Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: 'E' TICKET, its very limited first edition, also known as the advanced release (Part 4 of 5)This article supplements and follows up on the previous posts on this bootleg in October 2014.

On June 23, 1979, the Billboard Issue reported a momentous event—the Largest Recording Seizure in Los Angeles ever: the confiscated bootlegs included "E" TICKET. However, the article (reported by Paul Grein) did not give the actual album title.

Arguably, "E" TICKET is one of the most famous and important releases in the history of Springsteen bootleg, emerging in the late 1970s and often pirated in the vinyl era. The sound quality is splendid as a bootleg, probably sourced from a demo cassette provided to a New York publisher in 1975 (see below). In addition, the bootleggers wisely avoided using a slick insert cover (the standard of bootleg back then) and borrowed a great outtake shot for DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (as you know, officially used for the front sleeve of the U.K. 12-inch single off THE RIVER; see 12/22/2019). So, the album sleeve was quite appealing, looking like an official product as if it followed DARKNESS, although the material was nothing related to this album. And don't forget that this release was one of those bootlegs that upset the man and the record company in 1979, leading to one of the most famous lawsuits against bootlegging in the history of the U.S. music industry.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: 'E' TICKET, its very limited first edition, also known as the advanced release (Part 3 of 5)This article supplements and follows up on the previous posts on this bootleg in October 2014.

"When vinyl records were ready, the sleeves were not.”
That was what I was told, explaining why these classic bootlegs
from the late 1970s existed in two forms: one simple and the
other looking like official products.

About thirty years ago, or in the mid-1990s, I obtained this renowned Bruceleg from the late 1970s in an unusual form—a bit inky, plain, simple sleeve—from someone in Southern California, where bootlegging activities were the most active in the 1970s. He told me that the very early pressings were not housed in that well-made, black-and white sleeve we know but came in a plain white cover on which the album title and artist name were stamped with a handwritten serial number. He continued this was because the vinyl discs were pressed before the sleeves were finished, so the first pressing did not have a printed sleeve. This also probably explains why LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND was first issued as a triple-vinyl box with a numbered insert rather than the famous gatefold sleeve.