Collecting log: BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP ー Matrix numbers of the earliest U.S. pressing and an error copy with off-centered labels (Part 2 of 5)

With the vinyl collection increasing steadily and continuously, erroneous or defective copies of official releases have gradually accumulated over the years in my collectible archives. As summarized here, such flaws range from tiny careless typos on record labels, sleeves and Obi-strips, to one-of-a-kind production errors like a lyric sheet mistakenly used for making the inner sleeve for Disc One of THE RIVER LP. Although BORN IN THE U.S.A. and its associated vinyl releases have never been my prime target of hunting and collecting, I own two such examples for this album. Shown here is a U.S. copy with the record labels that are incorrectly aligned to the vinyl disc.

Disc can be set on a turntable and played normally. This error results from wrongly processed paper labels because the center hole has to be punched out before vinyl pressing.

Collecting log: BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP ー Matrix numbers of the earliest U.S. pressing and an error copy with off-centered labels (Part 1 of 5)

On the front sleeve of the U.S. releases, original and early vinyl pressings
came with a blue and white sticker whereas a black and white one was
used for later and repressed copies.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the release of BORN IN THE U.S.A. (blog posts related to this album are summarized here). Just like in the U.S., before the internet era, radio airplay here was the primary source of listening to newly released songs, although the number of radio stations in Japan was (and still is) way smaller than that of the U.S. I believe it was a Friday night of May 1984 when Dancing In The Dark, the advanced single off the album, was for the first time aired in Japan (and I listened to it) on the NHK-FM radio program called Sound Street (PM 10:00-10:45), which was hosted by Yoichi Shibuya, one of the most influential critics in popular/rock music in Japan (previously mentioned here; he is one of those who contribute essays to the rare promotional booklet for the Japanese edition of DARKNESS LP).

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Is another WINTERLAND (3LP) a repress or an inferior pirate copy of the legendary bootleg?

Originally broadcasted on KSAN-FM radio from San Francisco, December 15th, 1978, the first night at the Winterland ballroom is probably the most bootlegged of all the concerts Springsteen has ever played. However, the live recordings are still in the vault and remain one of the most highly-anticipated releases for his official live archive series. In the vinyl era, LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (also known as WINTERLAND,1978 ), a triple-LP set originally released on the Slipped Disc Records label, was the most widely known among many titles bootlegging this concert. Although I don't think further explanations are needed, you can refer to some of the past posts for the information on this underground LP (for example, read here).

The famous 1978 live FM-broadcast concert from the West Coast was well captured on LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (left, first numbered box; center, second gate-fold edition), followed by the releases of various other bootleg titles including WINTERLAND (right).