Radioshow Disc: ROCK ON THE ROAD Part II: The American Bands 5LP w/ Prove It All Night - Berkeley live 1978 (concluded)

Front of the custom D.I.R. file folder specifically
designed for this radio program LP

ROCK ON THE ROAD Part II: The American Bands is a 3-hour concert program that is issued and distributed to radio stations by D.I.R. Broadcasting Corporation (New York City, NY). The radio shows released by D.I.R. were available only by subscription to radio stations for broadcast, initially in reel-to-reel tapes, and later vinyl and CD formats. This 5-LP set is pressed in 1980 and captures 21 bands in concert in various venues spread all across the United States, plus interviews with the artists. The bands and musicians featured therein are Aerosmith, The Band, The Beach Boys, Pat Benatar, Blondie, The Blues Brothers, Jackson Browne, The Charlie Daniels Band, The Doobie Brothers, Foreigner, Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jefferson Starship, Van Morrison, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, The Marshall Tucker Band, James Taylor, Jessie Colin Young and Bruce Springsteen. It is said that all of the bands included are captured at the top of their game performing extended versions of some of their best known, rarest or most-loved songs.

The copy I have owned for years seems to be a complete set, accompanying a 8-page track-list/cue-sheet and other paper materials such as a 3-page affidavit/reply form with an pre-addressed envelope, all stored in the D.I.R. custom file folder specifically designed for this broadcast program. According to the affidavit/reply form, the program was assigned for broadcast on the 7th, 8th or 9th of November, 1980, depending on the choice of a radio station.

Inside the custom folder are various documents including cue
sheets, affidavit/reply form and others (the printout with blue
header is the Western Union mailgram; see the main text)

Among 10 sides from 5 vinyl discs, the highlight is definitely Side 3 that features two live tracks plus interview of Springsteen, starting with a short introduction by DJ that segues into Bishop Danced (Max's Kansas City in NYC, January 31, 1973). This is the long-known acoustic performance that has been aired on radio programs with the very first by the King Biscuit Flower Hours (KBFH; on February 18, 1973), bootlegged over the years (among the most famous is FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS), and finally released officially on TRACKS in 1998. Bishop Danced is followed by a short interview with Springsteen where he talks about a young girl who almost knocked out his front tooth by kissing him so hard (taken from the KBFH interview by WNEW-FM DJ Dave Herman in 1978). And then comes a lengthy live take of Prove It All Night (Berkeley, July 1, 1978) which is slightly cut at the beginning of piano intro in order to remove Herman's introduction to the song (the same editing can be heard on the 12" vinyl bootleg FILE UNDER BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN which is sourced from this radio show).

Part of the track listing (up to Side 4) in the 5-page cue sheet.
Note that Springsteen's two tracks are crossed out (meaning
not allowed to be aired) while all the other tracks (including
those not pictured) are identified by check marks.

Because both Herman's interview and the live recording of Prove It All Night are broadcasted via the KBFH program on July 9, 1978, at least concerning the Springsteen's live tracks and interview, the ROCK ON THE ROAD program is entirely based on the recording sources previously used for KBFH. This is no wonder, knowing that D.I.R. is responsible for both these radio programs. However, no official vinyl is known to exist for the July 9th KBFH radio show (D.I.R. had not used LP format until 1980 for distribution of radio show programs). Therefore, as mentioned in the last post, this particular live performance of Prove It All Night is exclusive to this set and not available on any other official vinyl or CD, except on the famous 12-inch acetate.

On the other hand, the version of Bishop Danced is pressed in both vinyl and CD formats for special radio programs. The vinyl-disc version was distributed to radio stations for the KBFH 500th broadcast celebration (aired on April 15, 1984) while the CD was pressed for its 15th anniversary broadcast (May 29, 1988). Listening to this special broadcast disc, I can't help feeling that the radioshow version of this performance (with the spoken introduction) is much better than the TRACKS version as the former still retains more live atmosphere at the small club.

The mailgram requesting not to air Springsteen live 
(shown only the message part)

And back to the question posed in the last post: Why had this soundboard recording of Prove It All Night been rarely bootlegged in the vinyl era? Among the documents included in my copy, what I found interesting is an unusual printout message of the Western Union mailgram (which was back then widely used in official notifications and legal transactions).  Through the mailgram dated November 8, 1980,  D.I.R. requests all radio stations not to play Side 3 which is devoted to Springsteen's live tracks (read the mailgram; This explains why only the two Springsteen's tracks are crossed out, as shown above, on the track-listing sheet). In 1979, he and the Columbia Records filed against the Californian bootleggers (Vicky Vinyl and her colleagues) for having made those classic bootlegs like PIECE DE RESISTANCE and LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (see the previous post on October 12, 2014), and as of the date above, the case was probably still pending in court in West Coast (although the verdict was issued by the end of 1980). So, it is obvious that Springsteen and the Jon Landau management made this request in order to prevent bootlegging. The rather urgent request by the Springsteen camp, as it was made on November 8th while the broadcast was scheduled in the time frame between the 7th and 9th as mentioned above, may have reduced the opportunity that bootleggers access this soundboard recording from the radio show. Just guessing.

From Backstreets Records Catalog no. 33 (Winter 1993)

I've seen this 5-LP set on eBay before, but very infrequently (probably only a few times in the past decade). The right-hand picture is a part of Backstreets Records Catalog back in 1993, advertising this 5-LP set for sale. Nowadays, most copies are likely missing the custom paper folder, the cue sheets and other accompanying documents, either partly or entirely. So, the fully intact copies are considered quite rare.

I've just learnt that the Agora FM-broadcast concert (Cleveland, OH, August 9, 1978) is officially released online in its entire form. Finally, Springsteen has decided to open the vaults and liberate unreleased classic live recordings. Since at least twice seriously considered for the official release in the past (in 1978 and 1986), this live recording may see the light of day in near future, maybe as a bonus track of a 1978 concert download.