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.

Collecting log: Born To Run / Backstreets Japanese 7-inch single with an unusual inner company sleeve (Part 2 of 2)

Although most copies of the Japanese Born To Run single came in a generic ocean-blue company bag, some accompanied a custom-designed inner advertising sleeve for the now-defunct Pan Am Airways, encouraging Japanese nationals to fly the airline company when traveling to the United States on the occasion of the bicentennial celebration in 1976.

In the late 1960s to early 1970s, CBS/SONY (Japan) Inc. partnered with Pan American Airways (ceased operations in 1991), commonly known as Pan Am, and advertized this airfreight company and its Boeing 747 jetliner (which had just entered service at that time) on their inner sleeves for some 7-inch singles. According to the relevant page on the Discogs database, such vinyl discs were released as "Air-Play Series 45 RPM" between 1969 and 1972, at least three years before Springsteen's first single, Born To Run, coupled with Backstreets (CBS/SONY SOPB 334), was issued here in 1975. However, one of my possessions came in a Pan Am color-inner sleeve, although it differed from those shown in the Discogs.

The Twin Tower was also an iconic NYC
landmark familiar to the Japanese, partly
because a Japanese American, Minoru
Yamasaki, designed the architecture (he
was the first male Japanese American
featured on the TIME magazine cover in
1963). I occasionally visited there in 1993
while staying in the States.

Because of the time-frame mismatch, I had long thought that the copy did not originally accompany the Pan Am sleeve, which supposedly replaced the original inner due to damage on it or whatever reason during circulation in the second-hand market. However, I saw another copy of Born To Run with this unique inner bag, which was auctioned online late last year. This prompted me to examine the possibility that a small fraction of Springsteen's first singles in Japan were released with such a special inner sleeve.

Through the internet search, I did find a few other examples of CBS/SONY's 7-inch singles released in 1975, whether domestic or foreign artist releases, that came with the same Pan Am sleeve used as an inner bag. So, despite the abovementioned information on Discogs, the partnership between CBS/SONY and Pan Am must have continued beyond 1972 until 1975 or further. This "1975" Pan Am sleeve emphasized on the color picture side the United States National Bicentennial in 1976 to attract Japanese tourists, the sentences of which (written in Japanese, of course) are translated as follows:

• America is waiting (printed in larger white letters on the red background on the top of the inner sleeve).
  
• The year 1976 marks the bicentennial of the founding of the United States of America. 
• Commemorative events have already begun in cities and states across the United States. 
• Please take this opportunity to visit there using Pan Am. 
• There are three flights from Tokyo to the West Coast and one to New York. 
• The available planes are jumbo jets.

By contrast, nothing is mentioned about the 200th anniversary of the National Foundation on the "1969-to-1972" sleeves, which supports the Born To Run's inner sleeve as a later version distinct from "Air-Play Series 45 RPM." 

The said Born To Run copies with the Pan Am inner sleeve probably can't be regarded as a Springsteen collectible in a true sense because that special inner was not necessarily specific to his singles but also other concurrent releases from the record company. However, it is certainly a rare variant of one of the classic Japanese items from the mid-1970s that might interest hard collectors and 7-inch mania. On the other hand, I have thus far not seen any copy of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out / She's Th One (CBS/SONY SOPB 350) with the Pan Am inner, the second single off the third album and released early in 1976.

Finally, based on the machine-stamped stamper numbers on the trail-off space, some variations are obvious in the Japanese vinyl pressing (SIDE A, 1 A 1 to 1 A 3; SIDE B, 1 A 1 to 1 A 4). Just for your information, what I observed in my copies is summarized in the table above.

— Back to Part 1.

Collecting log: Born To Run / Backstreets Japanese 7-inch single with an unusual inner company sleeve (Part 1 of 2)

The two most unique picture inserts among the Japanese commercial 7-inch releases (CBS/SONY SOPB 334 and 07SP 511; shown are promotional issues) were reproduced for the front and rear sleeves of the extremely rare custom promotion-only 5-inch CD EP (SONY XDCS 93176) to support the sale of the GREATST HITS album in 1995 (SONY SRCS 7631).

