BORN TO RUN U.S. Pressing LP Variants: The late-1970s Scranton pressing by North American Music Industries, or simply NAMI (Part 2 of 2)

The hand-etched "PN" refers to a vinyl record pressed at NAMI in
Scranton, subcontracted by Pitman when the Columbia Records plant
suspended operations due to a labor strike in the spring of 1978.

Scranton or New American Music Industries (NAMI) pressings of the BORN TO RUN LP (Columbia PC 33795) were unique among the several U.S. editions with the "PC"-prefixed catalog number that were commercially released in the 1970s (see 07/29/2016). As shown in the Part One post (04/12/2025), these copies differ noticeably from those pressed at Columbia Records’ three plants — Pitman, Terre Haute, and Santa Maria — particularly in the size of the stamper ring on the labels and the presence of the dead-wax stamp (☖) symbolizing the U.S. Capitol Building, both the same as those found on Scranton pressings of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (JC 35318; see 3/21/2017 and 04/23/2022). The stamp likely reflects that Capitol Records had previously owned the Scranton plant before its takeover by NAMI in late 1973 (see Scott's comment from 03/18/2017). The plant continued operating until around 1980.

The deadwax information on my copy is listed below. I have also examined several Scranton pressings with clearly legible matrix numbers, using images sourced from online databases and auction listings. So far, all examined copies display identical matrix stamps and etchings.

SIDE ONE:   P AL 33795-1H              PN         ☖
SIDE TWO:   P BL 33795-1AA X        PN         ☖          Straight = stamped; oblique = hand-etched.

Another disc with the matrix number 1H on SIDE ONE was pressed
at Pitman, as indicated by a faint "P" stamp preceding the number. It
came in the penultimate "PC" sleeve (see 07/29/2016), which features
the single-lined producers' credit on the rear (not shown) and bears
the price code X698 (denoting a $6.98 retail price) on the bottom of
the spine. The last known "PC" sleeve used for the Scranton pressing
eliminated this code (see 04/12/2025). The gold stamp indicates that
the record was discounted by Columbia for sale at U.S. military bases.

The matrix numbers 1H /1AA confirm that this is a later release, as the earliest pressings from Columbia's three plants carried matrix numbers 1A /1A for Pitman, 1B /1B for Terre Haute, and 1C /1C for Santa Maria (see 05/21/2017). Additional hand-etchings include "PN," the pressing plant-specific code previously interpreted as "Pitman-subcontracted NAMI" (see 11/17/2018 and 08/20/2022), whereas the meaning of the "X" that immediately follows the SIDE TWO matrix number remains unknown to me. 

Note that "1H" is not exclusive to Scranton pressings. The same stamped matrix number appears on SIDE ONE of a Pitman copy in my possession (see images at right). However, SIDE TWO of this copy bears "1L," and neither side includes the matrix stamps or hand-etched markings typically associated with NAMI's Scranton plant, as described above.

SIDE ONE:   p   P AL 33795-1H
SIDE TWO:   p   P BL 33795-1L       The preceding "p" stamp is the hallmark of Columbia's Pitman-plant pressing.

At a glance, Scranton pressings of this masterpiece can be distinguished from standard Columbia-plant pressings (Pitman, in this case) by two key criteria: the stamper ring size on the labels and the width of the trail-off (deadwax) area. Matrix numbers for each side are listed in parentheses following the pressing plant name (oblique, hand-etched; straight, stamped). The pronounced differences in deadwax spacing — particularly on SIDE ONE — may affect the sound quality of this side, especially the final track, Backstreets.

Different matrix numbers, stamps, and etchings indicate different master cutting during vinyl record production, which often leads to variations in the width of the deadwax area on vinyl discs. You can find examples of such deadwax metric variations in my blog posts — for instance: 05/05/2022 for DARKNESS U.S. discs; 01/01/2020 for THE RIVER U.K. copies; 09/29/2019, 09/30/2019, and 10/10/2020 for various BORN IN THE U.S.A. pressings; and 11/14/2014 for a classic bootleg. In this respect, the Scranton pressings show notable differences compared to the earliest Columbia pressings: interestingly, the deadwax space is substantially narrower on SIDE ONE but wider on SIDE TWO — a detail that has drawn the attention of audiophiles (not me, though).

One of my early Pitman pressings, used in the deadwax-space
comparison above, came in a gatefold sleeve with the infamous
"John" misspelling, where the correction sticker was hilariously
misapplied in a conspicuously wrong spot.

The most likely reason the Scranton factory owned by NAMI became involved in manufacturing BORN TO RUN was that Columbia Records’ Pitman plant — the primary facility for pressing and distributing their products, particularly for the East Coast market — was temporarily shut down due to strikes during a labor dispute from April 2 to May 17, 1978 (see 3/18/2017). Among Springsteen’s albums, DARKNESS was the most seriously affected by this labor issue. This long-awaited release — his first in three years, following BORN TO RUN and the settlement of the lawsuit against his former manager — was originally scheduled for late May to coincide with the album-promotion tour that began on May 23.

