On the 200th-anniversary blog post, plus Collecting log: recent miscellaneous purchases under COVID-19 (2022)

This year-end post marks the 200th entry I've written about my collection and started knowledge sharing in the last seven years plus four months. It might be crazy to think about what I've done: sticking around a single foreign artist peaking decades ago and blogging 200 times exclusively about his collector's items in a non-native language from the Far East island of Asia. Initially, the blog was a way to relax, forget work, stop worrying about things, and refresh my mind. I also intended to use the blog as a collecting log and memorandum to what I think and notice of the collectibles I obtained over the years (and that's why I call my blog "log"). However, doing blog things has become more than those. It is a pure joy to communicate with fellow collectors and fans worldwide. I'm very grateful to all of you for visiting, reading, and commenting. Fortunately, I have never received any negative or demotivating comments or feedback on what I wrote in this blog, which I really appreciate.

Should I open a used record shop?  These are all U.S.-pressed copies of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TWON LP (Columbia JC 35318) I have used to conduct a comprehensive survey to decipher unusual dead-wax matrix inscriptions, such as PK, PMI, PMN, PN, PV, and PPP (see a series of blog articles here). All are cheap-second hand, though.

Recalling back to the past posts after the previous anniversary (#100 post; 05/21/2017), the most remarkable to me is a series of efforts to decode trail-off matrix numbers of the six unusual early U.S. editions of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN LP, which are distinguished by unique dead-wax inscriptions, such as PK, PMI, PMN, PN, PV, and PPP (latest updated on 08/22/2022). This has made me re-realize how to enjoy a variety of vinyl-pressing variants of the same album (see the image above). 

According to the label and booklet printings, the two alternate takes differ in
running length (5' 43" versus 5' 35"). I have confirmed that each track plays
as indicated. Thus, the Brazilian vinyl track is longer than the Japanese CD
version (cf., The standard take clocks 5' 03"). Note that the Brazilian vinyl was
released in 1982, three years before the Japanese CD came out. It has been
pointed out that the Japanese CD runs slightly faster. Considering these, I
guess the version on the Brazilian vinyl represents the correct playing time
of this famous alternate take.

What comes up next in my mind is the unexpected finding of the Brazilian vinyl copies of NEBRASKA featuring the alternative take of My Father's House with the synthesizer coda (05/22/2019, 07/13/2019, 07/22/2019, and 03/31/2021). Commercially, the extended version of this track had long been believed to be available only on Japanese CD issues (up to the third pressing with the catalog number SRCS 7860 released in 1995). So, the Latin American LP was a total surprise to me when I played a copy of it for the first time (see the image right). Later, someone added this information to the Notes section to the relevant Discogs entry (BTW, I have received only one "I knew that" response since I posted this). I also enjoyed writing detailed reports on digging out not-commonly-known releases, such as the Compatible eXpansion (CX)-encoded, noise-reduced edition of BORN TO RUN LP (09/30/2021 and 10/08/2021; see also one of the images below).

Here are some statistics. Below are the top 10 most accessed posts for the entire period (September 8, 2014, to December 26, 2022), excluding the three index pages.

1. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: Album credit variations (#79 post: July 29, 2016)
2. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS (#14: October 24, 2014)
3. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the script cover (#26: January 25, 2015)
4. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: Clarifying pressing plant-specific matrix number suffixes 1A, 1B, and 1C (#100: May 21, 2017)
5. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Pinckneyville pressing (Pressing Plant owned by MCA Records) (#95: March 18, 2017)
6. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Hauppauge pressing (Pressing Plant run by Keel Mfg. Corp.) (#101:  June 30, 2017)
7. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THIS GUNS FOR HIRE 5LP box (#67: April 23, 2016)
8. Collecting log: LAST AMERICAN HERO FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J., Japanese custom promotion-only compilation LP (#52: September 19, 2015)
9. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Gloversville pressing (Pressing Plant owned by MCA Records) (#105: July 29, 2017)
10. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (#11: October 12, 2014)

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #1: I was able to find another
CX-encoded LP copy (Columbia JC 33795; the second in my
possession). This special edition is rather tough to find here
because it constitutes only a small fraction of the U.S. copies
of BORN TO RUN LP (see 09/30/2021 and 10/08/2021).