While not a serious 7-inch collector, I've occasionally picked up domestic and imported discs, both online and on-site nearby, if I found them rare, interesting, bizarre, or cheap (such blog posts are put together here). As for such 7-inch singles, whether vinyl pressing or styrene molding (see, for example, 05/14/2016 and 02/23/2020 if interested in this topic), sleeve artwork constitutes a major part of collectors' interest. In this respect, many Japanese 7-inch are collectible, mostly because of the unique graphic treatments on picture sleeves using the Japanese writing system consisting of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

A recent cheap purchase [The River / Ramrod Dutch pressing (CBS A 1356)] featuring
a unique front picture sleeve (not shown). Whenever I get a 7-inch import, the first thing
to do is to clean the paper sleeve bag using pencil erasers (though stains and blots are
generally impossible to remove).

Japanese singles are also uncommon to the world standard in adopting a paper insert rather than a paper bag for graphical representation. Including custom promotion-only releases, most of Springsteen's singles on the CBS/SONY label were manufactured this way from the first Born To Run (SOPB 334) in 1975 to the last One Step Up (05SP 3017) in 1988, except for the following: Hungry Heart (07SP 511, reissued in the U.S.-style sleeve with an insert of Japanese lyric translation/liner note, upon the recall of the first edition), the promotion-only Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (XDSP 93026, in the custom-designed paper bag), Glory Days (07SP 896, a tri-folded insert), I'm Goin' Down (10SP 914, cardboard gatefold sleeve with five postcards), and two issues of Brilliant Disguise (07SP 1070, a double-folded insert; 04SP 1075, the one-sided single in the grocery-style paper bag).

The Japanese descriptions (rectangled in red) on the top of the sleeve mean something
like, "A paranormal phenomenon!? The album was ranked tenth in its first appearance
on the chart. A star was born who determines the fate of the future of rock music."
BORN TO RUN debuted on the Billboard album chart at the 84th position on Sept. 13,
1975, so the "tenth" must have referred to the chart ranking in Japan, such as on the
Oricon chart.

However, what I want to talk about here is not these picture inserts or sleeves. Due to the picture inserts, Japanese 7-inch discs generally came in a company sleeve. The use of such generic sleeves might have reduced the cost of manufacturing custom paper sleeves, which were specific to each single release for graphic design. Then, were there varieties in CBS/SONY company sleeves for Springsteen single releases? This question was inspired by a recent online auction here I've seen, where the auctioned Born To Run single was NOT accompanied by the standard company sleeve.

CBS/SONY's inner company sleeves in the early to mid-1970s. One of my
Born To Run copies came in an EPIC/SONY sleeve (lower left), probably
replacing its original sleeve during circulation in the second-hand market.

Japanese copies of the Born To Run single, originally pressed in 1975, have been an all-time popular 7-inch collectible worldwide, owing to the following three features: the first-ever Japanese single cut, an eye-catching vivid green Japanese writing on the picture insert, and the exclusive coupling with Backstreets on the B-side. Charles R. Cross, the founder and original editor of the Backstreets magazine, wrote in his book Backstreets — Springsteen: The Man and His Music (1989, Harmony Books, New York) that Japan was also the only country with the sense to issue "Born to Run" backed with "Backstreets," the strongest double A-sided single since "La Bamba"/"Donna."

Generally, CBS/SONY's singles released in the mid-1970s, including Born To Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (SOPB 350), came in the company sleeves with white type/logo in the ocean-blue background. Then, they were replaced by those with orange type/logo in the white background around 1977, and from Prove It All Night (06SP 232) in the case of Springsteen's 7-inch singles, which continued to be used till the end of the vinyl era in Japan in the late 1980s. Before the ocean-blue sleeves, the company had used moss-green sleeves in the early 1970s. In my collection, the white-label promotional pressing came in an ocean-blue sleeve, whereas the regular discs are housed in either ocean-blue or moss-green sleeves, with one particular exception (not the yellow EPIC/SONY sleeve shown in the image immediately above).

