My First Vinyl Bootlegs

Still keeping my first purchases in 1981, although these
are not original but mediocre pirated copies

It was a summer midnight in 1981. When I was listening to my favorite AM radio program, the female DJ suddenly and briefly introduced information from an anonymous listener reporting Springsteen's bootlegs that were right in stock at a major import record shop in my habitation area. Although I never had the experience of listening to any bootleg records back then, I already knew about such famous titles as 'E' TICKET and FIRE ON THE FINGERTIPS through media articles featuring the lawsuit against the Californian bootleggers. As I owned all the official album releases (up to THE RIVER) at that point, this information was enough to stimulate my ever-growing interest in these underground releases.

So that weekend, I went to the shop and asked the shopkeeper what bootleg titles were available. While explaining to me that some box sets were already sold out, he showed me three remaining titles that came in the crudest LP sleeves I had ever seen. Nevertheless, I bought them all without hesitation because, whatever they were, I had decided to do so since I heard of these bootlegs on the radio. This was how it all started. I still keep these vinyl LPs even though I have not listened to them for decades, and I know they are worthless pirate copies.
— To be continued.

BORN IN THE U.S.A. Japanese test pressing LP w/ flyers (and advanced promo cassette tape)

Despite the fair condition, this test press sold extremely well
(from actual auction)

Auction watching continues. Regularly checking Yahoo! Japan auction for rare Springsteen collectibles, I saw another case of high competition that has ended early this week (July 13) with the incredible final bid of over $500. The auctioned item was a test pressing copy of Japanese BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP (CBS/SONY 28AP 2850) in a white plain cover with the small custom sticker. The total bid volume was 29 from six competitors (again I was just watching, not joining the auction). Interestingly, at least two bidders seem to have joined the auction of the custom promo-only THE "LIVE" cassette tape which was mentioned on the last blog (July 12).

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.