Collecting log: Top 3 collectible acquisitions in 2019 (Part 3 of 3)

The final of the three parts of this subject reports last year's unexpected purchase of a U.K. 7-inch vinyl record which fellow "Boss" collectors often regard as a holy grail. So, this post may deserve the commemorable 150th to this blog which, since Fall 2014, has exclusively focused on Springsteen's official and unofficial collectibles, especially of vinyl pressings, in my private possession. There are still many missing, though, from my collection. If interested, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.
 
#1: Sherry Darling / Independence Day U.K. withdrawn white label promo 7" vinyl (CBS 9568)

Unfortunately, the color sleeve is just a regular one, listing Be True correctly,
instead of Independence Day, as the backside track.

There is an old Japanese proverb "Early risers earn 3-mon" (where "mon" is an old Japanese currency unit), which has essentially the same message in English as "The early bird always gets the worm." This purchase was just like that and completely unexpected to me. One usual morning last November, I woke up early, just made a quick online survey, and found it being sold at an unbelievably low price. It was just 63 minutes after the seller had put it up on auction. So, luckily and most probably, I was the first and only one who ever saw it online. Needless to say, the copy was sent out here to the Far East, currently sitting on my record shelf.

The withdrawn promo disc has the A1/B1 suffix code
in the hand-etched matrix numbers (upper). On the
other hand, the matrix number is machine-stamped
with the suffix code B2 on Side B of the corrected
regular pressing (lower); the hand-writing number
on the right of the stamp is wrong and scratched 
out (for the details, see 12/25/2019).

Surely, no detailed information on this 7" vinyl is necessary for collectors visiting here. Briefly, in February of 1981, CBS in the U.K. prepared to release Sherry Darling as the latest and second single from THE RIVER. As first publicly described in the discography section of the Blinded By The Light book (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London), the printed-up, white-label promotional copies (only 100, reportedly) were urgently withdrawn and scrapped due to the irregular B-side track. The Lost In The Flood collector's web page reports on how the mispressing occurred. When this single was ready for pressing in the U.K., the master tape for Be True, the correct B-side which was back then an unreleased non-album track, was not available there. So, an album track Independence Day was chosen instead as the flip side.

Based on what I've seen over the past few decades, until the mid-2000s, this mispressing had hardly attracted outstanding attention from collectors, and unlike its current status, had not been regarded as an exceptionally high-valued collectible. In fact, I knew back then only two examples that wrote about this 7" in print: one was the aforementioned Blinded By The Light book and the other was the Warehouse Catalog #44 which I received from the Backstreets Records in Spring 1997.

The latter included the auction catalog entitled "57 Channels Of Auction Gems" where this record was introduced in the middle of the auction lineup, as the 29th item with a minimum bid set at $175. Thus, certainly not viewed and treated as something like a top gem or a holy grail. To my understanding, what made it so famous and widely known to collectors owes to Top 40 Worldwide Springsteen Rarities, the featured article in No. 329 issue of the U.K.'s Record Collector magazine (November 2006). In the article, it is ranked in the first place on the rare collectible list. Moreover, a mint copy is valued £2,500 and £2,000, respectively, with and without the equally misprinted color sleeve (for which, by far, only two copies have reportedly been confirmed to exist).

Mastering Maestro's signatures are commonly found
on the dead-wax space of all the U.K. singles off
THE RIVER (see 12/25/2019).

Like most of the copies in circulation, the record sleeve of mine is the same as that of the regular copy (not listing the wrong B side). As reported in four consecutive posts in this blog from late last year (12/22/2019) to early this year (01/05/2020), all the U.K. 7" and 12" singles cut from THE RIVER were mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Tim Young. This mispressing is not an exception to this fact and his signatures are clearly inscribed on each side of the dead-wax space (side A, timtom ; side B, Ty ).

Finally, although unlikely, I suspected the small possibility of this being a counterfeit. This was because, despite that the seller knew of the wrong B side [to quote item description: HOWEVER, it is RARE because it is backed with INDEPENDENCE DAY (not 'Be True') with 

Nicely done, indeed (not in my possession).
Is there timotom or Ty hand-etching on the disc?

a release date of 13th February 1981], the price was set extraordinarily low (the reason for which still remains a mystery). In addition, to me, this vinyl format has not been the main target of collecting and hunting. And importantly, you may remember that there have been precisely manufactured, but almost probably unofficial white-label copies of Two Hearts / Ramrod  7" vinyl in circulation, which suddenly appeared on collectors' market some years ago and claimed to be issued in the U.K. for promotion only with the catalog number CBS A1845. So, unusually I decided to ask for expert opinions on this particular copy I obtained, which I had seldom done before, and my thanks are due to Roberto in Italy for his generous help on the authentication.

