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?