Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS

“If they kept sales charts on bootlegs, FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS and E TICKET [sic] would both easily be best sellers: They are the two records almost every collector will have.” [excerpted from a short article entitled “The essential bootleg album guide,” featured in the fanzine Backstreets no.6 (May 1983)].

How many different pressings are these 8 copies grouped into?
How many are red-colored, black or heavy vinyls?

As this quote exemplifies, these two vinyl LPs are a twin peak of Springsteen's early studio bootlegs: they are housed in well-done jackets using now-classic photos of the DARKNESS era and with excellent sound quality originated from low generation tapes of studio recording and a demo acetate disc. Content-wise, I prefer FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS to “E” TICKET because the album was full of the materials that were unreleased back then, rather than consisting of mostly alternate takes of released songs. Piracy activity increases in proportion to the popularity and demand of a given title, whether it is official or bootleg, and this fantastic bootleg was no exception. Over the years, various forms of reproduction have appeared, from straightforward copies to completely different packages of the original LP.

My vinyl bootleg references in
book form (mainly used for
titles from pre-BITUSA era)

Before the internet was widely available as a common tool for information gathering, I used to refer to Blinded By The Light (by Patrick Humphries and Chris Hunt,1985) as a main reference for bootleg LPs. This book summarizes a fairly comprehensive list of almost all the vinyl Brucelegs available back then (up to 1984), and therein found on FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS (U.K. 4) is the description that “First pressing on red vinyl, later copies on black or grey vinyl.” So, I had long believed that the originals were red vinyls, which later turned out probably not to be when more information became available and was assumed to be trustworthy. For example, The Bruce Springsteen Bootleg Bible vol. 1, (by Tony Montana, 1985) classifies this bootleg into four releases as below, based on the matrix number / number of disc / country of origin / sleeve / vinyl (with my annotations in parentheses).

• Release A:  (no info or no number) / 1 LP / U.K. / Black and red cover / heavy vinyl
• Release B:  UK-4 / 1 LP / U.S. / Black and red cover / red vinyl
• Release C:  UK-4 / 1 LP / U.S. / Black and red cover / red vinyl
• Release D:  HR-1-33 (or HR133) /1 LP / (no info) / Black and red insert / various color vinyl 

Most other bootleg guides (including sort of) that have been published thereafter seem to cite the above information for describing this particular bootleg LP. To mention but an example, you can see essentially the same information in the first volume of the Wanted magazine (by Jan Rodenrijs, 1994), a now-defunct, excellent bootleg CD guide that also includes the up-to-date listing of almost all vinyl Brucelegs (note: this speculation may be wrong if the information originally came from Hot Wacks, any issues of which I have never read because I am not interested in any bootleg by other artists). Lately, more information, including several pirated copies, has become available online, the most detailed at brucespringsteen.it.

A famous 6-track acetate from
Intersong Music with hand-written
mistake THE "EAST" ST. BAND

The source of this bootleg LP is undoubtedly a famous 12" acetate (or tapes thereof) with six tracks, all of which were then-unreleased (four songs from the recording sessions of the second album THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE, and two live performances). Having cut a deal with Adrian Rudge, a British producer who ran a publishing company called Intersong Music in the U.K., Mike Appel, the former Springsteen manager, tried to get English and European performers to cover his songs back in 1974. So, it is generally believed that this LP, unlike many American bootlegs around that time, has a U.K. origin (Release A; the first non-US Bruceleg?). Soon after this release, a few independent bootleggers in the U.S. seem to have pressed their own versions as listed above (Releases B, C, and possibly D). However, the details have still remained elusive. Although I do not know about this title as much as I know about “E” TICKET, I'll post what I guess from comparing several copies of my own, as shown above.  — To be continued.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (concluded)

A fake stamped cover release
with a different text string and
inappropriate record labels

There has been another version of the stamped cover that looks like an early or advanced pressing (also check a brief note from brucespringsteen.it). From my viewpoint, this white cover LP represents a typical example of pirating a famous/popular bootleg. Apparently, the bootleggers have reproduced it without exactly knowing what the original form of LP was like, which resulted in a completely different stamp on a white cover (that reads "ADVANCE PRESSING - E TICKET - COLLECTORS ITEM") and incorrect labels on the wax  (that should have been Ruthless Rhymes rather than hörweite stereophonie for the very early pressing).