The difference is obvious compared to the access ranking data at #100 post (05/21/2017). Although previously, bootleg articles occupied four positions of the top 5, the current results show only three entries, ranked 2nd, 7th, and 10th, among the top 10. Nevertheless, these three bootleg posts have kept high popularity for long among readers and visitors. The remaining seven are three posts each from the U.S.-pressed BORN TO RUN and DARKNESS variant series, plus that on the extreme promo-LP rarity from Japan. Notably, the three BORN TO RUN U.S.-pressing articles rank higher than the other four. Does this reflect that fellow collectors find these posts useful to identify a given U.S. copy of this all-time classic LP? If so, I'd gladly continue revising and updating the information.  

Focusing on the recent posts after #100, the results of the top 5 access ranking are as follows.

1. Same as the 6th ranking above (#101 post)
2. Same as the 9th ranking above (#105)
3. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: BORN TO BE THE BOSS original black vinyl pressing (Part 1 of 2) (#158: August 8, 2020)
4. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FOLLOW THAT DREAM 3LP (Part 1 of 4) (#140: October 26, 2019)
5. 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 5 of 5) (#139: September 30, 2019)

While the older posts get more access, vinyl-bootleg articles remain popular. Unpredicted was the 5th-ranked entry of the blog on the regular pressings of BORN IN THE U.S.A., one of the most mediocre collectibles among many others commercially available. Maybe some regular visitors use this page just as a bookmark to access this blog site?

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #2: Probably, the best hunting
result this year, just obtained this month. The tri-folded insert
accompanied by the latest addition (third copy in my possession),
contrary to the other two, has no handwriting of the catalog
number for the regular copy of this 3-inch CD single released
in 1992 (SONY SRDS 8226; see 05/19/2017).

Country-based statistics showed that about one-third of the total access was from the U.S. Then, Japan, the U.K., Italy, and Russia followed. The further ranking was mostly occupied by continental European countries, except for Canada, in the following order: Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands. It is of interest to me that the access numbers from Japan and Russia were unexpectedly ranked high because neither country entered the top 10 in the previous survey (05/21/2017). I even wrote in the last post (12/03/2022) that the Japanese are an apparent minority among readers/visitors of this blog (based on the ultra-scarce  number of comments and PM I received), which turned out to be untrue. So, I must revise my perception.

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #3: A promo-only double CD set 
from Japan called CBS/SONY HOT TRACKS COLLECTION 1988: Nov.
Dec. 1988 (XDDP 93021-2). This rare 32-track compilation features
Chimes Of Freedom (live) from Stockholm (Disc 2/Track 14) and
contains two inserts in a folded full-color cardboard sleeve.

As for this year's miscellaneous purchases that might call attention from collectors, check out three collectibles (LP, CD single, and CD album) as found on this page. Two (purchases #1 and #2) of these have already been described in detail in the past blog posts (09/30/2021 and  05/19/2017). The remaining #3 purchase is yet another promotion-only CD sampler from CBS/SONY Japan containing  one track from the Boss, just like those introduced in the previous "miscellaneous" series (11/12/2020 and 10/27/2021).

Finally, as mention at the beginning, this post is the last to conclude the blog in 2022. May the new year bring you peace, joy, and happiness.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 5 of 5)

Doberman is one of the earliest known CD-R bootleg labels, releasing their first ever
Springsteen titles in 1996. Initially, their copies came with CD-R discs with no artwork,
just a hand-written catalog number. Accompanying inserts were stamped with a serial
number in blue. I obtained most of these CD/CD-R imports from Spanish retailers
in the mid-to-late 1990s (see 12/08/2020).

