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Two editions are distinguished only by vinyl colors. Then, which one came first? |
The classic bootleg review continued — speaking of the official live archive series, the most significantly upgraded recording I can think of, which had previously been bootlegged on vinyl, is the final of the six concerts at Wembley Arena,
London, from the
European leg of
THE RIVER tour (
06/05/1981).
BORN TO BE THE BOSS, originally from
Sweden and consistently named so for the bootlegs of this show, appeared thrice on
quadruple LP in the 1980s under the
Holsten Team Records label, and twice on double CD and triple CD-R in the early 1990s and around 2000, respectively, by
Templar and
Piggham Records. These CDs are sourced from vinyl sound with pop and clicking noise, and both vinyl and CD versions lack
The Promised Land from the first set (which is included in the archive release). Therefore, although I'm not so sure (as I'm not a tape collector), these underground releases originate from the same single audience tape that has probably not circulated among collectors. This situation is essentially the same as those of
FOLLOW THAT DREAM and
TEARDROPS ON THE CITY, the two other famous
Swedish bootlegs that also document the 1981
European tour performances (in
Stockholm).
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The inside and outside of the gate-fold sleeves and record labels look all the same bewteen the two editions. In each image, the black- vinyl version is placed on top. |
As noted above, three vinyl variants are known to exist for this bootleg:
black vinyl,
clear vinyl, and
picture-disc editions. I don't exactly know when the original version, which was pressed on black vinyl, first came out on the collectors' market. The
Backstreets magazine introduces its release enthusiastically (and exaggeratedly, as usual) on the bootleg column titled
New Tour Boots, by Jack Duluoz, in the Spring issue, 1985 (
Number 13):
"Clearly the best unauthorized record of the past year is The Boss Is Turned On [sic, correctly BORN TO BE THE BOSS]*, a beautiful four record set from a Wembley show in 1981 — this is a magnificent looking and sounding record and ranks on a par with Teardrops On The City. Obviously it's a project done by Springsteen fans and their care shows through. It's a very rare release though and even in Sweden (where I live, and where bootlegs are much more common) it's hard to come by."
*
BORN TO BE THE BOSS is referred to mistakenly as THE BOSS IS TURNED ON that captures Steel Mill live and is one of the several Bruceleg acetates released in Japan. I have never been interested in these Made-In-Japan acetates. They are just rare stuff, neither more nor less, and nothing else. Frankly, I do not see any fascination with this type of bootleg.
Then, the column reports the first wave of bootlegs from the 1984
American leg of the
BORN IN THE U.S.A. tour. Issued from late 1984 to early 1985, these new titles include an unannounced pre-tour gig
AT THE STONE PONY (1LP,
06/08/1984),
BORN IN CINCINNATI (4LP,
07/06/1984),
ALPINE VALLEY Vol. 1 & 2 (2 x 2LP,
07/13/1984),
PORN IN THE U.S.A.! (2 x 2LP,
07/24/1984),
DO YOU LOVE ME (4LP,
08/16/1984),
WE GOT A LONG NIGHT A SPECIAL NIGHT LITTLE STEVEN WILL COME TO PLAY TONIGHT (1LP,
08/20/1984), and
THIS GUNS FOR HIRE (5LP,
09/18/1984). I remember that some of the above bootlegs were openly displayed for New Year's sales in 1985 at an import record store I used to visit, put together with reissues of older titles such as
HAPPY NEW YEAR 5LP gorgeous box set. Of course, I could not afford to buy them all. Among these, the standout (in appearance) was
DO YOU LOVE ME, pressed on colored vinyl and housed in a full-color gatefold sleeve and fully printed inner sleeves. So, this
New Jersey show counted as my second I have added to my
BITUSA-boot collection, following the
CINCINNATI live.
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A pre-BITUSA tour boot I really got into was
RESTLESS NIGHTS that mostly consists of THE RIVER outtakes (bought on August 10, 1984).
Later issued on black vinyl. |
By the time these new-tour bootlegs hit the market,
BORN TO BE THE BOSS was already out. Therefore, this nicely packaged 4LP set could have been mentioned in one of the magazine's earlier issues. In the immediately previous issue (
Number 12, Winter 1985), however, the magazine was probably not able to make room for underground releases, mostly due to the new tour coverage and concert reviews (as a result, no bootleg column in this issue). Or maybe there were probably no or few new titles worth mentioning just before the flood of new-tour boots. Going back one more issue (
Number 11, Fall 1984), I found that the bootleg article was exclusively devoted to reviewing the legendary
ALL THOSE YEARS 10-LP box.
— To be continued to Part 2.
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