BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the script cover

The lyric sheets and track-list card are not genuine but photocopied

When it comes to the vinyl album of BORN TO RUN, it's not avoidable for a serious collector to mention the promotional package of the advanced test pressing, or much more famously known as the script cover. Nowadays you can find the copies that occasionally turn up on eBay in varying conditions, and actually I've seen two copies in the last two weeks, with the one being still on the auction at this moment. But before internet ages, it was quite tough to locate, and even more difficult to acquire an excellent copy, especially for collectors like me living outside the US. I managed to obtain a copy, which was more than two decades ago, in nearly pristine conditions for both the vinyl and sleeve (a collector's pleasure, as shown below). White covers like this are prone to staining and browning, but thus far, my copy has largely escaped the ravages of time (40 years, indeed!). The test pressing labels on both sides of the wax are left intact without hand writing and marking that are often observed in the circulating copies. The script cover is known to have been released as a special package (although this item is so famous that I skip the details), and the copy I got came with a special mailing envelope and a fact sheet, but lacking lyric sheets and a track-listing postcard-size insert (for which I almost give up to seek).

The matrix numbers of this test pressing are "P AL-33795-1A" and "P BL-33795-1A" on Side A and Side B, respectively, as you can get the information elsewhere on relevant internet sites. So, these matrix numbers with the suffix "1A" is the obvious signature of the earliest copies which are pressed at the Columbia Records pressing plant in Pitman, New Jersey, as named on the generic white test pressing labels on the wax.

There is another dead wax inscription "MCR" on each side, most probably referring to the Master Cutting Room, the mastering part of the Record Plant Studios, New York City, where all the songs but the title track of the BORN TO RUN album are recorded. To the best of my knowledge, this marking is only found in the run-off groove areas of the copies with the hand-etched matrix numbers, such as the script cover and the commercial releases with the catalog number prefix "PC" of PC33795 (including both the white label promo [WLP] and regular red label issues), but not in those of the later issues with the catalog number prefix "JC" (the matrix numbers of "JC" series are machine-typed). 

When I obtained the script cover a long time ago, what I did first was to compare these matrix hand-etchings with those of the WLP and early regular releases (both with "John" misspelling on the rear sleeve). This was because I just wanted to know whether the test pressing is a kind of something special and distinct from or not different from early copies of the WLP and commercial red label issues, in terms of the stamper plate or master disc by which the vinyl discs have been pressed.

Comparison of the run-off groove hand-etching markings on Side 1 among
the script cover (top), WLP (middle) and a "John" misspelled version of
the regular LP (bottom). Left, P AL-33795-1A; right, MCR.

The answer was, now as shown in the pictures above, that the matrix etchings are identical among the three pressings for both P AL-33795-1A/P BL-33795-1A and MCR markings. So, these vinyls are apparently pressed using the same stamper and the only difference is timing of pressing. As I had thought that this test pressing was something special, I remember that there was a tiny disappointment in spite of the massive delight of getting one of the greatest and memorable items among Springsteen collectors in the world.

 — To be continued.