Collecting log: The early 1980s U.K. vinyl pressings with "timtom" or "Ty" handwritten matrix inscription (Part 2 of 4)

Four U.K. 7" singles cut from THE RIVER and examined here.

Between 1980 and 1981, CBS Records U.K. released four 7-inch singles from THE RIVER, for each of which several variant issues exist. Oddly in this era, the company issued two editions for each regular single that differed in the labels on the discs (Sunburst paper or tangerine plastic), with some having a large spindle hole or cut-out center like typical U.S. 7" singles (as found in some paper label copies of Sherry Darling : CBS 9568). There was also a promotion-only disc for each with white paper labels. Moreover, two releases were withdrawn due to mis-coloured lettering on the sleeve (Hungry Heart : S CBS 9303) and mis-configuration of B-side (Sherry Darling backed with Independence Day : CBS 9568 promotion-only pressing). Finally, minor differences were observed in the label printing, such as font size, between same titles (as seen on the paper labels of The River : CBS A1179). Although this vinyl format is not my prime target of collecting, I own at least one copy each for these regular single copies.

And the question is whether or not lacquer masters for these 7" discs were cut by Tim Young, a distinguished mastering engineer in the U.K. The following list shows the dead-wax matrix information on one copy each for the four regular singles in my possession (oblique, hand-etched; straight, machine-stamped). Based on the suffix code, these copies are first pressing (Side A, A1; Side B, B1) except Sherry Darling (Side B, B2) for the reason briefly mentioned above.

Upper : Two "timtom" inscriptions found in U.K. 7"
copies for Hungry Heart (paper label) and Cadillac
Ranch. The inscription of the former is difficult to
read with an extra hand-etching (probably "cbs").
Lower : "Ty" inscribed on Side B of Hungry Heart.

Hungry Heart / Held Up Without A Gun (S CBS 9303)

• Side A:   CBS-S 9309 A1         timtom-cbs
• Side B:   CBS-S 9309 B1         Ty   
• Note: Paper label; small spindle hole; withdrawn blue-lettering sleeve.

Sherry Darling / Be True (CBS 9568)

• Side A:   CBS-S 9568∙A∙1       timtom
• Side B:   CBS S 9568 B2      CBS-S-9493 B2      Ty
• Note: Plastic label; small spindle hole; wrong catalog number on B-side scratched out; picture sleeve.

The River / Independence Day (CBS A1179)

• Side A:   CBS-S-A-1179-A1
• Side B:   CBS-S-A-1179-B1
• Note: Larger "Bruce Springsteen" printed on the paper labels; small spindle hole; picture sleeve.

Cadillac Ranch / Wreck On The Highway (CBS A1557)

• Side A:   CBS∙A∙1557 A1        timtom
• Side B:   CBS∙A∙1557∙B-1
• Note: Plastic label; small spindle hole; picture sleeve.

It must be noted that one of the two signatures, Ty (usually on backside), was so faintly hand-etched that I might miss it out on the latter two releases. Anyway, this short survey, together with the previous blog post, was enough to demonstrate Young's involvement in the cutting of recordings for THE RIVER singles. Strangely, it seems that he was nothing to do with cutting The River 7" even though he obviously did the job for its 12" counterpart. Or might he have just forgotten to make inscriptions on the master lacquer of this 7" disc?

Then I continued to examine Atlantic City (CBS A2794) and Open All Night (CBS A2969), the two single cuts in 1982 in the U.K., from the subsequent album NEBRASKA (CBS 25100). There were no dead-wax signatures of him even for the white-label promo copies in my possession which are supposed to be pressed and released in advance of, or coincidentally with, the regular releases.

This is probably the sole example of a NEBRASKA track
that is clearly indicated as "MONO" among all the vinyl
pressings of the album and singles released therefrom.

Atlantic City / Mansion On The Hill (CBS A2794)

• Side A:   CBS A 2974 A1   2794
• Side B:   CBS A 2794 B1
• Note: White paper label; promo release; wrong catalog number on A-side scratched out; black company sleeve.

