Collecting log: a copy of the legendary bootleg LIVE on Coral Records, purportedly autographed at a Philly stop during the 1978 tour (Part 2 of 3)

As another example of an autographed classic bootleg, a signed copy of "E" TICKET is reproduced on the back cover of The Bruce Springsteen Bootleg Bible Vol. 1 (by Tony Montana, Montana Production Inc., USA, 1985), with the comment: "This copy was autographed by Bruce backstage at the Spectrum Philadelphia Aug., 1978." Image sourced from the blog on 05/16/2015.

Obviously, the main question regarding this particular copy of the classic bootleg is whether Springsteen’s signature is genuine or a forgery. Although he is known to have refused to sign bootlegs over the years, the available anecdotes suggest that he may not have been as reluctant to sign them early on—especially before the famous 1979 lawsuit* against California bootleggers Vicki Vinyl and Jim Washburn.
*For more on that lawsuit, see my previous blog posts on specific bootlegs like "E" TICKET and PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE.

Springsteen’s early attitude toward bootlegs is covered in some detail, for instance, in two substantial books by Clinton Heylin: Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry (St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 1996) and E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Penguin Group [USA] Inc., New York, 2013). A few passages are particularly suggestive. Springsteen reportedly reacted with delight when he was handed one of Lou Cohan's bootlegs in 1976, exclaiming to E Street Band member Garry Tallent, "We’ve been bootlegged! We’ve finally made it!” (E Street Shuffle, p. 188). He also remarked in a 1978 interview that many bootleggers were, at least in their own eyes, fans rather than profiteers, and that bootlegging was “more like a labour of love” (Bootleg, p. 136).

In the same spirit, as is well known among fans and collectors, Springsteen often referred to bootleggers and bootlegging during radio-broadcast shows on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour in 1978, not with disapproval but with a kind of amused acknowledgment. At the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles on July 7, he called out, “Well then, bootleggers out there in radio land” and told them to “roll your tapes!" At the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on December 15, he assumed that friends back home would one day hear the performance “through the magic of bootlegging." Both FM broadcasts, of course, were soon preserved on bootlegs and are now available as official live downloads.

As the eBay seller noted, the cover is slightly worn along the edges, but overall it remains in excellent condition. The spine reads BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN/LIVE  STEREO  CORAL RECORDS LTDA. NR 909-2.

The eBay seller did not strike me as the sort of person who would knowingly pass off a forgery. Although he was acting on behalf of a friend, the actual owner of the item, he appeared to be a legitimate New Jersey-based businessman with a regular line of work, not someone simply hiding behind an eBay handle. Even now, nearly twenty-eight years later—the auction was held in September 1998—his business presence can still be traced online, based on my old transaction records. 

The auction, headed “R&R Bruce Springsteen 1975 Bootleg SIGNED,” briefly described the item as follows:

"Bruce Springsteen, 1975 DOUBLE LP CONCERT BOOTLEG, SIGNED BY BRUCE. I wonder how many bootlegs he signed. Autographed for the current owner back stage in the 70s. In NEAR MINT condition. Cover is slightly worn on the edges. UNIQUE autographed item!"

It was followed by a more general statement, since the seller was handling multiple collectibles from the same collection:

"I will am [sic] offering, via consignment arrangement, an extensive collection of ROCK & ROLL MEMORABILIA, records and CDs. Many of the items are exceptionally rare and/or unique. Some of the rarest (i.e. autographed) pieces may have never been offered for sale before. All of the items are authentic and in the case of signed items, were signed in the presence of the owner. Because of the vastness of the collection, auction listings could be spread out over several months and possibly longer. So that you can easily find items from this collection, I will add "R&R" the description."

I therefore asked the seller whether the owner could explain how the bootleg had been signed. The next day, he replied:

"I spoke with my friend today. Here is the circumstances [sic] of his meeting Bruce Springsteen and Band played the Spectrum in Philadelphia (we live near Philly) twice in 1978, once in May once in July. My friend got back stage both times and had several items signed. The abum [sic] was one of those times but he doesn't remember which. He also had the other album I listed signed by the whole band. I am going to be listing a Born to Run tour jacket signed at the same time as your item. You should realize that my friend has been a fan of Bruce from the days when he played small clubs and that in 1978 Bruce was more approachable. I'm sure he'd hesitate to sign a bootleg now."

The LIVE bootleg was probably autographed backstage at one of Springsteen’s two August 1978 Philly shows, either August 18 or 19. The August 18 show was issued in the late 1970s as the serially numbered three-LP bootleg PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL, pressed on colored vinyl (right), while the August 19 show remained unbootlegged until sometime in 1990, when it surfaced on the double-CD set THE JERSEY DEVIL (left; with its original 1990-11-19 receipt)—although Prove It All Night on that set was actually sourced from December 19.

I regarded this e-mail as fairly solid provenance documentation. In particular, it suggested that the seller was not simply giving me an explanation he had made up on the spot in 1998, but was replying after checking with his friend, the original owner. Although the “July” mentioned in the e-mail is incorrect—the documented Philadelphia Spectrum shows took place in May and August, not May and July—I regarded this as a natural lapse of memory, either on the seller’s part or the owner’s, rather than a serious problem or a fatal flaw in the story. After all, this was a 1998 e-mail referring, through a friend, to events that had taken place in 1978, twenty years earlier. If anything, the fact that the dates were not made artificially precise felt somewhat natural to me.

Importantly, the seller was also auctioning other rare items on behalf of his friend, including another signed Springsteen LP described as “signed by the whole band” (not the one shown at the top of this page)—a claim I was able to confirm from the auction listing at the time. This further supported my impression that these items came from a genuine collection, rather than from a seller inventing a story around a single autographed bootleg.

— Continued to Part 3 / Back to Part 1.