DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Decoding two- or three-letter matrix hand etchings on the early pressings (Part 2 of 2)

NOTE: Vinyl discs reported here with the hand-etched matrix code "PPP" was found not to be pressed at the Pitman factory. Please check the updated information in the blog entry from 8/20/2022.

One yet unelucidated DARKNESS matrix code found
in some of the early U.S. pressings.

In some fraction of the early vinyl copies of the U.S. DARKNESS album released in June 1978, you can find at least four different varieties of hand-etched matrix codes, PN, PMI, PMN and PK. Each code specifies one of the four pressing plants that had been used unusually and temporarily for making Springsteen's fourth LP, due to the transient shutdown of the Pitman plant, one of the three major Columbia plants back then. In the last post, I attempted to crack these codes and proposed that: (1) the first and shared letter P might denote the Pitman plant because it is the most probable common term; (2) a second letter, N, M or K, refers to an initial of company that owned one of these pressing plants; and (3) a third letter, I or N, specifies the State where a company locates its own facilities. According to these assumptions, I interpreted the four matrix codes as follows: PN for Pitman/North American Music Industries, Scranton, Pennsylvania; PMI for Pitman/MCA Records, Pinckneyville, Illinois; PMN for Pitman/MCA Records, Gloversville, New York; and PK for Pitman/Keel Manufacturing Corp., Hauppauge (blog posts 1 and 2), New York.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Decoding two- or three-letter matrix hand etchings on the early pressings (Part 1 of 2)

Pressing plant-specific matrix hand etchings as found on the early vinyl copies of DARKNESS released in the United States. For the details, refer to the main text.

As I first introduced here March in the last year, there is a small unusual variety of the early U.S. pressings of his fourth album, as to where they were pressed. These variants occurred because, when the LP was ready for production, the Pitman pressing plant, one of the three major plants used by Columbia Records back then, was not available for the operation due to continued labor issues that first happened on the 2nd of April 1978, according to Billboard Magazine. Thus far, I have confirmed that at least four vinyl manufacturing plants, excluding the other two major Columbia-related plants in Santa Maria and Terre Haute, made up for the shortfall in vinyl pressing at the early phase of the album release. The said four plants were owned by the following companies that had probably never been involved in Springsteen's album production before:

Steel Mill - LIVE AT THE MATRIX: A limited edition numbered CD box with a 48-page booklet, also known as the first "protection-gap" CD available exclusively as a mail order (not on vinyl topics)

Originally released in 1989 or 1990, this copy is still in pristine condition. If my memory serves me correctly, another box which is covered with reddish brown cloth was also available. Such variant was probably released earlier (and so with a lower limited number) than the grey box. The thick booklet carries many pictures of the band, posters, tickets and memorabilia, which are reproduced in color or black and white.
 

Collecting log: Spirit In The Night - Growin' Up / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) early U.S. promotion-only custom 7" EP

The white-labeled, promo-only EP originally came in a generic die-cut
company sleeve. Oddly, the sole track from the then latest second
album is placed on SIDE 2 while two songs cut from the previous
debut album are featured on SIDE 1.

For many serious Springsteen fans, June 2 is remembered as the original U.S. release date of the then long-awaited 4th album DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (US Columbia JC 35318). Since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the release year (1978), such fans have already posted a celebration thread in various forums dedicated to the Man and His Music. Serious analog collectors, however, might know that on the same day 44 years ago (June 2, 1974)*, a promotion-only 3-track EP was released to U.S. radio stations, which has become among top collectibles nowadays. While better known for its catalog number prefix "AE7" (which is given to Columbia's promo-only 7" releases), to date, Spirit In The Night - Growin' Up/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (US Columbia AE7 1088) is one of the toughest early promo records to find.
*From the description in Blinded By The Light (P. Humphries & C. Hunt, 1985, Plexus, London).

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THERE AIN'T NOBODY HERE FROM BILLBOARD TONIGHT original black vinyl pressing (Part 3 of 3)

"The demand for a live Springsteen album would continue to build as long as Springsteen resisted providing official evidence of his take on a rock & roll revivalist meeting. Lou Cohan's double-set from Springsteen's Roxy show certainly had a lot more chops to it than the relatively tame 'wall of sound' beneath which Springsteen buried Born to Run. He had also proved a point about the potential demand for bootlegs of a 'rookie' seventies rock star like Springsteen. Ken, to his credit, had his antennae on, responding with his own version of the Roxy broadcast followed by his own testament to Springsteen at-his-peak, You Can Trust Your Car."
(Cited from BOOTLEG: The Secret History Of The Other Recording Industry, Clinton Heyin, 1996, St. Martin's Griffin, NY)

My first copy is still shrink wrapped. Early pressing of SODD releases came with
World Records labels in white background (an inverted black background 
 version is also known to exist).

As described in the citation above, and as almost all of you know, the broadcast live from the October show at the Roxy in 1975 was captured in another underground release FLAT TOP AND PIN DROP (Singer's Original Double Disk, SODD 006), put out by Ken Douglas who is, needles to say, one of the most famous early bootleggers. After shutting down the legendary Trade Mark of Quality in 1973, he set up The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label, the operation of which was supplemented with several other bootleg labels he also launched around that time and thereafter. SODD is one of such multiple bootleg labels run by his hands, and as its name indicates, he usually used this label for releasing double-LP titles, including another Springsteen's classic (SODD 001: briefly mentioned here) mentioned in the above quote and Rolling Stones' NASTY MUSIC (SODD 012), one of the most widely known bootlegs in the late 1970s.