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.