Alternate take for Stolen Car first appeared on a bootleg LP in the mid-1980s (although the bootleggers used to call it Son You May Kiss The Bride) and then was officially released on TRACKS in 1998. The famous John Hammond audition tapes recorded in 1972 have also been circulated on various bootlegs (for example, see here) and the advanced promo 3-track CD-R (Gateway Mastering Studios, CD PRO) for the 4-CD compilation box is the first official release featuring the acoustic demo of Growin' Up. |
Found on the dead wax of the NEBRASKA LP pressed in the US and other countries like Holland is the initials "D.K." for Dennis King who cut the final metal master at the Atlantic Records studios. |
On this late March, I received a PM from a fellow collector in the U.K. and we had some nice talk and exchanged collector-wise info on NEBRASKA LP. During the communication with him, he sent me scanned images for the record labels including those of the U.K. pressing, which led to my utterly belated finding on the misprint (see the picture above; thanks D.R. for bringing this to my attention!). Many years ago, I obtained a test pressing copy for the U.K. album, back then hoping much for the inclusion of the alternate take of My Father's House. However, this test pressing was found to contain the common regular take, and in fact, it shared the same hand-etched matrix numbers ("CBS 25100-B3" on Side 2) with the regular copy I own. So, all the test pressings do not necessarily contain the alternate version of the track, and I guess the US test pressing is probably the only available source for the long version on the vinyl format.
Needless to say, this prompted me to check five regular US copies for this LP I own (three copies for the earlier catalog number TC 38358 and two copies for later QC 38358, though both prefix codes refer to the list price of $8.98), and I found that one of the TC 38358 copies indeed had the same printing error the U.K. copy has made (see the image below). In addition, even though the differences are tiny, the track lengths for Used Cars and Reason To Believe do not match those on the Side 2 label of the other four copies.
This particular copy is considered to be an early pressing based on the earlier catalog number prefix "TC", a gold promo stamp on the rear sleeve (though the labels are red; probably no white label promo exists for the US pressing, see here on this blog), and the matrix numbers (with the suffixes 1A and 2B on Sides 1 and 2, respectively). The printing error on the US LP label seems to be specific to pressing plant because, according to matrix numbers, the misprint version (TC 38358) came from Pitman, NJ, whereas the remaining four (both TC and QC 38358) from Carrollton, GA. However, this is not conclusive and more copies need to be examined.
By the way, It is said that no US copies have been circulating with the matrix suffix 1B (I don't remember the source; maybe from one of the NEBRASKA-related threads from STEVE HOFFMAN MUSIC FORUM ?), and I guess 1D, 1F and 1H as well that are all probably to be assigned to Side 2. Provided that this is true, I enjoy thinking on the possibility that the master disc with the matrix suffix 1B (or any of the other equivalents) originally featured the alternate take of My Father's House but was ultimately rejected as the final master and abandoned. Such a scenario could explain why neither promo nor regular pressing with this earliest suffix code ever surfaces.
— To be continued.
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