Collecting log: Collectable acquisitions in 2017 (Part 3 of 3)

Here is the final part of the three consecutive posts on this year's collectable selection (Part 1 and Part 2 here). As written on the last paragraph of this post, a question arises on the item introduced here which hopefully gets answered from knowledgeable visitors. This post is also the latest addition to a featured blog series DARKNESS US pressing LP variations.


DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US white label promo LP - Terre Haute pressing (US Columbia JC 35318)

From the auction page: I hadn't noticed a indigo-blue rubber stamp on the front sleeve indicating
where this copy came from, until I received the record shipped by the U.S. seller.

Ok, probably you wonder why this relatively worn, white label promo (WLP) vinyl disc is chosen here as one of the three collectables from this year's acquisition. It undoubtedly pales by comparison with the previous two collectables in terms of rarity. In fact, I am not sure whether this rather common, WLP deserves a year's selection or 

Hand-etched "T2" and "T1" markings specify where this WLP
copy is pressed (i.e. Terre Haute, Indiana), so the matrix
number suffixes -1D/-2E (side 1/side 2) are specific to this
Columbia Record plant. Other suffix combinations found in
my collection include -1D/-2H, -1E/-2E, and -1F/-2H from
this pressing plant. "TML-S" and "TML-M" machine stamps
serve as the signature for early U.S. pressings of this album.

not. Maybe, it should have been expressed as a "potential collectable". Anyway, I obtained this promo LP from an eBay seller in the U.S. That was part of my effort to collect US-pressing copies of the DARKNESS album because I have recently been curious about how many different factories participated in pressing the first run of the album (The reason is explained in the first post of the relevant series here). I had two reasons for bidding this particular copy. One was the demand for a variety of WLP: For some reason or other, all my DARKNESS promo copies are Terre Haute pressings (this copy also turned out to be the same, though). Another reason was a relatively low competition of the bidding (resulting in a winning bid of US $5.77), although the shipping from the U.S. cost more than triple of the winning bid ($19.95). Still, in my opinion, the total expense ($25.72) is comparable to or cheaper than the prices here generally assigned to used WLP imports from the U.S., provided that a given copy is at least in acceptable conditions.

Obviously, this WLP copy was a property of the WMMR radio station. Then who had kept and played this copy at the station?
A clue to this question may lie in what seems to be someone's initials that are handwritten with a silver marker underneath the gold promo stamp.

As shown by the rubber stamp on the front sleeve, this WLP copy was previously owned by WMMR, a rock radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, although the seller did not mention anything about it (and so I was not aware of it at the time of bidding on the auction till I received it). Consistently, the seller's address is right there one of the oldest and most historically significant U.S. cities. This prompted me to check further the LP sleeve, and just below a gold promo stamp on the upper left corner of the rear, I found a signature-like, silver-inked handwritten script probably indicating someone's initials. Living in a country where English is practically not needed, I am not familiar with hand-written letters and still not sure of what the spelling is exactly in this case (and what it means). I was seeking to draw what connected with Springsteen, DARKNESS, promo LP, Philly, radio station, and WMMR ...  and an idea pinged into my head: Isn't this "ES" that refers to a radio legend Ed Sciaky (1948—2004), one of the earliest known enthusiastic disc jockeys/supporters of the Man and His Music?  No information as to this was available from the seller. I am totally not confident about my guess, and so probably I got the wrong idea (wondering if someone can answer this). However, at least I had some small fun delving into this simple handwriting, which explains why I picked it up here. Finally, I'd like to wish everyone who has visited my blog a Happy New Year. Happy hunting, happy collecting, and enjoy your lovely vinyl discs!

Collecting log: Collectable acquisitions in 2017 (Part 2 of 3)

The usual year-ending blog post continues. Following the previous post on a rare U.S. edition of THE RIVER LP (Part 1), this penultimate post (or maybe the last, depending on my circumstances) for 2017 spotlights an interesting box vinyl collectable I obtained this year.


BORN IN THE USA : US 1989 Radio Show Program 12-LP Box plus an Interviews/Generic Promos Disc (On The Radio Broadcasting, no number)

With 13 discs and 26 sides, this box set is the largest volume of radio show discs I have ever owned. Before this, it was ROCK ON THE ROAD Part II: The American Bands that was the maximum (5 discs), featuring the still unreleased live version of Prove It All Night recorded on July 1st, 1978, Berkeley, California.

This overwhelming volume of vinyl box set was picked up during my trip to Tokyo in this autumn. Having visited a branch of the city's largest second-hand chain selling a large number of used vinyl/CD, I found two bulky black boxes sitting on the Springsteen's section, besides often surplus used stocks of LIVE 1975/85. One is a legendary 10-LP bootleg ALL THOSE YEARS while the other, claiming to contain 12 vinyl discs, was for me a never-seen-before set and labeled by the store as bootleg. So, I took and brought the two heavy boxes with me to a cashier, and asked him if I could examine vinyls and other stuff inside each box. Unfortunately, the classic bootleg box was turned out not to be the first edition as the accompanying 24-page booklet was not serially numbered on the back cover with a silver marker.

The radio show package is as thick (about 3 cm in width) as the
classic 10-LP bootleg box which circulates more than three
decades ago in collectors' market before the release of BORN
IN THE U.S.A. in 1984 (mine are one numbered and another
unnumbered).

