1978-07-07 Roxy Theatre (The), West Hollywood, CA

Scheduled: 21:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Broadcast on KMET-FM radio. Remarkable setlist includes the premieres of "Point Blank", "Rave On" and "Heartbreak Hotel". Another live debut "Independence Day" is performed solo on piano for only time on the tour. "Point Blank" features different lyrics to later versions and is played slightly differently. Also includes the first known tour performances of both "Twist And Shout" and "Raise Your Hand". "Night" is dropped for the first confirmed time on the tour. This show is widely seen as one of the great Springsteen shows of all time.

This show was also one of the main source concerts for the official Live/1975-85 box set, which includes no less than eight recordings from this show - "Spirit In The Night", "Paradise By The "C"", "Adam Raised A Cain", "Growin' Up" (with a few cuts in the middle-part "lawyer" story), "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", a heavily edited "Backstreets" with the "Sad Eyes" sequence removed and part of the third verse switched with a different performance, "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and "Raise Your Hand", as well as the spoken introduction to "Fire". Another performance recorded that night, "For You", was later released as a B-side/bonus track on 7"/12" vinyl worldwide, and on CD on the Japan only Live Collection EP. In addition, a short live excerpt from this show (Bruce’s speech given after "Badlands" about a photo recently taken of him) was officially - and exclusively - released on a promotion-only 7" flexidisc issued to subscribers of Austrian pop magazine Rennbahn Express in June 1981. "Spirit In The Night" and "Backstreets" are available on the PBS Exclusive EP limitedly released in 2005.

Official concert recording available for purchase in multiple formats, including CD and high definition audio, from Springsteen's official live download site at live.brucespringsteen.net.

Running Time: 3:06:17

^{Note: Also part of the 'Darkness on The Edge Of Town Tour 1978 8-Show CD Box Set', available on February 1, 2021 via Nugs.}

Originally broadcast on KMET FM Radio.

The broadcast and some recordings of "Point Blank" and "Thunder Road" have been edited where the original broadcast suffered from interference. Prior to the release of the Official Live Download, this show only circulated as recordings from the radio broadcast unlike the other radio broadcasts from this tour for which pre-FM sources circulate. Recordings circulate on many unofficial LPs and on CDs 'Roxy Night' ^{(Crystal Cat)} and 'Hands Towards The Sky' ^(Lobster) and 'Roll Your Tapes' ^(Growin'), CDRs 'No Private Party. ^(Ev2) and most recently 'Out There In Radioland' ^(JEMS), a transfer from a first generation 7-1/2 IPS (inches per second) reel. Released to retail in the UK in February 2015 ^(RoxVox), and in May 2015 ^{(Leftfield Media)}.

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Rave On´
´´Hello…hey, gimme some lights up here….how you doing?….alright, first, I´d like to say a few things first, first I´d like to say, I want to thank youse for coming down, I´d like to thank L.A. for treating us the way they have, it´s been fantastic the last few days in town….and uh….I know there was a lot of people that waited a long time on line outside….and there was a lot of ´em that didn't get in for one reason or another and I wanna apologise to ´em and say that I´m very sorry, if I could I would've liked to invite the whole town but….so I´d just like to, the folks that didn't get in or had a hard time out on the street, I´d like to say I´m sorry, it was my fault and, uh, I wasn't trying to turn this into no private party ´cause I don´t play no parties anymore….except my own….so gimme a little slapback on this microphone, one, we´re gonna do some rock´n´roll for you….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Spirit In The Night´
"Hey! Hey! Alright…seen my picture in the papers yesterday, I was on the front page…that was a funny picture, I looked like I was catching flies, y'know…I had my mouth wide-open, like, i don't know, heyyyy, I always take those kind of shots..anyway! (drum shot, piano tinkles)…now wait a minute!..see when I do this, let me do it again…when I do that, this is what's supposed to happen…"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Darkness on the Edge of Town´
"Hey, all you guys. Sit down, you're making me nervous…find your seat or something…I'm gonna fix this…you gotta sit down because we're gonna be, we're gonna be up here so…be easier on your feet…this is a song, this is er, this is called Darkness on the Edge of Town"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Candy's Room´
(shouts from the crowd) Thanks…you guys keep asking for that…huh?..alright alright alright, we'll play that one…we haven't played this one too much, now that one we don't ever play [in response to calls for 'Kitty's Back']…alright play, er, Candy's Room, Candy's Room"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´For You´
(shouts from the crowd) "We'll get to that one (laughs), alright, ladies and gentleman, princess cards she sends me…"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Point Blank´
"This next song is a new song…no, it's newer than that…this is er, this is a song I wrote I guess it er, didn't make it, didn't make it on Darkness…I wrote it right after I finished that album…and er, this is a song about, it's called Point Blank, it's a song about being trapped, two friends of mine working two jobs a day, her husband is working two jobs a day and er, they're trying to take her house away and, it's a song about being trapped and not being able to get out…two, three…"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´The Promised Land´
"Thank you….gimme a break with that!..then get out the collection baskets (laughs)…one…I got, I got nothing coming out of this thing up here Bobby…ah one two…one two…nah need more than that…one two…that's that's getting there…alright…we drove through Utah, me and Steve and a couple of friends of ours…and er, this is a song called The Promised Land" [after the song] "take a chance".