Apparently pirated (not a repress) as
compared to the genuine second copy

On the other hand, the second pressing in black & white sleeve has been copied and re-released much more frequently through the years. These pirated copies, which include poorly photocopied sleeves to picture disc editions, are generally distinguishable from the originals by matrix numbers, labels, overall printing quality, and sleeve design that often omits the spine description "Howeite / Bruce Springsteen - "E" Ticket / ESB 75-002." As mentioned in the previous post (Oct. 12) and shown here, the first copy of "E" TICKET I obtained many years ago was apparently a pirated copy of the bootleg, with a plain spine, a noticeable loss of the picture details, and different labels and matrix inscription (that is "E TICKET A/B" instead of "ESB-75-002-A/B") on the wax.

Finally, the most important question still remains to be addressed — that is, why do the stamped covers exist?  His answer was so simple that I had the wind taken out of my sails a little. Sometimes bootleggers pressed the vinyls before the labels or sleeves were completed. In such a situation, if a bootleg LP were to be released, the first pressing should not come with them. Instead, plain white covers and white or available substitutable labels (Ruthless Rhymes, in this case) were used temporarily until custom sleeves and labels were ready. According to him, this was indeed true for this legendary Bruceleg. The initial edition of "E" TICKET was manufactured simply following the traditional customary practices of making bootleg records (i.e., just stamping on a plain white cover) because the photo sleeve of that DARKNESS outtake shot and custom hörweite stereophonie labels were still under preparation when the very first vinyl pressing had become available to the bootleggers.

The first boxed edition 3LP recording of
the legendary Winterland 1978 concert

Bootleggers often swapped their "artifacts" in their community for fun and hobby, or just for making more profits by selling otherwise unavailable titles at their local markets. Supposedly, these initial copies, back then maybe available in a rather small quantity, were distributed among bootlegger's peers and their inner-circle members, including Bruce fanatics and enthusiastic Bruceleg supporters/collectors like him. The hand-written serial numbers were introduced probably to give some specialty and potential value to the otherwise dry and tasteless looking of the white cover, which was another customary practice of manufacturing bootleg. It is noteworthy to mention that a very similar practice has been observed in another landmark release, LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND, the first issue of which was the limited-box edition with a stamped four-digit number on the yellow insert; the famous deluxe fold-out sleeve version came out a little later (which has also been heavily pirated over the years).

By the way, I am looking for the transcription or scanned copy of the following article: Dadomo, Giovanni — 'Bruce in Boots', review of Fire on the Fingertips, Sounds 1979. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could kindly help me with this.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: "E" TICKET (continued)

From the front sleeves of the first
and second pressings

The first pressing of "E" TICKET, which was just stamped on a white cover with a hand-written serial number, was, of course, unheard of back then. I well remember that I could not resist the temptation of having the special edition of this famous/legendary LP in the long history of Springsteen's bootleg, not only for its scarcity but also for a possible background story behind its pressing. Currently in my possession are two copies each of the first stamped cover and second black & white picture sleeve versions.

The rear sleeves of the inky first
press (upper) and the nicely
designed second press (lower)

The cover of both two copies of the first pressing is generic white featuring just a simple hand-made stamp in black ink that reads BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 'E' TICKET (by the way, I can't help but think that the stamp could have been better made). These stamped covers were most likely stacked flat in a careless way before black ink had dried, because the stamped text is blurry on the front (see the above picture), and the rear side of the white covers is fairly inky and dirty (see the picture right). Right-hand on the stamp immediately is a blue-inked, two-digit serial number for each copy, apparently written by the same person based on the scripts on the two sleeves. I do not know how many copies were numbered, although they are estimated to be not many considering the painstaking hand-written labor of numbering.

Record labels used for the first and second pressing of "E" TICKET and the matrix numbers hand-etched
on the dead wax (upper, Ruthless Rhymes; lower, hörweite stereophonie)

Three configurations of the original pressings:
stamped cover/Ruthless Rhymes label, picture
cover/Ruthless Rhymes label, and picture
cover/hörweite stereophonie label

As far as I examined, the vinyl disc from the first release is the same as that of the well-known second pressing housed in the black & white picture sleeve. The matrix numbers that are hand-etched "ESB-75-002-A" for Side One and "ESB-75-002-B" for Side Two are identical between these pressings, and there are no other codes or inscriptions on the dead wax areas. So, these vinyls obviously originated from the same set of stampers. The first pressing record labels were Ruthless Rhymes, one of the many varieties of bootleg labels that appeared in West Coast back then, often used by several different bootleggers, including Vicky Vinyl. This label was replaced by the yellow/green-colored hörweite stereophonie label when the second pressing came out. However, the picture sleeve version with the Ruthless Rhymes labels has circulated frequently in the collector's market (see the picture left). From these observations, it is evident that the earlier was the vinyl copies with the Ruthless Rhymes label.  — To be continued.