Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT original black vinyl pressing (Part 3 of 3)

"The demand for a live Springsteen album would continue to build as long as Springsteen resisted providing official evidence of his take on a rock & roll revivalist meeting. Lou Cohan's double-set from Springsteen's Roxy show certainly had a lot more chops to it than the relatively tame 'wall of sound' beneath which Springsteen buried Born to Run. He had also proved a point about the potential demand for bootlegs of a 'rookie' seventies rock star like Springsteen. Ken, to his credit, had his antennae on, responding with his own version of the Roxy broadcast followed by his own testament to Springsteen at-his-peak, You Can Trust Your Car."
(Cited from BOOTLEG: The Secret History Of The Other Recording Industry, Clinton Heyin, 1996, St. Martin's Griffin, NY)

My first copy is still shrink wrapped. Early pressing of SODD releases came with
World Records labels in white background (an inverted black background 
 version is also known to exist).

As described in the citation above, and as almost all of you know, the broadcast live from the October show at the Roxy in 1975 was captured in another underground release FLAT TOP AND PIN DROP (Singer's Original Double Disk, SODD 006), put out by Ken Douglas who is, needles to say, one of the most famous early bootleggers. After shutting down the legendary Trade Mark of Quality in 1973, he set up The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label, the operation of which was supplemented with several other bootleg labels he also launched around that time and thereafter. SODD is one of such multiple bootleg labels run by his hands, and as its name indicates, he usually used this label for releasing double-LP titles, including another Springsteen's classic (SODD 001: briefly mentioned here) mentioned in the above quote and Rolling Stones' NASTY MUSIC (SODD 012), one of the most widely known bootlegs in the late 1970s.

A long-lasting misinformation with regard to FLAT TOP AND PIN DROP in literature and online databases is that this bootleg is a copy of THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT. As far as I know, all the guide books of Springsteen's bootleg (some of which are shown here) give the same erroneous note for this SODD release. Almost obviously, such an error has originated from an early description as found in the bootleg section of the Blinded By The Light book (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London), or maybe from Hot Wacks (any issues of which I have never owned or read; so I don't know whether this reference book reports so or not). Although there are several key facts indicating that these two bootlegs are indeed independent pressings, I just explain two such examples. 

The scanned image shows part of bootleg retailer's catalog I
received in April 1992. For old bootleg titles, it was still a strong
seller’s market at that time. As seen, a used copy of FLAT TOP
AND PIN DROP was sold, along with the excellent Swedish
2 x 12” EP bootleg The Boss Hits The Sixties, for 19,800 Yen
which are roughly equivalent to US $150 according to the 
exchange rate as of that time. Back then, I wondered about 
who would buy it at such an extraordinary high price.

One is the difference in sound quality which is noticeably better to my ear on FLAT TOP ... with more high-end presence and dynamics. Another is the fact that Pretty Flamingo, the final track on Side 1 of both releases, is incomplete (cut off before the performance ends) on THERE AIN'T NOBODY ... whereas FLAT TOP ... contains the full performance of this cover song. I think these two points alone provide substantial evidence to support that FLAT TOP ... is NOT a copy product of the previously available bootleg. Then, why has this misinformation been widespread without correction? THERE AIN'T NOBODY ... is one of the oldest Brucelegs, and it includes MC's introduction to the concert at the beginning of Side 1. On the other hand, FLAT TOP ... is the second release of this broadcast live but does not contain such an opening talk on the record, starting off the show opener Thunder Road immediately. Copying or bootlegging a bootleg often results in missing a track partially or entirely (or this happens on more than one track). These might have caused prejudice that THERE AIN'T NOBODY ... is an easy target for other bootleggers to make instant copies of a potentially good-sale product in collectors' market.

Has JASRAC collected royalties by the use of
sound recording of this bootleg?

Finally, my second copy of THERE AIN'T NOBODY ... came with a small logo sticker of JASRAC, the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, that was pasted on shrink wrap of the upper left corner of the front sleeve. JASRAC is the largest artist copyright lobby in Japan, similar to American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The society administers copyrights of not only domestic music works, but also foreign ones. So, having this sticker means that JASRAC, without recognition that it was a bootleg, has issued licenses to play this recording for commercial purpose in Japan (and collected royalties, if available), on behalf of publishers and copyright owners. But in this case, for whom?  Certainly not for Springsteen or Columbia Records. Based on the sticker design, this copy was imported from the U.S. in the mid-to-late 1970's and after approval by JASRAC, it was sold "legitimately" here even though it was an illegal product. We see here occasionally this sticker on sleeves of contemporary vinyl bootlegs by other artists. It was, and probably still is, a customary practice for import vinyl/CD dealers to apply for license to their imported goods, often including bootlegs and grey-zone products, to JASRAC for legal sale here in the domestic market in Japan.