I.M.P. 1105: Bruce Springsteen ‘THE ROXY’ – actually “There ain’t nobody here from Billboard tonight” :Hoffman Avenue Records 160
‘Bootlegland’ must have been a magical place in the 70s where wishes really did come true (strictly bootleg related wishes only, though). William Stout standing in the middle of a record store moaning about the crap quality of bootleg covers and next thing you know, he’s designing bootleg cover inserts. Or early Springsteen fan Lou Cohen pestering bootleg dealers about non-existing Springsteen titles in ’75 and – wouldn’t you know it – Vicky Vinyl appears, teaching him how to become a bootlegger himself and put out the titles he’s been longing for!
This title is listed in Hot Wacks as an Idle Mind release named The Roxy and a few copies obviously exist with an IMP # on the fold over slip sheet and with Idle Mind logo labels (below the dangling sneakers, see detail above), however, almost all found copies these days are clearly a Hoffman Avenue Records branded release. In his famous letter to Hot Wacks, Lou Cohen berates Kurt Glemser for several transgressions against his label – such as shortening the name to “HAR” – and listing this LP as an Idle Mind release when Vicky Vinyl’s involvement was limited to putting up 1/4 of the money to produce this title and he did everything else, including destroying a poster now worth almost $500^ to create the artwork. ^this was written in the 90’s
[I think Kurt was not to blame and just collected his books from the catalogs that bootleggers sent him and as we have seen, Vicky Vinyl did create the impression in one of her early listings that this was one of her releases.]
Hoffman Avenue is a street in Trenton, New Jersey and Lou states he grew up in number 160 and that is how this “Bruceleg” received its record label name and number.
Supposedly, this is only the third Springsteen bootleg ever, following Lou’s first ever product The Jersey Devil and the double album Live (on Coral Records).
You can see all surviving visuals and read about these famous shows and the radio broadcast that provided the source for this release here:
http://brucebase.wikispaces.com/1975-10-17+-+THE+ROXY+THEATRE%2C+WEST+HOLLYWOOD%2C+CA
Side 1: Thunder road / 10th avenue freeze-out / Spirits in the night / Pretty Flamingo
Side 2: She’s the one / Born to run / 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) / Backstreets
Side 3: Kitty’s back / Jungleland
Side 4: Rosalita (Come out tonight) / Goin’ back / Detroit Medley
From a live broadcast on K-WEST 106 FM
This title was later included as part of the Hoffman Avenue reissue box set Box O’ Rocks
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I.M.P. 1106: Blue Oyster Cult – In Your Mouth Or On The Ground – very detailed background info can be found by clicking here.
I.M.P. 1107: Led Zeppelin – Earls Court – has been added to the ZAP listing that described this copy of a European release, found here.
THE AMAZING KORNYFONE LABEL 