hi,

does anybody know if a bootleg of

Ralph 'Soul' Jackson - Let Your Sweet Love Surround Me / Match Box (SOUND OF BIRMINGHAM)

exists and if so, how it can be recognized as such?? what's the value for an original copy?

thanks in advance, max

I think there is a bootleg of this title. If you look at the two copies on popsike there are some subtle differences in the respective labels: the one which sold for about 400+ dollars is an original: a strong, deeper yellow colour and crisp black type. The copy which sold for 170 dollars would appear to be a counterfeit: paler yellow label, obvious photostatting of the type and a tiny bit of the plastic moulding into the label. I would imagine the marks in the deadwax would be different too. I'll get my copy out of storage and look at the marks: I suspect mine is a boot, I picked it up in a rock 'n' roll shop in Camden Town over twenty years ago for £2. I would imagine it was booted for the dutch deep soul scene in the seventies.

An original is a pretty rare record and the price should be around £200+.

Hope this helps.

I think there is a bootleg of this title. If you look at the two copies on popsike there are some subtle differences in the respective labels: the one which sold for about 400+ dollars is an original: a strong, deeper yellow colour and crisp black type. The copy which sold for 170 dollars would appear to be a counterfeit: paler yellow label, obvious photostatting of the type and a tiny bit of the plastic moulding into the label. I would imagine the marks in the deadwax would be different too. I'll get my copy out of storage and look at the marks: I suspect mine is a boot, I picked it up in a rock 'n' roll shop in Camden Town over twenty years ago for £2. I would imagine it was booted for the dutch deep soul scene in the seventies.

An original is a pretty rare record and the price should be around £200+.

Hope this helps.

and £400 too

many thanks for the quick help

Not an answer to the original question, but both sides of the 45 can be found on the recently released, highly recommended, "The Birmingham Sound Vol. 2" CD.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=7cd...p;ref=index.php

Apparently these tracks were recorded at the same session at FAME in Muscle Shoals as his Amy and Atlantic 45s (even though the SOB label says Sound Of B'ham Studio).

There is a legitamate reissue of this pressed last year. Dusty Groove in Chicago had them at $5.

Not an answer to the original question, but both sides of the 45 can be found on the recently released, highly recommended, "The Birmingham Sound Vol. 2" CD.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=7cd...p;ref=index.php

Apparently these tracks were recorded at the same session at FAME in Muscle Shoals as his Amy and Atlantic 45s (even though the SOB label says Sound Of B'ham Studio).

unfortunately out of stock. anyone no anywhere else you can get both volume 1 and 2 from?

unfortunately out of stock. anyone no anywhere else you can get both volume 1 and 2 from?

Both volumes are now back in stock at dustygroove...

Anyone have the Matrix numbers of the original or boot? I'm having a hard time telling the original from the boot (other than a slight difference in the yellow color, which could just be different photo quality).

Anyone have the Matrix numbers of the original or boot? I'm having a hard time telling the original from the boot (other than a slight difference in the yellow color, which could just be different photo quality).

I'd also like to know how to distinguish the two. My copy (depicted below) has matrix numbers PRP-3943-1 and PRP-3943-2 in the dead wax (at 8 o'clock position both sides). It was bought in The Netherlands.

min ehas same matix scrathed in as msshoals (12 o'clock on LYSL and 6 o'clock on flip) but I doubt the different positionn means anything other than label put on at a different position. It also a small scratched symbol that might be initials but it is very hard to see exactly what it is ?

this second mark is very small.

brilliant record

unfortunately out of stock. anyone no anywhere else you can get both volume 1 and 2 from?

Please don't chastise me for saying this, buy they are also available as a download

I'd also like to know how to distinguish the two. My copy (depicted below) has matrix numbers PRP-3943-1 and PRP-3943-2 in the dead wax (at 8 o'clock position both sides). It was bought in The Netherlands.

Mines the same even down to the miss printed dot end of S.O.B.

I got caught out on this a few years ago - I had no idea it had been repressed and ended up paying a tidy sum for the pressing !

We live and learn. Anyway, to help others out, please find attached a scan of firstly the PRESSING and secondly the ORIGINAL.

Best

John

Thanks for the help guys. I just got one off eBay: https://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250701113843

I think that misprinted dot that Paul mentioned may be consistent amongst the originals -- could be an easy way to tell (for any bootleg sellers evil enough to crank the saturation on an image).

Hopefully someone can help, because it's still not clear to me how to distinguish originals for this 45. I now have 2 copies of this, the first one depicted above in the thread and the second depicted here:

 

 

The labels look very similar. Both have the printing error mentioned above for the last dot in S.O.B. (in the right part of the dot some black is missing). Both also have PRP-3943-1/PRP-3943-2 in the wax. But there's a clear difference. For the first copy there's quite some space between the symbols in the wax. E.g. at both sides of the "-" in the matrix number after PRP there's enough room to fit another letter or digit. This is shown in the picture below:

 

 

For the second copy the letters/digits in the wax are much closer together:

 

 

My guess is that the first copy is a bootleg (for the Dutch deep soul scene?), as it came from The Netherlands, and the second copy (from the U.S.) is original. But it could also be the other way around of course. Or it could be that both are originals or both are bootlegs? Does anyone have any further clues?

My copy came from a kind man very close to Mr Jackson himself so I'm 100% sure it is an original.

 

And the letters/numbers in the dead wax do NOT have enough room to put another digit after PRP.

Thanks, that seems to confirm that copies with closely spaced matrix numbers in the wax are indeed originals.