Collecting log: Further digging of NO NUKES collectibles and a nothing-to-rave-about but unexpected finding (Part 1 of 4)

What is the serial number of a new addition (right) to my collection? The "90/100" copy was obtained a few decades
ago (see 05/12/2019). The numbered edition of this rarely-surfaced promotional 12-inch disc, released in late 1979
or early 1980, has long been one of my all-time favorite vinyl collectibles.

First of all, I want to tell you about the current situation of this blog, especially those who have wondered why this site has not been updated for more than half a year. The answer is simple and not serious: although finally infected with COVID-19 four months ago, I'm fine and healthy. However, I just couldn't (and still hardly) have time for my favored things, including sharing information about vinyl and CD collectibles of my favorite artist, for I've been extremely busy with my job since the last post (yes, even though it's just a blog thing, I need to set aside time to do that). Anyway, I thank all of you who cared about the blog's situation and sent me such messages. Even though I had no time to blog, I enjoyed communications and deep discussions with fellow collectors, especially in the U.S. and Europe, on official rare collectible discs and old vinyl bootlegs.

Another example of a limited-numbered edition released lately:
Finally, the long-awaited GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N. J.
Mobile Fidelity (MoFi) U.S. imports are now available in Japan. My
reservation with Amazon Japan (made this January) was canceled
automatically months ago due to the significant delay in production.
Just three days ago (Nov. 15), I ordered a copy from another domestic
retailer, which was delivered today, surprisingly, at half of the U.S. retail
price (7,459 JPY including tax & shipping = $50). As another surprise,
despite the very late order, it came with a relatively low serial number.
Thank you Joshin for the great service!

During these quiet days, what did I play the most frequently? It was THE LEGENDARY 1979 NO NUKES CONCERTS [Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) SICP-6407~9]. Yes, I still stick around the audio and video of the CD/DVD box released two years ago (November 19, 2021) because I love watching and appreciating the incredible performances of this particular era of the man and his band. It's fun for me to compare the differences in songs performed on both nights (September 21 and 22, 1979). For comparison, all the songs played were once officially available in the Live Music Archives from nugs.net (although no longer available due to THE LEGEND release). Some of the other-night versions of THE LEGEND-featured tracks, such as The River (9/21, the first-ever performance), Thunder Road (9/22), and Stay (9/21, w/ Jackson Browne and Rosemary Butler but w/o Tom Petty), are also found in the old soundtrack album/VHS home video/laserdisc for the NO NUKES movie (premiered in 1980) and the recent soundtrack album to the motion picture BLINDED BY THE LIGHT (came out in 2019).

A promotional copy of the Japanese triple-record set (Asylum P-5186~8Y) came with white labels and a white "sample" sticker on the front of the gatefold sleeve (my copy is missing the obi). Note that the vinyl discs were manufactured by Warner-Pioneer Corporation in Japan. For the details of the U.S. white-label promo and test pressings, see 05/04/2019.

Moreover, the live footage has several funny or curious moments and scenes. For example, we can see flabbergasted-looking David Geffen, a billionaire businessman and the founder of Asylum Records (that released the abovementioned NO NUKES soundtrack), when Bruce ran up to a group of persons on the right-side stage, including Geffen, Jon Landau, John Hall, and a silver-haired tall man supposed to be Hall Manager, during Devil With The Blue Dress Medley just before making an emergency announcement to the audience. As another example, I've been wondering and still cannot figure out what Bruce is doing during the extended bridge between the medley and Rave On (for those interested in this, please visit the blog on 01/10/2022 and read the last paragraph and the comments).

Shown is a sample copy of the Japanese HDCD version of NO NUKES released in 1997 (EastWest Japan AMCY-2486-7). As you can see, a sample sticker is pasted over the barcodes printed on the lower left corner of the obi that covers the entire rear side with the track listing. Although it came with typical Japanese accessories, such as the obi and an additional black and white booklet in Japanese, the set was, in fact, a repackage of the U.S. import.

Speaking of David Geffen, how could we not talk about the custom 33⅓-rpm edition of the promotional 12-inch disc of Devil With The Blue Dress Medley (Asylum AS-11442), coupled with J. Browne's Before The Deluge? As covered on this blog previously (04/25/2019 and 05/12/2019), unlike the commonly circulating promo copies playable at 45 rpm, this seldom-seen collectible was serially numbered and limited to 100 copies, which were purportedly distributed to his friends and related parties (although I am still not able to locate the official source for this information).

