Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 3 of 5)

Released nearly four decades ago, every die-hard collector must own
this box set, either as an original numbered copy, an un-numbered
repress, or both (and yes, I do have both; see 12/27/2017).

"A cover of the Ben E. King hit of the Sixties. The chance to hear a song like this in any way Springsteen concert is what makes him the Boss. In his career there have been so many songs showing up only once or twice and then disappearing: this is one of those gems. On violin you can hear Suki Lahav, who joined the E Street Band for few dates in 1974."
A live performance of Spanish Harlem with Suki Lahav playing violin, recorded on October 19, 1974, is featured as one of the 66 tracks on the legendary bootleg album ALL THOSE YEARS. The above description is found in and transcribed from the gorgeous 20-page booklet accompanied by this underground box set released in Italy around 1983.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 2 of 5)

Obviously, Springsteen's facial shot by Eric Meola is the prototype of the Texaco-serviceman-guised drawing on the bootleg cover. On the right is an actual photo image featured on the interior of the famous Script Cover gatefold sleeve that houses the advanced U.S. promotional test pressing of BORN TO RUN LP (1/25/2015). The same picture was also used, as it is, for the cover image of another bootleg, LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE 8/15/75, released late in 1975 (8/11/2016). BTW, you may notice a small JASRAC sticker (a typical one from the mid-to-late 1970s; see 5/10/2018) on the bottom left corner of the bootleg. JASRAC stands for Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, and the presence of its sticker means that the bootleg's content is officially licensed. But, then, how could this happen? Probably, JASRAC distributed the sticker to the import trader in response to the successful application for the license, who then put it on the album cover. In fact, here, we often see JASRAC-stickered copies of bootleg vinyl and CD imports.

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: Suki on double vinyls! — YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR from the mid-1970s and NEW YORK CITY SERENADE from the late-1980s (Part 1 of 5)

The first half from a dozen line up of the
Singer's Original Double Disks label releases
(SODD 000 to 012) is shown. This includes two
early Springsteen bootlegs from the mid-1970s,
of which the SODD 006 title has two typos
(Flat Tops And Pin Drops; see 5/10/2018).
Taken from the slick insert of Beatles'
SECOND TO NONE (SODD 009).

"SODD (Singer's Original Double Disks) was Ken's usual medium for double-sets (still a relative rarity in the mid seventies). Though SODD only issued a dozen titles, they produced some of the Kornyphone Family's finest artifacts. Their second release — You Can Trust Your Car to the Man With [sic] the Star — was a radio broadcast of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recorded at the Main Point, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, February 1975, capturing in FM quality the six-month period when the E Street Band had electric violinist Suki Lahav adding her delicate timbre to their sound. With prototype performances of 'Wings for Wheels' (soon to become 'Thunder Road') and 'She's the One' (incorporating parts of 'Backstreets'), and chestnuts like 'Incident on 57th Street' and Dylan's 'I Want You', it may well be Springsteen's greatest extant performance. But this broadcast had only been aired on local Philadelphia radio. It took the SODD set, one of a handful of Springsteen bootlegs at the time, to spread the word to all and sundry."
Quoted from BOOTLEG: The Secret History Of The Other Recording Industry, Clinton Heyin, 1996, St. Martin's Griffin, NY.

Collecting log: a single U.S. test pressing from LIVE/1975-85 with an unusual coupling of two sides from the five discs (Part 2 of 2)

What is curious about this particular test pressing is that, although the disc plays two sides culled from ten sides of LIVE/1975-85, its playing-side combination is unusual. Namely, one side represents SIDE 3 of DISC 2 (i.e., Backstreets, Rosalita, and Raise Your Hand from the Roxy, 1978), while the other corresponds to SIDE 5 of DISC 3 (i.e., Badlands to Racing In The Street from the 1980-81 tour) of the officially released set.

As grooves on the vinyl disc tell, the test pressing (upper row) consists of SIDES 3 and 5 of the 10-side live recordings, not coupling SIDE 3 with SIDE 4 or SIDE 5 with SIDE 6, as in the standard release (lower).

Collecting log: a single U.S. test pressing from LIVE/1975-85 with an unusual coupling of two sides from the five discs (Part 1 of 2)

Based on the sticker indication, this test pressing was created nearly
two months before the official release in the U.S. (Nov. 10, 1986).

Looking at vinyl disc's dead-wax stamps and inscriptions or simply matrix numbers, we can easily recognize a few notable differences that distinguish LIVE/1975-85 (Columbia C5X 40558) from his previous seven albums (i.e., up to BORN IN THE U.S.A.). As listed below, I compare matrix information of SIDE ONE (of Disc One, if multi-disc release) of his first eight albums, each of which is taken from an early U.S. copy in my private possession. 

The matrix numbers of LIVE are relatively long, carrying unique codes like "DMM" and "EDP," and overall faintly inscribed on the run-out vinyl area (see the dead-wax images below). Such features reflect the differences in record production processes newly introduced into this deluxe LP box.