Open All Night (stereo) / Open All Night (mono) (CBS A2969; promotion-only pressing)

• Stereo side:   CBS A-2969-A1
• Mono side:   CBS A-2969-A1 DJ
• Note: White paper label; promo release; double A-side; black company sleeve.

So, the matrix information of these 7" singles indicated that the Maestro's contribution to Springsteen's U.K. releases is limited to THE RIVER and that he's not involved in cutting NEBRASKA materials. Is that really so?
— To be continued.

Collecting log: The early 1980s U.K. vinyl pressings with "timtom" or "Ty" handwritten matrix inscription (Part 1 of 4)

Whoever credited (see the inset taken from the lyric sheet), the
master lacquer of this vinyl pressing is cut by someone else.
Shown is a U.S. repressed copy of THE RIVER Disc 1, where the
matrix inscription "chet" means that the master-cutting engineer
is Chet Bennett who worked for CBS Records in the 1980s.

As you see in this blog, one of my favorite activities to do when hunting a vinyl record, whether official or bootleg, is to check the dead-wax space for the matrix numbers and associated stamps or inscriptions. This can allow us to know fundamental information regarding production of a given record, such as the generation of the pressing and location of the pressing factory. The initials of a mastering engineer are also hand-etched or stamped, though not always. Of course, we can know who is responsible for mastering and cutting, from production credits that are usually printed on the inner or outer sleeve, or accompanying lyric sheet. Such credits, however, generally remain not updated when the record is repressed and someone else acts for the original engineer to cut master recordings. So, the presence of the initials for the original mastering engineer is regarded as a proof for an original pressing. Known examples of such initials on the dead-wax space of Springsteen's vinyl albums are KP for Ken Perry on THE RIVER (always coupled with the machine-typed "MASTERED BY CAPITOL"), D.K. for Dennis King on NEBRASKA (as part of the stamp "Atlantic Studios D.K."), and RL for Robert "Bob" Ludwig on BORN IN THE U.S.A. (in association with a "MASTERDISK" stamp). The above three are all U.S.-based mastering engineers. Then, is there any non-U.S. engineer who has left his/her signature on a lead-out space of vinyl records pressed and released outside the U.S.?

A Grammy-winning engineer cut several of Springsteen's U.K. releases in
the early 1980's. This U.K.-only 12" EP has two typical his signatures,
timtom on Side A (lower right) and Ty on Side B (upper right).

Tim Young is a famous British sound and mastering engineer. He's probably best known as the first to win a Grammy Award among non-U.S. mastering engineers in 2008, for his contribution to LOVE, the sound track compilation originally recorded by the Beatles. He's also well known for his reputable works of vinyl lacquer cutting at CBS studios, London, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Those vinyl records include LONDON CALLING (The Clash), METAL BOX (Public Image Limited) and PRETENDERS (The Pretenders), to mention a few. Although seldom mentioned as his representative works, if you carefully examine your U.K. copies of Springsteen's titles, you may find "timtom" or "Ty" hand-etching on certain vinyl pressings. These matrix inscriptions are two of several typical signatures used by him.

One of the earliest acquired items in my collecting career starting in the 1980s (two each of the misspelled and corrected releases). 

Perhaps it was when I started collecting official releases, in addition to bootleg records, that I first noticed these signatures on some U.K. pressings. One of such official collectibles I obtained in the mid-1980s included a 12" EP copy of The River - Born To Run / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (CBS A13-1179) with a classic misprint error "East Street" twice on the rear sleeve. Back then, however, I didn't care about these matrix things and it was much later that I became interested in what they meant by and what I could know from them. According to the Lost In The Flood website, there are three variants for this U.K.-only release, first in the misspelt picture sleeve, second in the corrected sleeve, and third in a die-cut company sleeve. I own the first two both of which are identical in all respects of their discs including the matrix codes:

     Side A:  CBS • S • A • 13 • 1179 A1       timtom
     Side B:  CBS • S • A • 13 • 1179 B1          Ty

Then I was just curious about whether these signatures were also inscribed on the other U.K. releases related to THE RIVER and his other albums and singles pressed there in the 1980s. 
— To be continued.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: FOLLOW THAT DREAM 3LP (Part 4 of 4)

Two matrix codes on
the Disc 1 deadwax.

