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).

BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: the short-lived, CX-encoded noise-reduction disc released in the early 1980s (Part 1 of 2)

This special vinyl edition is the one I previously mentioned as a major lack in my LP list of various U.S. BORN TON RUN releases when I replied to the comment posted by an anonymous visitor (to the blog article on 07/29/2016). It is one of about 70* new and reissue titles of various music genres from Columbia Records' unsucceeded project in the early 1980s to introduce a novel noise-reduction technology to the analog audio sound, called "Compatible eXpansion (CX)" encoding system, originally developed by CBS Laboratories in the late 1970s. 
*According to the information available on Wikipedia; however, the number differs depending on the sources.

A small CX identification sticker is not pasted on the shrink warp,
but directly glued on the lower right corner of the rear side of
the gate-fold sleeve (Columbia JC 33795).

The "CX"-encoded disc program would allow vinyl sounds better not only by reducing record surface noise but also by extending dynamic ranges. The "CX" is said so because a CX-encoded disc could even sound normal on any regular audio device (with an acceptable level of dynamic range compression), although you can benefit from the noise reduction/dynamic range expansion process if your playback system is equipped with add-on CX-decoder hardware.

Collecting log: THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE U.S. LP — Why are the first pressings with "ROSALITA" hype stickers so scarce?

Two examples of the stickered copies in my possession. Left: The album title appears cream-yellow on both front sleeves (though the purple stickers are colored differently), indicating that these copies are the second pressing (Columbia PC 32432). Right: Company logo and catalog number printed on each rear sleeve (upper) and the Side Two matrix number of the “bright purple sticker” copy (lower).

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: THE GREAT WHITE BOSS — Making a comparison of the various editions (Part 3 of 3)

Three issues of the double-disc edition differ in the record label designs (hereafter referred to as Issues 1, 2, and 3, from left to right). I guess that Issue 1 (with weird illustrations on the labels) is the original pressing, and the other two are repressing.

Compared with the triple-vinyl box sets (see 07/26/2021), the double album version of THE GREAT WHITE BOSS has been more widely circulated since the early 1980s and is even nowadays relatively easy to find at second-hand shops. This concise edition was probably released originally between late 1979 and 1980 (or 1981), as its front sleeve features a stage shot from the second night (September 22, 1979) of the Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future (NO NUKES; 04/25/2019 and 11/12/2020). A documentation log of my collection records my first copy (Issue 2: see below) purchased at an import branch of the chain-music store called Jeugia in Sanjo Street, Kyoto City, November 1981.