Some of the official vinyl and CD titles of Springsteen have been
issued as limited and serially numbered editions, including the
recent MoFi one-step pressing of the debut album shown above.
In my opinion, however, these particular NO NUKES pressings
stand as historically the most important and valued collectibles
among those available in terms of the background, rarity, and
release format (i.e., promo, whereas all the other numbered
releases are, as far as I know, regular issues).

After putting out a series of blog articles on NO NUKES-related collectible vinyl records four years ago (04/25/2019, 04/27/2019, 05/04/2019, and 05/12/2019) and some more in recent years (11/12/2020 and 01/10/2022), my private collection was slightly expanded to include a few notable collectors' items. One is another copy of Devil 12-inch with a serial number of "29/100."  The first copy of this promo I obtained a few decades ago had a much later number ("90/100"; see 05/12/2019). However, based on the Arabic numeral-writing style, the same person apparently handwrote these limited numbers on the two copies, and very probably, the other copies in circulation and collectors' hands, as I already speculated (see 05/12/2019). 

Then, who did that? If the aforementioned unconfirmed information is true, I guess David Geffen is most likely. To examine this idea, I have searched for images of his hand-drawn numerals online, but thus far, I have only found his signatures and nothing else. Can someone help verify this?

— Continued to Part 2.

Collecting log: Blinded By The Light U.S. 7" singles (Part 4 of 4) ー Puzzled by the booklets accompanied by the Play:Back issues

Play:Back booklet Issues 16 (left) and 17 (right). The former contains articles on Springsteen and Andy Pratt, and their songs are released together on a Play:Back 7" EP (Columbia AS 45) in January 1973. However, it is the latter (where neither artist is mentioned explicitly) that is accompanied by most record copies in circulation if they still retain a booklet.

Matrix numbers are machine-stamped
ZSM157443-1A on SIDE 1 (not shown)
and ZSM157444-1A on SIDE 2 (Bruce's
side) of the styrene-molded disc.

Columbia/Epic's Play:Back series was a unique survey attempt that allowed consumers to preview and criticize newly released or unreleased music from the labels' artists, roughly equivalent to ten to more 7" EP discs a year at $3.00. The annual subscription fee in 1973 covered only the packaging and mailing, and according to the Inflation Calculator on the DollarTimes website (https://www.dollartimes.com/), the amount had the same buying power as $18.39 in 2021. These records were delivered in the original mailing envelope containing a booklet, questionnaire, and business reply envelope to send back the subscription card that was also included. Like the Script Cover edition of BORN TO RUN, it's almost impossible to obtain the complete set nowadays. Most probably, not a small number of original owners might have faithfully filled out the questionnaires for the feedback to the company while they threw away the remaining paper stuff.

Issue 17 mentions Springsteen only in the tour/concert-
listing section called ON THE ROAD AGAIN (p. 15), as
indicated by green squircles.

The accompanying booklets (called "newsletters" in the company's advertisements; see the previous post) feature articles written by and about company's producers, recording artists, and updated information. I've seen that most circulating copies of the booklet for Blinded By The Light (with Andy Pratt's Avenging Annie as A-side) are colored Aegean or blue indigo on the front cover. As far as I checked, this 16-page booklet (Issue 17) does not mention Springsteen anywhere, except his gig info that is found on the reverse side of the rear cover (Feb. 1st to 5th at Max's Kansas City in N.Y.C., New York and 15th in Wallingford, Connecticut). Likewise, Pratt and his song get no mention at all in the print.

Another I own that came with a Blinded disc is also 16 pages in length and features a similar front sleeve in different coloring with beige background. However, the content is completely different from the aforementioned Issue 17. Interestingly, this booklet (Issue 16) says on the front, "the first issue of the new, expanded PLAYBACK," and picks up Springsteen and Pratt on a two-page spread each, with the lyrics of each song on the right side. Springsteen's article is written by Associate Editor Wayne Robins and titled as Remember Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom? Their theme song was “Hare Krishna, Harry’s chicken, Harry Truman, Harry Up!," sung to the tune of “My Sweet Lord", which is a kind of "how it got started" story. Then, the question arises as to whether this version of the booklet really and originally came with the Blinded EP (Columbia AS 45). Not sure, but I guess it might have done, based on the last sentence that concludes the article, unless it was a notice to the next issue: The song that stands out in most people’s minds the first time out is "Blinded By the Light," the lyrics of which are on the facing page, and which you can hear by putting on your Playback record.  (Note the underline made by this blogger)

In Issue 16, Springsteen's debut is covered by two pages (pp. 9 and 10) with the full lyrics for the first-ever single.