Collecting log: Top 3 collectible acquisitions in 2019 (Part 2 of 3)

Here is the second post of the subject introducing a collectible 12" single from the mid-1980s, which is a part of the twin vinyls of two different colors (I got one years ago, but not the other until recently). Although the remaining one had long been on my want list, I never hurried to get a copy of this until I found a reasonably priced one (and I did last year). In my opinion, these unique releases would explain why vinyl records can still be a lot of fun to collect. If interested, here are links to Part 1 and Part 3.

Two colors are better than one. The rarer green version is now in my collection 36 years after its release in Mexico, the only Latin American country I have visited before in my life (just once).
 

#2: Dancing In The Dark Mexican remix 12" emerald green vinyl record (CBS BS-35051)

You can look, but you better not play ...

As already covered previously (2015/04/19), this 12" dance remix was created by the electronic music pioneer Arthur Baker with no or little input from Springsteen. Aside from the music content, what is important with this record (the Mexican pressing only) is that it represents his first ever official colored-vinyl release back in 1984, or the second ever following the Colombian LP version of BORN IN THE U.S.A. (CBS 141761). With the recent revival of vinyl records, it is a trend that new releases are pressed not only on black vinyl, but often also on a selection of colored vinyl in limited quantities (i.e. GREATEST HITS Record Store Day 2018 reissue, CHAPTER AND VERSE, and studio and film versions of WESTERN STARS ). Back in old days, however, colored vinyls were extremely rare for Springsteen's records unless they were bootleg.
 

Unexpectedly, matrix-number handetchings 
differ on Side A whereas those on Side B are
identical between the two editions. Based on
the handwritting style, a single same sound
engineer perhaps cut all sides of the two discs.

For this remix, the Mexican branch of CBS Records has released two different versions of 12" singles pressed on semi-transparent red (04/19/2015) or green vinyl, with the latter being rarer and more highly valued. For example, current Discogs statistics data show that the red and green records have been sold at US $35.00 and $200.00, respectively, at the bottom price. So, while I had long considered the green one to be the best-looking among all his official colored vinyls pressed so far, until recently, I was just not able to localize a copy with a reasonable price. Interestingly, having obtained the green disc, I found that the suffix code of Side A matrix number differs from that of the red edition, as shown below (-1A versus -1C ).

Green wax version

• Side A:   50-52-8158-1A
• Side B:   50-52-8159-1A

Red wax version

• Side A:   50-52-8158-1C
• Side B:   50-52-8159-1A

This trivial fact may indicate that the green vinyl is the first or earlier pressing of the two, which could be a reason explaining why this color is rarer. I don't know if there exists yet another vinyl pressing with the matrix number suffix -1B on Side A.

Now I'm very happy to have gotten that emerald green which is simply brilliant!  The only displeasure with this is the remixed music on the vinyl disc that has kept me away from playing it on my turntable.
By the way, my most played colored vinyl for the past months is WESTERN STARS that is simply terrific. In fact, since its release last June, I've continued to listen to the album. I really like an awesome wilderness the LP sound evokes.
— The last collectible acquisition post soon to follow.

Collecting log: Top 3 collectible acquisitions in 2019 (Part 1 of 3)

Well this is a little bit belated, but here I select last year's best acquisitions. In the first half of the last year, collecting-wise, it was depressing for me mostly due to the frequent frustrating issue caused by eBay Global Shipping Program (see here). In the second half of the last year, contrastingly, I was brightened by the unexpected acquisition of a holy grail 7" vinyl pressing (although I admit I usually don't put much effort into hunting 7" collectibles; see Part 3). During this term, I also obtained a few items that had long been on my want list but I just had not dug out (this post) or I had had no luck finding at a reasonable price (see Part 2).