— Continued to Part 2.

 

On the 200th-anniversary blog post, plus Collecting log: recent miscellaneous purchases under COVID-19 (2022)

This year-end post marks the 200th entry I've written about my collection and started knowledge sharing in the last seven years plus four months. It might be crazy to think about what I've done: sticking around a single foreign artist peaking decades ago and blogging 200 times exclusively about his collector's items in a non-native language from the Far East island of Asia. Initially, the blog was a way to relax, forget work, stop worrying about things, and refresh my mind. I also intended to use the blog as a collecting log and memorandum to what I think and notice of the collectibles I obtained over the years (and that's why I call my blog "log"). However, doing blog things has become more than those. It is a pure joy to communicate with fellow collectors and fans worldwide. I'm very grateful to all of you for visiting, reading, and commenting. Fortunately, I have never received any negative or demotivating comments or feedback on what I wrote in this blog, which I really appreciate.

Should I open a used record shop?  These are all U.S.-pressed copies of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TWON LP (Columbia JC 35318) I have used to conduct a comprehensive survey to decipher unusual dead-wax matrix inscriptions, such as PK, PMI, PMN, PN, PV, and PPP (see a series of blog articles here). All are cheap-second hand, though.

Recalling back to the past posts after the previous anniversary (#100 post; 05/21/2017), the most remarkable to me is a series of efforts to decode trail-off matrix numbers of the six unusual early U.S. editions of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN LP, which are distinguished by unique dead-wax inscriptions, such as PK, PMI, PMN, PN, PV, and PPP (latest updated on 08/22/2022). This has made me re-realize how to enjoy a variety of vinyl-pressing variants of the same album (see the image above). 

According to the label and booklet printings, the two alternate takes differ in
running length (5' 43" versus 5' 35"). I have confirmed that each track plays
as indicated. Thus, the Brazilian vinyl track is longer than the Japanese CD
version (cf., The standard take clocks 5' 03"). Note that the Brazilian vinyl was
released in 1982, three years before the Japanese CD came out. It has been
pointed out that the Japanese CD runs slightly faster. Considering these, I
guess the version on the Brazilian vinyl represents the correct playing time
of this famous alternate take.

What comes up next in my mind is the unexpected finding of the Brazilian vinyl copies of NEBRASKA featuring the alternative take of My Father's House with the synthesizer coda (05/22/2019, 07/13/2019, 07/22/2019, and 03/31/2021). Commercially, the extended version of this track had long been believed to be available only on Japanese CD issues (up to the third pressing with the catalog number SRCS 7860 released in 1995). So, the Latin American LP was a total surprise to me when I played a copy of it for the first time (see the image right). Later, someone added this information to the Notes section to the relevant Discogs entry (BTW, I have received only one "I knew that" response since I posted this). I also enjoyed writing detailed reports on digging out not-commonly-known releases, such as the Compatible eXpansion (CX)-encoded, noise-reduced edition of BORN TO RUN LP (09/30/2021 and 10/08/2021; see also one of the images below).

Here are some statistics. Below are the top 10 most accessed posts for the entire period (September 8, 2014, to December 26, 2022), excluding the three index pages.

1. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: Album credit variations (#79 post: July 29, 2016)
2. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS (#14: October 24, 2014)
3. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the script cover (#26: January 25, 2015)
4. BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: Clarifying pressing plant-specific matrix number suffixes 1A, 1B, and 1C (#100: May 21, 2017)
5. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Pinckneyville pressing (Pressing Plant owned by MCA Records) (#95: March 18, 2017)
6. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Hauppauge pressing (Pressing Plant run by Keel Mfg. Corp.) (#101:  June 30, 2017)
7. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THIS GUNS FOR HIRE 5LP box (#67: April 23, 2016)
8. Collecting log: LAST AMERICAN HERO FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J., Japanese custom promotion-only compilation LP (#52: September 19, 2015)
9. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Gloversville pressing (Pressing Plant owned by MCA Records) (#105: July 29, 2017)
10. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (#11: October 12, 2014)

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #1: I was able to find another
CX-encoded LP copy (Columbia JC 33795; the second in my
possession). This special edition is rather tough to find here
because it constitutes only a small fraction of the U.S. copies
of BORN TO RUN LP (see 09/30/2021 and 10/08/2021).

The difference is obvious compared to the access ranking data at #100 post (05/21/2017). Although previously, bootleg articles occupied four positions of the top 5, the current results show only three entries, ranked 2nd, 7th, and 10th, among the top 10. Nevertheless, these three bootleg posts have kept high popularity for long among readers and visitors. The remaining seven are three posts each from the U.S.-pressed BORN TO RUN and DARKNESS variant series, plus that on the extreme promo-LP rarity from Japan. Notably, the three BORN TO RUN U.S.-pressing articles rank higher than the other four. Does this reflect that fellow collectors find these posts useful to identify a given U.S. copy of this all-time classic LP? If so, I'd gladly continue revising and updating the information.  

Focusing on the recent posts after #100, the results of the top 5 access ranking are as follows.

1. Same as the 6th ranking above (#101 post)
2. Same as the 9th ranking above (#105)
3. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: BORN TO BE THE BOSS original black vinyl pressing (Part 1 of 2) (#158: August 8, 2020)
4. Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FOLLOW THAT DREAM 3LP (Part 1 of 4) (#140: October 26, 2019)
5. Collecting log: BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP ー Matrix numbers of the earliest U.S. pressing and an error copy with off-centered labels (Part 5 of 5) (#139: September 30, 2019)

While the older posts get more access, vinyl-bootleg articles remain popular. Unpredicted was the 5th-ranked entry of the blog on the regular pressings of BORN IN THE U.S.A., one of the most mediocre collectibles among many others commercially available. Maybe some regular visitors use this page just as a bookmark to access this blog site?

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #2: Probably, the best hunting
result this year, just obtained this month. The tri-folded insert
accompanied by the latest addition (third copy in my possession),
contrary to the other two, has no handwriting of the catalog
number for the regular copy of this 3-inch CD single released
in 1992 (SONY SRDS 8226; see 05/19/2017).

Country-based statistics showed that about one-third of the total access was from the U.S. Then, Japan, the U.K., Italy, and Russia followed. The further ranking was mostly occupied by continental European countries, except for Canada, in the following order: Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands. It is of interest to me that the access numbers from Japan and Russia were unexpectedly ranked high because neither country entered the top 10 in the previous survey (05/21/2017). I even wrote in the last post (12/03/2022) that the Japanese are an apparent minority among readers/visitors of this blog (based on the ultra-scarce  number of comments and PM I received), which turned out to be untrue. So, I must revise my perception.

The 2022 miscellaneous purchase #3: A promo-only double CD set 
from Japan called CBS/SONY HOT TRACKS COLLECTION 1988: Nov.
Dec. 1988 (XDDP 93021-2). This rare 32-track compilation features
Chimes Of Freedom (live) from Stockholm (Disc 2/Track 14) and
contains two inserts in a folded full-color cardboard sleeve.

As for this year's miscellaneous purchases that might call attention from collectors, check out three collectibles (LP, CD single, and CD album) as found on this page. Two (purchases #1 and #2) of these have already been described in detail in the past blog posts (09/30/2021 and  05/19/2017). The remaining #3 purchase is yet another promotion-only CD sampler from CBS/SONY Japan containing  one track from the Boss, just like those introduced in the previous "miscellaneous" series (11/12/2020 and 10/27/2021).

