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.

THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE Japanese promo-stamped LP with a biography

Besides the white label promotional (WLP) LP with a typographical error on the Obi, there is another collectible for the first pressing vinyl copy of the Japanese issue of THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE (SOPL-239). In Springsteen's world discography featured in Blinded By The Light (P. Humphries and C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus Publishing), if you check the Records and promotion only items of interest section of Japanese releases, you'll find the description for the second album, "Promotion copies came with a 5 page biography." I own two copies of the WLP (one with the Obi and the other missing it); however, neither of which came with the biography. So, I've been wondering if the biography was lost from these copies as they are second-handed. Or did it really come originally with the WLP copies?

THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE Japanese white label promo LP: A typo on the Obi

What's wrong with this cover?
(Japanese white label promo copy)

THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE, Springsteen's second album originally released in the US in November 1973, is his debut album in Japan that is issued in March 1974, as can be known by the catalog number (CBS/SONY SOPL-239) which precedes that assigned to the initial copies of the first album GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. pressed in Japan (CBS/SONY SOPL-248). This is a fact well known, but there is a less known fact that the album could have been released at least one month earlier (i.e., February, 1974) than the actual release date. Why?  Take a look at the album cover pictured left, which explains the reason of the delayed commercial release.

Just 30 years ago ...

Exactly 30 years ago tonight, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band played the last of 8 concerts to conclude the Japan leg of the BORN IN THE USA World Tour. If my memory is correct, the final 8th concert was not originally planned but added for the public demand. It was a weekday (Tuesday) and the curtain time was set at 6:00 PM, a few hours earlier than in the US, due to the regulation here (i.e., concerts must be finished by 10:00 PM). Back then, a poor student managed to get two tickets through mail order, escaped early from school together with his classmate, and headed for Osaka Castle Hall where he saw finally what he had eagerly been waiting for. A good memory of youth.