Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE 8/15/75 (black & white sleeve)

Various vinyl bootleg releases of the legendary FM-broadcasted Bottom Line show in New York City on August 15, 1975.
I think most of these came out in the mid to late 1970s except for THE BOSS IS BACK in color sleeve (and possibly the double-LP version of THE GREAT WHITE BOSS with the NO NUKES stage shot on front).

It was summer more than four decades ago that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, just prior to the release of his third album BORN TO RUN, played 10 shows during a 5-night stand at The Bottom Line club, New York City, between the 13th and 17th of August 1975. The early show of the third night was broadcasted on WNEW-FM, which represents the most historic and important performance early in his career. Since then, the live broadcast recording has appeared as various forms of bootleg LPs (and later CD releases). Among those, the most famous is the double album BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN LIVE or better known as LIVE on Coral Records (NR-909-2; shortly mentioned here on this blog previously). This is, first, because it has often been referred to as "the first ever Springsteen bootleg", second, because its package of the full-colored and gate-fold sleeve stood far above those of standard bootlegs back then (Springsteen's, at least), and finally, because many copies have been confiscated upon a lawsuit in 1976 filed against a local bootleg retailer by CBS Records in cooperation with Springsteen and the nightclub, which got into the news in the music industry (for example, Billboard magazine reports the occurrence and outcome of the lawsuit in the summer of 1976).

BACKSTREETS fanzines Numbers 20 and 21
(1987 Spring and Summer issues)

Purportedly, however, LIVE on Coral Records was neither the first underground release to bootleg Springsteen's recordings, nor was it the first to capture this legendary show. Although any sorts of official records or documents do not exist, nowadays you can learn the early history of Bruceleg through internet search or relevant books like Clinton Heylin's BOOTLEG: The Secret Story of the Other Recording Industry (1996; St. Martin's Griffin, New York). I got to know the early chronological order of Bruceleg releases for the first time in 1987 when I read an article in the Spring issue of the BACKSTREETS magazine (number 20). Back then, one of the main reasons to subscribe the magazine was that in almost every issue, latest bootlegs were usually reviewed in the column "On collecting". The column of the #20 issue features "A History of Bruce Boots" (by Danny Martins), introducing LIVE on Coral Records as "the very first Springsteen bootleg", and "LIVE was followed up by several releases on the Hoffman Avenue Records label" (i.e. THE JERSEY DEVIL and THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT). As you know, Hoffman Avenue Records were a California-based bootleg label founded by a Springsteen fan/collector who is also known as a publisher/editor of the first ever Springsteen fanzine THUNDER ROAD.

"Eagle Eye" credited on the slick covers for THE JERSEY DEVIL (upper)
and THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT (lower),
both released in 1975 on Hoffman Avenue Records labels

Then, in the next issue (number 21, Summer 1987), I found an interesting reader's response to this article in the Letter-to-Editor section (termed "In the mail"). It was a letter titled "Who's on first?" and posted by an anonymous called Eagle Eye from Trenton, New Jersey, who is quite critical to the article by Martins, starting off with "(the article) contained so many errors (that) I had to write" [annotations in parentheses by this blogger]. The main criticism raised in the letter was the sequential order by which these early bootlegs were released (see below). It is of note that "Eagle Eye" is credited as one of the producers for the above-mentioned two Hoffman Avenue Records releases, and Trenton is where the man behind these bootlegs grew up in youth. So, we can easily guess who this anonymous was.

Eagle Eye's claim that early Bruceleg titles appeared in the following order now seems to be widely acknowledged:

1. THE JERSEY DEVIL (briefly mentioned on this blog here): Hoffman Avenue Records; HAR 147; Single LP pressed in September 1975 in California; Flyers telling how to get it were distributed at the Roxy during Bruce’s October shows.
2. THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT: Hoffman Avenue Records; HAR 160; 2LP pressed in November 1975.
3. LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE 8/15/75 (hereafter simply called THE BOTTOM LINE): no label; no number; 2LP from East Coast.
4. HOT COALS FROM FIERY FURNACE (briefly mentioned on this blog here): Hoffman Avenue Records; HAR 164; 2LP pressed in February 1976.
5. LIVE: Coral Records; NR-909-2; Released in East Coast very shortly after HOT COALS ...

Some other source (I don't remember where I got the information) said that THE BOTTOM LINE and LIVE on Coral Records were pressed in early and mid December 1975, respectively (and if so, HOT COALS ... is corrected to be the fifth release). In either case, the release of THE BOTTOM LINE precedes LIVE. Thus, THE BOTTOM LINE is honored, among others, as the first ever bootleg for the legendary Bottom Line concert, which is a main reason I pick it up here.

Thick black vinyls with plain labels. Matrix numbers are hand-scratched: side 1, SIDE-1 A-1; side 2, SIDE-2  B-1;
side 3, SIDE-3 1-C; and side 4, SIDE-4 D-1.

THE BOTTOM LINE was produced by some old guy who lived in Levittown, Pennsylvania, just for making money (which I heard from "someone" in Southern California; see here). According to a flyer inserted into my copy of HOT COALS ... LP, this bootleg was back then sold for $10 in New York City and Philadelphia, and through the contact to East Coast bootleggers, the Hoffman Avenue Records were able to make it available to their customers in West Coast (By the way, $10.00 in 1975 had the same buying power as $45.57 in 2016; calculated on the DollarTimes website). This double-disc set covers all the songs performed that night but Kitty's Back (totally missing) and Quarter To Three (cut the reprise), and represents slightly different track configuration compared to LIVE on Coral Records. It came out in a simple black & white sleeve featuring on front a picture just stolen from the official third album. The rear sleeve is blank and the record labels are plain on all four sides of the two vinyl discs. So, it is obvious that relatively less effort was made by the bootlegger to show the set as something special, which contrasts markedly with fan-based enthusiastic (albeit amateurish) or semi-professional approach as found in the manufacture and production of the other four contemporary Springsteen bootlegs.

Hand-etched matrix numbers on Side 3 of Disc 2

While it seems to be inferior by comparison, there are a few notes that may be worth mentioning for THE BOTTOM LINE. First, the vinyl discs are appreciably thicker and heavier than those of the other related titles that are pictured at top of this page. When measured, Discs 1 and 2 from one of my two copies amounted to an average of 200 g weight (205 and 195 g, respectively), which is categorized as "heavy vinyl pressing" by the current industry standard (For a related topic on bootleg vinyl weight, see here). On the other hand, two record discs from a copy of LIVE on Coral Records were far much lighter, weighing only 116 and 112 g for Discs 1 and 2, respectively. Second, it does sound slightly better than the others to my ears, with more high end and cleaner instrumental separation, although there's more concomitant surface noise. Finally, THE BOTTOM LINE is less severely edited and still retains some DJ talks that are removed or edited out on the Coral Records release and the others such as double- and triple-LP versions of THE GREAT WHITE BOSS (Listen to the opening remark before kicking-off Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out on Side 1 and right before the show closer Rosalita on Side 4). For these reasons, and because of being the first ever legendary Bottom Line '75 bootleg, my rating on this relatively unattractive-looking, underestimated release is probably greater than the consensus of vinyl Bruceleg collectors.