Great Dane (1989—1997), Scorpio (1989—), Crystal Cat (1992—), E Street (1993—1999), and so on. With the advent of underground CD labels, the 1990s were exciting years for bootleg collectors. We saw not only lots of new releases not bootlegged previously, but also reissue titles to appreciate classic concerts again, often in better quality or at least free of the clicks and pops inherent to vinyl. Towards the late 1990s, however, the circumstances changed. Bootleg CDs could be quite easily homemade using CD-R media for audio and an ink-jet printer for sleeve/label artwork. In addition, unofficial recordings, the sources of bootlegs, became available much faster and for free in non-physical format due to the expansion of the internet. For example, I remember live recordings from the late part of the reunion tour in 2000 were available online for download (mostly in mp3 format) within a few days after the shows. Since then, for me, bootlegs have neither been the same as before (i.e., vinyl and silver-CD releases) nor tasted as sweet as honey, and it's been no fun to collect them anymore. Consequently, I largely lost my interest in bootleg CDs and finally stopped collecting them in 2000 while Mr. Springsteen was still touring with the reunion band and bootleggers produced many CD titles from this tour and other sources.

Before the internet age, The E Street Shuffle: Springsteen & The E Street Band in Performance 1972-1988 (Heylin, C., Gee, S., Labour of Love Productions, U.K.), a 162-page softcover book published in 1989, was an indispensable reference for all known live recordings of the man and his band from inception to the end of 1988. Not to confuse with Heylin's other book of the same title published in 2012 (Constable & Robinson, U.K.), although the subtitle differ from this one (i.e., The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band).

"Come back, Suki!" the bootlegger (you know who he is) speaks
out for fans and collectors. Shown is the rear side of the folded
slick inserts of HOT COALS FROM THE FIERY FURNACE, released
early in 1976 by Hoffman Avenue Records (HAR).

That being said, by the year 2000, I obtained two more CD and CD-R titles (THE GREATEST PERFORMANCE and FLESH AND FANTASY, respectively) and one downloaded online for free as electronic files (NEW YORK CITY SERENADE) that featured Suki Lahav, in addition to the two Main Point CD releases mentioned in the previous post (10/28/2022). I also had a circulating videotape copy for the Widener Field House show in Chester, PA, on February 6, 1975, although it did not cover the entire concert. Not counting the VHS tape, at that point (more than two decades ago!), I was able to appreciate the following four fascinating performances that never happened again (as Suki left back for Israel and has not come back to the U.S.):

1) October 19, 1974 / Memorial Chapel Concert Hall, Schenectady, NY

• Vinyl: NEW YORK CITY SERENADE (2LP, Exodus Records, ER-002; picture disc edition)
  
• CD: NEW YORK CITY SERENADE (Scorpio, 00-C-046 -A/B; downloaded as mp3 files online for free in 2000).

2) October 29, 1974 / Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA

• CD-R: FLESH AND FANTASY (Doberman, 125/126; an early numbered copy)

3) February 5, 1975 / Main Point, Bryn Mar, PA

• Vinyl: YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR (Singer's Original Double Disks, SODD 001)
• CD: THE SAINT, THE INCIDENT & THE MAIN POINT SHUFFLE (Great Dane, GDR CD 9012)
• CD: YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR (Labour Of Love, Love 022/023)

4) February 23, 1975 / Westbury Music Fair, Westbury, NY

• CD: THE GREATEST PERFORMANCE (Parrot, no number) 

Having listened to the concerts documented in these bootleg CDs, one may notice an interesting fact: Suki was never introduced to the audience whole through these shows, even though the then-two new faces, Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg, were done so together with the other band members during Rosalita. Probably, Springsteen considered her as a guest musician rather than a band member and kept her mysterious and intriguing to the audience.

My Best One: A Bootleg Record Of Bruce Springsteen: that's what
the boxed sentence means. I was surprised when I found my favorite
bootleg featured in a major music magazine in the early 1980s.

Finally, here is a random fact about the original vinyl edition of YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR ... that might interest Japanese fans and collectors (an apparent minority among readers/visitors of this blog). Although made in the underground, this bootleg album appeared in one of the 1980 issues of FM Fan, a major Japanese biweekly FM magazine published by Kyodo News (first published in 1966 and ceased publication in December 2001). In a certain period, the magazine issues introduced renowned domestic disc jockeys in a series of the section "The DJ My Musical Mind," where a selected figure showed his or her best choice of record as "My Best One." In that issue, Hiroshi Morinaga (1950—), the featured disc jockey (though his main occupation is a writer/editor), unusually picked up the bootleg with the following comments (in Japanese, of course; translated by this blogger):

"This vinyl record was a gift from Shigeru Izumiya*. It sounds as if being right at the center of the concert hall — spectacular, which you cannot experience with any other ordinary live recording. I listen to the cassette-dubbed copy while riding my motorcycle, which makes me really excited mentally and physically. It's my treasure."
*Japanese folk/rock singer, writer, actor, director, and comic artist (1948—).