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´This is a song….It's funny 'cause like I go out…I go out with my girlfriends,ya' know, I take 'em out in my car. And we drive around and anytime the car breaks down, they say 'Well hey, ya' know,' (chuckles)…wait I'm buzzing…they say 'You're the guy, you write the songs about the cars all the time, you fix the car!' And me like, when I go under the hood, it's like..like…Alice lost in wonderland (crowd cheers)…Hey uh, where's this go? Where's, ya' know, it's like…I don't know anything about that stuff, but I think I understand the spiritual and religious significance of the 396, so… (crowd cheers). So I write these songs, anyway and it's like, this is for everybody driving around, listening to this in their car… This is Racing In The Street…´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Thunder Road´
´´I was riding….I was riding through the Arizona desert….we, uh, we bought this 900-dollar old ´65….Galaxy and we were driving around for a few days down towards Reno and we found this one spot and this Indian, he´d, uh, he´d built a house, I guess, it´s pretty, it´s pretty, like, well-known, he built the house just from the stuff that he´d scavenged from the desert and built this big sculpture out of it, it´s by the side of the highway and, uh, we took off down this dirt road towards the house and I remember it was at….it´s right at the beginning he had this sign and it said, uh…..it said in this blood-red paint, said ´This is the land of peace, love, justice and no mercy´….and the sign said, uh, it pointed down this dirt road that said ´Thunder Road´….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, following ´Thunder Road´
Bruce: "Thank you…we're gonna, we're gonna take…we're gonna take a fifteen minute break and we'll be right back…be back in fifteen minutes.

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Paradise by the C´
"You guys got the hot seats, got the front seats now?….alright….all I wanna know is are you out there ? (cheers) all them bootleggers out there in radio-land, roll your tapes!…."

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Fire´
´´Alright, this is for all the girls here, this is called ´Fire´….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Adam Raised A Cain´
"lemme changed my guitar…alright…this is one for the boys….here's 'Adam Raised a Cain'…

