Collecting log: BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP ー Bob Ludwig has recut the master lacquer for SIDE ONE

Selling 15,000,000 copies in the United States only, the U.S. pressing of BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP (Columbia QC 38653) is quite cheap and widely available, making it the most mediocre or insignificant vinyl collectible among his entire back catalog. However, there are many variations in the dead-wax matrix numbers simply because of the huge copy number, hence numerous different pressings. This has prompted me to seek out the matrix numbers for the earliest U.S. edition of the best-seller album, which has been reported in a five-consecutive blog last year (08/14/2019 to 09/30/2019). 

The latest purchases of the three U.S. copies with a mastering maestro's "RL" dead-wax marking cost less than one coin (= 500 Yen) for each: one shrink-wrapped with an original blue/white sticker while the other two without shrinks. These discs are not VERY early pressings as evidenced by the matrix numbers (whose suffix codes are labeled in green on each copy), but collector-wise, I found some interesting facts on the dead-wax portion of these discs.

For most of Springsteen's vinyl albums from the 1970s to 1980s released in the U.S. from Columbia Records, early pressings are knowable by matrix number suffixes that encode a given disc's pressing history. They are usually a combination of a single number (referring to the version of master tape used) and alphabetical letter(s) (reflecting the lacquer-cutting number from a given master tape; one-letter codes denote earlier cuttings than two-letter codes). From what I've observed, the suffix codes for this album are roughly grouped into two types: those for the relatively early pressings typically start with "3" and "2" on Sides One and Two, respectively, followed by one or two letters (like 3B or 2AC), whereas the late pressings further add a "G" at the beginning of codes (like G3V or G2AD)*. As I previously posted (08/14/2019), the earliest example of Side One/Two combinations found in my collection is 3A/2A (the full matrix numbers are shown below).

     Side One:  G1   PAL-38653-3A    MASTERDISK  RL     
     Side Two:  G2   PBL-38653-2A    MASTERDISK  RL
              (hand-etched, oblique; stamped, straight)

The suffix codes are interpreted to mean that Side One was pressed by a stamper derived from the first lacquer cut from the third master tape, while the first lacquer plate from the second master was used for pressing Side Two. "G1" and "G2" at the beginning of the matrix codes indicate the disc's origin at the then-latest Columbia's pressing plant in Carrollton, Georgia.
*An exception of the late pressing in my collection has "G1A" on Side One. 

Another measure that distinguishes the early pressings from the late copies is, as I reported before (09/11/2019), the width of the trail-off groove area, or dead-wax space on Side One, which is noticeably wider on the former (about 20 mm) than the latter (ca. 15 mm). Checking out my collection, I also noticed that an "RL," the initials inscribed by Master/Cutting Engineer Robert C. (Bob) Ludwig, was exclusively found among many (though not necessarily all) of the wide dead-wax pressings, but none from the narrow ones. So, I presumed that the coupling of Ludwig's signature with the wide dead-wax constituted yet another hallmark for the early pressings. At least with this album, he always inscribes his initials on the right of a MASTERDISK machine stamp.

Bob Ludwig has cut Side One of BON IN THE U.S.A. differently, as indicated by the difference in the dead-wax width of two pressings. The upper images show the narrow dead-wax pressing that is a relatively late (newer) copy with the matrix number suffix "3BB." The lower images show an example of the wide dead-wax copy with the suffix "3A," which is by far the earliest known code for Side One of the U.S. pressings (see also 08/14/2019).

However, the recent purchase of the three used copies (shown on top of this page) obliged me to reconsider this presumption. When I checked the matrix numbers, the three pressings showed a combination of one number and two letters for the suffix codes, 3AA, 3BB, and 3BC, on Side One. According to Columbia Records' rule, these suffix codes specify 12th, 24th, and 25th lacquer cuttings, respectively, using the third master mix. So, they are not very early pressings, although the dead-wax "MASTERDISK RL" marking was clearly visible on the individual discs. What made me surprised a little was that, concerning Side One, the dead-wax width was not wide but narrow on the following two discs! (the remaining pressing had the wide dead-wax, as shown in the image below) 

     Side One:    P    o    PAL · 38653-3BB    MASTERDISK RL
     Side Two:    P   (T-D) PBL-38653 G2S

     Side One:    P      PAL · 38653-3BC       MASTERDISK RL
     Side Two:    P      PBL-38653-2BD         MASTERDISK RL
              (hand-etched, oblique; stamped, straight) 

This means that the maestro engineer recut the master lacquer for this side. You may ask me which sounds better, the original wide or redone narrow dead-wax disc?  Unfortunately, I'm just a collector, but not an audiophile and don't own Hi-Fi stereo setups. So, I'll leave the answer to someone who is interested in this small finding because these used copies have been available cheap. Just for your information, these discs are New Jersey's Pitman pressings, as indicated by the leading single letter "P" (however, "P" of "PAL" or "PBL" has nothing to do with Pitman).