The title of the other box, which was totally new to me, was BORN IN THE USA with a US-shaped flag image depicted on the front face of the box lid, although Springsteen is nowhere mentioned on it. At the first glance, this set hardly looked to me like bootleg, but I thought was probably radio show discs because a kind of network/syndication name ("On The Radio Broadcasting"), together with its address and phone number, was printed on the bottom of the box front as well as the record labels. The vinyl discs were clean, pressed beautifully and seemingly unplayed without noticeable scratches, which was enough to convince me that my guess was quite plausible. The store staff seemed never to have thought of such possibility though when I told him about my guess (He's not a Boss specialist anyway). To confirm if it was indeed so, however, I had to wait until I got home and had a listen to these records. As opposed to the analog record era, the chain store generally put more value on official releases than bootlegged records. Since this 12-LP set was sold as a Springsteen bootleg, it had a price tag of 3,900 JPY (approximately US $34 and $2.62 per disc) which was way cheap considering its massive volume. After all, I purchased only the probable radio show box while putting back the famous bootleg to the original place (for I already own two copies as pictured above).

On the Radio Broadcasting, an American radio network/syndicator
that was a much smaller version of Westwood One.

After I came back home and listened to the set (not entirely, of course), it was found that the 12 vinyl discs constitute a U.S. radio-broadcasting show by various artists, aired in 1989 and provided by On The Radio Broadcasting located in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, CA. The program represents a showcase of the American popular music chronologically, featuring performers like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Turtles, Janis Joplin, Steely Dan, and many more (too many to know the all; the cue sheets are missing from the set). Furthermore, it was found that there is one more disc that contains the interviews with Al Jardine, best known as the rhythm guitarist of the Beach Boys, on one side and generic promo tracks on another side. Thus, the total number of discs is thirteen, not twelve as noted on the price tag.

All Springsteen tracks appear on Side B of Disc 12 (left). An additional, 13th vinyl record that includes interviews
(this side) and generic promo tracks (over) has no assigned disc number (right). 

Mild disappointedly, Springsteen is only featured on the very last of the program on the twelfth disc (SIDE 12B), together with Boston, Eagles, and Steve Miller Band, that includes three tracks from the album BORN TO RUN (Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, Thunder Road, and Born To Run). This radio show box is probably very rare, as I was not able to locate any websites that carry the relevant information about it, with the exception of one store website dealing with a number of music collectibles for sales. Having examined this website, I found that this Italian online shop is currently selling not only a copy of this vinyl box (priced quite high at €499.99) but also the CD edition (consisting of seven discs and priced at €299.99). According to the website, the CD set is released in 1990 and additionally includes four tracks from other albums (the track line-up are: Blinded By The Light, The E Street Shuffle, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City, Born To Run, Thunder Road, and Born In The USA).

Although Springsteen's tracks are only a small fraction of the whole radio show program, overall for its rarity and volume, the box satisfied my collector's instinct.
—  Collectable acquisition in 2017 to be continued.

Collecting log: Collectable acquisitions in 2017 (Part 1 of 3)

To me, officially and privately, 2017 was the busiest in recent years, and although the calendar year is coming to a close, here in the Far East, the fiscal year still continues to the end of March next year. Accordingly, the number of blog posts this year (that counts 22 including this one) is the lowest since 2014 when I started writing about my collection. This situation also slowed down my activities for collecting and hunting, which, in marked contrast to the last year's report, resulted in few exciting collectables in 2017 (and that's why I refrain using the term "best" collectable for the title of this year-end post). Having said that, I pick up three vinyl titles from this year's acquisition: they are not new here, or probably not main stream collectables, but still worth mentioning as interesting items. Note that this first post is also the latest part of a featured blog series THE RIVER LP collectibles.

THE RIVER "CBS Special Products" US 2LP (US Columbia PC2 36854)
Yes, this rarely seen edition of my favorite double LP has been featured on the very first post in this blog. This year I won yet another copy at Yahoo! Japan auction for an unexpectedly cheap price (330 JPY; just below US $3.00 as of the exchange rate when the auction ended). The seller was a used record store adopting a low margin/high volume policy, and so the starting bid was set as 100 JPY for every auctioned vinyl. The auction

The auction ends at a way cheap price with total 6 bids raised by 5
bidders. A major difference from the regular labels is the omission
of the yellow peripheral rim of COLUMBIA RECORDS lettering/logo
(Images taken and modified from the actual auction page).

page stated shortly the minimum information on the record (i.e. the catalog number and sleeve/disc conditions). A picture of the front sleeve with the two discs was also shown, from which I knew it was "CBS Special Products". There were five competitive bidders including myself who joined the auction. Luckily for me, the bid amounts raised by the other four competitors were quite low by a factor of 100 (i.e. 320, 280, 220, and 200 JPY) when compared to how much collectors have paid for similar auctions (average US $218 and median $167 from 10 eBay auctions, ranging between a minimum of $27 in 2014 and a maximum of $522 in 2013; see the summary table based on the search results on Popsike.come). So, it is obvious that these bidders did not know or recognize the market rate of the auctioned copy

(though exaggerated, in my opinion) and merely regarded it as one of many second-hand imports from the US. Having obtained the third copy in my possession, I thought this would be a good opportunity to update the information on this unusual release that remains vague even in collector's circles.
      Since its first appearance on eBay around in 2013, this particular double LP has often been explained as a possible early or advanced pressing every time it was put for auction sales. For example, an eBay seller suggestively described his/her item as "Maybe a test/pre-pressing before they [i.e. Columbia Records] did the normal run?"  To quote a comment posted on Discogs.com, what it says is: "Very rare CBS Special Products pressing, made with distinct labels just prior to distribution of regular stock copies". From my view, these descriptions represent the most probable misleading information, based on the following facts and observations:

