A distinction had best be made at this point between bootleg, pirate and counterfeit records. A bootleg consists of unreleased material recorded at concerts, studio outtakes, and radio or TV broadcasts. A pirate album consists of released material without attempting to make the LP look like an original. A counterfeit album is an exact copy of an officially released album.
Record industry spokespeople often include bootlegs with counterfeit and pirate recordings when making statements about the loss of revenue from record piracy. Bootlegs, with their small pressings, should not be included in this figure as the record labels do not lose revenue from a recording which is not in their catalog.
These same spokespeople completely overlook the historical significance of bootlegs as well. While this is obvious when speaking in terms of Opera, Jazz and Blues boots, Rock has not been around for the same amount of time. With Rock’s seemingly unending loss of performers due to untimely deaths, this will soon become evident. Albert Goldman, in his bestseller “Elvis”, is one of the first biographers to appreciate the historical significance bootlegs have.
“Not just the man but the performer continued to emerge after his death. Though RCA had nothing better to offer than gleanings from its soon-exhausted archives, the record bootleggers, those great friends of the fans, cut the legal knots that had long restrained the release of Elvis’s most significant live sessions. The legendary Elvis of the Louisiana Hayride, the Dorsey Brothers shows and the Hawaiian benefits appeared. All the jams from the Singer Special were offered in two beautifully-packaged albums from California that far surpassed both in interest and in appearance any legitimate offerings of RCA Victor. In yet another illicit release came at last the most sought-after tape in the history of rock ‘n’ roll: the fabled ‘Million Dollar Quartet’, an impromptu sing in the Sun Studio around Christmas 1956, by the three greatest heroes of rockabilly: Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins (minus the anticipated fourth voice, Johnny Cash). Though in this instance the reality of the recording hardly matched the glamour of its legend, the value of the disc as a document was enormous. At last you were inside the Sun Studio listening attentively as Sam Phillips’ greatest singers did what they most enjoyed doing: pickin’ and singin’ their favorite rock songs and hymns”.
Reprinted with permission of The Hot Wacks Press.
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