The KBFH's 15th anniversary 5-CD collection includinig Springsteen's club performances in the early 1973: Left, the single disc release containing Bishop Danced (a recent acquisition); Right, the four-disc set with Spirit In The Night on Disc A (obtained long before).
 

#3: KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR CD for radio airplay
(DIR Radio Network, KB #1)

As widely known, King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH) was an American syndicated radio program put out by the DIR Broadcasting Corporation that, in its premiere broadcast (February 18th, 1973), featured Bishop Danced, Springsteen's very early live performance January 31st, 1973, from the Max's Kansas City club, New York City. In 1974, it was cut on a 6-track acetate as a demo for his U.K. music publisher that later became the source of the famous vinyl bootleg FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS, through which I first experienced this live track. The single CD picked up here was produced to repeat KBFH's first broadcast when the program

In 1988, the Backstreets Records put this radio show CD onto
Route 66 Auction featuring 66 rare and unusual Springsteen items.
As can be read here, the live date had long been believed to be
August 30th, 1972. From Summer 1998 Warehouse Catalog #48.

celebrated its 15th Anniversary on May 29th, 1988. The celebration program continued over Memorial Day weekend, which is covered by a quadruple-radioshow CD set (DIR Radio Network, no number) with another Springsteen live recording Spirit In The Night from the same concert. Although finally in 1998, Bishop Danced is commercially released on the TRACKS CD box set, this radio show is still something special. This had made me seek for it as a good collectable companion to the vinyl counterpart (which is more valuable in my opinion though; see below). The following are trivial notes related to this release.

Bishop Danced and two more live songs (aforementioned Spirit In The Night plus Mary Queen Of Arkansas) recorded at this seminal club constituted a part of KBFH's two (three-sided) double-LP sets that were pressed in 1984 and distributed to radio stations for the commemoration of the program's 500th show (the two sets were aired on April 15th and 22nd). As I wrote before, the vinyl set captures the intimate live atmosphere at the small club, with the spoken introduction to Bishop Danced (which is completely edited out from either radio-show CD or TRACKS version mentioned above) and Mary Queen Of Arkansas (the performance itself still remains undocumented on any kind of official format and radio-show CD). So, I regard the two double-LP sets as the better presented excerpts of this early club appearance.
 

For this radio program, I still prefer the vinyl disc set to the CD version. Note that all the three Sprinsgteen live track are listed incorrectly on the accompnying sheets: Bishop Dancing, Marie Queen of Ankarsas, and Spirits In The Night.

Before the two 2-LPs for KBFH's 500th broadcast, this live tune was included in a radio-show 5-LP titled ROCK ON THE ROAD: Part II, DIR's another syndicated program aired in 1980 that features live performances by various American bands. Like on the KBFH's CD, however, the introductory talk is removed from this vinyl version. As already reported here, radio stations receiving the radio-show discs were requested not to play Springsteen's live tracks on the side three (this and Prove It All Night from Berkeley, 1978).

A poor student purchased the most expensive
cassette to tape the special airplay. D.J. Shibuya's
Friday night program is encircled with green on an
old issue of a major Japanese FM magazine.

In Japan, as far as I know, Bishop Danced was aired only one time back in the 1980s, which was way before the release of TRACKS. Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact year and date of the broadcast although I recorded it on a cassette tape that I still keep. After listening back to the tape a few times, I assumed that the sound source was the CD (if so, the airplay date was in the late 1980s). It was a weekday NHK-FM radio program called Sound Street (PM 10:20-11:00) that aired the then-unreleased live track, and the host D.J. was Yoichi Shibuya (mentioned previously here and here on this blog). Once in his Friday night program, he made a feature of rare studio and live recordings from several rock artists that included Springsteen. So I was one of those who were really thrilled by what would come up on the radio. That evening, I set up my cassette deck to record the airplay onto a brand new TDK MA-R Type IV Metal Position cassette tape which was of the highest quality available at that time. Then, what was heard from radio was totally unexpected (in a negative sense) ... Sherry Darling, exactly the same track on THE RIVER!!!  The following week on the radio, D.J. Shibuya confessed that he got enormous amounts of blame from program listeners right after the broadcast. So, he desperately tried to find out what would deserve the airplay to cover his mistake, which ended up with the KBFH's live recording.  
— To be followed by the posts on the remaining two collectible acquisition.

