Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THE DEMO TAPES original U.K. release limited to 500 numbered copies (Part 1 of 2)

Of the four classic vinyl bootlegs of Springsteen studio outtakes — The Demo Tapes, Fire On the Fingertips, E Ticket and Son You May Kiss The Bride— all save E Ticket* have been issued on CD (in Fire On the Fingertips’ case, as the equally splendid Forgotten Songs).

—Quoted from: Clinton Heylin (2013) E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, p. 315, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York [the underline made by this blogger].

Four classic vinyl Brucelegs featuring studio recordings — as defined in Heylin's E Street Shuffle book (2013) — were concisely reviewed long ago in the collectors' bible Blinded By The Light (1985), except for SON YOU MAY KISS THE BRIDE, the last of the four to be released in the mid-1980s (though I don't exactly recall whether it appeared during or after the 1985 leg of the BORN IN THE U.S.A. tour).

*Oddly, Heylin regards "E" TICKET as an exception — perhaps because this vinyl bootleg has never been released on CD in its original form. However, the excellent BORN IN THE STUDIO CD from the early 1990s already included all its tracks along with additional recordings (see 06/01/2024).

No, no, I’m not going to talk about Bruceleg CD releases. The above is how Clinton Heylin, a notable British writer on Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, describes these four unofficial vinyl albums in his book, where he subjectively selects 21 bootleg CD recordings of studio sessions. He compiled this discography as a bootleg CD enthusiast, reasoning that a bootleg CD is likely to exist somewhat longer than some of the website links which afford fans the opportunity to download these precious, unauthorized moments (as cited above).