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).

No disagreements with his choices for classic studio-recording vinyl bootlegs. However, I could add a few of my own favorites from the pre-NEBRASKA — BORN IN THE U.S.A. era:

Another ROULETTE (TARKL 2406), issued in 1988, is a mediocre double LP containing a low-quality Tunnel of Love Express Tour recording.

• ROULETTE serves as a seque to "E" TICKET, albeit housed in a cheap insert sleeve, primarily consisting of unreleased and alternate takes from BORN TO RUN and DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. Reissued in the mid-1980s in a colored laminated sleeve, with the alternate full-band take of Thunder Road replaced by the famous acoustic version (first available on "E" TICKET).
• DO I HAVE TO SAY HIS NAME? first focuses mainly on essential DARKNESS material, such as The Promise and Fire, and comes in an excellent color LP sleeve featuring live footage photos of NO NUKES concerts. Originally issued on black vinyl, later followed by colored vinyl editions and a picture disc version featuring THE RIVER tour concert shots instead.
• RESTLESS NIGHTS is probably the earliest compilation — if not still one of the earliest — filled with THE RIVER outtakes, originally released as a picture disc, and later appeared on black vinyl in a color sleeve (cf., aother similar bootleg, BY THE RIVER, contains fewer of those outtakes on one side only; see 03/27/2021).



The rear sleeve looks far better than the front of a compilation bootleg,GOD SAVE THE BOSS!

• VISITATION AT FORT HORN is a miscellaneous compilation of recordings from his early career up to the BORN TO RUN sessions, still holding significance as the first bootleg to include all three of Steel Mill's studio demo recordings at Fillmore Recording Studios, San Francisco, in February 1970 (although two of these demos had been released earlier on another bootleg called GOD SAVE THE BOSS!). Like THE DEMO TAPES, this bootleg LP also originated from the U.K.

A few others that we've heard of but haven't yet heard are 'Acoustic Radio Jam,' 'Collaborations' and 'WIth a Little Help from My Friends.' That brings us to what we think is the very best bootleg ever, a record called 'The Demo Tapes' which has been quite some time and has been pressed in numbers so its very cheap as these lps go**.

—Excerpted from the On Vinyl column, New bootlegs: More color, higher prices, Backstreets, no. 4 (1982).
**Refers to one of the U.S. pirate issues. The original U.K. edition was never pressed "in numbers," so it circulated in smaller quantities on the market, similar to the original U.K. release of FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS.

THE DEMO TAPES was the third release among the four classic studio bootlegs mentioned above. Somewhat later than what the 1982 Backstreets magazine issue reported (“has been quite some time”), I acquired my first copy on July 15, 1982, at the Kyoto-Sanjo branch of JEUGIYA, a shop specialized in vinyl imports at the time (By the way, collectors of imported and bootleg records around Kyoto City in those days must have known this place well). This copy cost me 3,300 yen (about $13 based on the JPY/USD exchange rate then), which was not an insignificant expense for me as a high school student.

At least three versions of THE BOSS OF THE BOARDWALK exist, all bootlegging the legendary John Hammond demo sessions from May 3, 1972, with sleeve variations (1st press: center, 2nd: left, 3rd: right). However, all share the same matrix numbers (Side One is shown in center bottom), indicating that the 2nd and 3rd are repressings rather than pirated copies. The slick inserts of the first and second editions do not list the album title; it is printed on the labels of the vinyl discs.

At that point, THE RIVER had been out for nearly two years, yet there was still no news of an upcoming release — what would later turn out to be NEBRASKA. So, when I came across this bootleg, I was thrilled and initially mistook it for the legendary John Hammond demos, which I did not own in any form back then, whether as a bootleg LP (i.e., THE BOSS OF THE BOARDWALK) or a cassette copy.

— Continued to Part 2.