Incredible, 42 years ago, he spoke the above words about an unofficial release in a major music publication here in Japan. Yet, as far as I know, among all the DJ personalities featured, he was the only one who chose a bootleg for "My Best One" instead of any legitimate release.

— Back to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 4 of 5)

I bought this double bootleg in 1989 at a flea market in Rome, still with the price tag on the front sleeve asking for 37,000 lire (equivalent to US $26 and JP 3,700 Yen based on the then exchange rate). Of course, I negotiated a discount (down to 32,000 lire or so), and the shop owner accepted it because I also purchased two brand-new bootleg CDs from him.

A wooden wall decoration given at
Moon Valley Hotel, where I stayed in
Seiano 33 years ago (the dates and
location are stamped on the back;
see the inset above).

Back in June 1989, when I was in my mid-twenty, I got my first opportunity to visit foreign countries in Continental Europe: Italy, Switzerland, and France. First landing in Rome after an exhausting long flight from the Far East, I took trains and headed south to the first destination, Seiano di Vico Equense, a beautiful site south of Naples with a full view of the Gulf of Naples and Vesuvio (Although I have had no chance since then, someday I hope to visit there again). I stayed there for a week or so to fulfill the main purpose of the trip, then moved up to the north, and before reaching Switzerland, stopped in Rome and Milan for a couple of days. While I enjoyed the sightseeing, history, and culture in these ancient cities, I did not forget to expand the bootleg collection of my favorite artist, hopefully by picking up some rarities otherwise unavailable here (In those years, I was still much more interested in bootlegs rather than official products).

Despite what the back cover says on this second release from Exodus Records (ER-002), no serial number is printed or hand-written on my copy. Also available on black vinyl. Maybe an Italian bootleg (though Discogs reports the U.S. origin), but can anyone confirm (or deny) that?  FLAT TOP AND PIN DROP, the first release of this bootleg label (ER-001), also available as picture and black vinyl editions, is most probably an exact copy of the old bootleg of the same title (see 5/10/2018).

In 1989, Great Dane Records released 20 titles of live
CDs from various artists, including five Springsteen
albums. Scanned from the booklet for the Master-Plus
version of THE SAINT, THE INCIDENT, AND THE MAIN
POINT SHUFFLE (GDR CD 9012).

Unfortunately, however, I could not find any interesting items wherever second-hand record shops or stores I had my eyes on. Maybe the times were not right for vinyl hunting, due to the format transition from vinyl to CD in the bootleg industry. After all, it was a flea market in Rome where I dug out what I did not own. For Springsteen collectors, the year 1989 is remembered for the advent of the first bootleg CD from Great Dane Records, Italy. At this point (early June 1989), their first release, YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME (GDR CD 8901; 10/12/2014), was the only available title at import record/CD shops here in Japan, and I did not know what titles would follow the next. Then I found the two new CD releases at the flea, LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND (GDR CD 8906; original, not the Master-Plus version) and LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE (GDR CD 8907), both coming in a bulky jewel case. Just beginning to circulate, bootlegs in the CD format were undoubtedly the hottest collector's item in the late 1980s. So, I was fairly satisfied with the result of hunting and almost skipped checking a container full of vinyl discs at the flea shop, where I found a double-record set never seen before in terms of the package and recording date. Further unexpected were the two vinyl pressings, which were picture discs.

The hand-etched matrix numbers read SOOD 007 1A-A on SIDE ONE
(upper) and SOOD 007 1D on SIDE FOUR (lower). SIDES TWO/THREE
are SOOD 007 1B/1C (not shown). The bootleggers seem to have
imitated those of the Singer's Original Double Disks (SODD) label
releases, such as YOU CAN TRUST ... (whose dead-wax code is
shown on 10/22/2022), although "SODD" is misspelled as "SOOD."

