Thoughts on My Father's House on NEBRASKA LP (Update 2/3):The alternate take with synth coda on regular vinyl pressing!!!

Portuguese translation of song titles, which are printed in small white letters on the rear sleeve, signifies where these copies are pressed and released. One of the two copies (left and center) I lately obtained, although cheap, is in miserable conditions; however, this was the only copy available with the lyric sheet which seems to be missing from many of the circulating copies. Or are these pressings not necessarily all released with it originally?

As mentioned in a series of blog posts (available here), an interesting fact is that the alternate take of My Father's House is found on some U.S. acetate discs and early test pressings before its commercial release (read Part 2 of this series), indicating that it was almost released on regular vinyl pressings. Evidence to support this includes a typographical error that wrongly lists the track length as 5 min 43 sec (correctly 5 min 3 sec) on the Side B record label of (early) LP copies released in no less than eight global regions (see Part 3 & Part 4):

• U.S. (Columbia TC 38358; no misprint on QC 38358)
• U.K. (CBS 25100)
• Canada (Columbia TCX 38358)
• Brazil (CBS 138.641)
• South Africa (CBS DNW 2804)
• Zimbabwe (CBS DNW 2804; most probably S. Africa-pressed)
• Hong Kong (CBS/SONY 25AP 2440; Japan export?)
• South Korea (KJPL-0598/OC-38358; not sure of its authenticity)

The 3rd track clocks in at exactly 5' 43" as indicated.

There may be a few more examples of the error other than those mentioned above, but I am not sure. Note that the typo on the label has been rectified at least for the release in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

To the best of my knowledge, there has been no literature or internet information that reports the existence of the alternative take on commercially available vinyl discs, nor even mentions such possibility. Currently, I own all the afore-mentioned misprint copies except for two African releases. The Brazilian copies are the latest addition to my collection, which indeed turned out to include the long version.

Two more orders from Latin
America in an effort to
confirm the finding.

Upon the finding, the first thing I had to do was to know whether this was unique to my own copy or not, since I was not able to eliminate a possibility that it was a fake. So, after the first copy was obtained, I searched for a few more through the internet and located two that were available from a music store in a city in San Paulo State (At that time, no copies were available on eBay). It took one month or so to receive these copies here, shipped from the other side of the globe, which mainly explains the delay since the last blog post. Anyway, I found that both copies contain, just like the first copy, the extended version with that synth coda. The running time is rightly 5 min 43 sec as indicated on the label, which was confirmed by direct listening comparison to the CD version (5 min 35 sec). This indicates that the track on vinyl plays a little bit slowly, provided that both are exactly the same recording. 

While checking these vinyl discs, what drew my interest was the fact that the three copies (hereafter referred to as #1 to #3) do not share the identical matrix codes, showing slight variations as listed below, on the dead wax of each side of each disc.

Top, Matrix letters "EL" and "C" common
to all sides of the three disc; Middle,
Copy #2-specific code "1-3-9"; and
Bottom, Copy #3-specific "1-2".

Copy #1

• Side A:   EL   C       138641 A         AL-38358 I
• Side B:   EL   C       138641 B         BL-38358

Copy #2

• Side A:   EL   C       138641 A     1-3-9    AL-38358 I
• Side B:   EL   C       138641 B    1-1-20     BL-38358

Copy #3

• Side A:   1-1-2    138641 A IV    EL   C     AL-38358
• Side B:   EL   C      138641 B    1-2     BL-38358

By a close examination on these hand-etched letters and numbers (pictured below), I came to the following interpretations as to the relationship among the three copies:

• All the matrix codes and numbers are probably inscribed on the lacquer masters by a single same mastering engineer, with the exception of those specific to each copy, such as 1-3-9 and 1-1-2, which seem to denote the generation of stampers.
• On Side A, the hand-etching of two catalog number-related codes (138641 A and AL-38358 ) of Copy #3 is noticeably different from those of Copies #1 and #2, indicating that there were at least two different metal mothers (hence, two lacquer masters) for pressing this side of the LP disc. An additional inscription (1-3-9 ) found on Copy #2 but not on Copy #1 may be an indication that Side A of the two was pressed from different stampers that were made from the same metal mother. 
• On Side B, the hand-etching of the two catalog number-related codes (138641 B and BL-38358 ) looks identical among the three copies; however, Copies #2 and #3 have extra codes that are specific to each pressing (1-1-20 and 1-2, respectively). From these observations, I figured that Side B of these vinyl discs was pressed using three different stampers that originated from the same metal mother.

              Comparison of catalog number-related matrix codes (138641 A/B  and AL/BL-38358 ).
              Note that Side A hand-etching of Copy #3 differs appreciably from those of Copies #1
and #2, whereas all look the same on Side B.

I don't know whether the above interpretations are correct or not. However, assuming that a single stamper makes up to several hundred to a thousand pressings, I guess that the substantial number of Brazilian copies, if not all, feature the alternate take rather than the regular take. If so, my biggest question is why this has not been mentioned anywhere on literature or internet for a long time since its release three decades plus seven years ago. Such a unique LP edition would have instantly become collectors' item to be highly sought after, back in the vinyl era of 1980s.

— To be continued.