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.

However, since then, I had never seen such bootleg copies until I found one recently auctioned last March. So, what I wanted to do in the first place was to know if the auctioned copy was really the same issue as my possessions, as reported in the previous post  (06/26/2024) and summarized below:

• First, the vinyl disc was identical to my two copies based on the labels and the matrix number on SIDE A.
• Second, the plain white sleeve looked quite similar to mine and those used for other West Coast bootlegs in the 1970s.
• Third, although blurry and messy, the stamped letters on the front sleeve, which might otherwise have been created using a stencil sheet rather than a rubber stamp (or sort of), were found to be identical to those on my copies.

The difference is clear at a glance: writing, size, and ink.
The upper image is courtesy of and used with permission
from HiFi Dojo.

And lastly, one more critical element to be examined is the serial number handwritten on the sleeve. The number "#20" on the auctioned copy was written in a larger script using black ink, whereas that of my possession, #21, was smaller with blue ink, as previously reported (see 10/12/2014 and 06/01/2024) and shown here. Based on the hand scripts, these numbers are identified clearly as being from the pens of different persons. This is the only major difference I found between the auctioned copy and my possession (along with another with copy number "#27") and may clarify why the way of stamping on the sleeve is contrastingly different: the sleeve of #20 is stamped roughly and messy, while the stamped images on #21 and #27 are clear and legible.

Then, the next question arises: why were two different persons engaged in the handwork? Of course, there are several possibilities we can think of. For example, two or more bootleggers were involved in the album production, and they individually stamped the covers and gave each handwritten number. As a completely different scenario, although I think it's unlikely, the stamped sleeves were originally released without a serial number, which was later handwritten by collectors who got the copies. In the late 1970s, several bootlegs were issued with a limited number, but almost all were stamped rather than handwritten (for example, see 05/16/2015 and 07/26/2020). I cannot go into more detail as I have no other information or material to examine.

According to Clinton Heylin, along with "E" TICKET, THE DEMO TAPES
is one of the four classic vinyl bootlegs of Springsteen studio outtakes
(the remainders being FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS and SON YOU MAY
KISS THE BRIDE; C. Heylin, E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce
Springsteen & the E Street Band, Viking Books, London, 2013).
The original copies of this U.K.-pressed bootleg were numbered
by stamping, not by handwriting.

By the way, you may wonder how the auction turned out. It was around 6 p.m. on March 14 (in Japan Standard Time) that I noticed it on eBay, which was, if my memory is correct, about five hours after the said bootleg copy was opened for auction by the seller in New York (i.e., March 14 midnight in U.S. Eastern Standard Time; Note that eBay has utilized the Western Standard Time as the official time). It was a Buy-It-Now auction set at $118.80, so I could have purchased it (although the sustained depreciation of the Japanese Yen against the U.S. dollar and increasing international shipping costs have become a heavy burden for us Japanese collectors). In fact, I was quite tempted to do so, but in the end, I did not. The auction was closed five hours later (around 10 a.m. EST on the same day), and the result has been listed on Popsike here. I bet only serious (and probably knowledgeable) collectors would buy this never-nice-looking record—the current owner may be someone who frequently visits and reads this blog. Even if so, I wouldn't be surprised and wish they could be.

— Continued to Part 4 / Back to Part 1 or Part 2.