NEW YORK CITY SERENADE (Exodus Records, ER-002) mainly presents the October-19-1974 performance at Memorial Chapel Concert Hall, Union College, Schenectady, NY. This concert was perhaps the 6th or 7th among about 40 shows at which Suki Lahav joined and played between October 1974 and March 1975. Although the picture-disc set covered only the first eight of 14 songs from that night, two essentials to which Suki significantly contributed were included (i.e., Incident On 57th Street and Spanish Harlem). Moreover, two of the three bonus tracks were culled from the same era (New York City Serenade and A Love So Fine from Trenton, NJ, November 29, 1974). So, this release was one of the only two vinyl bootleg titles in existence, along with an all-time classic,  YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR, that captured rare live concerts featuring Suki and represented young Springsteen's talent. This explains why I consider it a classic vinyl bootleg even though not a complete set, not in excellent sound, and so late to have come out in the vinyl era. In fact, I have never seen any bootleg guidebooks on my hands that list this release (i.e., three volumes of so-called Bootleg Bibles, the concise Unofficially Springsteen, from the U.K., and the vinyl album section of the WANTED book Volume One by Jan Rodenrijs).

— To be continued to Part 5 / back to Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 3 of 5)

Released nearly four decades ago, every die-hard collector must own
this box set, either as an original numbered copy, an un-numbered
repress, or both (and yes, I do have both; see 12/27/2017).

"A cover of the Ben E. King hit of the Sixties. The chance to hear a song like this in any way Springsteen concert is what makes him the Boss. In his career there have been so many songs showing up only once or twice and then disappearing: this is one of those gems. On violin you can hear Suki Lahav, who joined the E Street Band for few dates in 1974."
A live performance of Spanish Harlem with Suki Lahav playing violin, recorded on October 19, 1974, is featured as one of the 66 tracks on the legendary bootleg album ALL THOSE YEARS. The above description is found in and transcribed from the gorgeous 20-page booklet accompanied by this underground box set released in Italy around 1983.

Clinton Heylin, the author of BOOTLEG: The Secret History of The
Other Recording Industry (1996, St. Martin's Griffin, New York),
wrote HOT COALS ... as "perhaps the most authentic Springsteen
boot yet produced," which I hardly disagree with (By the way, my
all-time favorite from this bootleg album is Up On The Roof).
The Main Point '75 live recording (SIDE 2/TRACK 3) is incorrectly
listed as "Thunder Road" and "February of 1974" on the slick
insert of THE JERSEY DEVIL.

Despit the fascinating live performances accompanied by a female violinist/backig vocalist, those concerts from the pre-BORN TO RUN period (October 1974 to March 1975) featuring Suki Lahav had not been substantially bootlegged, except for Philadelphia's WMMR FM-aired Main Point gig (February 5, 1975). As the previous two posts mentioned (10/22/2022 and 10/28/2022), the double LP YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR, originally out probably in 1976 and repressed and copied many times since then, was the only representative of such a vinyl bootleg until late in the vinyl era in the late 1980s. However, the two compilation-styled bootlegs preceding this title already picked a few live excerpts from that small coffeehouse in Philly's suburbs. Namely, THE JERSEY DEVIL, the first ever Springsteen bootleg, included Wings For Wheels (which eventually evolved into Thunder Road). The purportedly fourth Bruceleg HOT COALS FROM THE FIERY FURNACE contained New York City Serenade and For You, although the latter was Springsteen's solo performance on piano without Suki's contribution.

One of many European bootlegs released in the mid-to-late 1980s and known to have circulated as three variants. In addition to the multicolor disc, this title was pressed on black vinyl with September Songs labels and issued without a yellow sticker on the color sleeve. Furthermore, the picture-disc edition was available. Strangely, the sleeve spine prints "Springsteen — live in FRANKFURT." Probably manufactured by the same German bootleggers who made WELCOME TO GERMANY, a 4-LP set of the June-15-1985 Frankfurt show, which was also available on both black and multicolor vinyl with September Songs and plain white labels, respectively.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, when a huge flood of Springsteen's bootleg records hit the collector's market from Europe, a part of the Main Point material was released under the title called SHADES OF A BIG LAND, a single LP probably produced by German bootleggers. This bootleg devoted one side (SIDE 2) to four Main Point tracks (i.e., Incident On 57th Street, Mountain Of Love, Born To Run, and Wings for Wheels). On this vinyl, you can hear DJ Ed Sciaky's short insertions "WMMR, 99.3" and "WMMR, Philadelphia" during the intro to Incident ... and right after Born To Run, respectively, both of which were eliminated on YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR ...  So, this European release was not a pirate copy or sourced from the old bootleg but an independent pressing.