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Mona - She´s the One´
´´This is for the girls too….riding home there's this place called Crematory Hill…it's supposed to be a old Indian burial ground…and at night if you drive out there past the graves, you can hear the howling (?)…Miami…I'm telling you I saw somebody walking out there the other night…and I think…I said I think…it was my baby…(sings)…last night I saw my baby walking, way down, by the old graveyard…she was walking through the mist…she's looking for a kiss…and I called out her name…I said heyyy Mona…"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Growin´ Up´
´´This is for….a fellow sent me a note backstage…..said he´s here with his son who´s six years old…..are you here anyplace?….the cat that sent the note?….is that you?….it was a fine note….and this was his son´s first rock show or something, rock concert?….I forgot his name (chuckles) it was Jason or something and, uh, this is for him and this is for everybody else that´s still growing up….there I was…..gotta get my buttons straight….there, I got it….there I was one night….just a normal guy….and then….there I was….the next night….goddamn, I was still just a normal guy (?)….
(….) I think….I ain't sure…..but I think….my mother and father and my sister, they´re here again tonight….hey, are you guys out there?….they´re over there?….for six years they've been following me around California, trying to get me to come back home….hey Ma, give it up, huh….give me a break!….they still chuckles) (someone in the crowd: ´Where are they ?´) I don´t know, they´re over there somewhere but (someone in the crowd: ´Get them to take a bow´) you know, they´re still trying to get me to go back to college….every time I come into the house, you know, ´It´s not too late, you can still go back to college´, they tell me….I say ´Alright, alright, Ma´….but it´s funny ´cause…..when I was….growing up…. there were two things that were unpopular in my house…..one was me….and the other one was my guitar (chuckles) and my father, he used to sit in the kitchen, and we had this grate, like, the heat´s supposed to come through, except it wasn´t hooked up to any, any, like, heating ducts, it was just open, straight down to the kitchen and there was a gas-stove right underneath it….and when I used to start playing, he used to turn on the gas-jets and try to smoke me out of my room…..I´d end up out on, out on the roof or something….. and he used to always refer to this guitar, you know, never ´Fender guitar´, ´Gibson guitar´, it was always the ´Goddamn guitar´….every…he stuck his head in my door, that´s all I´d hear ´Turn down that goddamn guitar´….he used to try to get me to be a lawyer and it was funny ´cause I was in a motorcycle accident when I was 17 and, like, this cat just, you know, ran head on into me and then got out and yelled at me for ruining his Cadillac ….and we had, like, a suit, a legal suit and my father took me down to this lawyer in town, his name was Billy Boyle and he later became mayor, which, and anyway, I went down there and he looked at me and he said ´Oh man, I gotta defend this?´, I looked about, just about exactly the same way I look right now and, uh (chuckles) and like I remember we were going to court, right, the day of the suit, like, I got, I´m like in a wreck, I just got hit, my leg´s messed up, and I remember my lawyer telling me ´If I was the judge, I´d find you guilty´, you know….I don´t know for what, for being, just for being there, I guess, you know (chuckles)(?) but anyway….my father´d always say ´You know, you should be a lawyer, you know, you get, get a little something for yourself´, you know, and my mother ….you know, she used to say ´No, no, no, no, he should be, he should be an author, he should write books, you know, you should, that´s a good life, you can get a little something for yourself´, but like what they didn't understand was, was that I wanted everything….(a woman yells: ´You got it´) and….so, you guys, one of you guys wanted a lawyer and the other one wanted an author, well, tonight youse are both just gonna have to settle for rock´n´roll….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´I remember you….baby, I remember you….standing on the corner….of Richmond Avenue….and I remember I´d….I remember back then I´d…..I´d drive all night….I swore I´d drive all night…..just to buy you some shoes….and to taste, and to taste your tender charms….to have you hold me in your arms….to have you hold me in your arms….and for just one look…..for just one look….from your sad eyes….you had such pretty sad eyes, you had such pretty….sad eyes…I remember they….cried all night, they cried all night, we let ´em cry till they´re all cried out, they cry all night…baby, they´d cry all night….and I held you….and only me and you knew….that, baby, only me and you knew….the way they could lie….the way they could lie….they could tell such pretty lies….they could tell such pretty lies….and now you´re back….and now you´re back…..well, little girl, I´m back too ….and I've been out and I've seen some things….yeah, I've been out, I´ve been seeing some things….I've been out and I've seen some things….and baby, I've learned a thing or two about me and you….and all I wanna know is why….all I wanna know´s why….all I wanna know´s why….why…baby, I wanna know why….baby, just….I want you….I want you….to look into my face…..just look…..into my face….just look….into my face….look into my face….look into my face….look into my face….and tell me why….I wanna know why….you lie….you lie….you lie…and we´ll go….hiding on the backstreets….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Heartbreak Hotel´
(tuning his guitar) "I can do this…I can do this, it's alright…this happens to me every once in a while…it's the pressure of performance that makes this difficult…I gotta get this baby in tune, alright…the roadies will tune my guitar, we got something for you in the meanwhile, gimme some echo, gimme some slapback on this thing…one…one…well…"

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Rosalita´
"Rosie, you gonna step outside, inside where ever you may be, Rosie, come out tonight!"
(during the song) "On the piano, Professor Roy Bittan….on the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt….on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W.Tallent….on the drums, the Mighty One, Mighty Max….on the organ, now you see him, now you don´t, Phantom Dan Federici….and last but not least…. do I have to say his name ?….do I have to speak his name ?….do I have to say his name ? ….in this corner….king of the world….master of the universe….weighing in at 260 pounds ….the Big Man, Clarence Clemons…."