Collecting log: The early 1980s U.K. vinyl pressings with "timtom" or "Ty" handwritten matrix inscription (Part 4 of 4)

This is the final part of a 4-Part series exploring U.K. pressings in the 1980s that are cut by mastering maestro Tim Young. In this survey, I have used his signatures, timtom and Ty, inscribed on the run-out area of a disc, as sole measure to identify his contribution to Springsteen's British releases. This is because in the case of non-U.S. pressings of Springsteen's LP and singles, actual master-cutting engineers are generally not credited on record sleeves or other associated printouts.

The five U.K. copies used for comparing matrix information.
From left to right, from top to bottom : a test press (matrix
number suffix 1A/3B) and four regular copies (1A/3B, 1A/3B,
3A/3B, and 5A/3B). Note that the last one came with a flyer
advertising the mega-hit 7th album, meaning that it is a mid-
1980s reissue.

To summarize so far, I was not able to find out evidence for his involvement in cutting 7" and 12" singles from any album but THE RIVER (see Parts 1 and 2). On the other hand, it was confirmed that he was involved in the production of at least the following four albums, BORN TO RUN, THE RIVER, NEBRASKA, and BORN IN THE U.S.A., during his career at CBS Studios in London from 1976 to 1993. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN* could be listed as well considering the original release year (1978); however, I have no evidence for that. A search on the Discog database also gave no results of the matrix codes containing or associated with his signatures for various copies of this LP pressed in the U.K. The last post (Part 3) explained the case of his involvement in the aforementioned former two albums. Here, the following report on the remaining two albums.
*I confirmed neither timtom nor Ty matrix hand-etching on the dead wax of a U.K. first pressing copy with the matrix numbers CBS-S-86061 A1 / CBS-S-86061 B1 (12/31/2020).

Tim Young's signatures as found on the white label test pressing (left half ) and the original regular copy
(right half ) of NEBRASKA LP pressed in the U.K. Matrix inscriptions between the two are identical, which
indicates that both discs were pressed by the same stampers or stampers made from the same master lacquers.

NEBRASKA (CBS 25100): A test pressing from the U.K. was taken up on this blog previously (here). I have also owned two regular copies with the matrix information identical to that of the test pressing (with the matrix number suffixes A1/B3 ). So, I figure that they are first copies of the album pressed in England. By the way, like the U.S. pressing, I have never seen the U.K. copies with the matrix suffix B1 or B2 on Side 2, likely due to the probable last-minute change in master cutting in favor of the standard version of My Father's House (Track 3 on Side 2), as deduced here.

• Side 1:    CBS 25100 A1     timtom
• Side 2:    CBS 25100-B3     Ty
• Note: Sunburst label; misprint on Side 2/Track 3 length.

Differently handwritten deadwax inscriptions
on Side 2 sharing the same matrix code: A3/B3
(upper) and A5/B3 (lower) with and without
a Ty signature, respectively.

As far as I examined, among the four albums he obviously got involved in, this is the only vinyl disc both of whose sides are inscribed with his signatures. As expected, another copy in my collection with the suffixes A3/B3 had his inscription only on the Side 2 deadwax. Both A1/B3  and A3/B3 copies list the track length of My Father's House incorrectly on the record label. Strangely, yet another copy with the suffixes A5/B3, which came with the error-fixed label, had no Ty inscription on Side 2. A close examination on the matrix numbers revealed the difference in Side 2 hand-etchings between A3/B3  and A5/B3 pressings, indicating that, despite that these pressings share the same matrix numbers on this side, the master lacquers used are different. Finally, it remains unknown why his signatures are absent in the 7" single releases from NEBRASKA (see Part 2), even though, as shown here, his involvement in the album cutting is evident.

Side 2 matrix inscriptions as
found on Copy #1 disc.

BORN IN THE U.S.A. (CBS 86304): My two copies of the U.K. pressings (hereafter simply called #1 and #2), which probably are the first-run pressing based on the matrix number suffix, bear Young's signature on one-side only (BTW, #1 was previously shown here with a blank label on Side 1):

• Side 1 (copy #1):    CBS-86304-A1
• Side 2 (copy #1):    CBS-86304-B2      Ty
• Note: Sunburst label; blank Side 1 label on my copy.

• Side 1 (copy #2):    CBS-86304-A2
• Side 2 (copy #2):    CBS-86304-B1      Ty
• Note: Sunburst label.