Epic Records label's AS 44 EP release, 
maybe not a Play:Back release (not in my
possession; images taken from Discogs)

Nevertheless, most circulating copies of the Play:Back's Blinded 7" accompany Issue 17, supporting that it was indeed the booklet for this single EP. If Issue 16 was not the booklet for Blinded, it must have logically been coupled with the previous release (i.e., Columbia/Epic AS 44). Searching into the Discogs and 45cat databases hit a bonus 7" promo disc with the same catalog number and released in 1973 by the Epic Records label, called An Exclusive Interview With Tammy Wynette / George Jones Conducted By Frank Jones (the links to Discogs page here and 45cat here). However, by appearance, this 7" interview disc is unlikely to be part of the Play:Back series, as the labels and record sleeve differ completely in their color and design (see the images right). Moreover, its matrix numbers (ZSM 157143/ZSM 157144 on Side A/B)* are not sequential to those of the immediate preceding or following Play:Back releases:

• Columbia AS 43: ZLP 157439/ZLP 157440* (Jon Hammond interview disc)
  
• Columbia AS 45: ZSM 157443/ZSM 157444* (Avenging Annie /Blinded By The Light )
  

These facts and observations lead me to presume that there exists a yet unconfirmed Play:Back AS 44 single with the matrix numbers 157441/157442. 

*Columbia's matrix prefix codes ZLP and ZSM refer to 7" single mono and stereo, respectively, both playable at 33⅓ rpm.

Issue 16 also introduces Andy Pratt and his Avenging Annie featured on A-side to Blinded single (pp. 13 and 14).

Columbia' Play:Back series AS 39 and AS 43.
Major changes in the label design must have
occurred between the releases AS 40 and 43
(not in my possession; images from Discogs).

Here I raise two possibilities. The first one is a compromised interpretation of the above observations, suggesting two versions for the Columbia AS 45 disc released with either Issue 16 or 17. The Springsteen/Pratt articles found on Issue 16 might support this idea, although I cannot think of any logical reason for issuing two different booklets for a single disc. The other possibility denies Issue 16 as coming with the Blinded disc, likely indicating that it was included in one of the preceding 7" releases that corresponds to the first issue of the new, expanded PLAYBACK release, as printed on the front cover. So, what is the first renewed release? One candidate is the AS 43 EP mentioned above, entitled John Hammond, Producer Of The Original Billie Holiday Recordings, Discusses Them With Dan Morgenstern Of Downbeat Magazine (whose links to Discogs page here and 45cat here). This interview disc carries the same blue labels as the typical Play:Back releases, which are clearly distinguished from the old-style labels, as shown on the right images, such as AS 39 (whose links to Discogs page here and 45cat here). No information is available for the associated booklet, though. 

Obviously, further research into these early releases needs to be done, including the white-label version of the Blinded set with yet another variant booklet (see below), for which the details remain unknown.

The issue number is unknown, though never before August 1973 (when the photo session was conducted with the band for the second album). Featured on the back cover (left) is the man who filmed the CBS live promo footage of Bruce in LA in 1973 and Phoenix in 1978. Provided by courtesy of someone via the Lost In The Flood collector's page (special thanks are given to Peter).

— Back to Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3.

Collecting log: Blinded By The Light U.S. 7" singles (Part 3 of 4) ー Puzzled by the booklets accompanied by the Play:Back issues

Generally, Springsteen's first official 7" single is regarded Blinded By The Light / Angel (US Columbia 4-45805), released close to a half-century ago today (02/23/1973) and cut in a shortened length (3 : 58) from the debut album GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N. J. (US Columbia KC 31903). The white-label version of mono/stereo coupling was also issued for promotional purposes. Both editions have earned their status as collectors' items, with the regular stock being extremely difficult to obtain due to the scarcity and a high cost (sometimes reaching a four-digit U.S. dollar price on the collectors' market). However, as you collectors know, the phrase "first official 7" single" is not true in a strict sense because more than a month in advance of the regular release (01/12/1973), the full-length, unedited version (5 : 05) already appeared on a special 7-inch sampler (US Columbia AS 45) as part of Columbia/Epic Records' program called Play:Back.