The identical matrix information (P AL-38653-3AA  MASTERDISK RL) was shared on Side One by the U.S. (left) and Filipino (right) pressings. The inset on the upper right corner shows additional matrix inscriptions (QCL-22110-A) found on the Filipino disc on Maestro's initials' right. On the other hand, the U.S. pressing has extra codes P <JM-P> that precede the matrix number (not shown in image).

Finally, what is interesting to me with the remaining pressing with the suffix codes 3AA/2AM ?  I previously showed a Made-In-Philippines copy with the U.S.-specific matrix numbers (09/29/2019), indicating that at least part of the Southeast Asian pressings employed the lacquer master(s) imported from the U.S. Now, this idea is supported by one of the recently obtained U.S. copies that had exactly the same matrix numbers with those of the Filipino disc, including Ludwig's signature, as shown in the above images. A trivial, but interesting aspect of collecting vinyl records.

P.S. Finishing up the blog post last night, and early in the morning, I found that the Atlanta '78 performance is finally available as part of the official live archive series. Just great.

Collecting log: an ABBA's LP error pressing with BORN TO RUN tracks on one side

I remember ABBA was already a big star when I was a junior high
school student, just beginning to listen to popular Western music,
mainly on the radio.

Shown left is unusual or uncommon to this blog, which is totally unrelated to Springsteen's music or recording products. It's an ABBA's album from the mid-1970s called WATERLOO (Epic U.K. pressing, EPC 80179). Needless to say, ABBA is a pop supergroup from Sweden, known for several worldwide hits like Dancing Queen as a notable example. WATERLOO is their second album, originally released in 1974 that brought about their breakthrough in the U.K. and the U.S. So, why is it mentioned here? Well, it's time to confess something. I'm a secret admirer of ABBA, accumulating a huge collection of this popular band that far surpasses my entire Springsteen collection...

Although ABBA's WATERLOO LP (upper) from the U.K.
contains six songs on Side 1 as printed on the record
label, only four tracks are recognized on the vinyl
pressing that looks exactly the same as Side 1 of
a U.K. copy of BORN TO RUN LP (lower).

Nope, not really. This vinyl album is my first and only purchase of their records. In fact, I had never expected to do so until I knew that this particular copy of the generally cheap-priced album turned out to be a one-of-a-kind to Springsteen collectors. As far as I examined, the LP sleeve is normal with no apparent errors or defects, and the vinyl disc carries proper Epic Records labels on both sides. However, when played on a turntable, Side One starts off with Thunder Road and finishes with Backstreets. So, this side contains all the four tracks from the first side of BORN TO RUN LP, instead of ABBA's six tracks that include the title tune (a U.S. Top10 Hit). Side Two normally plays their pop songs.

Then, I was curious about how this handling mistake happened for two vinyl releases from different record labels during the manufacturing process. So, as usual, I digged into the matrix numbers of the error pressing (oblique, hand-etched; straight, machine-stamped):

• Side 1:    B          CBS-S-69170-A4         ? *
• Side 2:    A          EPC.S.80179.B4

Absolutely no differences in the Side One matrix numbers between ABBA's
mispressing (left) and a U.K. repressing of Springsteen's third album (right).
Note that two stamper rings are pressed in the same way between the two.

This copy of WATERLOO is apparently not an original U.K. pressing. According to the Discogs database, the original (with the matrix numbers EPC-S-80179-A1/B1) was issued with yellow labels, but not orange shown here, which was used between 1976 and 1979. I figured that this vinyl pressing corresponds to a late-1970s reissue, as the Side One matrix numbers match completely with those of BORN TO RUN LP (CBS 69170) from a self-titled U.K. box set of his first three albums (CBS 66353), which was released November 1979. I own three copies of the box set where all individual copies of the repressed BORN TO RUN album share the identical matrix numbers on both sides, as follows:

• Side 1:    B         CBS-S-69170-A4         Ty**
• Side 2:    D         CBS-S-69170-B2         timtom**

* ? remains to be deciphered (as I was not able to figure it out). 
**For "Ty" and "timtom" hand-etchings, refer to four consecutive blog posts from 12/22/2019 to 01/05/2020. "Ty" is quite difficult to read on this disc, so that it might be different letters.

Single-letter stamps on the dead-wax of U.K. CBS pressings.

Side Two matrix number suffix (B4)
and orange Epic labels indicate that
this ABBA's LP is a repressed copy.