Finally, as mention at the beginning, this post is the last to conclude the blog in 2022. May the new year bring you peace, joy, and happiness.

Collecting log: BORN TO RUN Japanese original LP with an oval-shaped sticker

Finally, the shrink-wrapped, stickered copy joins my collection. All the
others obtained previously are shrink-removed without the sticker.

As you can know from my blog title, I was born and raised in the Far East country of Japan, collecting vinyl and CD collectibles of my favorite artist for many years. So, you might assume that I own, if not all, nearly all of the official rare collectibles released here under his name, from major items like custom promo-only stuff from the 1970s and 1980s to minors such as cheesy CD-R samplers released in the current century (see the image below for some examples from 2007 to 2009). But, no, that is not true. My official vinyl/CD collection is rather limited in variety and far from perfection, still lacking this and that sort of major domestic rarities, whether promo or regular releases. Why? Although paradoxical, that is right because I live in Japan and have spent all of my life here (except for a one-year stay in the U.S.).

I've lost my interest in collecting CDs considerably
since CD-R became a main promotional medium.

Like many collectors, I was (and still am) attracted to overseas items that are often the mystique of something not of my homeland. In fact, in the first place, I started this practice by collecting vinyl bootleg imports from the U.S. (see 8/14/2015). On the other hand, I tended to rely on an unwarranted or unfounded assumption that I could somehow locate and get domestic collectibles at any time if I really wanted. In this way, my collection has been expanded to obtain mainly foreign official releases (and vinyl bootlegs) while I disregarded or underestimated Japanese products to a relatively large extent.

Although slightly discolored (but who cares?), the hype
sticker says that the album charted number one in the
U.S. without mentioning the source (i.e., Record World
magazine); it peaked at number three on the Billboard
200 album chart in October 1975.

Shown here is one of such Japanese collectibles I had tried to find but failed for years to add to my collection. This is the first issue of his masterpiece released here 47 years ago, widely known to collectors for its catalog number CBS/SONY SOPO-96 and the top red obi. Even in Japan, it's not easy to find pristine copies since many in circulation show ages with the white sleeve often spotted or stained here and there. Moreover, even if the sleeve is fine, the red stripes of the spine part of the obi are discolored mildly to severely, depending on storage conditions. Generally, red color is more prone to fading under sunlight or fluorescent light due to the absorption of higher-energy wavelength light such as blue, violet, and ultraviolet. You can probably find other examples of such discoloration on the spine of LP sleeves for NEBRASKA, HUMAN TOUCH, LUCKY TOWN (red lettering) and BORN IN THE U.S.A. (red stripe).

However, from my experience, the toughest one to locate and obtain is the shrink-wrapped copies with the oval-shaped hype sticker. As far as I know, the most recent case where such a copy (w/ sticker & obi) appeared here on a major domestic auction site was in late November to early December 2017 and fetched 67,691-Yen with 33 cumulative bids (see the table above; although the disc was a regular pressing, the auctioned copy contained a promo info sheet, which must have increased the final bid further). I don't know whether all or some of the initial copies were shrink-wrapped and stickered when they were first released here on October 21, 1975 (cf., the U.S. release date is August 25). Nowadays, the stickered stock copies are much rarer than the white-label promotional edition without the sticker. The white-label promo with the shrink, sticker, and info sheet is impossibly rare, although I've seen it once (see the table for the auction on December 26, 2013).

Upper left : The obi is in perfect condition, including the spine part, which generally suffers the most from discoloration.
Lower left : The label is rubber-stamped "Mi-hon-ban" in three Kanji characters referring to "Sample disc" (only on SIDE B).
Right : The regular stickered copy is much rarer than the white-labeled promotional edition without the sticker.

