DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: A revision to Decoding Two- or Three-Letter Matrix Hand Etchings on the Early Pressings — "PPP" was NOT a code for Columbia Records' Pitman but for another New Jersey pressing plant!

The oldest American company for children's
music turned out to have helped Columbia's
Pitman plant for pressing Springsteen's 4th
album (image taken from Discogs). 

Early vinyl copies of Springsteen's original albums up to THE RIVER (Columbia PC2 36854), the fifth released in October 1980, were pressed at three record-pressing plants Columbia Records owned and located in Santa Maria, CA, Terre Haute, IN, and Pitman, NJ. However, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (Columbia JC 35318), his fourth, was the exception due to the temporary suspension of production at the New Jersey factory caused by labor strikes between April 2 and May 17, 1978, when this long-awaited album was slated to be released in late May (cf., The album was slightly delayed to be released on June 2). As a result, several pressing plants of non-Columbia Records were subcontracted to the Pitman to prevent the inevitable shortage of album supply, mainly in the East Coast market.

Collecting log: BORN TO RUN Japanese original LP with an oval-shaped sticker

Finally, the shrink-wrapped, stickered copy joins my collection. All the
others obtained previously are shrink-removed without the sticker.

As you can know from my blog title, I was born and raised in the Far East country of Japan, collecting vinyl and CD collectibles of my favorite artist for many years. So, you might assume that I own, if not all, nearly all of the official rare collectibles released here under his name, from major items like custom promo-only stuff from the 1970s and 1980s to minors such as cheesy CD-R samplers released in the current century (see the image below for some examples from 2007 to 2009). But, no, that is not true. My official vinyl/CD collection is rather limited in variety and far from perfection, still lacking this and that sort of major domestic rarities, whether promo or regular releases. Why? Although paradoxical, that is right because I live in Japan and have spent all of my life here (except for a one-year stay in the U.S.).

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Notes on the late pressing labels and deadwax

Even a barcode-bearing, very late issue comes with the hype sticker
as viewed in the mirror (This one is a Pitman pressing with the matrix
numbers G2C/G1C). See my thoughts on DARKNESS stickers posted
previously (8/24/2020 and 8/29/2020).

The DARKNESS label variation continues. Here are some notes for the U.S. late pressing, although I don't own as many copies as the early pressing. With the shutdown of the pressing plants in Santa Maria, CA (1963 to 1981), and Terre Haute, IN (1953 to 1982), in the early 1980s, vinyl releases after that from Columbia Records were manufactured at the old Pitman factory, NJ (1960 to 1986), and the newly launched facility located in Carrollton, GA (1981 to 1991). As the major differences from the early releases, at first, these late issues came in the sleeve with the small tracklist/white credit on the rear side, often accompanying the barcode on the upper right corner. Second, the inner sleeve is made of thin paper with poor-quality pictures. Finally, the discs do not carry TML-M or TML-S stamps on each side of the dead-wax space.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN US LP variations: Summary of LABEL variations found in the early pressings

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN REVISED AND UPDATED.

1. As of August 21, 2022, this article was revised and updated in light of new information reported on 8/20/2022. The major change focuses on one of the two Pitman pressing variants, "Pitman pressing ー Variant Two (listed below as no. 9)," which turned out to be a product of Peter Pan Records' pressing plant in Lakewood, New Jersey. Accordingly, it was renamed "Lakewood pressing" (or could be alternatively called "Pete pressing").
   
2. As of February 23, 2023, this article was corrected in response to the comment by wbhist (see here), who provided an accurate size of the stamper ring for Lakewood/Pete pressings as well as the three Columbia pressings (i.e., Pitman, Santa Maria, and Terre Haute). Although this post originally reported that these pressings shared the same diameter size, as in the comment, I confirmed that Pete's diameter [2.75" (69.9 mm)] is slightly longer (by approximately 1 mm) than the others [2.703125" (68.7 mm)]. Moreover, the ring size of the Hauppauge/Keel and Holbrook/Goldisc pressings was also found to be a bit more than 69 mm and, thus, the same as the Lakewood pressings (2.75"). Accordingly, all the relevant information has been corrected.

Thoughts on My Father's House on NEBRASKA LP: Asian pressings and its relation to the Japanese discs (Part 2 of 2) — Notes on CBS/SONY's stamper numbers

Upper: The front sleeve of the Taiwan pressing (left) is of significantly
lower printing quality than the Japanese release (right, the obi removed).
Lower: The rear of the Taiwanese sleeve (left) is unique in featuring the
lyrics compared to the standard sleeve (right, Japanese).

In appearance, a Taiwanese copy of NEBRASKA LP in my collection is like a typical Asian pirate pressing that differs notably in several aspects from the official releases in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. First, it is licensed by an obscure company (Lee Ming Records Ltd.) with a unique catalog number (LMSP-004). Second, the front picture of the album sleeve is inferior in its printing quality (which is also true for the Korean LP), losing the details compared with the Japanese LP (CBS/SONY 25AP-2440), and strangely carries the lyrics on the back. So, the cardboard inner sleeve is not contained. Third, the record labels are amateurish in black & white with completely different looking from those of the Columbia/CBS Records, depicting what is considered a company or label logo, "Star Power." All these observations might be enough to conclude that it is a product of piracy activity.