The recording of Lost In The Flood is also taken
from October 19, 1974.

As explained above, until the late 1980s, only Main Point '75 bootlegs had been in circulation that featured Suki. Having said that, I can think of one exception that was released before BORN IN THE U.S.A. (June 1984) and captured her playing from a non-Main Point source, albeit carrying only one song. That is ALL THOSE YEARS, a legendary 10-LP box bootleg. This massive compilation set, as you know, carefully selected many rare performances of then-yet-not bootlegged or officially released, among which was a stunning cover of Spanish Harlem with Suki's solemn violin (see the transcription from the bootleg booklet above). It was taken from Memorial Chapel Concert Hall, Union College, Schenectady, NY, on October 19, 1974, and found on SIDE 1 of DISC 4 titled 1974 "Bound For Glory."

Then, back in 1989 (33 years ago!), on my first trip abroad (to continental Europe), I found that this concert was available in a double picture-vinyl format (and bought a copy there), although the set did not represent a complete show.

— To be continued to Part 4 / back to Part 1 or Part 2.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 2 of 5)

Obviously, Springsteen's facial shot by Eric Meola is the prototype of the Texaco-serviceman-guised drawing on the bootleg cover. On the right is an actual photo image featured on the interior of the famous Script Cover gatefold sleeve that houses the advanced U.S. promotional test pressing of BORN TO RUN LP (1/25/2015). The same picture was also used, as it is, for the cover image of another bootleg, LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE 8/15/75, released late in 1975 (8/11/2016). BTW, you may notice a small JASRAC sticker (a typical one from the mid-to-late 1970s; see 5/10/2018) on the bottom left corner of the bootleg. JASRAC stands for Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, and the presence of its sticker means that the bootleg's content is officially licensed. But, then, how could this happen? Probably, JASRAC distributed the sticker to the import trader in response to the successful application for the license, who then put it on the album cover. In fact, here, we often see JASRAC-stickered copies of bootleg vinyl and CD imports.

I don't think either LP or CD color decoration works to the
effect, and I still prefer the original mono-tone artwork to
these reissue sleeves. The CD set (Love 022/023, Labour
Of Love) is the second-ever digital bootleg release for the
Main Point benefit show '75, following the Great Dane
Records title (shown in the bottom image).

"What crummy and ugly cover art the bootleggers put on the front!"  That was my initial and honest impression when I saw the imitating sketch on the bootleg cover of his face, the best known of which is featured as the inner photograph of the BORN TO RUN gatefold LP sleeve (see the picture above). And that vivid coloring of the green/yellow reissue cover made me feel further low (8/14/2015, 8/16/2015, and 9/2/2015). I also remember playing this bootleg for the first time, which was my first listening opportunity to his unofficial live recordings. Immediately after dropping the stylus and listening to the beginning of the first track on Record One, I thought I was cheated by the bootleggers. But why?

Lahav's contribution has never been credited to Japanese BORN TO RUN LP. Shown
are the labels and rear sleeves (part) of the probable last standard reissue in the
U.S. from the 1990s (upper, Columbia JC 33795; see also 9/13/2015) and the final
and fourth vinyl press in Japan from the mid-1980 (lower, CBS/SONY 25AP 1274)
with the olive obi (inset). She has already been mentioned, though, on the rear
sleeve of U.S. reissues since 1976-1977, just before Columbia Records' price code
(= prefix of the catalog number) was changed from "PC" to "JC" (see 6/29/2016).

