DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Summary of LABEL variations found in the early pressings

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN REVISED AND UPDATED.

1. As of August 21, 2022, this article was revised and updated in light of new information reported on 8/20/2022. The major change focuses on one of the two Pitman pressing variants, "Pitman pressing ー Variant Two (listed below as no. 9)," which turned out to be a product of Peter Pan Records' pressing plant in Lakewood, New Jersey. Accordingly, it was renamed "Lakewood pressing" (or could be alternatively called "Pete pressing").
   
2. As of February 23, 2023, this article was corrected in response to the comment by wbhist (see here), who provided an accurate size of the stamper ring for Lakewood/Pete pressings as well as the three Columbia pressings (i.e., Pitman, Santa Maria, and Terre Haute). Although this post originally reported that these pressings shared the same diameter size, as in the comment, I confirmed that Pete's diameter [2.75" (69.9 mm)] is slightly longer (by approximately 1 mm) than the others [2.703125" (68.7 mm)]. Moreover, the ring size of the Hauppauge/Keel and Holbrook/Goldisc pressings was also found to be a bit more than 69 mm and, thus, the same as the Lakewood pressings (2.75"). Accordingly, all the relevant information has been corrected.

Typical early (upper) and late (lower) DARKNESS releases.
The differences are evident in the photo-image quality of
the inner sleeve (left half) and the rear-side lettering of
the outer sleeve (right half). Note that there are "hybrid"
copies with the combination of the late-outer and early-
inner sleeves (but no alternative combination has circulated).

Hunting the early U.S. pressings* of his fourth official album, released in June 1978, provides a unique opportunity for expanding your collection of Springsteen's vinyl albums relatively at low costs. In the spring of that year, the Pitman factory in NJ, one of the three vinyl-pressing plants Columbia Records owned (cf., the other two are located in  Santa Maria, CA, and Terre Haute, IN), ceased the operation temporarily due to labor disputes until right before the album release date (originally scheduled late May). Therefore, the company needed to take action to compensate for the anticipated shortage of the album supply in the East Coast area.

According to my survey results thus far, six unusual pressing plants that would have otherwise never handled Columbia label's products got involved in the album production. These five were located in NY (three), NJ (one), PA (one), and IL (one). Consequently, the standard copies issued in 1978 display more variations in record label and dead-wax stamp/inscription than any other his albums released before or after, as featured in the blog series "DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations." 

Eleven months ago, in the last post in this series (5/23/2021), I made a concise summary table for the run-off groove/matrix information of these vinyl pressings. This post mainly focuses on the label variations (thus far counting nine entries), as listed below in an order based on matrix codes on SIDE ONE (the current list starting from 1A to 1AG).

*The early U.S. pressings, as defined here, meet the following conditions:
   1.  Most, if not all, early copies in circulation came in the sleeve with no hype sticker (see 8/24/2020 and 8/29/2020) on the front, and the rear side features the large-letter tracklist and black-letter credits on the upper and lower of the left corners, respectively (see the photo images on the top right). Especially, I have never seen any copies pressed at five non-Columbia plants, which are housed in the small-letter tracklist sleeve.
   2.  The inner sleeve is thicker paper with higher resolution images than that for later pressings.
   3.  The main matrix numbers are hand-etched PAL-35318 and PBL-35318 on SIDE ONE and TWO, respectively.
   4.  Each side of a vinyl disc is stamped TML-M or TLM-S (meaning The Mastering Lab-Master or Slave lathe; see 3/18/2017) on the dead-wax space.

1. Santa Maria pressing

Location of pressing plant: Santa Maria, California
Pressing plant owner: Columbia Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: orangish yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, large (Ø = 68.7 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1A, 1B, 1C/2B, 2C
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: 1S, 2S
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: (none)

Note: Probably, the most abundant pressing before the Pitman plant resumed the operation on the right tracks upon resolving the labor issues on May 17th (cf., the DARKNESS album is released on June 2nd), and possibly even after that until 1981, when this West Coast facility shut down. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1B/2B.

2. Terre Haute pressing

Location of pressing plant: Terre Haute, Indiana
Pressing plant owner: Columbia Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, large (Ø = 68.7 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1D, 1E, 1H/2E, 2H
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: 1T, 2T
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: (none)

Note: Indistinguishable from the Santa Maria pressings by label design and stamper ring, although, as an exception, I've once seen a 1T-etched disc with the Pitman label (see below). As far as I've seen, many of the white label promotional copies in circulation are from this pressing plant. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1D/2E. Check also 12/30/2017.

3. Scranton pressing (also known as NAMI pressing)

Location of pressing plant: Scranton, Pennsylvania
Pressing plant owner: North American Music Industries (NAMI)

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, middle (Ø = 35 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1G, 1H/2S, 2T
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PN
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: ☖ (The U.S. Capitol building)

Note: Easily recognizable by the middle size-stamper ring that is unique to this pressing plant. Before NAMI, Capitol Records owned the Scranton plant, which explains why the American Capitol is symbolized and stamped on the dead wax (Capitol sold NAMI the pressing plant in 1973). The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1G/2S. Check also 3/21/2017.