Note that on Side 1, even the -A1 suffix does not accompany his signature. I don't know if this really means that his contribution to this album was one-side only. To me, it seems unlikely, though, that the lacquer masters for Sides 1 and 2 were cut by different engineers at the very early round(s) of the vinyl pressing. Finally, as you know and mentioned in this blog earlier (here and here) or lately, the original U.S. pressings were cut by another maestro Robert "Bob" Ludwig. Therefore, an LP set of the initial U.K. and U.S. versions of this monster hit album provides an opportunity to compare the work done by the world's two distinguished sound engineers.

Collecting log: The early 1980s U.K. vinyl pressings with "timtom" or "Ty" handwritten matrix inscription (Part 3 of 4)

Happy new year! I tried to complete this topic within the last year but was just not able to have enough time to do so. Anyway, I'll continue to blog on my collection and hope all your collectors' wishes come true this year.

In my collection, the earliest example of a timtom-inscription, as shown in the inset on the upper-left corner, is found on Side 2 of BORN TO RUN (matrix number suffixes; -A4/B2) that was included in the 3-LP box set released in the U.K., November, 1979. However, his hand-etching was not found in the other two albums (the first two albums) also coming in this box; the same is the case for a later regular copy of BTR LP shown on the left (-A5/-B3).

The latest three blog posts, including this one, focus on Springsteen's U.K. pressings that were cut by Tim Young, an audio mastering maestro in Europe, also known as the first non-U.S. Grammy-awarded engineer (2008). Before co-founding and joining the world renowned Metropolis Mastering with his colleagues in 1993, he had served at CBS Studios, London (1976-1993), where he was already admired for his work of cutting vinyl records for various artists. As shown in the last two posts, his handiwork of cutting 7" and 12" singles from THE RIVER is easily identified by his timtom or Ty hand-etched signature on the dead-wax space. As far as I examined, however, it was not confirmed that he was involved in cutting 7" singles from the next album NEBRASKA and further subsequent albums (i.e. no signatures on the dead-wax), suggesting that his contribution was exclusive to THE RIVER singles. So, to clarify this a little more in depth, I extended the survey into the vinyl album pressings.

A DMM stamp as found on the plain white test
pressing of TUNNEL OF LOVE U.K. picture disc.

Although my U.K. vinyl collection is quite small in quantity compared with the U.S. counterpart, I found timtom or Ty inscription in some copies of BORN TO RUN (CBS S 69170), THE RIVER (CBS 88510), NEBRASKA (CBS 25100), and BORN IN THE U.S.A. (CBS 86304), that have been originally released between 1975 and 1984. Note that this does not exclude the possibility that he was involved in the cutting of other albums pressed in the U.K., especially of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (CBS S 86061), since the release year of which falls within the period of his career at CBS Studios (unfortunately, I own only a repressed copy for the U.K. edition that does not carry either hand-etching). It is, however, unlikely that he cut the lacquer masters for LIVE/1975-85 (CBS 450227 1) and TUNNEL OF LOVE (CBS 460270 1), taking into account the fact that these mid- to late-1980s pressings were made from direct metal masters (often accomanying a dead-wax stamp or inscription DMM).

An observation almost common to these timtom- or Ty-inscribed albums of Springsteen mentioned above is that his signature is inscribed only on one side of a vinyl disc. For example, I found a timtom hand-etching on Side 2 of BORN TO RUN that came as a part of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 3LP box set (CBS 66353) as shown in the top picture:

• Side 1:   CBS-S-69170-A4
• Side 2:   CBS-S-69170-B2         timtom  

The above copy is obviously not an initial pressing since the box was issued November 1979. This coincides with the fact that his career at CBS Studios started in 1976, but not in 1975 when this classic rock album is originally released, although a further late copy I own had no timtom handwriting (matrix number suffixes -5A/-3B ).

Part of matrix inscriptions on Side 1 of the test pressing (left), the regular first pressing (middle), and a subsequent pressing (upper and lower right) of THE RIVER U.K. 2LP, the last of which additionally carries a machine stamp and hand-etchings that are generally found in the U.S. pressings.
 