When I started collecting unofficial live records in the summer of 1981, I had no idea there was a female band member who played violin for a short period in the past. Unlike the U.S. repressings (see 6/29/2016), by 1981 and until the end of the vinyl era, none of the Japanese vinyl releases, including the first (CBS/SONY SOPO-96; 5/14/2022) and three reissues (25AP 1274), credits Suki Lahav as playing violin on BORN TO RUN LP (see the images on the right). Then, I thought the string part was performed by an anonymous session musician or orchestra member. So, I never expected the concert to open with her stringed solo (of the intro to Incident On 57th Street), quickly assuming that it must be a live performance by someone else rather than Springsteen and the E Streeters. 

No internet back then, and it was in November 1982 that I learned the details of the early band members and their history, including the temporal presence of the female violin player, when Dave Marsh's Born To Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story was first published in Japan by CBS/SONY Publishing, Inc.

My first copy of the original press (upper right) suffered
seriously from the infamous CD rot, the oxidized deterioration
of the aluminum layer making a disc impossible to read, less
than one year after the purchase. As you see, the original copy
(Disc One) has developed the typical symptoms (discolored and
turned bronze), while the Master-Plus edition remains silver
and plays fine (upper left, early bulky-case edition; lower,
late slim-case copy).

However, the blame stopped here, and what followed and played on the two discs was full of magic and surprises by the man and his band members. Like many old-timers enthusiastic about vinyl Brucelegs in those days, I had become a bootleg addict, playing this double-vinyl set countless times, along with other classics such as PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE and LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND, until the entire performance was released in 1990 on silver CD  by Italy's Great Dane Records (THE SAINT, THE INCIDENT & THE MAIN POINT SHUFFLE: GDR CD 9012). Moreover, as I fell too deep into this bootleg, I realized that I also got favorably interested in that "crummy/ugly" artwork, even though back then, I knew neither what message the bootleg title originally conveyed (i.e., Texaco's advertising jingle from 1962) nor why Springsteen was drawn as "the man who wears the star (and holds something like a hose)."

It's been so long since then, and even now, I occasionally take up one of these SODD copies from the record shelf and give it a listen for pure enjoyment, looking at the slick cover and wondering who drew it. Does anyone know?

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

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 1 of 5)

The first half from a dozen line up of the
Singer's Original Double Disks label releases
(SODD 000 to 012) is shown. This includes two
early Springsteen bootlegs from the mid-1970s,
of which the SODD 006 title has two typos
(Flat Tops And Pin Drops; see 5/10/2018).
Taken from the slick insert of Beatles'
SECOND TO NONE (SODD 009).

"SODD (Singer's Original Double Disks) was Ken's usual medium for double-sets (still a relative rarity in the mid seventies). Though SODD only issued a dozen titles, they produced some of the Kornyphone Family's finest artifacts. Their second release — You Can Trust Your Car to the Man With [sic] the Star — was a radio broadcast of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recorded at the Main Point, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, February 1975, capturing in FM quality the six-month period when the E Street Band had electric violinist Suki Lahav adding her delicate timbre to their sound. With prototype performances of 'Wings for Wheels' (soon to become 'Thunder Road') and 'She's the One' (incorporating parts of 'Backstreets'), and chestnuts like 'Incident on 57th Street' and Dylan's 'I Want You', it may well be Springsteen's greatest extant performance. But this broadcast had only been aired on local Philadelphia radio. It took the SODD set, one of a handful of Springsteen bootlegs at the time, to spread the word to all and sundry."
Quoted from BOOTLEG: The Secret History Of The Other Recording Industry, Clinton Heyin, 1996, St. Martin's Griffin, NY.

Having stayed only between October 1974 and Mach 1975 before returning to Israel, Suki Lahav (1951—) was probably the most enigmatic and effective player in the early period of the E Street combo. As briefly described in the citation above, her contribution as a violinist/vocalist was indispensable for the stunning live arrangement and performance of new songs (Incident On 57th Street, 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), and New York City Serenade) from the then-latest album, THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE, breathtaking cover repertoires (Spanish Harlem and I Want You), and then-unreleased BORN TO RUN tracks (Jungleland and Wings For Wheels). However, to the best of my knowledge, there were only two bootlegged concerts featuring this female talent in the vinyl era, one from the above-mentioned Main Point, Bryn Mawr, PA (February 5, 1975) and another from Memorial Chapel Concert Hall, Union College, Schenectady, NY (October 19, 1974).

