Collecting log: Dead End Street, an Israeli soundtrack 12" one-sided EP

The vinyl format of 12-inch single/EP came into popularity in the 1970s for commercial releases. The first-ever Springsteen's commercial title in this format was Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), backed with Racing In The Street and Night (CBS 12.7753), that was issued relatively late, back in 1979 in Holland. When 7-inch singles were cut from the albums in the 1980s, almost without exceptions (with the exception of single releases from NEBRASKA), 12-inch counterparts were simultaneously released as either or both of regular and promotional discs.

The 12-inch vinyl came in a matt-surfaced sleeve. The replica sleeve has circulated for long on collector's market, and reportedly, has rather glossy surface without a red promo sticker on the rear. By the way, could someone translate loads of Hebrew writings on the rear sleeve?
 

Upper: A red promo notification sticker is pasted on the
rear sleeve with both Hebrew and English writings. Lower:
The same sticker is also used for other Israeli releases.
Shown is a copy of the GREETINGS ... LP (CBS 32210)
(photo taken from Springsteenrecords).

I remember every time I saw at a record store such a new 12-inch release from BORN IN THE U.S.A. that was manufactured in and imported from the US or Europe, I used to buy a copy, for to do so was the fastest way to get a rare non-album track that was otherwise not available on standard album releases (Back then, I valued 12-inch more than 7-inch simply because the former contains extra tracks and theoretically provides better sound quality). Around in 1985, however, I learned that such purchase often resulted in waste of money because those "rare" tracks appeared again on later releases, or 12-inch vinyl discs were repacked for resale. The greediest case I recall was the UK release of The Born In The U.S.A. 12" Single Collection (CBS BRUCE 1) that put together the four already released 12-inch vinyls, even though it came in a nice-looking box that contained the then-latest 7-inch single (I'm Goin' Down/Janey Don't You Lose Heart) and a fold-out poster as bonus. Since then, for mainly this reason, 12-inch vinyls have not been my primary collecting format although I do pick them up when I see a rarity or a good deal, especially for European releases in the mid-1990s (see here for 12-inch related blogs).

Spine printing (the catalog number, tittle and artist name) is also used as a proof of a genuine copy and as a measure to distinguish it from a replica sleeve.

Before the flood of 12-inch releases that are largely ignored, there were a few real collector's gems out there. The best-known example is Killer Tracks From The River (CBS/SONY XDAP 93030), the Japanese promotion-only 12-inch disc released in 1981. However, in terms of pure rarity (and peculiarity), I would rather take Kvish L'Lo Motzah (CBS DJ 428) in a Hebrew title, better known as Dead End Street, a 12-inch soundtrack to the 1982 Israeli movie with the same title. Readers of this blog do not require a thorough explanation for this mega collectible (If necessary, visit the Lost In The Flood collector's site or the Killing Floor database). It is in a unique vinyl format (one-sided 3-track EP), features an unusual track (Jungleland) for single/EP cut, and most probably represents the only soundtrack release containing Springsteen's original recordings exclusively.

Contrary to the information available on collector's sites, the matrix number on the playing side is 
not hand-etched but machine-stamped as "DJ428A Q". In addition, there is a hand-written symbol
that looks like "C1". Do these mean that mine is a bogus copy?

However, what is most interesting on this vinyl is how it came to be released. It is well known that Suki Lahav played the definitive role in that. Needless to say, Suki was a female violinist of the E Street Band back in 1974-1975, also contributing as a backing vocalist to studio recording and live performances. She disclosed the background story concisely and clearly, when she had an interview by the Backstreets Magazine, which is featured on the 16th issue (published spring 1986), as part of a continuous series of interviews with former E Streeters such as Vini Lopez and Ernest "Boom" Carter. Asked if she's been in touch with Springsteen since her departure from the band and homecoming to Israel, she answered as follows:

• About four years back, a film producer friend of mine wanted to use three of Bruce's songs for an Israeli film of his. He had trouble getting the okay from CBS. So I called Bruce up on the phone. It took a few days to find him at home but in the end he answered.
• He was really pleased to hear from me and right away said that there's no problem in using these songs ("Jungleland," "Hungry Heart" and "Point Blank"). He was really nice about it. CBS made a promotional disc of that film with those three songs on it. I heard it's become quite a collector's item being that they only had thirty printed.

The plain label on the blank side has some Hebrew writings. The blue-inked memo on a white square sheet
was provided by the seller for the translation to English. Luie (Louis) Lahav is the ex-husband of Suki and
worked as the sound engineer on Springsteen's first two albums.

In this interview, what caught my attention is the copy number of the vinyl disc. She mentioned only 30 copies made. This number is way smaller than 100 copies reported in other sources such as Lost In The Flood.  In spring 1997, the Backstreets Records put on sale a copy via auction with minimum bids of US $800, with the following descriptions:

• Less than ten of these items have ever been known to come into collector's hands. 
• The original run must have been less than 100.

Whether Suki's information is accurate or not remains unknown, and to my knowledge, there are no other sources of information regarding the pressing number of this 12-inch. As far as I've seen, Dead End Street appeared on collector's markets, including online auction, with much less frequency when compared to the aforementioned Killer Tracks From The River. So, in my sense, what she told seems realistic, or close to real, even though she was not a staff member of CBS Records or involved in the vinyl production.

I have no idea whether the accompanying inner bag is an
original or replaced one.

Finally, a few notes on my copy. I obtained it through eBay around in 2000 from a second-hand record shop in Tel Aviv, Israel. Back in the early years, it was rather rare that eBay auctions resulted in outrage high prices that have generally seen in the recent 10 years or so for extremely rare collectables like this one. So, it won't be possible these days to purchase a copy at the same expense (probably costing the double, at least). Notably, there is a big difference from what is being said about the matrix number on the run-off groove area of the playing side. According to the relevant information currently available on internet, "DJ 428A" is hand-etched on the dead wax. As pictured above, however, it is machine-stamped on my vinyl copy and exactly to be "DJ 428A Q". Unless mine is a fake copy, such uncertainness or errors as to copy number and dead wax information rather reflects how difficult to obtain accurate information on this peculiar release, hence its degree of rarity.