• Matrix information: The two matrix markings, "KP" (the initials of Mastering Engineer) and "MASTERED BY CAPITOL", are not found on the dead wax of the double discs, although having these hand-etching and machine-stamp is an indication of early pressings of this vinyl album (see here for the details). Moreover, the double-letter suffix codes (-AB/-AA) of the matrix numbers, AL-36855-AB/BL-36855-AA on Disc 1 and AL-36856-AB/BL-36856-AA on Disc 2, are quite unlikely to have been assigned for advanced or initial pressings, according to the matrix numbering of Columbia Records. Finally, it is also unlikely that back then, advanced or initial pressings were pressed at a plant other than the three major plants of Columbia Records in Santa Maria CA, Terre Haute IN, and Pitman NJ; THE RIVER CBS Special Products LP is pressed at the factory of Electrosound Group Midwest, Inc., located in Shelbyville IN (as indicated by the matrix etching "Emw"). As far as I know, there is no evidence that this company is involved in the album production in 1980. 

The sleeve surface of the original pressing is glossy
laminated (away) whereas that of the repressing looks
rather matte (front), which may represent another
noticeable difference between the two pressings
(though the picture is not good enough to show the
difference).

• Sleeve format: The original single-pocket sleeve of THE RIVER LP is box-like, with a thick spine (approximately 6 mm in width) that is large enough to house two records stored in thick inner sleeves plus a lyric sheet fold-out. Although the thinner sleeve version (with the spine width of about 3 mm) also exists, as far as I examined, such release mostly contains later vinyl pressings of the regular Columbia label discs, as shown by the different matrix codes without the above-mentioned two matrix markings. So, almost certainly, the thinner sleeve format was introduced one or more years after its original release in 1980, in order to cut down production costs when the album was repressed (It is well known that the maga-hit sales of BORN IN THE U.S.A. results in a boost of his back catalog sales). To the best of my knowledge, all the known THE RIVER CBS Special Products releases come in the thinner sleeve, and I have never seen any copy of this edition housed in the original thick sleeve.

Other examples of the CBS Special Products LP releases. Note that the albums with this unique label
seem to have been released in a short time period between 1983 and 1985. From left to right: 18 SONG
YOU'LL ALWAYS LOVE by Martin Robbins (1983), ROCK OF THE 80'S by various artists (1984), THE BEST
OF MILES DAVIS by Miles Davis (1985), and CHRISTMAS WITH JOHNNY MATHIS by Johnny Mathis (1985)
(Images taken from Discogs.com).
 

An example of Columbia Special
Products labels (taken from
LondonJazzCollector)

• Record label design:  There are many examples of Columbia Special Products (CSP) LP releases (By the way, I don't exactly know what the difference between the two "Special Products" issues is). However, if you perform Google Image Search for CBS Special Products, you would probably fail to hit the same label design as Springsteen's. So, is the CBS Special Products label unique to Springsteen's 5th album or used for other releases by other CBS/Columbia Records artists?  Because Google Search was not helpful, I surveyed the image data available on Discogs.com and found several examples indeed (see the relevant picture above). These CBS Special Products pressings seem to be compilation/reissue albums by old (older than Springsteen!) country/western-based singer/song writers (such as Charlie Rich and Marty Robbins), popular music singers (such as Johnny Mathis), jazz and orchestra players (such as Miles Davis and Mitch Miller), and so on. Importantly, the release years of these vinyl albums are confined to the period between 1983 and 1985. It is very likely that the version of THE RIVER was also released in the same timeline. If so, these circumstances would instantly deny the groundless idea that this unusual 2LP set is "test/pre-pressing before the normal run" or "made just prior to distribution of regular stock copies, although it still remains unknown exactly when it was released.

Finally, despite what I claim here, the CBS Special Products edition of THE RIVER U.S. LP still stands as high collectable. This is mainly because of the scarcity at the market and unusual features otherwise unseen in the standard LP copies, such as the unique label design and semi-transparency of the two vinyl discs.
—  Collectable acquisition in 2017 to be continued.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS and other bootlegs from the 1976-1977 Tour (concluded)

Two copies in my possession. One is an original Hangman-labeled, marble-blue vinyl pressing while the other with blank labels looks black vinyl but in fact is coffee brownish. Both discs are pressed from the same stampers. Hand-etched matrix numbers are AB-1 (side 1, as shown) and AB-2 (side 2).

The first ever issue of the Backstreets magazine, which was distributed free of charge at an early THE RIVER tour concert in Seattle on October 1980, features a one-page article titled Born to collect Springsteen paraphernalia, focusing on a serious U.S. collector of Springsteen items. In the article, while he mentions the six hottest collectables that include four vinyl items (LAST AMERICAN HERO Japanese promo LP, Blinded By The Light US 7" stock single, DARKNESS promo picture disc, and the then-brand-new Devil With The Blue Dress Medley promo 12" release), he also compiles a list of 30 bootleg albums he owns. I assume this list covers almost all, if not all, bootleg LP titles that predate the release of THE RIVER. The only 1976-1977 tour bootleg on his list is PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS (1LP; Nov. 4, 1976, New York City, NY), which indicates that this is probably the earliest known bootleg LP that documents live performances in this particular period between BORN TO RUN and DARKNESS albums.