Last month, I searched for some information on CBS/SONY's stamper numbers on Google to write about the relationship between Asian and Japanese NEBRASKA pressings (see 4/17/2022). Then, surprisingly, I happened to come across a shrink-wrapped copy being sold at a used vinyl shop located in the northern city of Kyushu Island (the third largest of Japan's four main islands). Further to my surprise, it was not auctioned but available for a set sale priced at 2,800-Yen (circa US $22) excluding tax, one order lower than the final bid amounts of domestic auctions above. 

Not to mention, the copy is now sitting on my record shelf (and shown here). All I can say is that I was just lucky, and hunting rarities in this unexpected way is one of the best parts of collecting vinyl!

BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the short-lived, CX-encoded noise-reduction disc released in the early 1980s (Part 2 of 2)

Large round sticker glued on the
shrinkwrap on the front side of
CX-encoded LP sleeves.

When exactly was the CX version of BORN TO RUN released? According to Billboard magazine ("CBS Steps Up Push On CX LPs," Nov. 13, 1982), CBS Records had a plan to concentrate on the label's strong-selling artists and groups for CX alternates. Among those included were Meat Loaf, Claude Bolling, Boston, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, and Bruce Springsteen. Early next year, the magazine reported that a then-latest catalog listed 137 titles available ("CBS Stresses CX Commitment," Billboard, Jan. 29, 1983). Subsequently, around May 1983, the CX catalog was approaching the 200 mark, 30% of which were classical titles (although I do not know whether the listed number of CX titles was indeed manufactured or included the future releases yet not pressed). At the same time, ironically, the record company started to mull the abandonment of CX as a commercial disc configuration ("Doubt Cast On Future Of CX," Billboard, May 21, 1983) for the reasons shortly described in the last post (09/30/2021).

Compared to the gate-fold sleeve for the standard "JC"-prefixed release, my "CX" copy showed no noticeable difference except the gold promo stamp and small "CX" identification sticker on the rear face.

 

The spine also prints "JC" but not "CX." The promo stamp shows the
typical style of the U.S. Columbia Records in the era. Check similar
examples on THE RIVER (09/12/2014) and NEBRASKA (09/28/2016).

Although I have not seen any CX-related documents issued by Columbia/CBS Records that explicitly listed Springsteen titles, it is reasonable that his third album was reissued in the noise-reduction format between late 1982 and early 1983. The relevant Discogs entry concluded that it was 1982. My copy is housed in the gate-fold sleeve with the "JC"-prefixed catalog number (Columbia JC 33795), which is indistinguishable from the standard issue (classified as Release 7 in the blog post on 07/29/2016) unless you notice a small CX identification sticker on the rear. In addition, there is another large round red CX-logo sticker on the front if the sleeve remains shrink-wrapped, as shown in the recently featured Discogs entry (here; see also the top image). I do not know if the CX album originally included information sheets introducing the new technology, just like the Half-Speed Mastered (HSM) series that first attempted to improve the sound quality of this album. My used copy came with no insert sheets.

Matrix numbers printed on the
labels of the three U.S. audiophile
reissues in the early 1980s for
the mid-1970s masterpiece.

By contrast, the CX-encoded vinyl disc differs from the conventional "JC"-prefixed disc in the label descriptions and dead-wax matrix numbers. A small CX logo is found on the red labels on which a newly assigned matrix number is printed for each side (CXAL 533795 or CXBL 533795; cf. those for "JC" pressings are AL 33795 or BL 33795). The addition of "CX" in the two codes is obvious, but what does the leading digit "5" mean?  Before the CX discs, Columbia Records released the aforementioned HSM edition twice, originally in 1981 (HC 33795/HAL 33795) and then in 1982 for the reissue (HC 43795/HAL 43795). So, based on the release order, the three audiophile renditions out in the early 1980s might have been assigned the successive catalog/matrix numbers in the first digit position (i.e., 3, 4, and 5), although the HSM series are 5-digit numbers while the CX edition is a 6-digit.