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Independence Day´
´´This song I wrote, uh….there was a group of songs I wrote, I wrote ´Darkness on the Edge of Town´ and a song called ´The Promise´ which is not (?) recorded, I wrote this song a long time ago and uh….(?) my father, he was always, I tease him a whole lot but he was always telling me that, that ´You should do, uh, you should be better than me whatever you do´ and…..and, uh, this is for him….this is called ´Independence Day´….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Raise Your Hand´
"I got one last thing to say…one last thing…Miami Steve if you please…"
(during the song) "I see some people that ain't up back there !….you think this is a free ride ? (crowd: ´No´) do you think this is a free ride ? (crowd: ´No´) you wanna play, you've got to pay (chuckles) now I wanna see you get up (chuckles) and out there I want you to walk over to your radio, turn the mother up as loud as she´ll go, open up the windows, wake up your neighbors ´cause if there´s something you need….if there´s something you want…..you´ve gotta raise your hand….´´

07.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´Twist and Shout´
´´(the band returns to the stage 15 minutes after ´Raise Your Hand´ ended) One, two, we ain't got no monitors, we ain't got nothing but…..(laughs)….´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi & Brucebase
Thanks to Joe McCaffrey for the addition on "Racing in the Street"

^{© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.}

The Business Of The Unexpected: Roxy ’78

Imagine yourself at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 5, 1978. Bruce Springsteen is playing his first headlining arena show in the area, a culmination of his growing popularity. During the intermission between sets, a rumor swirls that a special show is happening on Friday night at the Roxy in West Hollywood and tickets are going on sale tomorrow morning. With a capacity under 500, seeing Bruce and the E Street Band at the tiny club will be the toughest ticket in town. What do you do? Leaving early means missing the rest of the Forum show when the rumor may not be true. But if you stay, do you miss the chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime intimate performance? A true Sophie’s Choice.

Perhaps a few did leave before the encores; others rushed straight from the Forum to the Roxy to join the growing queue because the rumor turned out to be true. A small item in Thursday’s LA Times confirmed tickets were going on sale for Bruce’s “first club appearance in nearly three years.” The faith of those who braved the overnight line was likely rewarded as eyewitness reports suggest as many as 1,000 people were waiting when the Roxy box office opened at noon.

“It was like the Beatles when we announced the Roxy,” says Paul Rappaport, Columbia’s west coast promo guy at the time and organizer of the show on behalf of the label. After it quickly sold out, “hundreds of kids showed up in the KMET lobby and at the CBS Records lobby in Century City looking for tickets,” he adds.

Why KMET? Because the silver lining in the Roxy announcement for those who couldn’t attend was that it would be broadcast live on the radio, the first of five such transmissions on the Darkness tour that helped cement Springsteen’s peerless reputation as a live performer.

Each one - The Roxy, The Agora, Passaic, Atlanta and Winterland - has its merit. They are compelling shows one and all. But the circumstances surrounding the event and the remarkable, risk-taking performance make the Roxy stand apart.

Rappaport recalls a phone conversation with Jon Landau where they discussed how difficult it was to create breakthrough buzz in LA even given a sold-out Forum show. “It is such a big town and there’s a lot going on, so it is hard to get attention,” he told Landau. The manager in turn suggested the idea of a live broadcast on KMET.

The FM rock radio powerhouse had grown more popular than the biggest Top 40 station in the city. “It’s like that scene in Back to the Future where the guy takes two electrical cords, shoves them together and sparks fly,” Rappaport says. “That’s what happens when you marry the greatest thing in rock ‘n’ roll to the greatest amplifier in Los Angeles…. I told Landau it would be amazing.”

The catch was there were only a few of days to pull it off, including buying out the band already booked to play the Roxy that night, getting Ma Bell to lay special high-fidelity phone lines at the venue to send audio to the radio station, as well as procuring a remote-recording truck to handle the mix and — as we’re fortunate enough to hear today — preserve the concert on multi-track tapes.

