THE "LIVE": The Legend Comes Alive Japanese promo-only cassette tape

Certainly rare but over-valued?

The blog article this time, unlike regular ones, is not on vinyl but about cassette collectible. I had been watching with a great interest a Yahoo! auction in Japan since last week because of highly competitive bidding. The auctioned item was the above-mentioned custom promotional-only cassette tape (CBS/SONY XDKP 93022), which ended up a few days ago (July 9) with the final bid close to $300! I guessed the final bid amount would be around one-third of the actual one, though. As you can see, this particular auction resulted in total cumulative bids of over 20 that were actually placed by three presumably hard core collectors (I did not join the auction, just following).

BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: a major production error

A short note that follows the series of BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants. This regular copy is actually not a variant but an erroneous product with the gate-fold interior sleeve being upside down. The catalog number PC 33795 suggests that this one is an early copy but found out to be rather one of the later pressings, as the outer rear sleeve prints the producer name correctly in a single line. The hand-etched matrix codes are AL-33795-1G on Side A and P BL-33795-1A MCR on Side B. I obtained this a couple of years ago on eBay where the US seller did not stress this spectacular error on the item description, so the auction ended with no competitors and cost me only the starting bid of $1.99. As always annoying, however, the international shipping took much more money ($22.74).

Collecting log: A seldom seen NEBRASKA white label promo LP (from Spain)

My first BORN IN THE USA tour boot, obtained
Dec. of 1984 (image taken from Popsike)

In the latest archive release (i.e., August 5th, 1984, East Rutherford, NJ) from Springsteen’s official live download site, what I consider the best thing is to be able to hear two NEBRASKA tunes, Atlantic City and Highway Patrolman, in awesome sound quality. Especially, an early, fresh performance of the former is a highlight of the show to me (as for the previously available full-band arrangements, I prefer the MTV PLUGGED version to the one on LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY which I never like). It is possible that this live version is the one that was seriously considered for inclusion on LIVE 1975/85, but was left off. I well remember, despite the terrible sound quality, when for the first time I listened to the full-band live take through the magic of bootlegging (specifically, BORN IN CINCINNATI, one of the earliest and crummiest bootlegs from the 1984 tour, capturing the July 6th concert). This really is an exciting and thrilling part of listening to his live performance.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL 3LP box (concluded)

Slick cover inserts from unnumbered (left) and numbered (right) editions

For old vinyl bootleg collectors, the DARKNESS tour live LPs were (and still are, to any like me) something special; they captured generally great performances, sounded excellent (as a bootleg) mostly sourced from FM broadcasts, and often came as a large volume (i.e., a 3-LP format to comprise a concert consisting of two sets plus encores). Although not necessarily fulfilling the above criteria (especially, its sound quality), PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL was an interesting release to search for; it was probably the only known vinyl bootleg of a complete concert from 1978 which was sourced from the audience recording. A triple record in colored vinyl was also rare in the late 1970s. These make this box set unique when compared to the other triple vinyl bootlegs from the 1978 tour.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL 3LP box

Probably, the only 1978 full-concert live vinyl bootleg made from
an audience recording. This copy is numbered 075 of 1000.

PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL (Phantom Productions LTD 001) is a triple-LP bootleg that captures the first of the two shows performed in Philly, August 18th and 19th, 1978, during the DARKNESS tour. Unlike the landmark releases from this tour such as PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE and LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND, the vinyl records never sound great because the concert was not broadcasted through radios and because the master tapes used for the pressing were sourced from average audience recordings (no soundboard recording is circulating for this show in contrast to the next night which has been bootlegged on CD). Actually, the Blinded By The Light book (Humphries & Hunt 1985) rates the sound quality "poor". In my opinion, however, this box set represents a typical example of an old U.S. vinyl bootleg worthy collecting.