Comparison of the rear sleeve credits between "E" TICKET and PAID THE COST ... 
 

NEW YORK PALLADIUM 1976 is a copy of PAID THE COST ... with a
bonus live 7" single We Gotta Get Out Of This Place /Action In The
Streets (purchased on October 1984 at an import record store,
together with LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA vol. II). While my copy is black
vinyl, colored vinyl versions were also released. Featured on the front
sleeve is a photograph titled Early morning, West Hartlepool, 1963,
taken by a British photo-journalist Don McCullin. This photo always 
reminds me of Miami Steve just because to me he looks like the man
walking with his back to the camera.

Compared to other contemporary Bruceleg titles (for which black vinyl/slick-insert covers were standard), PAID THE COST ... is a very attractive looking release in its original form: a full printed, black & white live-footage sleeve and a marble-colored disc with custom-designed Hanging Man labels. Such edition is much rarer than blank-labeled, single-colored discs of plain red, blue, white, or pink that have been generally seen in collectors' market. The rear sleeve reproduces the catalog number ESB 75-002 and German production credits from "E" TICKET. This does not necessarily mean that the same bootlegger(s) are responsible for the two well-made bootleg records because when the label design and matrix numbers are examined, there are no obvious similarities between the two releases (see here for the labels and matrix etching on "E" TICKET discs). Rather, it seems that colleague bootlegger(s) jumped on the bandwagon of the best-selling bootleg by mimicking the presentation of credit description. Content-wise, this single LP includes the then three unreleased and cover songs (Rendezvous, Something In The Night and It's My Life) that represent this era's live performance. There is a major drawback on Side 2 with Rosalita in which the last half of the first verse and entire second verse are edited out, most probably due to track-length limitation. 

The vinyl is also available in different color
including marbled one (not in my possession)

Is this hangman drawing an original by the bootlegger(s) or copied
from somewhere?

There are scarce information on and related to the bootleg label Hanging Man or Hangman. As I wrote here previously, all I can think of the other bootleg releases with this label are THE GREAT WHITE BOSS (original 3-LP box version) and the Fever/Higher & Higher (live) 7" single. Although I am not certain, this bootleg label had probably worked specifically on Springsteen material since I have never seen any other label's examples except for the two LP and one single Brucelegs mentioned here. The live 7" single is picked up in the No. 5 issue of the Backstreets magazine. The "On vinyl" column article entitled Complete bootleg singles discography briefly reviews 18 singles back then available and describes this 7" as: "One of a series that appeared in 1979. Pretty good sound and a decent picture sleeve" (Note that the article does not mention anything about the Hangman label). Because this label seems to have been short lived, I guess the three Hangman-labeled Brucelegs may have been releasesd all together around in 1979. By the way, this final show of the 6-night stand at the Palladium, NYC, is famous for the guest appearance of Ronnie Spector performing three Ronettes-era hits during encore. The nearly complete show (missing two songs) was released in the late 1980's as the triple-vinyl bootleg called LAST NIGHT IN NEW YORK.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS and other bootlegs from the 1976-1977 Tour

Speaking of the Springsteen's officially sanctioned live archive series, I am one of those who have still continued to crave for old live performances of 1970s and 1980s. So, the most significant download to me this year was a twin release of Albany and Rochester concerts in New York, taken from the long-ignored period of 1976-1977 (covering the so-called "Chicken Scratch" and "Lawsuit" tours) that is excluded from LIVE/1975-85 and other official vinyl/digital releases. What was unexpected with the two sets of dowloads is that Springsteen has finally approved to use sub-standard recordings for official releases (i.e., These shows were recorded on cassette tapes). This fact may promise that more live archives, especially of classic performances early in his career, will follow as future releases, even if such recordings hardly meet Springsteen's standards in terms of sound quality.

The 1976-1977 tour bootlegs are initially released in the late 1970s to the early 1980s as excerpted concert live (upper three copies), and then appear in full or nearly complete form as triple-LP format in the mid-to-late 1980's (lower two). THE BOSTON BREAKER (mostly 25/03/1977, Boston MA; lower left) is released during the BORN IN THE USA tour (reported in the No. 14 issue of the Backstreets magazine published summer 1985) while IT'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL (09/10/1976, South Bend IN; lower right) is one of the very last Brucelegs made in the end of the vinyl bootleg era last century, before the rise of bootleg CD industry early in the 1990s. 

The two archive releases have provided me with an opportunity to think back of vinyl bootlegs capturing the 1976-1977 era. Up to the early 1980s before the flood of bootlegs began due to the success of BORN IN THE U.S.A., there were probably only three or four titles of such bootleg albums in circulation (excluding reissues, bootlegged bootlegs and miscellaneous compilations with a few tracks from the time period):

• BLINDED BY LIFE (2LP; April 7, 1976, Cleveland, OH)
• LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA (1LP; date uncertain, probably August 22, 1976, Springfield, MA)
• PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS (1LP; Nov. 4, 1976, New York City, NY)
• ACTION IN THE STREET (1LP; March 25, 1977, Boston, MA)

All these releases are listed on the late Chris Hunt's great bootleg file in the Blinded By The Light book (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London), although I am not certain whether ACTION IN THE STREET indeed came out before the release of the official 7th album (see below). To me, just like many other collectors back then, the Backstreets magazine was also a useful source for bootleg information, and we can still follow the releases of these old vinyl bootlegs (except ACTION ...) chronologically in the relevant columns or articles that are found in the old issues.  

