Collecting log: Devil With The Blue Dress Medley (live) from NO NUKES 1979 (a.k.a. the MUSE concert), a U.S. custom promotion-only 12" disc released as the 100-numbered 33⅓-speed limited edition (Part 2 of 4)

Note that the second post on this topic also constitutes the latest part of a featured blog series Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited. 

Although the officially released Devil With The Blue Dress Medley (live) was exciting enough for me at the first listening, I did not know that it was not the intact performance from the concert, with a major edit in the midst to eliminate the instrumental break and health hazard warnings from Springsteen. It was Dave Marsh's Born To Run semi-authorized biography from which I knew how the edited version was produced and came out on the NO NUKES album. Then around late in 1981, I was able to imagine what the actual live performance looked like, when I obtained and listened to my first copy of LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (a.k.a. WINTERLAND, 1978) that contained the earlier 1978 version (with the instrumental part and his oral warnings, but no Devil With ... reprise before the medley was concluded).

According to my collecting log, I purchased this bootleg
through mail order from the bootleg shop in West Shinjuku,
Tokyo on the 16th of August, 1983. The price was 4,980 JP
YEN (= US $20.97 based on the then exchange rate).

It was summer 1983 that I was finally able to listen to the non-cut version of this live performance through the magic of bootlegging (Note that back then here in Japan, tape trading was not as commonly used as in the U.S., and at least to me, it had never been the major route to get his unofficial recordings). Although incomplete and missing a few songs, Springsteen's first night performance was captured in soundboard quality on a double bootleg LP called NO NUKES 9/21/79 AT M.S.G. NY where the mixing of Stay and Devil With ... was apparently different from that of the released version on NO NUKES, but very close to that of the recent archive release. Having bought this bootleg 36 years ago, I still believe it was originally pressed and manufactured by Japanese bootleggers who run the then-most-famous bootleg shop in Japan, located in West Shinjuku, Tokyo. A series of bootleg records they produced, at least of Springsteen's, are generally characterized by cheap, non-full color thin sleeves. This bootleg is not the exception.

An example of the multicolored vinyl edition
with custom labels which I recall appeared
in the late 1980s (not in my possession).

In addition, if you play Side 3 on Disc 2 of this particular bootleg, you'll strangely hear a brief segment (a few seconds) of a Japanese female song between Devil With ... and the subsequent Rave On. How could this happen? Probably when making the master for this bootleg, the bootleggers dubbed the two live tracks individually and sequentially over the used tape that had already recorded this female vocal. Maybe the dubbing process was sloppy and introduced a short gap between the two tracks, which might cause the annoying female vocal that has remained unerased (So, these two tracks are not consecutive but interrupted shortly on the bootleg vinyl). I don't know if this short Japanese "signature" is still heard on the later pressings such as multi-coloured versions of this bootleg because they are more like independent pressings (= bootlegged bootleg) rather than repressed copies of the original black vinyl version (Can anyone check the matrix numbers of the multicolor version?). Although the entire second night performance (Sept. 22nd show) became available from Great Dane Records as one of the early CD bootlegs in 1990, this concert was issued in CD format much later (and long after I stopped collecting these unofficial CDs).

Also, I used to enjoy listening to the other live recordings that are featured on this bootleg. The rocking Rave On from the same night was (and still is) one of my favorites among his cover songs. It's My Life and Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street? got my vote for its passionate performance and Roy's rolling piano play during the interlude, respectively (both from the December 30th show at Tower Theater, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, during the BORN TO RUN tour 1975). I still prefer this penultimate concert to the final night performance (Dec. 31st show) that was released some years ago as part of the live archive series.
— To be continued.