1975-08-15 Bottom Line (The), New York City, NY (Early)

Scheduled: 20:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

First of two separate admission shows. Show broadcast live by New York's influential WNEW-FM. "Thunder Road" is performed in the slow version with Roy on piano and Bruce on harmonica and vocals. "The E Street Shuffle" includes "Having A Party". "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a snippet of "Theme From Shaft" in the midsection.

15.08.75 New York City, NY, intro to ´The E Street Shuffle´
´´Bam !….It was about, uh….it was about three, four years ago, four years ago now, about this time of the year, it was…it was around August, it was a night like this….and uh…I was working in this bar down on the Shore, right….I worked there for about three or four months, this place called The Student Prince (someone yells) (chuckles) Where you going ?…and uh, I worked there for about, like I said three or four months, it was like, there was me and it was Steve here and me and Steve, was Garry, Garry was in the band then….Southside Johnny, this cat Southside Johnny….do you folks get down to the Shore much ? (cheers)… alright, well, you gotta go see Southside Johnny´s band, he´s, he´s got a band down, yeah, The Jukes….alright (laughs)…..and anyway, this is about three, four years ago, me and Steve and Garry , we´re working in this bar down there….and, uh….like we was feeling like, it was like, it was, we was feeling like…. real discouraged at the time because nobody would give us a gig or nothing, you know, we went into this bar, like the only way we got this job was this guy had just bought the bar and we went into this bar about, like, at midnight on a Saturday night, you know, when the joint, you know, should be, you know, should be a few folks in there, right, went into this place….the darkest, dampest, dingiest place you ever seen and there was nobody in there, right, so we figure, you know, so we walk up to the cat and we say ´ Listen, we´ll come in, man, we´ll play for the door, we´ll play for, you know, we´ll charge a dollar at the door and we´ll play for that´….so we had a seven-piece band at the time, we had a big band and we brought the band in the first week and, uh, and, uh and we played and we made about like….hell, we must´ve made. (Steve: ´13.75´) yeah, we split 13.75 between us….and, uh, a few guys quit, you know (chuckles)….the next week I was there with a six-piece band….threw some cat out, next week a five-piece band, this went on for a few weeks, right… until we got it down to, to like…. you get down to your boys when you´re starving and it was like ….it was like we was playing this joint and we was always figuring, like, these people was always trying to set us up like ´Man, I got the manager from the Byrds coming down here tonight to check you guys out, right…. so like you dudes better be good, right´….so, so like we would play like, like mad dogs all night and like three in the morning we´d all be sitting at this damn little table saying ´Where is the cat ? You know ? What happened to the joker ? Where is the dude ?´ so….and Steve, Steve was like, uh…. Steve was known then, he was known, he was like, he´d practise his guitar day in day out, night and day, all the time, every time I´d see him he would practise, practise, practise, right …he always had his guitar with him everywhere he went, you know, see him on the boardwalk he´s got his guitar with him like that, you know, practise, practise, practise….so, so one night after the, after the gig, you know, after the gig, we was all feeling like down in the dumps and we was all pissed off and mad, you know, figuring ´Man, we´re better´, you know when you´re sitting there saying ´Man, we´re better than them cats and they got two records out, how come we ain´t got no record out ?´, right…..so you do all that kind of stuff, you know, so me and Steve was feeling really really drug out and we figured we were gonna go home so we figured we´d walk home down, (?) we´d walk north along the boardwalk, you know… so we got out there and it was a nasty damn night, it was raining, it was raining and, and….and the club was flooded ´cause some, like, bikers came along and ripped off the front door, right….really, they just took the sucker off, you know, brought it home or something, I don´t know what they did with it…..they ate that thing, right, so….so we was walking down the boardwalk this time of night, you know, it was late, must´ve been four in the morning…. Steve had his guitar with him….he was practising …..and we was just walking down the boardwalk figuring we wanted to get home, you know….so…. all of a sudden….way down at the other end of the boardwalk ….we see something coming, man, there´s something coming down….I said ´Steve, you see something down there, something coming ?´ (Steve : ´Uh, huh´), he says ´Yeah´…. I said ´I don´t know what that is´ but we don´t want to take no chances like, you know, we just wanted to get home, we don´t wanna fool around so….so we ducked into this doorway, you know and, and he says ´Man´, he told me to peek out and I peeked out, you know….and whatever it was, man, it was coming , it was, like, it was raining, the wind was blowing, it was in this, it was in this big mist and it was dressed all in white, with a walking stick, walking like there ain´t no rain, no wind, I said ´Steve! Are you, am I crazy or is that dude carrying a saxophone ?´ (cheers)(chuckles)….so….we figured any cat at four in the morning, dressed in white, walking like there´s no rain with a saxophone was not to be messed with ! was let to walk on by, right….so we, we huddled in the doorway and we were sort of scared, you know, like we were….we were a little scared (?) we didn´t want to get messed around or nothing, I said ´That´s all I need, come home with 3.50 and a messed-up face tonight´, so….so we heard his, we heard his his footsteps coming closer…. and they came closer and closer…..they came even a little closer than that…..ok….and, and, and we figured now, we figured this was no time to look like you´re scared, right, we figured this guy is gonna come along, we better like, you know, better act like at least like we´re bad, so here the cat´s coming and we´re starting to get ready for (?)… and, right, we´re getting ready and, and it´s like….and this cat came up and he turned and he faced off right in front of us in the doorway and we just jumped back like this…. and, and the first we did was we threw all our money down, right….threw all the damn money down, right and then, you know, like I, I didn´t know where the cat was at, he didn´t move and did nothing, right, he stood there (?) held, it was a saxophone, I took off my sneakers, I wasn´t going to take no chances, I threw that down, I figured he might want me to do that….but all he did was put out his hand….so me and Steve, man, we leaned back and ….we got…. just a little closer…. and then when we touched it was like …”