Shown are two examples of the Play:Back advertisement (below two) found on Columbia's company sleeves designed like a newspaper (titled "The Inner Sleeve"), gathering short articles and information on the label's artists. The left two images are from Volume 72A3/4 and the right two from Volume 72A4/4, both coming in two early U.S. pressings of the GREETINGS album (matrix number suffixes: -1A/-2A and -1C/-2C, respectively). Springsteen and his debut album are featured on Volume 73A1/4.

The Play:Back program was a subscription-based marketing survey performed in the early/mid-1970s. In this program, Columbia's 33 ⅓ rpm 7" EPs, which contained brand-new or yet-unreleased songs by new and established artists, were mailed to subscribers to elicit their responses and feedback to featured tracks. Typically, these discs had one number from two or more artists, carried distinctive blue labels, and came in an identical white sleeve with the Play:Back logo and type. A series of singles were not commercially available, each with an info booklet promoting artists on Columbia’s roster and a special questionnaire card that consists of multiple survey questions. You can find the advertisement for this program on the inner sleeves for Columbia's vinyl albums back in the era, including the original pressing of his first LP, explaining what was intended and how to make the subscription payment ($3.00 per year).

Lost in the puzzle of "Which disc came with which booklet."

Besides Blinded By The Light, Springsteen was picked up on two more occasions in the series, which selected the then-unreleased Circus Song performed live (Columbia AS 52; released on 06/22/1973) and Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Columbia AS 66; 01/29/1974) from the second album THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE (US Columbia KC 32432). Concerning the three Play:Back issues featuring Springsteen's tunes, what made collectors puzzled for long was the correspondence of a given disc with the accompanying booklet. This was because many copies in circulation were (and still are) missing a booklet, and even if coming with it, such sets often showed questionable combinations. Moreover, some booklets do not necessarily mention or introduce featured artist(s) on the associated disc, making the situation further confused. Unfortunately, the collectors' bible Blinded By The Light book (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London) does not help on the booklet matter.

Among the three lineup, the Blinded set (left row) is the closest to 
the complete with a questionnaire card, although still lacking a few
pieces, such as a subscription card and a self-addressed envelope
returnable to Columbia/Epic's Play:Back division.

If my memory is correct, it was the Lost In The Flood website among collectors' databases that first attempted to clarify and provided the accurate information on this issue. My first e-mail correspondence to the website dating back to June 2003 was, in fact, to ask for an opinion on "Which booklet came with which disc" [By the way, according to the reply from an web administrator (Peter), I was the first collector to contact the website from the Far East]. Although not updated since 2015, according to the current listing on the website, the correct combination between the three 7" titles and accompanying booklets is like the left image, which has been the consensus among vinyl collectors (though the discs are actually not vinyl-pressing but styrene-molded). I think, however, there is one more booklet that is considered for the Blinded By The Light single on the Play:Back series. I'm not talking about the one, most likely accompanied by the mega-rare white-label promo disc and featuring Springsteen and the band members on the black & white cover (taken during an August 1973 photo session for the second album).
— To be continued to Part 4 / back to Part 1 or Part 2.

Collecting log: Blinded By The Light U.S. 7" singles (Part 2 of 4) ー The promo-only white label is more common than the stock copies, but do you know two versions exist?

A recent purchase (right) made me aware of the existence of two different editions of the while-label promotional disc for Springsteen's first commercially issued single. No, of course, I'm not talking about two different company sleeves. Note the surface of the discs — one looks shining while the other sort of matte, which is not caused by ageing but rather reflects original physical properties of the discs.

White label promotional (WLP) releases of 7" singles are generally valued more highly than the regular stock counterparts, simply for the former are usually rarer than the latter in existence. However, the opposite is also true in particular circumstances where the stock copies go far beyond poor sales. This, in fact, is the case for Blinded By The Light / The Angel (Columbia 4-45805) and  Spirit In The Night / For You (Columbia 4-45864), Springsteen's first and second singles cut from his debut album in 1973. As mentioned in the last post (02/12/2020), the standard U.S. copies of Blinded By The Light, which were released today 47 years ago, have been sold at outrageous prices in auction and collector's markets. By contrast, the WLP 7" is relatively easier to find out with a vastly lower expense (see table below), unless it comes in the custom promotion-only colour sleeve. By the way, do you know that two versions exist for the WLP disc?

