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.