Collecting log: THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD and the Japan Tour in 1997 (various collector's items)

Some official and unofficial Japan 1997 Tour collectibles. Shown right is the official Japan-exclusive 8-page booklet (with flyers inserted in it) featuring the entire album lyrics in both English and Japanese, which was distributed at the entrance to the concert hall for every night performance.

The first concert at the third and last time Springsteen visited Japan was performed 21 years ago tonight, January 27th, 1997, during the promotion tour for THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD. I remember the solo acoustic tour received only a modest attention here, which was in marked contrast to the hoopla surrounding BORN IN THE U.S.A. and the World Tour when he hit Asia for the first time in
April 1985 (cf. His second visit here was

Two more collectibles from Japan: The original paper sleeve release
 (SONY SRCS 9474) that was once released publicly but immediately
withdrawn in 1999 (see here for the details; mine is a promo copy
but not a regular issue which is further rarer) and a CD-sized 16-page
promo booklet with the cover photo which was taken during his visit
to East Berlin in 1995.

September 1988 during the Amnesty tour in Tokyo). Because of this and my inadvertence, I had not been aware of his third arrival here until three or four weeks before it really happened. Even worse, all the tickets were already sold out for a four-night stand at Tokyo International Forum (Hall "A" with the capacity of 5,027 guests), which was planned only on weekdays starting from Monday (January 27th) and ending on Friday of the same week (January 31st). By the way, the concert venue was newly built back then, with Springsteen as the first performer to play there (followed by Bob Dylan as you can see an announcement flyer for the forthcoming Dylan's concerts in the picture above).

Back then (and still now), I was busy with work during weekdays and lived far from Tokyo or the East Japan area. So, the scheduled dates and the venue were quite inconvenient for me. Still, I was able to obtain a ticket from a nice American guy dwelling in Tokyo at no extra charge for the 
last night (which was the only option I

Part of a "Ticket for sale" message posted on LuckyTown Digest,
which I found just before Springsteen's solo acoustic concerts in
Tokyo late in January 1997.

could take), by transactions through LuckyTown Digest, the now defunct, fan-based Springsteen mailing list operating back in the late 1990s to early 2000s. I met him at Tokyo Station on the evening of the day to pick up the ticket, and after making chats on each other's history on attending Springsteen's concerts, headed for the concert venue (located

He kindly and quickly replied to my e-mail message asking for the ticket
(only part of the message is shown).

within a walking distance from the station) together with him and his wife. It had been announced that
gates would open at 17:30 with the performance starting at 19:00 (In fact, it started at 19:20 and ended at 21:31, according to my memo). 

A bizarre sealed U.S. copy (Columbia CK 67484)
without paper print-outs (i.e. no booklet and no rear
sleeve inside the sealed plastic case). Most probably,
resulting from production errors.

On the next day (Jan. 28th; no concert on the evening) following the opening night, Springsteen had a short live interview (ca. 10 min.) on an evening news program called News Station (hosted by Hiroshi Kume), which was aired through Asahi TV network across the country (around 22:30). Of course, I was glued to the TV watching the program and recorded the interview on VHS tapes. In my memory, Mr. Kume, a nationally known TV/radio presenter who interviewed Springsteen by himself with the aid of a female translator, was so ignorant about the man and his music that the interview was hardly successful, to say the least. A few snapshots taken from TV screen are used on the booklet for excellent TOKYO NIGHT 2-CD bootleg released by Crystal Cat Records. This bootleg captures the last night performance which, according to those who saw the four concerts, is the best of all. Luckily I was there where the sound was crystal clear (as you can hear on the bootleg), and personally I was glad to be able to hear my favorite tunes from the new album like Highway 29 and Dry Lightning, and those stunning versions of songs from the other albums like Atlantic City, Highway Patrolman, The River, If I Should Fall Behind, and No Surrender (one of only a few rocking moments on the concert).

Should I remove the shrink wrap?  Inset shows that the wrap was
already torn spontaneously on the upper left corner of the U.S.
LP sleeve. The EU (Dutch) copy has two stickers pasted over the
front sleeve, one originally by the manufacturer and the other
(silver) after import to Japan in order to circumvent the trademark
license issue between Columbia Records (international) and
Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. (Japan; the company possessing
the Columbia trademark here has nothing to do with
CBS/SONY, SONY JAPAN, or Springsteen).
 

Vinyl copies of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD is one of the hard-to-find LP pressings in the catalog of Springsteen's work, such as 18 TRACKS, LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY, THE RISING and DEVILS & DUST, that are released in the period lying between the decline and revival of vinyl records. These vinyl albums are certainly rare and to me, that's all that matters. Therefore, I have little to talk about. It is worthy to mention that as reported in Lost In The Flood, counterfeits are known to exist of this title. I own both the European and U.S. pressings (Columbia 481650 1 and Columbia C 67484, respectively) that are, I believe, not fake copies. Rather, my concern is, as seen in the image on the right, that the transparent wrap of the still-sealed U.S. copy is so tightly shrunk as time goes by that the LP sleeve began to curve noticeably (which might affect the vinyl inside badly).

Two reel-to-reel tapes for the Columbia Records Radio Hour program aired on December
14th, 1995, that consist of the interviews by Bob Costas on Nov. 21th and live recordings
from Tower Theater, Philadelphia, on Dec. 8th, 1995. I personally have never played
these tapes as I don't own an open reel deck.

As shown here, there are a few more non-vinyl collectibles in my collection that are related to this solo acoustic album release. To me, the most interesting item among these is the U.K. promo-only CD in a generic plain white sleeve (Columbia SAMP CD 3066). According to Lost In The Flood, the CD is accompanied with a "lovely, ribbon-bound" promo lyric booklet (20 pages excluding front and back of the booklet). In addition to this, my copy comes with another one that is easily distinguished by its appearance from the "ribbon-bound" edition. This previously unreported booklet (to my knowledge) is bound by a black plastic ring binder (18 pages excluding front and back) and larger in A4 size, with clear protective cover sheets on front and rear. Furthermore, the lyrics are much more easily read on this "ring-bound" booklet because the artistic "Tom Joad" font (I don't know the font name) is NOT used as opposed to the other one. This may explain the existence of the two differently manufactured lyric booklets.

Supposedly, the U.K. promotional CD set (disc pressed in Austria) was originally distributed with the two booklets, one adopting the album-style, artistic font (a little bit hard to read) while the other using a generic font (easier to read). According to the credit card receipt, this was purchased from a U.K. dealer on December 1st, 1995 (the album was released on November 21th, as indicated on the front cover of the "ring-bound" booklet).