DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Scranton pressing (Pressing Plant owned by North American Music Industries)

Through the 1970s up to early 1980s, there were three major vinyl-pressing plants, located in Terre Haute, IN (1953-1982), Pitman, NJ (1960-1986) and Santa Maria, CA (1963-1981), that served the US Columbia Records. So, most of vinyl copies of Springsteen's albums up to THE RIVER originate from one of these plants. As told in the last blog, however, the original copies of DARKNESS album have more variation with respect to where they are pressed, because the Pitman Plant stopped pressing operation temporarily upon strike until close to the scheduled release date (due late May 1978), which necessitated the company to find out substituting factories. In the May-27th issue, Billboard magazine reports that the strike ended May 17, 1978. The magazine continues that the full production is expected to resume by this week* and that the settlement will allow CBS to be able to meet demand on upcoming releases by Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Boston, and Dave Mason (*May 27th is Saturday).

The overall label design looks the same between Santa Maria (left) and Scranton (right) pressings, although the stamper ring on the latter is far smaller than that on the former (but still noticeably larger than that on the Pinckneyville pressing).
 

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Pinckneyville pressing (Pressing Plant owned by MCA Records)

Still-sealed US vinyl collection of the DARKNESS album from my archive

Although one of the best sounding vinyls among his early original releases, collecting-wise, the US release of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN LP (US Columbia JC 35318) has not been so attractive to me, especially compared to the other classic albums such as BORN TO RUN or THE RIVER. This is probably because it is a single album housed in a single pocket sleeve without significant variations, with the exception of the picture disc edition that is not commercially available and released solely for promoting the album in the U.S. market; the half-speed mastered LP (US Columbia HC 45318), another notable variation, is classified as a reissue - not an original. Nonetheless, there still exist minor but noticeable variations, for example, in the font size (large or small) and color (black or white) used for displaying track listing and album credits on the rear LP sleeve, respectively, and thickness and printing quality of the inner sleeve with a B&W photo portrait and the credits, as briefly mentioned here.