As a result, early copies of the DARKNESS LP were pressed not only at Columbia's Santa Maria and Terre Haute plants but also at six atypical facilities located in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York — all owned by companies other than Columbia Records, including NAMI's Scranton plant (for summary posts, see 04/23/2022 and 08/20/2022). Popular back-catalog titles from the Columbia label — BORN TO RUN, in Springsteen’s case — were likely repressed at these non-Columbia plants for a time in 1978 until Pitman resumed normal operations. 

However, I have so far confirmed such pressings only from Scranton, which probably reflects a prioritization of the new album’s production over that of the older one. If you come across the third album copies — or first and second, too — from any of these unusual pressing plants, such as Pinckneyville and Lakewood factories (then run by MCR Records and Peter Pan Records, respectively), please let me know.

— Back to Part 1.

BORN TO RUN U.S. Pressing LP Variants: The late-1970s Scranton pressing by North American Music Industries, or simply NAMI (Part 1 of 2)

Scranton/NAMI pressings are characterized
by a unique symbol stamped in the trail-off 
space of the record. Although often described
as a stylized anvil, a comment on a relevant
post on this blog (see 03/18/2017) claims it
was modeled after the U.S. Capitol Building,
as the pressing plant was owned by Capitol
Records before NAMI.

When it comes to vinyl LPs — especially those from Springsteen's early years in the 1970s and 1980s — I've always gravitated toward U.S. pressings over Japanese or European ones. My preference is pretty straightforward: he is, after all, a quintessentially American artist, and the U.S. pressings feel the most authentic to me. 

Back in 2016, I took a shot at organizing and classifying the various U.S. versions of this timeless masterpiece based on the album track listings and production credits printed on the rear side of the gatefold sleeve (see 07/29/2016). A year later, in 2017, I delved deeper into how matrix numbers and dead-wax markings relate to the earliest U.S. pressings from Columbia Records' three plants — located in Santa Maria, CA; Terre Haute, IN; and Pitman, NJ — which were in operation during the 1970s. This effort might have helped fellow collectors identify individual vinyl copies and shed further light on pressing variations (see 05/21/2017). These two posts have remained among the most-read entries on this blog. Still, as any collector knows, an effort like this is never truly finished. There's always more to uncover, and the work goes on.

A recent example is the addition of the Compatible eXpansion (CX)-encoded LP (Columbia JC 33795), which was claimed to significantly suppress vinyl surface noise (see 09/30/2021 and 10/08/2021). This short-lived and somewhat controversial pressing was released in late 1982 or early 1983, following the Half-Speed Mastered series (HC 33795 for the original and HC 43795 for the reissue), which were far more widely recognized as an audiophile-oriented edition, in contrast to the mostly unnoticed and overlooked CX-encoded pressing. In this post, I introduce an earlier issue bearing the original catalog number PC 33795, although several variations with this code have been known — particularly in the rear sleeve text descriptions, as explained previously (07/29/2016).

The Scranton/NAMI pressings are easily identified by their intermediate-sized stamper
rings (Ø = 1.5" = 38 mm), distinguishing them from Columbia's Santa Maria, Terre
Haute, and Pitman pressings (for a comparison of stamper rings, see 04/23/2022).

As far as I’ve seen, almost all U.S. copies of the BORN TO RUN LP manufactured during the 1970s with the catalog number PC 33795 were pressed at one of Columbia’s three plants mentioned above. However, there is a notable exception, identifiable by a smaller stamper ring on the labels compared to Columbia’s, along with distinctive dead-wax stamps and hand-etchings on the vinyl disc. This pressing was produced at the Scranton factory operated by North American Music Industries also called NAMI, in northeastern Pennsylvania (for more on NAMI, see the DARKNESS series posts from 3/21/2017 and 04/23/2022). I’ve been aware of this particular pressing for quite some time, but didn’t write about it earlier due to my long-standing policy: “I don’t write about what I don’t own.”

As far as I've seen, Scranton/NAMI pressings came in the last version
of the "PC"-code sleeve, which features a separate production credit
on the title track and a single-line producers' credit at the bottom for
the remaining seven tracks. This version removed the price code
(X698) beneath “COLUMBIA STEREO” on the spine. Note that all
known "PC"-code sleeves lack the barcode imprint found on the
subsequent "JC"-code sleeve used for the reissues (for rear sleeve
variations, see 07/29/2016).

Although NAMI's involvement was temporal, Scranton pressings of BORN TO RUN aren't too difficult to track down at a reasonable price, as they occasionally turn up in eBay auctions — provided you carefully check the labels on the auctioned discs to distinguish them from the numerous copies pressed at Columbia's three main plants. However, because the pressing plant was not a regular Columbia Records plant and was located in the Eastern United States, finding a copy here in Japan has proven somewhat challenging, with lower chances of import compared to pressings from Santa Maria — whose relative proximity to Japan may have made exports more common — and from Pitman, likely due to that plant’s mass production. I acquired mine from an eBay seller in Philadelphia for less than $10. However, the international shipping cost was more than twice that amount — an increasingly significant burden and economic concern for vinyl collectors here, especially given the weak Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar.

— Continued to Part 2.