4. Gloversville pressing

Location of pressing plant: Gloversville, New York
Pressing plant owner: MCA Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, small (Ø = 25 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1J, 1K/2Q, 2R
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PMN
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: ⧈-G-⧈

Note: One of the two vinyl-pressing variants manufactured at MCA Records' plants located in NY and IL. Both share the small stamper ring and are distinguished by different letter fonts printed on the labels and unique matrix codes/symbols on the deadwax space. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1J/2Q. Check also 7/29/2017.

5. Pinckneyville pressing

Location of pressing plant: Pinckneyville, Illinois
Pressing plant owner: MCA Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, small (Ø = 25 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1L/2N, 2P
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PMI
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: ◈-P-◈

Note: Another pressing with the small stamper ring from the MCA Records' plant in IL. The Pinckneyville pressing adopts a different font from all the others for label lettering, representing the most distinguished among the DARKNESS labels. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1L/2N. Check also 3/18/2017.

6. Hauppauge pressing (also known as Keel pressing)

Location of pressing plant: Hauppauge, New York
Pressing plant owner: Keel Manufacturing Corp.

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: dual, large (Ø = 69.9 mm); very small (11 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1AB/2K, 2W, 2X
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PK
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: Union Jack flag

Note: By appearance, almost indistinguishable from the Santa Maria and Terre Haute pressings, except for a minor difference in the stamper ring, which is dual, consisting of the large and extremely small ones. The former ring is marginally larger (by 1 mm) than the regular Columbia pressings, while the latter is found only on SIDE ONE but not on TWO. The Hauppauge/Keel discs are well-known for Union Jack symbol(s) etched in the run-off groove area. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1AB/2K. Check also 6/30/2017 and 10/2/2017.

7. Holbrook pressing (also known as Goldisc pressinqg)

Location of pressing plant: Holbrook, New York
Pressing plant owner: Goldisc Recordings Products, Inc.

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: single line/single line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, large (Ø = 69.9 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1AC/2J
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PV
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: GOL

Note: Virtually identical looking to the record labels of Santa Maria and Terre Haute pressings and only distinguished from these copies by the presence of two hand-etched inscriptions, PV and GOL, on the dead wax. For this reason, the Holbrook/Goldisc pressings are not easy to identify and rather difficult to find. The stamper ring is the same size as the Hauppauge/Keel pressings, a bit longer than those pressed at Santa Maria and Terre Haute plants. Check also 5/23/2021.

8. Pitman pressing  (originally listed as "Pitman pressing ー Variant One")

Location of pressing plant: Pitman, New Jersey
Pressing plant owner: Columbia Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: Double line/Double line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, large (Ø = 68.7 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1AD/2AA
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: P
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: (none)

Note: Although the stamper ring is the commonly seen single large, the label design significantly differs from the others. Notably, Springsteen's name and the album title are printed differently on the labels in a double line each (cf., the later pressings change his name in a single line; see 3/4/2018). The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1AD/2AA. Check also 5/15/2021.

9. Lakewood pressing (can also be called Pete pressing)
(originally listed incorrectly as "Pitman pressing ー Variant two")

Location of pressing plant: Lakewood, New Jersey
Pressing plant owner: Peter Pan Records

Label printing and stamper ring
  (1) Rim-text color: bright yellow**
  (2) Artist name/Album title: Double line/Double line
  (3) Stamper ring: single, large (Ø = 69.9 mm)

Deadwax stamp and inscription (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched)
  (1) Confirmed SIDE ONE/TWO matrix codes : 1AF, 1AG/2AB, 2AC
  (2) Plant-specific matrix code: PPP
  (3) Plant-specific matrix symbol: (none)

Note: Labels of another New Jersey pressing look very similar to those of the Pitman pressing. The major difference is the spacing between the album title and tracklist, which is noticeably wider by about 10 mm. The minor difference is the stamper ring which is slightly larger by 1 mm than the Pitman. Some copies (with the matrix code 1AG) do not carry the plant-specific code PPP on SIDE ONE. The label image is taken from my personal copy with SIDE ONE/TWO matrix numbers 1AD 1AF/2AC (SIDE ONE's matrix code 1AD preceding 1AF is crossed out). Check also 11/19/2018, 5/15/2021, and 8/20/2022 (most updated).

**A first, I thought the rim-text color was specific to regional printing factories (accordingly, pressing plant-specific), but its tones can vary depending on the printing lot, so it may not be a good guide to distinguish these pressings.

This survey is, as always, still work-in-progress. There may be more label variations or exceptions. In addition, the matrix-number information must be fulfilled to represent comprehensive, thorough data collections. So, I welcome any addition, correction, question, or suggestion.

— To be continued to Notes on the late pressing labels.