Last September, I made a short visit with my wife to the closest major city to my location in West Japan. While my wife was enjoying shopping at a giant department store, I visited a small used record shop nearby where I came across a WLP copy of this single in an old orange/white company sleeve. This was a bit surprising to me because such an old (pre-Born To Run) promo copy is nowadays quite hard to encounter in-store here. The copy looked a little deteriorated and priced at 4,104 Yen that included an 8% national consumption tax (= US $36.7 as of today's exchange rate). After a brief consideration (as I already got a copy many years ago), I decided to pick it up.
 
As I wrote previously (between 05/11/2016 and 05/29/2016), an interesting fact with 7" singles issued by U.S. Columbia, at least Springsteen's, is that most of the standard edition are made of polystyrene (hereafter called styrene). Although my 7" collection never is huge (as I'm not a 7" mania), all the U.S. stock singles in my possession are styrene-made except for the "tall font" edition of Born To Run / Meeting Across The River (Columbia 3-10209) and a few others released in the 1990s. However, the early WLP discs, released by 1975, are opposite: all my copies for Blinded By The Light, Spirit In The Night, Born To Run, and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (all mono/stereo coupling) are made of polyvinyl chloride (vinyl), excluding a custom promotion-only Spirit In The Night - Growin' Up / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Columbia AE7 1088), although this does not necessarily deny the existence of styrene-WLP for these early 7-inches.

The matrix numbers on the mono side of styrene-mold (left) and vinyl-pressed (upper right) discs.
A roughly hand-scratched "S" is found on the vinyl disc only (lower right).

So, after going home and checking this old 7" purchase, I did not expect that it was a styrene-mold disc. According to the information provided by a 7" collector/expert (05/29/2016), back then at Columbia Records, vinyl discs were pressed at the Santa Maria factory, CA, whereas styrene records were produced at the Pitman plant, NJ, for this disc format. Consistent with this, my old WLP disc has the plant-specific matrix hand-etching S (for Santa Maria), as shown below (oblique, hand-etched; straight, machine-stamped):

Vinyl pressing is generally distinguished from
styrene mold by the presence of a so-called
stamper ring around the center hole (indicated
by a green arrow) and a rather tapered edge
of a disc (left in the lower image). For the
details, check the previous post (2016/05/14).

Vinyl WLP edition (manufactured in Santa Maria)

• Mono side:    J ZSP158224-2D      S
• Stereo side:     ZSS158225-2D      S

Styrene WLP edition (manufactured in Pitman)

• Mono side:    J ZSP158224-2B
• Stereo side:     ZSS158225-2B

Two Columbia U.S. series prefixes, ZSP and ZSS, refer to 7" single playable at 45 rpm in mono and stereo, respectively, with a single letter J (as J ZSP) denoting disk jockey (thus assigned for promotional copy). And here's the matrix numbers for the stock copies (as pictured in 02/12/2020):  

Styrene regular stock edition (manufactured in Pitman) 

• Side A:    ZSS158225-2A   (Blinded By The Light)
• Side B:    ZSS158226-1B   (The Angel)

Comparing the three matrix numbers for the stereo version of Blinded By The Light (underlined above), interestingly, the suffix code (-2A) of the standard disc precedes those of WLP records (-2B and -2D), which rarely occurs generally. At least with Springsteen's records, neither I know any other similar instance, nor do I know why this rare case happened, except for the debut LP. I'm also not sure whether the differences in the matrix suffixes just reflect the difference in the location of manufacturing plant (namely Pitman or Santa Maria), or indicate the differences in both the location and timing of manufacture (i.e., I guess there is the possibility that -2A might be issued earlier than -2B and -2D).

This copy with the sunburst stock labels resembles another holy grail
but is in fact a "Collectables" series reissue (Columbia 13-33323)
that was released sometime in the 1990s, coupled with Born To Run,
but not with For You. The disc shows characteristics of vinyl but not
of styrene.
 

Anyway, it is obvious that WLP copies for the debut single occur as two variants that differ in chemical precursors used for making discs. I guess this would also hold true for the second single Spirit In The Night since the circumstance around the matrix numbers and pressing plant is similar or rather more complicated. Although I don't own the regular stock pressing (= a holy grail collectable), my WLP copy is made of vinyl with the matrix number suffixes -1C/-1E (mono/stereo) and "T" hand-etchings, indicating that it was not manufactured at Pitman or Santa Maria but at the Terre Haute plant, IN. This single needs further exploration though...