A vinyl bootleg series of so called "LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA 1976". A total of 12 songs
(counting Mona/She's The One as two separate songs) on the original LIVE IN
PHILADELPHIA (upper right) and Volume Two of the same title (upper left; bought
on October 1984) are put together and released as STREETS ON FIRE from Europe
in the mid-to-late 1980s, although all three encore songs are still missing.

LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA is the first bootleg I obtained among the four listed above. This bootleg LP was mentioned twice in the magazine, first in the issue No. 2 in the article entitled New Slew of bootlegs (in which the bootleg title is only mentioned as one of the several new releases including the famous Swedish THE RIVER tour bootlegs), and then in the next issue (No. 3) with a brief review that is found in the "On record" column titled More new bootlegs than you can imagine: "We also really like the not-so new any more boot called Live in Philadelphia. This has been out for quite a while though it's fairly new to us. Nice quiet live versions are on this record. This is also cheap and available". The issue No. 3 does not report anything about NEBRASKA (which is featured in the issue No. 4), and according to my purchase log, I bought this bootleg on February 1982 at an import record store in Kyoto (the ancient capital of Japan where I was born and raised). Therefore, by the end of 1981, it almost probably was out in collectors' market. My first impression on sound quality was excellent and through this bootleg, for the first time, I was able to experience the live performances in this era, although the LP contains only excerpts from the concert and does not cover the entire show (Spirit In The Night and Thunder Road are incomplete).

The rear sleeve of BLINDED BY LIFE misprints the track list of a solo concert performed by Keith Richards (left: Image taken from Eddy's Bruce Springsteen Lyrics website), which is corrected with a large sticker pasted over it (right). Still, many sloppy errors are evident in the song titles.

BLINDED BY LIFE is reviewed in the magazine issue No. 10 (Summer 1984), in the "On record" column with the title New bootlegs reviewed by Steve Reed [BITUSA Tour is still not covered in this issue but from the next issue (No. 11)]. I bought a brand new copy of this double bootleg at another import shop in Kyoto on June 1984, which indicates its release being early 1984 (or late 1983). Despite a few shortcomings (mainly on the incorrect song titles: see the image above), it overall receives positive reviews ("the best of recent boots" with excellent sound quality; containing a great live version of Frankie; reasonable retail prices of $15 tops). I remember back then I concurred mostly with the reviews although the reviewer missed one serious point that almost all tracks suffered from truncation at the beginning, ending, or both, possibly due to poor editing or defects of the source tapes used for manufacturing this vinyl title.

Not in my possession (Image taken from Discogs website)

ACTION IN THE STREET is a Scorpio Records release (which I don't own). As far as I checked, there are no relevant information about this bootleg in any issues of the Backstreets magazine. If this LP was released around the same time another Scorpio title The River That Talks (a double 7" set consisting of four THE RIVER outtakes/alternate versions) began to circulate, it would be around in 1983, as the bootleg single is favorably reviewed in the "On vinyl" column of the magazine issue No. 7 ("above the normal standards of bootlegs"; "rivals officially released recordings in both sound quality and graphic presentation").

PAID THE COST TO BE THE BOSS is the first available title among the four bootlegs, possibly released in the late 1970s. According to Blinded By The Light, this LP was originally pressed on purple/blue vinyl with Hanging Man labels. Such copies are described as "very rare". In fact, I've seen most of copies in circulation being single-colored vinyls with blank labels, and seldom encountered the said original version. I don't exactly remember when I obtained my original copy (which is not recorded and missing on the purchase log). Probably in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
— To be continued.

 

Collecting log: GREETINGS US test pressing LP from the Pitman factory (and its comparison with Jim Cretecos's copy)

According to the labels on the wax, this copy is pressed at the Columbia Records' pressing plant in Pitman, N.J., and includes a stapled 10-page lyric sheet (the lyrics for Blinded By The Light are printed across 2 pages and the remaining eight songs on one page each). Inset, Each song is copyrighted by Sioux City Music Ltd., the music company derived from Laurel Canyon Ltd. (both run by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos) that became the management-exclusive arm after separation of music division.
 

Original vinyl bootleg releases that feature early demo and studio
recordings as far back as the Steel Mill era. These titles were
already available by the early 1980s.

Springsteen has been a prolific music composer since his early career, as demonstrated by the existence of a number of recorded songs. Such early recordings mostly consist of solo acoustic performances recorded at home for song publishing purposes or at 914 Sound Studios in New York City for the debut and second albums, besides alternate takes or different mixes for the tracks that appear on the two albums. Small fractions of these have been released officially for the first time in TRACKS and recently in CHAPTER & VERSE. Surely way before these official releases, there were various vinyl and CD bootleg titles circulated (the most famous examples of which are a series of the PRODIGAL SON/BEFORE THE FAME CD releases).

BEFORE THE FAME was once officially released March 1998 in Japan
and several promotional items, such as the custom promo-only
CD and T-shirts, were distributed for the domestic market.