My collection includes eight "SODD" slick-cover editions (three white, two orange, two blue, and one brown) and two "TAKRL" reissue versions (white or green/yellow printed sleeve). In addition, I own two more SODD 001 copies (white insert, not shown) that actually contain two discs from SODD 006 capturing the 1975 Roxy show aired on KWEST-FM (October 17; see 5/10/2018).

As we all know, YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR (SODD 001) is such a famous bootleg that I believe you don't need the introduction of this all-time classic title. Sourced from an FM radio broadcast by Philly's rock station WMMR of the benefit concert, this double LP was an artifact by Ken Douglas, one of the two pioneers of rock-genre bootlegs. The original was released from West Coat, probably in 1976, with an orange or white slick insert specifically designed for the Singer's Original Double Disks (SODD) series (see the above citation and 5/10/2018).

SODD 001 copies in my possession exhibit four label variations (shown are those for Disc One). Note that (1) white labels print "Worlds," which is "World" on the black ones, and (2) the stamper ring on SPINDIZZIE is much smaller, most probably because of the pressing plant that differs from the others. As far as I've seen, SPINDIZZIE labels were exclusive to the brownish slick cover, while plain pale-yellow labels with a side indication (often found on TAKRL releases) were mostly associated with the sky-blue insert copies. Generally, bootleg labels are nonsense, and SPINDIZZIE's side-two tracks contain a funny title that might be something related to Springsteen (Landau Go Home).

Disc One/Side One of the SODD 001 edition shows the dead-wax
matrix number "SODD 2-001-A" (upper), which is crossed out on
the white-cover TAKRL repress carrying a newly inscribed number
"24903-A" (middle). My green/yellow TAKRL copy has simply a
short dead-wax inscription "1A," indicating that this one is not a
repressing but a pirate or counterfeit bootleg (bottom).

However, there was no "SODD" indication on the record labels. Instead, most early copies carried labels on the wax printing "World" or "Worlds Records" on a black or white background, which was in fact common to this dozen bootleg series. In addition, there was another label variant, SPINDIZZIE, which was relatively minor compared with World/Worlds Records-label copies. I've seen that SPINDIZZIE copies always came with the brownish-SODD insert cover. Interestingly, the diameter of the stamper ring greatly differs between SPINDIZZIE and World/Worlds Records labels (see the images immediately above). So, the two label variants were most probably pressed at different record plants, even though the same stampers were used for both based on the dead-wax matrix inscriptions (i.e., All are SODD 2-001-A/B/C/D; for SIDE ONE, see the upper image on the left).

The rear sleeve of the TAKRL reissue prints the catalog number
(takrl 24903) on the bottom right corner and features whole
stories about how phonograph records and the bootleg label
came into existence.

Then, it was repressed in 1978 as part of The Amazing Kornyfone Record Label (TAKRL) series, the main bootleg label run by Douglas back then, which came in a printed sleeve rather than a cheap slick-insert cover, with the catalog number (TAKRL 24903) printed on the back. Accordingly, the original matrix inscriptions were crossed out, and the above number was hand-etched on each run-off groove space (24903-A/B/C/D; compare the upper and middle images above). The record labels were also changed to other kinds, such as plain pale-yellow TAKRL labels (printing a side indication only; see the label images above) or Monique D’Ozo labels, the most often seen examples (BTW, Monique D'Ozo is a real female person's name; read this entry on The Amazing Kornyfone Label blog). As well known, Douglas used all the unofficial labels mentioned above (and others) for his various bootleg releases.

The TAKRL reissue has been pirated or counterfeited many times, including the green/yellow picture-disc edition (Disc 2 only). These copies were usually inscribed with different matrix numbers than the two aforementioned (for example, "1A" on Disc One; see the bottom picture of the above dead-wax images). Such a pirate copy was one of the first three bootlegs I took the plunge and bought back in 1981 when I was a high-school boy (8/14/2015, 8/16/2015, and 9/2/2015).

— To be continued to Part 2.