Collecting log: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN Japanese white label LP with an extremely rare promotional booklet (concluded)

In my collection, one of the Japan-pressed vinyls for DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (CBS/SONY 25AP 1000) seems to comprise an almost complete (or full) set of promotional items. This particular copy comes with a white label promo (WLP) LP, two separately stapled fact sheets, and the promotional 20-page booklet, as well as the regular inclusions (i.e., a printed inner sleeve, a lyric sheet, and the Japan-only fold-out insert featuring liner notes by Japanese critics and the translation of lyrics into Japanese). Here, most widely circulated promotional releases of the fourth album are WLP without any other promo addition. Those with fact sheet(s) or advertising flyer(s) are less frequently found, but often appear on online auction or used record websites. However, I dare say that the WLP copies accompanied with the promo-only booklet are impossibly hard to come across.

Two fact sheets: left, 5-gape; right, 7-page.

Two stapled, xerox-copied fact sheets are 5- and 7-page long, entitled "BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SPRING BACK" and "LAST AMERICAN HERO FROM ASBURY PARK N.J.: BRUCE THE BOSS SPRINGSTEEN ON THE STREET AGAIN", respectively. The former sheet features promotional statement about the album and music, credits, track-listing, and the discography. The latter, whose title coincides with the famous promo-only compilation album (CBS/SONY YAPC 95) released simultaneously with the DARKNESS album, prints the biography and translation of the article "Springsteen Resprung" from an issue (June 5th) of Newsweek in 1978. On the last page, this fact sheet also briefly mentions THUNDER ROAD, the seminal and first-ever fanzine devoted to Springsteen although it was an unofficial publication.

Many of the live snapshots, that are found on the Japanese THE RIVER tri-folded insert, already appear on the DARKNESS promo booklet two years before the release of this double album.

The signature on the rear cover of the booklet is identical to that
found on the Japan-only foldout insert for the second (and later)
pressing of the second album (CBS/SONY SOPO-125 and 25AP 1273;
shown is a promo copy with the former catalog number).

The booklet contains album and concert reviews, photos (all black & white except front and rear covers), discography, and essays on the young talent and his music, by a total of eight contemporary popular/rock music critics in Japan (among whom most famous is probably Yoichi Shibuya, also known as Founder of Rockin'On, a leading Japanese magazine on rock and popular music). Some of these critics also contribute to liner notes of the past and (then) future albums released in Japan. Photographs mainly consist of various on-stage shots which later appear on the fold-out insert exclusive to the Japanese pressing of THE RIVER (CBS/ SONY 40AP 1960-1). Then I've known that these live footage are actually from 1976-1977, contrary to my long (and wrong) thoughts that these snapshots were taken during the DARKNESS tour just because they are featured on the Japanese insert of the then next album (i.e. THE RIVER).

Pages 18 and 19 list short excerpts of articles from various magazines
(all other pages are written in Japanese)

Oddly, to the best of my knowledge, this booklet has not been documented or even mentioned anywhere in the relevant literature, such as Blinded By The Light (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London) and early issues of the Backstreets magazine (e.g., the issue no. 10 features a focus article on Japanese collectibles). In my opinion, this fact further strengthens its extreme scarcity because there's no room for the fake or bogus with this printed collectible. Moreover, I think that the existence of this promo-only booklet (and the simultaneous promo-only release of the custom compilation album) give evidence of the high degree of expectations back then the record company (CBS/SONY Japan) had on this young rocker, even though he had a three-year blank for releasing new recordings and gained (if any) only minor popularity here in the Far East.

Collecting log: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN Japanese white label LP with an extremely rare promotional booklet

These releases up for auction are accompanied with promo
pictures, pamphlets, booklets or fact sheets
(photos taken by the shop owner).

If you remember, last September I wrote about a local used record shop where various rare collectibles of Japanese pressing vinyls of domestic and foreign artists were reserved for a private auction. As for Springsteen collectibles, reserved for auction were extremely rare promotional releases of the first and second LPs, which are mostly known for the unique wrap-around and typographical-error obi, respectively, and the custom promo-only Killer Tracks 12" EP, as shown previously here. The shop owner had told me that he was planning to hold the auction at the end of 2015, which was slightly delayed and actually began mid-January this new year, ending on the first day of February. Towards the end of the auction, he uploaded several pictures of the auctioned items on his shop’s blog. Shown above are additionally uploaded images for the other Springsteen LPs that were up for the auction.

Really tough to find. Indeed, I've seen this only twice so far.

Because it was a kind of closed auction in which all participants were allowed to bid through e-mail or fax, individual bidders couldn't know how much amounts were raised (if any) by competitors for a targeted item. Then, after auction, the final bid amount for each item was disclosed only to a highest bidder to request the payment (The information on how to join the auction, as well as auction list, were given in Japanese on the shop's website). Last weekend (after three weeks of the end of the auction), I drove down to visit the shop again. While quite busy for packaging the auctioned items for shipping to winners, the shop owner kindly took time to talk to me. My main interest was, of course, the final results of the auction (i.e., what the final bid amounts are for these Springsteen items). Although he didn’t go into the details of what amounts were exactly paid by highest bidders for individual cases, from what he said, it seems to me that in most cases the amounts fell within the ranges as predicted in domestic market.