Surprisingly, a substantial number of such recordings, in the forms of reel tapes (21 items), acetates (10 items) and test pressing (1 item), are going to be sold at auction (currently previewed at the web site of Backstage Auctions, Inc.)*, together with associated paper documents such as copyright certificates for the nine songs on GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. According to the web site, these recordings and paper goods come directly from the private collection of Jim Cretecos, then junior partner of Mike Appel in Laurel Canyon Limited, also known as then co-manager of Springsteen and co-producer credited on his first two albums, who has kept these collectibles in his possession for the past 45 years (i.e. 1972 to 2017). One amazing item (#1711; starting bid is $2500.00) among others is an early acetate disc for the first album that has a radically different track configuration containing the still-unreleased Visitation at Fort Horne, the final track on the acetate which is replaced in favor of It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City on the released album.
*It seems that the auctions ended on November 12th, the next day this blog article was posted.

Due to a high starting bid set for each, obviously there is no chance for me to participate in any auctions of the listed items. There is only one collectible listed on the auction that I own: a test pressing copy for the GREETINGS ... album (item #1713 on the above-mentioned auction site). I obtained this test pressing from a U.S. seller through eBay at its very early days in the late 1990s (By the way, having searched for the user ID, I found that he's still an active Florida-based seller). As shown at the top of this page, the disc comes in a white plain sleeve and carries white Pitman test pressing labels on both sides just like those for the BORN TO RUN script cover pressing, which represents a typical figure as a US Columbia Records' test pressing issued in the 1970s.

Comparison of the matrix numbers between the two GREETINGS test pressings.
Left, from Jim Cretecos collection (smaller images);
Right, from my collection (larger images).

Acetate and test pressing discs are a major victim of counterfeit activity among highly valued music collectibles. Although I was mostly convinced of the authenticity of the copy through the communications with the seller, still I had a little uncertainty as to the suffix codes for the matrix numbers, P AL 31903-1D on Side 1 and P BL 31903-2C Side 2, which seemed not to be old enough to be a test pressing (more specifically, I was expecting the matrix number suffices like -1A/-2A for this copy although -1D/-2C might also indicate an early pressing).

The web page of Backstage Auctions displays very clear images for individual auctioned items**. So, I came up with an idea to confirm the authenticity of my copy using Cretecos's disc as a reference because it must be genuine directly taken from the collection of one of the two ex-managers/producers of the artist. I thought it would be possible to know the matrix numbers of the auctioned test pressing from its JPEG images shown on the auction site. In fact, the matrix numbers were totally invisible on the black dead wax in the downloaded pictures. By adjusting tone parameter on Photoshop, however, the machine-stamped numbers emerged successfully, which turned out to be identical to those of the disc in my possession, as shown above. This was a small but long-time potentially critical issue for me regarding the highly valuable collectible in my collection, and I am now happy to have solved it. Finally, I almost forgot to mention that my copy is accompanied by a stapled lyric sheet for all the nine songs on the album, which is apparently missing in the auctioned one. So, is my copy valued more than the minimum bit ($750.00) set for Cretecos's copy?
**Upon the end of the auctions, all item descriptions and images were once removed from the web site, but are currently shown again with the results ("Sold" or "Not For Sale"; as of Nov. 15th, AM 8:30, local time in Tokyo).

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Supplementary Note to Hauppauge pressing (Pressing Plant run by Keel Mfg. Corp.)

Composite image from the actual auction page
(originally shown as three separated images)

This short post is just following up on early U.S. copies of the DARKNESS LP (JC 35318) that are pressed at the Keel manufacturing factory, located in Hauppauge, New York. Two months ago, I won a domestic auction of vinyl collection sold as "junk records," consisting of early six LP titles (five official and one bootleg albums; total eight discs). Although the seller did not provide any information on these records, especially on the official releases such as countries of origin, I was tempted to join the auction (and did so) because I knew that this kind of auction would usually not cost high (It actually cost me 300 JPY per disc, which exceeded a little bit my expectation, though). Another reason was that this volume contained one of the all-time classic bootlegs with an original orange slick insert. Finally, in a small picture displayed on the auction page, I spotted a gold stamp on the upper left corner of the rear sleeve of DARKNESS. Normally, it would be a "promo" stamp but I just couldn't read what was stamped exactly. Having received these records, I found that all but BORN TO RUN (which was a Japanese reissue missing an obi) were U.S. pressings, with DARKNESS originating from the Keel plant. The remaining were second pressing copies for GREETINGS ... in the postcard gate-fold sleeve (PC 31903) and THE WILD ... with the yellow/cream cover title (PC 32432), and an original THE RIVER from the Pitman factory (PC 36854).

Unique outline words found on the dead wax: "ONE" on SIDE 1 (left) and "THREE" on SIDE 2 (right)
 

A gold stamp on the rear sleeve turned out to be
"For Governmental Sale Only"

As shown previously, vinyl DARKNESS discs pressed at this Long Island-based factory are distinguished from the other pressings by a dead-wax stamp of the UK Union Jack flag on both sides. In addition to this, my first Keel copy carries another unique marking which depicts an outline word "ONE" on the run-off groove area of Side 2 (There's no outline words on Side 1). The copy included in this auction lot adds a variety to this outline character, showing "THREE" on Side 2 instead of "ONE" which appears on Side 1 of this disc. The exact matrix inscriptions can be read as follows (hand-etched, oblique; stamped, straight; ∋∈, Union Jack stamp):

• Side 1:  A    ONE      ∋∈    PAL-35318-1AB  PK           TML-S
• Side 2:  THREE   C   ∋∈    PBL-35318-2K   PK            TML-M

Although what is meant by these outline words remains unknown to me, they are almost probably unique to Keel pressings together with the UK flag stamp, as I have never seen such matrix characters on any copies of the U.S. DARKNESS album from other pressing plants.

