Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: RESTLESS NIGHTS ー THE RIVER outtakes LP ー original picture-disc and later black-vinyl editions (Part 2 of 3)

Weeping peach (Prunus persica cv. Genpei-shidare)
blossoming in my small garden.

Springs has come, and it's really nice to see that beautiful flowers blossom here and there. In Japan, the fiscal year begins on April 1st. So, everything must be refreshed and restarted now. However, the situation around COVID-19 has not been improved. Even worse, we are now severely facing the fourth wave reinforced by the spread of the U.K.-variant virus (N501Y) with a high transmissibility mutation. I just can't believe that the Government still insists on holding the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Games as planned after less than 100 days from now, despite almost all Japanese people still being unvaccinated (i.e., those vaccinated so far account for only 0.76% of the national population, as of April 5th). Although this has nothing to do with the blog, I can't help mentioning the current unusual situation, wondering how we look to you living outside Japan.  

The early picture-disc and late picture-sleeve/black vinyl editions. The latter is listed on a bootleg catalog I received from a domestic dealer around 1986 or 1987 (far left). The Lynn Goldsmith's shot used for this bootleg officially appears on the front cover of the collection of her photographs called SPRINGSTEEN (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984). The Japanese edition (Eichi Publishing Inc., Tokyo, 1986) employs a different cover photo, and the bootleg's image is found as the smaller B & W image on the rear of the back cover (lower right). It also includes a glossy color print directly from a negative (upper right).

The rear sleeve of the black-vinyl version faithfully reproduces the backside of the
picture disc. Then, how do we know "this side" and "other side" with the plain white
labels on the black wax?

Back to the subject. As I wrote in the last blog (03/27/2021), RESTLESS NIGHTS has provided my first real listening experience to unreleased/outtake tracks from THE RIVER. So, for me, these bootlegged takes were the definitive version of each track. Ｗhen Loose Ends, my favorite from the bootleg, was finally released in TRACKS in 1998, I remember I was rather disappointed by the official version that unpredictably featured more keyboard. At the first listening to the official track, I thought the bootleg version was much better in the mix (with more guitars), even with a defect of sound dropout near the end of Clarence's sax solo (you know what I'm talking about if you listened over and over to the vinyl-bootlegged version). Fortunately, the official quality THE TIES THAT BIND bootleg CD already circulated, though.

When the high tide of vinyl bootleg continued to come mainly from Europe after the BORN IN THE U.S.A. tour ended, I found the black vinyl edition of this title in the color sleeve whose image was identical to the picture disc. Back then, I thought it was just a reissue to which I felt barely attracted, as I was satisfied with the picture disc. Then, nearly three years ago, I saw a copy of this on a domestic auction and bought it just because it was way cheap without competitors and because it would become a good companion for the picture disc. Having checked the dead-wax matrix numbers as always, I found that my long assumption was incorrect; I mean, based on the hand-etched characters, the black-vinyl version was not a repressed copy but an independent pressing.

The same bootlegger probably hand-inscribed the dead-wax markings, as inferred
from the characteristic "W " writing. Shown are Side One.

Picture disc edition

• Side One:  WILI A
• Side Two:  WIL 2

Black vinyl edition

• Side One:  WIL-1
• Side Two:  WIL-2

Besides the differences in the matrix inscription, Bruce's voice can be heard on the black-vinyl edition right after performing Held Up Without A Gun, which is originally not included in the picture disc track. Oh man, I had not known these facts for twenty to thirty years since around the mid or late 1980s!

— To be continued to Part 3 / back to Part 1.