15.08.75 New York City, NY, intro to ´Kitty´s Back´
´´Funny thing happened the other day, I had a few days off, you know, and uh….before I played here, I had a couple of days off and I was staying at home, you know, like, staying down by the beach and uh….one day we figured, you know (?)…me and Steve and Clarence, we went down…we was walking down the boardwalk and uh, you know, (?) and we see this new cat, you know, a new man outside the fortuneteller joint, right, this cat´s got a turban, you know, it was a, it was green, it was like light green kind of color (?) and he had one of those red rubies, you know, red rubies in his head and like, he says ´Come on in, man´, you know, ´you wanna find out what´s happening tomorrow, today´ so….we figured we´d, you know, I don´t usually go into them joints, I don´t like them joints too much, they scare me, right…Clarence, for some reason, Clarence was into finding out what was happening tomorrow….today, right, so we figured 50 cents, we´d go in and catch 50 cents´ worth of tomorrow so….we go in and we´re sitting there, we´re sitting there, we´re sitting there for like and watching the clock and 45 minutes go by, right, and we were wondering what´s with the gypsy, man, you know, (?) somebody in there´s got a whole lot of tomorrow (chuckles), anyway, the curtains finally part, out comes this skinny girl, right….her dress all twisted and she had, her knees are shaking and she looks like, and she drops and falls right in front of us and she passes out….so like …. we figured….too much tomorrow, right….not enough, not enough today (chuckles) …. so ….so the cat with the turban drug her out, outside, drug her out onto the boardwalk and they´re, you know, they´re waking her, you know, she ran off screaming down towards (?)….but anyway, so finally we go in, you know, we go in there and we´re sitting there and she says ´Ok´, you know, she´s rubbing her hands, she´s looking at us, she´s like, she says ´Ok, uh, which one of you guys wants to find out what´s gonna happen first ?´, you know….so like….so we flipped a coin, you know, and Stevie said he didn´t wanna and all of a sudden Clarence didn´t wanna either….so they put it on the Boss, right…. being the Boss, you see, being the Boss, you got to like, you got to have this leadership, you know, you got to, you can´t let it show that you´re scared and nervous, you know, like (?)…. so I figured ´Ok, you know, I´ll find out´ so I gave her my 50 cents, right, she looked at me a few times and (?) on the table she had this crystal ball, you know, and (?) the ball, says ´Ok, son, I´m gonna look into that crystal ball, I´m going to know what´s happening´, so I said ´Alright´ and she starts checking the thing out and, and….the thing starts smoking up ….you know how they do that, it´s smoking up, it was getting all smoky and stuff and she was checking it closer and closer and she just looked in so close she had her face right up on that thing, you know….and then all of a sudden she started shrieking and screaming and yelling and doing all things, she slipped off chair, she fell down on the floor and became unconscious in front of us….so we said ´Gypsy lady !´, you know, ´Gypsy lady, what´s, what´s happening ?´ (chuckles)…´What´d you see in there ?´ - nothing, nothing, she was comped out (?), so we figured we was gonna be in some trouble, we were gonna beat it out of the joint, for like mugging the gypsy lady or something….and like I don´t know what for but for something so, so anyway I said ´Wait a minute´, these guys are pulling me out now, they´re pulling me to run out, I´m going ´Wait a minute, wait,I paid my 50 cents, I wanna see what´s happening tomorrow´, right, so (?)…and I looked in to see what upset her so much, you know, I figured am I gonna die, am I gonna, you know, be hit by a train or what´s gonna happen, I don´t know, so I looked in…(somebody: ´What you see ?´) what did I see ? (?) I seen (?) I seen this nasty weather (?) this rainy (?) and down in the end of the alley, I seen something coming and it didn´t have no sax on so I knew it wasn´t you….she got so upset because….Kitty´s back !…..”

15.08.75 New York City, NY, (late show), middle of ´Twist and Shout´
´´I don´t think I can go on, Clarence. It´s the cholesterol on my heart. My doctor told me if I sang this song once more, he wouldn´t be responsible. But I gotta do it, Clarence, I gotta.´´
[Taken from Bruce Springsteen - The Rolling Stone Files]

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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