Thoughts on My Father's House on NEBRASKA LP: Asian pressings and its relation to the Japanese discs (Part 1 of 2)

Asian NEBRASKA LP releases. Upper (left to right): three Japanese editions and a Taiwanese copy. Lower: Korea (left) and Hong Kong (right) pressings.

As I reported previously (see 7/13/2019), the initial vinyl pressings of NEBRASKA from several countries have an error on the side-two label, misprinting the playing time for My Father's House longer (5 min 43 sec rather than 5 min 3 sec). These examples count at least eight, including the U.S. and U.K. releases, although only the Brazil pressings truly contain the long version of the song (see 7/22/2019). The same misprint is found in two releases from Asia (i.e., South Korea and Hong Kong). I also have a Taiwanese copy that lists the track length as 5 min 5 sec. These Asian records, but Hong Kong's, are generally not my collecting targets because of the uncertainty of authenticity. However, this album is the only exception for me to collect from these countries.

Thoughts on My Father's House on NEBRASKA LP: an Update to The alternate take with synth coda on regular vinyl pressing!!!

The Japanese CD editions of NEBRASKA (up to the third pressing) featuring the long version of My Father's House have been typical collector's items. Shown is a brief description from a mini-catalog of Backstreets Records issued around 1988.

We, collectors, are always interested in an alternative take or mix on a previously released track, even if the difference is subtle between the two. Among the overwhelming amount of officially released Springsteen's studio/home recordings, My Father's House with an extended coda is the first such example of a regular album track. However, neither he nor the record company intentionally released it, which, for unknown reasons, resulted from using an alternative "pseudo-stereo" album mix featuring this song as the only outstandingly different track from the standard release (see the relevant entry in BruceBase; see also 09/22/2016).

Just happy to be able to see the official release of 1979 NO NUKES footage!

My NO NUKES collectibles. Check four consecutive posts (04/25/2019 to 05/12/2019) on vinyl collectibles and another post (11/12/2020) on the laser disc. A white die-cut sleeve release on the lower row, second from the right, is a promotion-only interview disc titled MUSE VIEWS (Musicians United for Safe Energy, Inc. PROMO 12-1-79), although it does not feature Springsteen. I don't own the physical CD release of The Live Archive series from Nugs.net.

For me, 2021 had started with high anticipation for the official release of the two-night footage from the NO NUKES concerts in 1979 ever since I saw the promotional video clip for Letter To You  (see 11/12/2020). Fortunately, the year ended with what I anticipated for, although I craved the full shows rather than the excerpts from both nights. Old-timers know that before MTV's launch in the early 1980s and the success of BORN IN THE U.S.A., how scarce it was to have opportunities to watch his live performances on television that was the primary visual media, especially outside the U.S. (e.g., Even the three official tracks from the NO NUKES movie were rarely aired here).

Collecting log: recent miscellaneous purchases under COVID-19 (2021)

The small 20th-anniversary logo is printed
on the main booklet and outer slipcase for
the promo-only multi-CD set picked up here.

The controversial and tumultuous Tokyo Olympics was over, and as exactly predicted, we suffered from the fifth wave of COVID-19, the worst so far that has hit all over Japan. Although I live far from the Metropolitan area, the number of infected people was seriously significant and peaked at the highest ever in late August. As a result, the national state of emergency here was extended by the end of September, limiting my collecting activity low and hunting exclusively on the internet until recently. It was just two weeks ago that I was able to visit a "physical" record store for the first time since the post-fourth wave period in late June this year. Nevertheless, I obtained some interesting items that may be worth blogging about as miscellaneous collectibles. In this post, I show two such examples (CD and vinyl albums) released here in the 1980s from CBS/SONY Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), both of which are promotion-only compilations featuring or involving Springsteen. These were new to me and have not thus far been listed in the Discogs database and most probably in others as well.

BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the short-lived, CX-encoded noise-reduction disc released in the early 1980s (Part 2 of 2)

Large round sticker glued on the
shrinkwrap on the front side of
CX-encoded LP sleeves.

When exactly was the CX version of BORN TO RUN released? According to Billboard magazine ("CBS Steps Up Push On CX LPs," Nov. 13, 1982), CBS Records had a plan to concentrate on the label's strong-selling artists and groups for CX alternates. Among those included were Meat Loaf, Claude Bolling, Boston, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, and Bruce Springsteen. Early next year, the magazine reported that a then-latest catalog listed 137 titles available ("CBS Stresses CX Commitment," Billboard, Jan. 29, 1983). Subsequently, around May 1983, the CX catalog was approaching the 200 mark, 30% of which were classical titles (although I do not know whether the listed number of CX titles was indeed manufactured or included the future releases yet not pressed). At the same time, ironically, the record company started to mull the abandonment of CX as a commercial disc configuration ("Doubt Cast On Future Of CX," Billboard, May 21, 1983) for the reasons shortly described in the last post (09/30/2021).