Springsteen starts the set by acknowledging the ticket challenges, which he owns with humility, a tenor that then gives away to something akin to a coiled snake. “We’re gonna do some rock ‘n’ roll for ya. A WELL, A WELL, A WELL THE LITTLE THINGS THAT YOU SAY AND DO, MAKE ME ALWAYS WANT TO BE WITH YOU HOO HOO.” Inspired by the recently released biopic, Springsteen opens the set with a thrilling surprise, the band’s stupefyingly tight take of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On.” With it, the breakneck pace for the Roxy is established, never to be vanquished.

How fast? If your digital playback device had a pitch control, you’d probably check the setting during “Candy’s Room,” jet-fueled by Max Weinberg. Every song in the first set teems with confidence and conviction, none more so than the sequence of “Candy’s Room” into a flawless “For You,” followed by the next of the night’s shockers, “Point Blank.” It’s a bold debut for the future River track, stunningly performed with early lyric and arrangement variants.

The caliber of performances in the first set carries on in the second, which opens in high spirits with more unreleased tunes, the instrumental band spotlight “Paradise By The ‘C’” and “Fire.” While the setlist serves as a showcase for Darkness tracks and the Roxy versions are uniformly brilliant, when people suggest the ‘78 radio broadcasts drove thousands of new converts, it is because they captured both the music and the magic.

As the set moves to “Growin’ Up” and its delightful “goddamn guitar” story, enchantment turns irresistible. “Growin’ Up” flows into a scintillating “Saint In The City” and the E Street Band crushes it. The new mix by Jon Altschiller makes Springsteen and Van Zandt’s guitars sabre sharp.

If somehow that weren’t enough to convince, we get “Backstreets,” in a version many cite as one of the very best. The mid-song “Sad Eyes” passage (edited on Live 1975-85) is intact here, restoring this masterpiece to its full grandeur. From the charm of “Growin’ Up” through the emotional catharsis of “Backstreets,” religious conversion is complete.

“In the middle of the show, I stepped out because I needed fresh air,” Rappaport recalls. “It was one of the greatest scenes I have ever witnessed in rock: A couple hundred kids with their ears pressed to the wall outside the Roxy; all of the Sunset Strip listening to this broadcast, car after car, windows down, people singing along. It blew my mind.”

There would be more mind blowing to come. Bruce opens the encore with yet another new song, premiering “Independence Day” on solo piano, a monumental moment. Neither “Point Blank” nor “Independence Day” would be played again until September, which makes it all the more astounding that Springsteen chose to debut them in the broadcast. In fact, over the course of the night he performs five unreleased originals, two of them for the very first time, plus another four unreleased cover songs, two them also live premieres.

All this knowing full well -as he proclaims at the top of the second set - that bootleggers and thousands of fans listening at home would indeed be rolling their tapes. When the stakes couldn’t be higher, Springsteen went all in.

“One of the things I had to do,” Rappaport explains, “was tell the sales branch that I guarantee there will be a bootleg. But we had to do it….It’s one of the greatest live recordings of all time.”

When asked about the audacity of debuting brand-new songs, Rappaport replies, “Bruce understood the platform he had. I think he wanted to play those songs because he was always trying to do something different. He didn’t want to repeat himself. I have never seen a guy work harder than him, ever. ”

Rappaport then recounts a tale told to him by Columbia’s then head of sales, who had seen Springsteen backstage at a big show debating doing another encore when it seemed like he had already given the people all they could want and then some. When asked why we was even considering one more song, Springsteen replied, “I’m in the business of the unexpected.”

With the Roxy, the unexpected was broadcast all over town, and via tapes and bootlegs, ultimately to fans the world over.

The encore rolls on after the sublime “Independence Day” and Bruce and the band push the show as hard as she will go. “Born to Run,” “Because the Night” (which was already a hit for Patti Smith), Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand” and finally, after 12 minutes of cheering, “Twist and Shout.”

From the band to the audience in the club, from the kids outside the venue to the listeners all over Southern California listening on KMET, anyone who experienced the Roxy performance would concur with Rappaport’s final assessment: “I witnessed rock ‘n’ roll history.”

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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