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.