— To be continued to Part 3 / back to Part 1.

Collecting log: Blinded By The Light U.S. 7" singles (Part 1 of 4) — Extremely scarce regular stock

The previous blog post (01/30/2020) reported a recent addition to my collection, which is considered one of the holy grail 7" singles of Springsteen. Since this month marks the 47th anniversary of the release of another holy grail, I found it might be a good opportunity to introduce it here.

Like most copies in circulation, the custom-picture sleeve of mine is folded and assembled by a slipshod job, with a slightly worn appearance. Underneath are the first (right) and second (left) Japanese releases for the debut album.

Blinded By The Light / The Angel (US Columbia 4-45805), his first commercial single from the debut album GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J., was released on the 23rd of February, 1973. As wide-spreadly known, this 7" disc with the stock sunburst labels is a top collectible of all time, which is easily confirmed, for instance, by a quick search for Top 10 auction results through the Popsike database (check winning bids on the table below). It is often said that less than 100 copies are known to exist simply because they didn't sell and have seldom circulated since then. Still, Blinded is more common than the regular stock

 

copies of Spirit In The Night / For You (US Columbia 4-45864), the second single off the album and yet another holy grail with even higher value. These two kinds of stock 7" copies represent a typical example of how a standard copy becomes much rarer than the white-label promo edition that is generally of more value and illustrate how a cheap, trashy, and mediocre item is suddenly transformed into an incredibly rare collectible following dramatic changes in artist's status and reputation from unknown or local cult to nationwide, and then to worldwide.

Like every copy of this in existence, it is also a top gem in my inventory. According to my purchase log, I obtained this copy from a U.S. seller in the 1990s when the internet became available as a useful tool to exploit the collector's market. Mine is a (further rarer) stock copy that was distributed for promotion, coming in the custom-picture

The 7" track is shortened to 3 min 58 sec compared to the album
version (5 min 2 sec), which is reflected in the edited lyrics printed
on the rear sleeve.

sleeve and with a small promo sticker saying "Promotional Record For Broadcast & Review NOT FOR SALE" that is glued on the B-side label. Let me remind you that the disc is not a vinyl pressing but a styrene molding (that appears translucent red when exposed to strong illumination), just as many of the 7" copies made in the U.S. by Columbia Records (for polystyrene records, see the four consecutive posts from 05/11/2016 to 05/29/2016). Although there are no pressing plant-specific inscriptions on the dead wax, I assume that this was manufactured at the Pitman factory because Springsteen was then unknown and just came out from the East Coast. The matrix numbers are machine-typed as follows:

• Side A:   ZSS 158225-2A
• Side B:   ZSS 158226-1B

The promo sticker is also found on the A-side of the second single from the breakthrough third album. Two insets show the matrix numbers for the Blinded single (left, side A; right, side B).

Just for your information, the matrix-number prefix ZSS used back then by the Columbia labels referred to 7" singles recorded in stereo and playable at 45 rpm. The suffix code of Side A matrix number is -2A  — I don't know if there are copies in circulation with the suffix -1A (because I own just one copy and couldn't find the matrix information on publicly available databases such as Discogs and 45cat). Does anyone have a copy with the dead-wax -1A/-1B suffix code?  It is unlikely, though, that such discs exist, considering the beyond-poor sales (In other words, probably, the -2A copies are the first and only edition in existence).

You may know all the above already, and what I want to talk about here mainly is not this extreme rarity but the rather common white-label promo counterpart.
— To be continued to Part 2.

Collecting log: Spirit In The Night - Growin' Up / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) early U.S. promotion-only custom 7" EP

The white-labeled, promo-only EP originally came in a generic die-cut
company sleeve. Oddly, the sole track from the then latest second
album is placed on SIDE 2 while two songs cut from the previous
debut album are featured on SIDE 1.

For many serious Springsteen fans, June 2 is remembered as the original U.S. release date of the then long-awaited 4th album DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (US Columbia JC 35318). Since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the release year (1978), such fans have already posted a celebration thread in various forums dedicated to the Man and His Music. Serious analog collectors, however, might know that on the same day 44 years ago (June 2, 1974)*, a promotion-only 3-track EP was released to U.S. radio stations, which has become among top collectibles nowadays. While better known for its catalog number prefix "AE7" (which is given to Columbia's promo-only 7" releases), to date, Spirit In The Night - Growin' Up/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (US Columbia AE7 1088) is one of the toughest early promo records to find.
*From the description in Blinded By The Light (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London).