This concludes a short series of blog posts on one of a few classic vinyl bootlegs from the 1981 European leg of THE RIVER tour. It has long been said that, like the sister release TEARDROPS ON THE CITY, the original audience recordings no longer exist that were used for making this bootleg. This makes it distinguish from almost all of the other vinyl underground releases whose source recordings have been successfully digitized and circulated. So, collectors of live recordings and bootleg maniacs still highly value the original pressing of this old vinyl stuff.

An excerpt from "Stockholm 81 - Revisited", an essay by Drutten and Gena (2002), which mentions the loss of master concert recordings (taken from the booklet accompanying the vinyl-sourced remastered CD-R release by the Piggham Records).

Unfortunately, however, this release was limited to a rather small number of pressing (as the number 2 issue of the Backstreets magazine reports 500 copies). Moreover, as far as I've seen, there was at least one fairly well-reproduced reissue floating around in 1987, which nowadays in many cases is regarded erroneously as the original (BTW, since I wrote in the last post about this rather widespread misunderstanding, I have received "disappointed" responses from a few readers of this blog who hold this reissue copy). So, in the previous three consecutive posts, I pointed out this mix-up and clarified the apparent differences between the two releases, first, as to the custom record labels, and second, as to the full-color gatefold sleeves. Then, what about the vinyl discs?  Is the reissue a repressing using the same stampers to the original's or just one of the copycat products?

Left Two: "BS - 1" stamp found on the Side One deadwax of the original (left) and 1987 reissue (right). Right Two: "SG 1" (or "SG I") hand-etching on the original press (left) that is scratched out on the repressing (right: Note that "BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN" is not printed on the label).

According to Blinded By The Light (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985; Plexus, London), the core matrix code of the original pressing is "BS" on this bootleg (obviously referring to the initials of the bootlegged artist). In fact, the six sides of the three original discs are stamped on the dead wax serially from BS -1 on Side One to BS - 6 on Side Six. In addition, SG 1 (or SG I) is hand-etched on all the six sides although it is unknown what it refers to. The reissue also has these same  "BS" stamps on Side One through Side Six. In my copy, however, the hand-etched code is scratched out on all sides except for Side One. Though, I'm not sure if this only occurs with my copy or is a general case for all the reissue copies circulating on the second-hand market. Anyway, from these observations, the reissue discs were found to be repressed vinyl records rather than pirated copies (to the original bootleg). Note that the U.S. editions from the early 1980s (easily recognized by different record labels and inner gatefold picture) bear different matrix numbers (FTD-1/2/3/4/5/6), indicating that they are pressed from different stampers and thus classified as counterfeited copies of this famous bootleg.

Inner sleeves from the original (left) and repressing (right). The
stamped number found in the TEARDROPS repressing is N 21/1/1.

Lastly, inner paper record sleeves are compared. The two releases in my possession came with different ones: high-quality white paper sleeves without corner cut for the original, and rather generic paper bags for the repressing. The latter are the same kind as those used for the repressed copies of TEARDROPS, since each paper bag is cut at upper two corners and has a stamped number (N 30/2/6 or N 30/3/6) in the same style on the bottom right corner of one side only. This indicates that the supplier of the paper bag is the same, and probably so are who repressed the two bootleg titles and the location of production (Sweden or somewhere in Europe?).

I remember that most of the original European bootlegs, especially once copied or re-bootlegged in the U.S., were hard to come by here, because it was the U.S. pressings rather than the European that constituted major vinyl imports from foreign countries to Japan. In fact, living in the Far East, I've seen the original (or exactly what I believe the original) copy of FOLLOW THAT DREAM only one time before, which was when I obtained the copy in my possession.