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| Keel's dead wax symbol (stamped on both sides) |
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THE RIVER copies released early in the 1980s, most, if not all, of the U.S. vinyl copies of Springsteen's albums had been pressed at three major pressing plants of the U.S. Columbia Records:
Pitman (ceased manufacturing vinyls in December 1986),
Terre Haute (stopped vinyl pressing in late 1982), and
Santa Maria (closed in 1981). As I wrote
previously, however, the
DARKNESS LP is the exception. This was because the
Pitman pressing plant stopped operation temporarily due to labor issues just before the scheduled release date of his highly anticipated 4th album in Spring 1978. As a result, vinyl manufacturing factories, that had probably never made (or at least had not made major) contributions on pressing any of Springsteen's LPs before, got involved in the album production. This led to a small variety of the early vinyl copies of
DARKNESS that differ in where they were pressed. In fact, the locations of pressing plants were mostly unusual for Springsteen's albums available back then, such as
Pinckneyville, IL, and
Scranton, PA. Such vinyl variants can be identified by checking label designs, circular indents on the labels, or matrix etchings and unique stamps found on the dead wax space.
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| The side 1 record labels from Santa Maria CA (left) and Hauppauge NY (right) pressings. Overall the two labels look the same. However, the latter disc pressed at the Keel pressing plant is distinguished from the former by the presence of a very small circular indent around the spindle hole. |
Here's yet another version of the LP pressing. This copy originated from
Keel Manufacturing Corp., a Long Island record manufacturer/pressing facility, and then the custom-pressing division of Pickwick International, Inc., located in
Hauppauge, New York. The apparent signature of this particular pressing is a unique stamp of
the British Union Jack flag that is found on the dead wax of each side of the vinyl disc. I don't know why the national flag is used for the symbolic signature for this US pressing factory. Maybe indicating a certain connection of the parental company (Pickwick International) to the U.K.?
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| The matrix inscriptions on Side 1. On the left of the Union Jack symbol can be read as "A seven" although I don't understand what is meant by that. |
Another signature is
an extra, very small circular indent
that is clearly visible closely around the spindle hole on the record label
in addition to a large, 2.70" diameter circular indent (see the picture above).
As far as I examined the copies in my possession, this small circular indent occurs only on Side 1
label of the
Keel-pressed copies, but is absent from or not easily discernible on copies pressed at any other pressing plants such as
Santa Maria's (though not conclusive). Other than these two, there are no significant differences that distinguish this from another one: the
Keel-pressed
vinyl comes in a thicker inner sleeve and is housed in the outer LP
sleeve with the "large font" track-listing and black-lettered credits on
the rear. The detailed matrix inscriptions are as follows (hand-etched,
oblique; stamped, straight; ∋∈, Union Jack stamp):
- Side 1: A seven ∋∈ PAL-35318-1AB PK TML-S
- Side 2: C ONE ∋∈ PBL-35318-2K PK TML-M
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Found on Side 2 dead wax is another cryptic matrix
inscription "C ONE" along with the Union Jack |
According to the U.S. Columbia's matrix numbering system (see
here on
Steve Hoffman Music Forums), Side 1 is made from the 15th lacquer cut from the first master tape (as coded for by the suffix
-1AB) while the 10th cutting from the second master is used for Side 2 (as indicated by
-2K). The earlier cuttings from the master tapes such as the first, second and third lacquers seem to have been sent out to the
Santa Maria pressing plant because all the U.S. vinyl
DARKNESS copies in my possession with a matrix number suffix
-1A,
-1B or
-1C have its signature (
1S or 2S) on the dead wax. These suggest that this West Coast plant has played a bigger role than usual in pressing this Springsteen's album early in its release, obviously due to the strike that forced the major East Coast plant to shut down transiently. In fact, the
Santa Maria pressings seem to represent the most widely circulating original US vinyl copies for this album (accounting for a half of the stock copies in my collection). Finally, my
Keel-pressed copy was obtained with the help of Dave (it was cheap but the U.S. seller did not offer international shipping), and on this occasion, I thank him not only for that but also for his encouragement and contribution to this blog.
