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.

Let me begin this new subject with "E" TICKET. When I started collecting vinyl Brucelegs around in 1981, this excellent single LP was already regarded as one of the two legendary studio-recording Brucelegs, along with the equally fascinating FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS from the U.K. According to my record, I got my first copy of "E" TICKET in 1982 which was neither an original pressing nor a repressed issue but a pirated copy as evaluated from my current knowledge based on the labels on the wax and the matrix inscriptions. Back then, however, I knew little about how to distinguish the original pressing from later or pirate copies because of the lack of accurate information due to its nature. Besides, there were no practical means to gather information on vinyl bootlegs. It was long before the internet was widely available!

The four disputed vinyl bootleg albums,
reportedly made by the alleged
Californian bootlegger in the late 1970s.

The vinyl bootleg of "E" TICKET is presumably produced sometime in 1978-1979 by unidentified bootlegger(s) in the West Coast. Publicly, this studio outtake/alternate take collection has been said to be made by a then-famous female Californian bootlegger called Vicky Vinyl, most known whose Bruceleg artifacts are PIECE DE RESISTANCE and LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (also known as WINTERLAND, 1978), the two triple-disc bootlegs capturing famous 1978-tour FM broadcasts. Although V. Vinyl admitted that she was responsible for these two landmark releases, as for "E" TICKET, she denied her involvement in Federal district court in Los Angeles when Springsteen and CBS Records sued her in 1979 for copyright infringement by producing a total of four bootleg titles [i.e., those mentioned above plus FIRE (a double red/yellow colored LP consisting of excerpts from the Winterland 1978 broadcasted show)].

"E" TICKET: The very first release in a stamped cover and
the second issue in professional looking

I obtained several old vinyl Bruceleg titles, including the original copies of "E" TICKET, nearly two decades ago from a man who lived in Southern California, the once-great center of vinyl bootlegging activity in the US from the late 1960s throughout 1970s. He had a deep knowledge of the activity and history of West Coast bootlegs in general, and those of Brucelegs in particular. Hence, through the communication with him, I've got to know some inside stories of Brucelegs made there. For example, he confessed that he knew who made "E" TICKET, referring to the figure as a male ("I knew the guy who made it"), which is, in fact, consistent with Vicky's statement of her defense in court saying that she was nothing to do with this bootleg LP.

Contained among the vinyl Brucelegs he had provided me with was what is often called the "advanced copy" or "blank-cover pre-release" version of "E" TICKET. This special early edition has been skeptical of its genuity even by knowledgeable collectors (for reference, see brucespringsteen.it and The Amazing Kornyfone Label). According to him, there was a simple reason for the existence of this early version in a stamped white cover.  — To be continued.