The year 1995 is when eBay was
founded on September.

To mention but a few examples, this EP was auctioned in 1995 (23 years ago!) with a minimum bid of US $250 as part of the 6th annual summer warehouse sale on the Backstreets Records (BTW, the auction is termed "50 GREATEST HITS BACKSTREETS AUCTION: The Don Rasmussen, Phil Ceccola, and John Flynn Collections"). The same auction also offered a U.S. stock copy of Blinded By The Light/Angel  7" (US Columbia 4-45805) and its legendary picture sleeve (sleeve only, no record) at $500 and $175 minimum bids, respectively. So, you can roughly estimate the relative collecting value of this EP back then. In the 2000's, it was ranked at the 14th (valued £700 in mint condition) among the Top 40 Worldwide Springsteen Rarities, an featured article published in the number 329 issue (November 2006) of the Record Collector magazine. Finally, using the catalog number as keyword, a quick database search on popsike.com showed three results of recent eBay auctions, with the final prices of US $1,126 (September 2014), $1,000 (January 2015), and $720 (March 2016).

Probably, only another "AE7"-prefixed record to be found on Springsteen's U.S. 7" catalog is Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (live) (same track on the other side; US Columbia AE7 1332) released in 1981 for promotion of IN HARMONY 2, a charity album by various artists (US Columbia AL 37641).

The main reason why this mediocre-looking 7" disc is among the most highly sought-after 7" is straightforwardly simple: its scarcity just like the cases of regular stock single release copies for Blinded By The Light and Spirit In The Night/For You (US Columbia 4-45864). As Springsteen himself reminisces in his recent autobiography, back then, he received little support from the Columbia Records for the promotion of his second album, THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE (US Columbia KC 32432), with no single-cut releases commercially (Aside from the conflict between Springsteen camp and the company, a logical reason for this was that every song on the album is lengthy with the shortest clocking in at nearly 4.5 min, which was not suitable for radio airplay).

Machine-typed matrix numbers on Sides 1 (upper) and 2 (lower).
Columbia's prefix "ZSM" refers to 7" EP stereo 33⅓ rpm.

Such an uncooperative stance of the company towards him was also reflected in this white label 7". Although the exact pressing number is unknown, the circulating copy number seems to be quite small even as promo. It's certainly rarer than the white-label promo mono/stereo version for the aforementioned two single cuts from the debut album, or any of the three Playback 7" EP series featuring Springsteen's track (disc alone; a complete set including a custom sleeve, a relevant booklet, and a questionnaire card, all packed in an original mailing envelope, is equally hard to find, too). Moreover, the only song (i.e. Rosalita) taken from the then new album was probably not regarded as the main track of this promo release because it is not featured on the front side (Side 1) but put away onto the flip side.

Semi-translucency verifies that styrene is
the material used for making a given 7" disc,
provided that it is a U.S. Columbia release.

In addition to the scarce copy number, the unique disc format also makes it highly collectible. It is an EP that plays at 33⅓ rpm and contains more than two tracks exclusive to Springsteen's, which is rare in his 7" discography. Other similar official records I can think of are impossibly rare, two Bolivia-only releases of 4-track EPs, each consisting of BORN IN THE U.S.A. (CBS 10445) or TUNNEL OF LOVE (CBS 10522) excerpts, as well as a South African-only LIVE/1975-85 4-track EP (CBS SSC 6011). Back in early years of collecting, I was once offered a copy at a cost around $100, which I declined for the reason I don't exactly remember. Probably because it was still big bucks for a university student, and because early in my collecting career, I was far more getting into bootlegs than official records. Later, I obtained a copy at a similar expense that was a little bit worn as shown here, even though still playable with no skipping on my turntable. Finally, for your information, like most of the regular 7" discs from the U.S. Columbia labels, this EP is not a vinyl pressing but a styrene-molded disc (i.e. It is translucent red when held against strong light; Check a series of blog posts starting from here for vinyl vs. styrene topics). So, be cautious that overplayed copies must have many scratches/scuffs and sound really bad!

Collecting log: GREETINGS US test pressing LP from the Pitman factory (and its comparison with Jim Cretecos's copy)

According to the labels on the wax, this copy is pressed at the Columbia Records' pressing plant in Pitman, N.J., and includes a stapled 10-page lyric sheet (the lyrics for Blinded By The Light are printed across 2 pages and the remaining eight songs on one page each). Inset, Each song is copyrighted by Sioux City Music Ltd., the music company derived from Laurel Canyon Ltd. (both run by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos) that became the management-exclusive arm after separation of music division.
 