Various Japanese promo booklets and pamphlets following the
releases of HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN

Among the auctioned items, what called my attention most was a promo LP copy of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (CBS/SONY 25AP 1000) with a 20-page Japanese booklet (pictured above) that was distributed exclusively for promotion purposes when the album was originally released here (July 1978). An LP copy with this booklet, or the booklet alone, is such a rare item that it is seldom seen and circulated even in Japan. In fact, this was the second opportunity for me to see it in my entire collecting career. Luckily, many years ago, I was able to get the one the first time I found it (which was shown on this blog previously).

Several colorful booklets and pamphlets have been issued in Japan for promotion of Springsteen's albums, but most of which are for the CD releases following HUMAN TOUCH and LUCY TOWN (Note that in Japan, TUNNEL OF LOVE is the last Springsteen album released in vinyl format and that no vinyls have been pressed since these twin albums). In the vinyl era, posters were a main paper medium for promotion of new releases and reissues. Actually, I cannot think of any other booklets but this one in terms of rarity and page volume, although the promo biography pamphlet included in the first press of THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE LP (CBS/SONY SOPL-239) is also scarcely seen.
— To be continued.

THE RIVER New Zealand 2LP with "lyric" inner sleeve misprint

Faulty "lyric" inner sleeve turns out to be looking good (Image taken from blog on December 28, 2014).

Faulty production series continues. A year back in this blog, I briefly introduced a major production error that is found in a New Zealand copy of THE RIVER 2LP (CBS S2BP 220235). I think this would be a good opportunity to show the details of what error occurs with it. I bought this copy from a New Zealand seller and just like the standard issue, it comes with two printed inner sleeves for two records and the fold-out insert that opens up to reveal most of the song lyrics (Independence Day to Wreck On The Highway). However, one of the two inner sleeves, which should feature several pictures and the track listing for Sides 1 and 2 of Record 1, actually is the reprint of the inner pages of the lyric sheet.

The inner sleeve for Record 1 is open at a side instead of the top and the inside is plain white.

Side 1 has the hand-etched matrix number
S2BP-220235-A 9098-700

A close examination of the faulty sleeve for Record 1 indicates that the lyrics and the images of "Cadillac Ranch" are printed on a single sheet of paper that is then cut, folded and glued to produce the final inner sleeve in a professional factory manner. The paper quality and thickness for the "misprinted" inner sleeve look the same as the other "normal" inner sleeve for Record 2. So, it must have been made for the purpose of holding a vinyl disc. Moreover, this "lyric" inner sleeve has more slightly extended images of "Cadillac Ranch" towards the bottom margin when compared to those found on the accompanying lyric sheet or the one from an Australian LP copy carrying the identical catalog number (see the images below). These observations and facts strongly support that this particular inner sleeve is NOT the result of fake or bogus production using the lyric insert.

Left, the lyric insert of an Australian copy; Middle, a New Zealand lyric insert (accompanied with the misprint copy); Right, the misprinted inner sleeve.

Yet how this could happen remains a mystery. It could be a simple manufacturing error in a print factory. It could also be possible that the record company would try to cut down the manufacturing cost by putting these lyrics on the inner sleeve. But if this were indeed the case, then another "lyric" inner sleeve should have been made to reprint the outside of the fold-out sheet, which features the lyrics for the first four songs on Side 1 and the production credits for the album. According to the seller in NZ, he/she was once told by someone that THE RIVER got recalled there for some reason in the 1980s. This would reasonably explain the existence of the misprint version if it were indeed true, but who knows?

Collecting log: Unusual label error for My Hometown US 7" single

The seventh and last single cut from BORN IN THE USA in 1985 finally features the live version of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town on a regular 7" disc (flip side) long after its promotional release to radio stations in the mid 1970s.

Unable to update blog these days because here comes a busy season towards the end of this fiscal year (March). In the meantime, early this month, I just found this US regular 7" single of My Hometown / Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (live) (Columbia 38-05728) on eBay, and after a while thinking, bought it via "Buy It Now" option. At the first glimpse of a small photo on the auction page, I somehow recognized that there was something wrong with this vinyl disc, but just couldn't figure out what was actually wrong. Moreover, the seller did not mention anything about the error in the item description (he/she may have regarded it as just a defective copy, not as a collectors' item). So, I almost passed up this otherwise widely circulated stock copy of a mediocre collectible.

The normal copy (left) has the hand-etched matrix inscription "RL" [signature of Mastering Engineer
Robert (Bob) Ludwig] just next to a "MASTERDISK" stamp on Side 1 while the defective one (right)
does not, indicating that the latter disc is a second or later pressing.

How could this happen? I know little and have never thought about the manufacturing process of record labels. From this example, however, it is apparent that the printing process consists of two steps, the first being sunburst-background coloring and then typing various specific information including artist name, song title, catalog number, barcodes and so on (and this error occurred at the first step). Although it is not so unusual to come across LP and single records with typo, misprint or blank labels, I have never seen before this type of faulty production.