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.