stamped text is blurry on the front (see the above picture), and the rear side of the white covers is fairly inky and dirty (see the picture right). Right-hand on the stamp immediately is a blue-inked, two-digit serial number for each copy, apparently written by the same person based on the scripts on the two sleeves. I do not know how many copies were numbered, although they are estimated to be not many considering the painstaking hand-written labor of numbering.

Record labels used for the first and second pressing of "E" TICKET and the matrix numbers hand-etched
on the dead wax (upper, Ruthless Rhymes; lower, hörweite stereophonie)

Three configurations of the original pressings:
stamped cover/Ruthless Rhymes label, picture
cover/Ruthless Rhymes label, and picture
cover/hörweite stereophonie label

As far as I examined, the vinyl disc from the first release is the same as that of the well-known second pressing housed in the black & white picture sleeve. The matrix numbers that are hand-etched "ESB-75-002-A" for Side One and "ESB-75-002-B" for Side Two are identical between these pressings, and there are no other codes or inscriptions on the dead wax areas. So, these vinyls obviously originated from the same set of stampers. The first pressing record labels were Ruthless Rhymes, one of the many varieties of bootleg labels that appeared in West Coast back then, often used by several different bootleggers, including Vicky Vinyl. This label was replaced by the yellow/green-colored hörweite stereophonie label when the second pressing came out. However, the picture sleeve version with the Ruthless Rhymes labels has circulated frequently in the collector's market (see the picture left). From these observations, it is evident that the earlier was the vinyl copies with the Ruthless Rhymes label.  — To be continued.