 

Comparison of the dead-wax width among four different U.K. pressings of THE RIVER LP. From left to right: test pressing, first pressing, and two subsequent pressings with the U.S. matrix information on Sides 1, 2 and 4 (left of the two) and Side 2 only (right). The last one came with a two-sided flyer advertising through BORN IN THE U.S.A., indicating that it's a mid-1980s repress. Note that the dead-wax space gets narrower as a pressing gets later.

The other three albums mentioned above were released in the 1980's after he joined CBS Studios. As for THE RIVER LP, however, there are no his signatures on the test pressing and its regular release edition in my possession, which share the identical matrix numbers as follows:

• Side 1:   84622-A-1   CBS S 85510-A-1
• Side 2:   84622-B-1   CBS S 85510-B-1
• Side 3:   84623-A-1   CBS S 85510-C-1
• Side 4:   84623-B-1   CBS S 85510-D-1

A typical early U.K. package contains round-top inner sleeves in
addition to a hype sticker and a flyer advertising back issues.

Although here I don't go into the details, this LP released in the U.K. shows variations in several aspects from pressing to pressing (BTW, the variations found in the European copies of THE RIVER LP is definitely a collector-oriented subject that needs exploration). To my knowledge, the relatively early copies came with a hype sticker on the front sleeve, inner sleeves with round-top cut-out shape, a one-sided merchandise leaflet listing up to DARKNESS, and sunburst record labels with "MADE IN ENGLAND" printed on the bottom but not on the rim. However, most of such pressings had matrix numbers different from those of the above-mentioned very early pressing, strangely mixing up with the U.S. pressing-specific inscriptions (see here and here, for example). Here is one instance from my collection (oblique, hand-etched; straight, machine-stamped):

• Side 1:   CBS-S-84622-A3  85510-A3  PAL-36855 ENG F21    KP   MASTERED BY CAPITOL
• Side 2:   CBS-S-84622-B3  85510-B3  PBL-36855 ENG F21    KP   MASTERED BY CAPITOL
• Side 3:   CBS-S-84623-A2  85510-C2       Ty
• Side 4:   CBS-S-84623-B3  85510-D3  PBL-36856 ENG F23    KP   MASTERED BY CAPITOL 

Young's signature found on Side 3 of a U.K.
pressing. Note that this side is free of U.S.-
related matrix inscriptions.

Supposedly, these pressings used the U.S.-made lacquer masters after the U.K.-specific matrix codes were inscribed on the dead-wax space, with the exception of Side 3 where such U.S. codes are totally absent. Interestingly, only this side carried a Ty signature, an indication that it was the only side among the four that was cut in the U.K. 

As always, I fantasized how this mixed-up matrix codes could happen, which is explained by the following speculative scenario:

1. The very first lacquer masters, which were cut in the U.K. (but not by Tim Young because his signatures are not found on the deawax), were used to press the vinyl album at the early phase of its release. In fact, I've seen these regular copies (with the matrix suffixes A-1/B-1/C-1/D-1) much less compared with the rest of pressings.
2. And then for unknown reason(s), the lacquer masters were replaced by those of the U.S. origin carrying a MASTERED BY CAPITOL machine-stamp and KP inscribed by mastering engineer Ken Perry at Capitol. Another matrix inscription ENG might refer to the assigned export to the U.K. Note that some other European pressings, such as Dutch discs, carry a similar abbreviated country code like HOL, in addition to the U.S. pressing-specific inscriptions. 
3. However, such lacquer masters might happen to contain Held Up Without A Gun, the last tune deleted from the album, on Track 2 of Side 3. 
4. So, the new lacquer was cut by Young using the final master tape including five tracks, but not six, for this particular side. 

Oddly, mastering engineer's name does not show up in the album's production credits on the U.K. edition (left),
but is clearly indicated on the U.S. edition (right, Ken Perry), of the accompanying lyric sheet.

Just a fantasized idea. So, most probably this is wrong. Interestingly, however, the U.K. version of the folded lyric sheet does not credit who is responsible for mastering, despite that Ken Perry (at Capitol) is clearly mentioned on the U.S. edition. This printed fact might support the above speculative scenario (#1) that CBS Records U.K. had originally no intention to use the U.S.-made lacquer masters for pressing THE RIVER LP. The next and final post on this topic examines the U.K. edition of NEBRASKA and BORN IN THE U.S.A.
— To be continued.