Thoughts on My Father's House on NEBRASKA LP (addendum)

About a year ago, I wrote my thoughts on a longer, alternate version of My Father's House in four consecutive posts (here to here). On this subject, I had, and still have, one trivial question to be answered: Which version, standard or alternate, was originally included on the cassette tape (CBS/SONY 25KP 868) released in Japan?  Commercially, the alternate version first appeared in 1985 on the Japan-pressed copies of NEBRASKA CD,

  Various Japanese releases of NEBRASKA and an official poster
distributed for the promotion in 1982.

including those exported to the U.S. and Europe where they were manufactured as the first edition. According to the Brucebase website, this was because the U.S. Columbia Records have mistakenly sent the different master tapes (pseudo-stereo mix) to CBS/SONY for pressing CD in Japan. So, logically, the version on the cassette, which is released in 1982, must be the standard, shorter take without a synth code, just like that on the vinyl album. So, why I got to think about this?

Years ago long before starting this blog, I noticed the following interesting posts concerning the take on the Japanese cassette, which are still readable in a Steve Hoffman Music Forums' thread that has been initiated in 2004 (Does my Springsteen Nebraska CD have the long version of "My Father's House"? ; here). In this thread, someone made an inquiry post (found as post #14) as follows:

    This thread forced me to play my 2 copies of Nebraska, my original 1982 JPN. vinyl press and my
    1999 JPN. paper sleeve CD. Neither has the long version of MFH. 
    
    Would ANY original vinyl have this long version?
    Would the JPN. orig. CD have the long version?
    Would the US orig. CD (made in Japan?) have the long version?
 
    Help!

Then, there was a response (post #16) by someone to the above:

    1: No. It only came out on a Japanese promo cassette. (the underline made by this blogger)
    2: Yes
    3: Yes

This reminded me of those old days of air-checking
FM-radio program back in high school.

The responder responded to the inquiry post confidently, and based on his other posts on the thread, seemed to be very knowledgeable about these stuff (and so what he said seemed believable). This has made me try to seek and examine the promo cassette version of the track. So far, I haven't got the answer yet. This is simply because I have not been able to locate the promo version of the cassette which must be extremely rare even if it existed (The oldest promo cassette in my collection is for BORN IN THE U.S.A.; see here). OK, then what about the regular commercial version of the cassette?  I own few of regular cassette releases for Springsteen titles, and recently obtained a worn-looking used copy at 300 JPY. Fortunately, the 35-year-old tape was not worn or damaged, replayed well on my equally old Nakamichi deck (a low-end model, BX-2, also released in 1982), and sounded still excellent. However, what I heard was exactly the same as the standard take, although on this occasion I enjoyed listening to the whole album in a long autumn night.

→ Read three consecutive posts starting from here for the updated information.

Collecting log: THE RIVER-era promotion-only various artists' compilation albums released in Japan and The Killer Tracks From The River (concluded)

One of the few coolest sleeves among his entire vinyl releases.

Since the mid-1970s, as pointed out in the early issue of the Backstreets Magazine (#10, Summer 1984), Japan has been a major source of highly collectable vinyl records from Springsteen. As far as the 1970's albums go, the most highly demanded include the advanced white label promotional 1st pressing copy of THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE (CBS/SONY SOPL-239; released in 1974) with a typo obi, both regular and promotional 2nd pressing copies of GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. (SOPO-124; released in 1975) with a wrap-around obi, and the world's first-ever custom promotion-only album LAST AMERICAN HERO FROM ASBURY PARK N.J. (YAPC 95; relased in 1978). Although not an LP but a 12-inch EP recorded at 33 1/3 rpm, The Killer Tracks From The River (XDAP 93030; released in 1981), another custom promo-only compilation, probably represents the most important Japanese 30-cm diameter discs released in the 1980s under his name.

As usual with Japanese pressings, matrix symbols and numbers
are not hand-etched but machine-stamped on the dead wax space.
Left, JIS, an acronym symbol for Japanese Industrial Standards, is
found only on Side A. Right, Side B matrix number XDAP-93030B1
(the other side is XDAP-93030A1).

This mega rare promo record is seldom seen even here. In fact, I've noticed only a few times in the past decade this being put on Yahoo! Japan auction (According to my log, the probable latest auction ended in May 2016, at 78,000 JPY through "Buy-It-Now" option). So, the copies seem to circulate less widely in the domestic market (= the largest domestic auction site) compared to the aforementioned LAST AMERICAN HERO LP (see here for recent auction results of this LP). Using eBay as indicative of overseas trends, a quick search on the popsike.com database showed that three copies of this mega rare 12" vinyl have been sold in 2017 with final bids ranging from US $600 to UK £800 (equivalent to 68,275 to 114,941 JPY).

Parallelly shown is HUNGRY HEART 3LP bootleg (featuring 1981 U.K. shows) which also uses the official boardwalk/phone booth 7" sleeve as the front cover (upper left). The rear sleeve design of the bootleg is totally different from that of Killer Tracks, but it looks very nice, too (lower left).
 

Spine title with a misspelt word "KIFLER". Note the positional
relationship between spine and each side of the sleeve, from
which you can know which side is front.