The machine-stamped single letters such as A, B and D***, as found at the 9 o'clock position to the matrix numbers (at 12 o'clock) on these vinyl discs, are stamper indicators used at CBS Pressing Plant of Aston Clinton, located in the Buckinghamshire county of England. Back then, Epic recordings were issued and distributed by CBS in the U.K., as printed on the center bottom of WATERLOO's back cover ("Epic is a product of CBS Records"). Therefore, most probably, these two contrastingly sounding, best-seller albums were simultaneously repressed by CBS at their Aston Clinton plant in the late 1970s, which somehow resulted in this incredible pressing error of hybrid combination between sugar pop and classic rock.
***The letter "A" is often faintly stamped, so it also looks like a three-dotted triangle or a capital Greek Lambda (∧). Likewise, "B" seems to be read as "D" in some cases, and vice versa.

By the way, I have never seen the U.K. edition that corrects the "JOHN"
misspelling on the rear sleeve. Shown is a reissue from the 1979 box set.

Certainly a one-of-a-kind pickup, but not necessarily for everyone who is interested in vinyl record collectibles of Springsteen. I have no idea as to whether this mispressing would appeal to ABBA collectors. Probably not. What's your guess?

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: trivial thoughts on the hype stickers (Part 2 of 2)

Two DARKNESS sticker variations with the U.S. release.
The purple version is rarer than the red one.

As one of the six focused series ("DARKNESS US pressing LP variations"), I've been blogging on collecting the U.S. pressings of DARKNESS LP (Columbia JC 35318), particularly focusing on the early vinyl copies*. When this album was pressed in Spring 1978, unusual pressing plants of non-Columbia Records participated in the manufacturing process due to the temporary shutdown of one of the three Columbia's plants (i.e., its Pitman, New Jersey plant; see 03/18/2017). So, my motivation for the collecting effort has been to get in-depth knowledge on how many variations exist for the early release concerning vinyl-pressing plants. As already explained in detail in the past blog posts on this series, such variations can be distinguished by examining dead-wax matrix numbers and other markings, stamper ring, and label design, including typesetting, of a given vinyl disc, which often exhibits pressing plant-specific signatures.
*One of the essential features of the early copies is to have either TML-M or TML-S stamped on each side's trail-off dead wax.

Shown above are promotional copies of the U.S. DARKNESS LP from my collection, all of which came in the "large tracklist" sleeve. On the other hand, I have never seen a promo version of the "small tracklist" sleeve release (Has anyone got it?). From this fact and observation, I came to the idea that the former sleeve variant preceded the latter early in the album release in 1978.

Generally, uniquely designed hype stickers on shrink wrap are also associated with early or original pressings (although such labels usually have no specific relationship to particular pressing plants). As I wrote in the last post (08/24/2020), however, the U.S. DARKNESS LP seems to be unusual in this respect. My points are summarized as follows:

• The DARKNESS sticker is almost exclusively available on one variant of the album sleeve with the "small tracklist" on the rear side (either with or without barcodes). However, as far as I've seen, this variant was NOT used for the very first pressing of the album release and delayed slightly than another sleeve variant featuring the "large tracklist" (w/o barcodes). In contrast, the "large tracklist" sleeve is much more common to the white-label promo release as well as early copies pressed at several pressing plants owned by other than Columbia Records, such as MCA, NAMI, and Keel (11/19/2018).
• The sticker only mentions Badlands, the second single, among the featured 10-album tracks, and disregards the first single Prove It All Night.

From the above points, I had long thought that the early copies from the album mostly had not been stickered, I guess, possibly because Springsteen didn't want to do so (due to enough hype surrounding BORN TO RUN). However, my long assumption was backward when I obtained the 8th copy with the red sticker. 

Until I obtained this copy (8th with the sticker in my possession), I had never seen, known, or heard of either a "large tracklist" sleeve or a white-label promotional edition labeled with the hype sticker. This one is a Terre Haute pressing with the matrix number suffixes -1D/-2E.

To my surprise, the 8th stickered copy was a white-label promotional release with a typical Columbia's time strip that is glued on the front side of the "large tracklist" sleeve. Although this copy is the only example I've ever seen, the presence itself instantly denies my thoughts on the sticker, provided that it is really one of the advanced circulation copy. That being said, I think there still is the possibility that this particular one was manufactured as a usual promo but once stocked, and later distributed after labeled with the sticker when it became available.

Though much less known, the purple-colored hype sticker version had also been released. As expected, my copy is housed in the "small tracklist" sleeve. Pressed at Columbia Records' Santa Maria plant (matrix number suffixes: -1B/-2C).

Finally, although much less common, there is yet another sticker with purple letter printing. I've seen most of the sticker is printed in red and the purple version is minor in number. I don't know why the latter is rarer, but at least to my eyes, the red sticker stands out more than the purple prints. So, I just guessed the purple sticker could be a short-lived version, or result from a printing error. No evidence for either, though. The table below shows the updated list of stickered copies in my collection (Nos. 1 to 7, see 08/24/2020; Nos. 8 and 9, this post).

— Back to Part1.