Original vinyl bootleg releases that feature early demo and studio
recordings as far back as the Steel Mill era. These titles were
already available by the early 1980s.

Springsteen has been a prolific music composer since his early career, as demonstrated by the existence of a number of recorded songs. Such early recordings mostly consist of solo acoustic performances recorded at home for song publishing purposes or at 914 Sound Studios in New York City for the debut and second albums, besides alternate takes or different mixes for the tracks that appear on the two albums. Small fractions of these have been released officially for the first time in TRACKS and recently in CHAPTER & VERSE. Surely way before these official releases, there were various vinyl and CD bootleg titles circulated (the most famous examples of which are a series of the PRODIGAL SON/BEFORE THE FAME CD releases).

BEFORE THE FAME was once officially released March 1998 in Japan
and several promotional items, such as the custom promo-only
CD and T-shirts, were distributed for the domestic market.

Surprisingly, a substantial number of such recordings, in the forms of reel tapes (21 items), acetates (10 items) and test pressing (1 item), are going to be sold at auction (currently previewed at the web site of Backstage Auctions, Inc.)*, together with associated paper documents such as copyright certificates for the nine songs on GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. According to the web site, these recordings and paper goods come directly from the private collection of Jim Cretecos, then junior partner of Mike Appel in Laurel Canyon Limited, also known as then co-manager of Springsteen and co-producer credited on his first two albums, who has kept these collectibles in his possession for the past 45 years (i.e. 1972 to 2017). One amazing item (#1711; starting bid is $2500.00) among others is an early acetate disc for the first album that has a radically different track configuration containing the still-unreleased Visitation at Fort Horne, the final track on the acetate which is replaced in favor of It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City on the released album.
*It seems that the auctions ended on November 12th, the next day this blog article was posted.

Due to a high starting bid set for each, obviously there is no chance for me to participate in any auctions of the listed items. There is only one collectible listed on the auction that I own: a test pressing copy for the GREETINGS ... album (item #1713 on the above-mentioned auction site). I obtained this test pressing from a U.S. seller through eBay at its very early days in the late 1990s (By the way, having searched for the user ID, I found that he's still an active Florida-based seller). As shown at the top of this page, the disc comes in a white plain sleeve and carries white Pitman test pressing labels on both sides just like those for the BORN TO RUN script cover pressing, which represents a typical figure as a US Columbia Records' test pressing issued in the 1970s.

Comparison of the matrix numbers between the two GREETINGS test pressings.
Left, from Jim Cretecos collection (smaller images);
Right, from my collection (larger images).

Acetate and test pressing discs are a major victim of counterfeit activity among highly valued music collectibles. Although I was mostly convinced of the authenticity of the copy through the communications with the seller, still I had a little uncertainty as to the suffix codes for the matrix numbers, P AL 31903-1D on Side 1 and P BL 31903-2C Side 2, which seemed not to be old enough to be a test pressing (more specifically, I was expecting the matrix number suffices like -1A/-2A for this copy although -1D/-2C might also indicate an early pressing).

The web page of Backstage Auctions displays very clear images for individual auctioned items**. So, I came up with an idea to confirm the authenticity of my copy using Cretecos's disc as a reference because it must be genuine directly taken from the collection of one of the two ex-managers/producers of the artist. I thought it would be possible to know the matrix numbers of the auctioned test pressing from its JPEG images shown on the auction site. In fact, the matrix numbers were totally invisible on the black dead wax in the downloaded pictures. By adjusting tone parameter on Photoshop, however, the machine-stamped numbers emerged successfully, which turned out to be identical to those of the disc in my possession, as shown above. This was a small but long-time potentially critical issue for me regarding the highly valuable collectible in my collection, and I am now happy to have solved it. Finally, I almost forgot to mention that my copy is accompanied by a stapled lyric sheet for all the nine songs on the album, which is apparently missing in the auctioned one. So, is my copy valued more than the minimum bit ($750.00) set for Cretecos's copy?
**Upon the end of the auctions, all item descriptions and images were once removed from the web site, but are currently shown again with the results ("Sold" or "Not For Sale"; as of Nov. 15th, AM 8:30, local time in Tokyo).