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| A typical black-and-white album advertisement, quoting Jon Landau's famous words in Japanese translation, simultaneously appeared in various FM and other music magazines in late 1980, timed with the album release. |
More than five years ago, when I picked up on this blog a famous
Japanese vinyl rarity from
THE RIVER, I briefly introduced
CBS/SONY Japan's strategy to promote the album here in the
Far East (see the last paragraph on
09/19/2017). While
Ryo Okada, who was in charge of Springsteen back then in the company, was delighted by this album with a higher potential ever for becoming a smash hit, he had to think over about how to promote Springsteen and his then-new release two years after he tried every means possible to publicize the man and his previous album
DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (see
09/19/2015 and
03/05/2016). Finally, he decided to invite domestically known music critics and journalists to a four-night stand (October 30, 31, November 1, and 3) at the
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena during the ongoing 1980
North American tour and let them write a concert review (Note that it was five years before Springsteen visited
Japan for the first time on the
BORN IN THE U.S.A. world tour). These reminiscences by
R. Okada are told in the booklet exclusively available in the
Japanese edition of
THE TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION (
Sony Music Japan SICP-4612), issued in late 2015.