A CX-encoded disc is easily recognized by the logo on the labels. In addition, the unique matrix number is printed right below the side indication on each label.

Disc's dead-wax space also carries the same matrix numbers, as found on the record labels, in machine-typed lettering. Interestingly, the first of a six-digit number ("5" of "533795") was absent originally, which was added by hand-etching on each side (see the pictures below).

• Side One:    p G o    CXAL533795-2A      COLUMBIA NY
• Side Two:    p G o    CXBL-533795-2B     COLUMBIA NY
                    (straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched) 

The "COLUMBIA NY" stamp, frequently found on the label's vinyl discs pressed in the 1980s, signifies that the disc was mastered at recording and mastering studios owned by Columbia Records in New York City. Other matrix markings include another stamp, "p," which generally indicates that a given disc was pressed at the Pitman factory, NJ. However, a "G" is inscribed after "p," which refers to Columbia Records' another pressing plant in Carrollton, GA. My simple interpretation is that one plant was responsible for cutting the master disc while the other engaged in vinyl pressing — just speculation. I do not know what a small "o" stamp means, which is already present on the run-off space of an early vinyl pressing of the first album released in 1973 (see the post on 09/26/2015).

Matrix numbers and other dead-wax markings on Sides One (top)
and Two (middle). Note the hand-etched first digit "5," which was
missing in the original five-digit code stamped on each side. The
remaining machine stamp shown on the bottom is found on
both sides and indicates where the recordings were mastered.

Alright then, is the sound quality really improved on the CX disc?  Unfortunately, I do not own the decoder hardware. So, I cannot say anything about it as I have not experienced the expanded sound yet through the decoding system.

Columbia/CBS Records predicted that their new technology would become standard on the future LP releases, which in reality did not happen. Considering the unique encoding system and short-live span, we collectors can safely say that the "CX"-encoded edition of BORN TO RUN LP is a rare item among many vinyl collectibles. However, how rare is it? 

Neither the Blinded By The Light book (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London) nor early issues of the Backstreets magazine describe anything about the CX disc, as far as I have checked. A complete lack of information makes it quite difficult to estimate the number of pressing even roughly. This case is not unlike that of the "CBS Special Products" edition of THE RIVER (Columbia PC2 36854; see 12/23/2017), although the CX-encoded album is probably much rarer.

An example of CX samplers I own (Holland CBS SAMP 35). Although
several CX compilation promo-only albums are released in the U.S.
and Europe, I have never seen any of these featuring Springsteen's
tracks. The introduction to "CX" is printed on the rear side of the
custom sleeve in English (shown right), French, and German.

In addition, there is yet another factor that renders the estimation a little bit more complex. As already told, the "CX" gatefold sleeve is not easily distinguished from the regular "JC" sleeve manufactured from the late 1970s to the demise of the vinyl era in the 1990s. It appears that's why all the CX copies were differentiated by the two stickers on the sleeve mentioned earlier (one large on the front shrinkwrap and another small glued directly on the rear). However, most of the used copies in circulation are shrinkwrap-removed, eliminating the large sticker together. Remember that the sleeve is gatefold and unless the shrink is removed, the inner side is not viewable. This led me to assume that a certain fraction of the CX copies of BORN TO RUN LP may have been and still is circulating while unnoticed by sellers, buyers, or both. If so, the actual pressing number of the CX version in circulation would be more than what we could estimate from the collector's market.

To date, no other CX alternates of Springsteen's LPs have been confirmed to exist for commercial releases in the U.S. The "demo" version of THE RIVER disc, briefly mentioned in the last post (09/30/2021), will be reported here sometime in the future. It must be noted that many CX discs were also manufactured in Europe, mostly Holland-pressed with the catalog number prefix "CBS-CX." However, I do not know whether or not Springsteen's CX discs were pressed there, and at least, I have never seen his CX copies of European origin before. If you know something about this, please pass it along.

— Back to Part 1.