What is fascinating with this release, like the promotion-only compilation double album CBS/SONY POPULAR BEST 9 (XDAP 93031-2) focused on in the last post, is its custom-designed sleeve featuring a photo of the three (Bruce, Steve and Clarence) along with the lyrics of four tracks included (Hungry Heart / The River // I Wanna Marry You / Point Blank). This side is absolutely much better than the other side that straightforwardly reproduces the standard sleeve for Hungry Heart 7" single (without Japanese lettering). However, you would recognize that this side of the sleeve is not front but rear, if you check the position of the side opening slot or the spine of the sleeve (i.e. Normally, the opening slot and spine of an LP sleeve are positioned on the right and left side of the front sleeve, respectively). I can't help thinking how nice it were if the withdrawn, alternate color picture sleeve (taken by photographer David Gahr; shown here) instead could be used for the front cover [Note that the photo revived and was eventually used for the rear sleeve of another impossibly rare Born To Run / Hungry Heart custom promotion-only 5" CD (SONY XDCS 93176) when GREATEST HITS (SONY SRCS 7631) was released in Japan in 1995]. 

For DJ shipping? (printed on the bottom-right corner
of the rear sleeve).

Another interesting fact is that the title of this release is inconsistently read on the sleeve, spine and labels on the wax. Confusingly, the front sleeve lists it as HUNGRY HEART b/w HELD UP WITHOUT A GUN whereas the rear displays it correctly as THE KILLER TRACKS FROM THE RIVER. The spine erroneously prints it as THE KIFLER TRACKS FROM THE RIVER. Finally, the record labels only say SPECIAL D. J. COPY "THE RIVER" on both sides, with nothing else for the title.

This release is accompanied with an insert that contains translation into Japanese of the four featured songs. In addition, in three-fifths of the insert space, it also reprints excerpts from the book titled BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN by Kenji Muroya. To be exact, the book is the Japanese edition of Springsteen's biography that is originally written by Peter Gambaccini. Mr. Muroya, a music critic/translator in Japan, translated the book that had been released here in January 1980 (but now log out of print). The rear side of the insert is blank.

 Accompanying insert (left) lists translated lyrics in Japanese and reprints excerpts,
titled "Once I found the guitar, I had the key to the highway", from the Japanese
edition of a biography on Springsteen authored by Peter Gambaccini (right).
 

As mentioned previously on this blog, Mr. Ryo Okada was back then the company's staff who was responsible for promoting Springsteen in the domestic market. When THE PROMISE: THE DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN Story (SONY SIPC 2971-6) was released in 2010, he contributed articles to the Japan-only booklet, revealing some inside stories on manufacturing and marketing the domestic album and single releases, including interesting tales on LAST AMERICAN HERO. So, upon the release of THE TIES THAT BINDS: THE RIVER COLLECTION (SONY SICP 4612-8) in late 2015, I had high expectations that he would disclose similar interesting stories concerning the domestic production and releases of THE RIVER LP, singles, and promotional discs. In particular, I was interested in knowing about: (1) the full account of the withdrawn picture sleeve for the 1st single (Hungry Heart); (2) how the different 2nd single (I Wanna Marry You) was to be chosen and released against the U.S. counterpart (Fade Away); and (3) any tales related to The Killer Tracks From The River. Disappointedly, he writes none of these at all in his contribution to the booklet for THE RIVER box.

According to the Japanese booklet, having listened to the master tapes that arrived in late August (1980) from the U.S. Columbia Records, Mr. Okada was quite happy with this new album because he found that it contained several songs that would become smash hit singles and suit for radio airplay. This stood in a marked contrast to the situation surrounding the previous DARKNESS LP, which he thought was hardly commercial due to the dark tone covering the entire album and the absence of potent hit-single candidates. He mentions that his choices among many on the new LP are Hungry Heart, Sherry Darling, Point Blank, and The River. These songs are included in either or both of The Killer Tracks and CBS/SONY POPULAR BEST 9 (see the previous post ), strongly suggesting that he made (or at least had a decisive influence on) Springsteen's track selection for the two major custom promotion-only compilations released in 1981.

Japanese edition of THE RIVER box and Mr. Okada's contribution
(found in the middle column) to the Japan-exclusive booklet.

What Mr. Okada mainly describes in the booklet is about the marketing plan to promote the album. Since he has done whatever he could to publicize Springsteen and his then new album DARKNESS when it was released in 1978 here in the Far East, he needed to devise another new strategy in the advertising campaigns for THE RIVER. Then what he did was to invite Japanese press/critics/journalists, who worked in the fields of popular/rock music, to one of the Los Angeles concerts during THE RIVER tour in late October 1980 (the Halloween week), and let them publish articles on the highly reputable live performance*. Note that Springsteen's first ever concert in Japan was on April 1985; so almost all Japanese never experienced his live at this point (Unfortunately, I don't know and have probably not read any of such concert reviews as I just began to listen to his music and was not so serious about it around that time). Finally, after the show, Mr. Okada brought press people to the backstage where he tried to meet and interview with Springsteen. He and his companions waited up for 2 hours or so. However, this attempt failed because of Bob Dylan who came midway through the concert and after which, the two were deep in the conversation and remained in Springsteen's private room. He writes "God has come and there was nothing we could do any more."  His contribution to the booklet ends with this "it was close" story.
— Back to the relevant post 👉 

*Update: Check the post on 02/11/2023 for such an article.