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.