1978-08-18 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA

Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Gary Busey guests on "Rave On" and "Quarter To Three". "Growin' Up" includes the teenage werewolf story. WIOQ Radio DJ Ed Sciaky interviews Bruce backstage after the show - this is broadcast the very next day, on August 19. Bruce refers to the upcoming interview at the end of "Growin' Up": "as I looked behind me all I could see out in front of all them cops was Ed Sciaky and the Sciak-mobile with a microphone screaming that he wanted an interview". The soundchecked version of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" is an astounding, majestic rearrangement of the reggae classic. A high quality recording of this would be a stunner. It won't be until 2012 that Springsteen actually plays "The Harder They Come" in concert, in Austin accompanied by Jimmy Cliff.

Gary Busey (Guest)

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Summertime Blues’:
”Philly, what's up? Summertime! How's your summer been, huh?…..band, are you ready? Are you ready tonight?”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Spirit In The night’:
"This is not a test!"

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
”We're gonna be playing all night long so you guys oughta…..sit back and find your seats and stuff…..clear the aisles for these guys okay…we're gonna be playing for a long time so…..oh man…..this is uh…..we got a new album out, I guess it's been out, I guess it ain't new no more, sort of semi-new…..it's still new to me so….it's called uh…..it's for anybody who had to drive through the darkness on the edge of town…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Factory’:
”Thanks….this is uh…..I grew up in this town…..about 10,000 people….a town called Freehold, New Jersey (cheers)……and uh…..it's funny because…..like when you come in the town, it says ‘Welcome to historic…..Freehold, New Jersey’, you know….and…. I was driving through the middle of town today and I couldn't figure out, it had…… bus-tour of the American Hotel…..this is a hotel that like…..when I was a kid, I remember ….it was the only place in town that had a menu….stuck to the window outside….and like….I never went in the place that had a menu outside till I was about 20 years old ….see, the hamburger was always more than like, you know….it was about 3.95 (chuckles)…..anyway, my old man, he uh….he worked in a factory there for a long time and his father did (cheers)…..and uh…..I remember when I was growing up, it made him real mean but anyway…..I wrote this song for him…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’:
”I broke something up here already…but did you guys know…did you guys know that these speakers, they talk…they can talk words…how are you doing tonight little speaker?…[muffled speech from speaker]…see that, nice little guy…keep your eye on him alright…I was just home for a couple of days…the only two days I've been home in I don't know when…all summer, two days too many Clarence says (chuckles)…I took a drive down to Asbury Park, I live about fifteen minutes away (cheers)….are you guys sure you been to Asbury Park? (cheers)…..and you're still cheering like that (chuckles) …..alright…..anyway….there´s this avenue, it's Kingsley and Ocean Avenue and they form this oval….and….Fridays and Saturdays, people are burning, burning about half the gas in the United States there…..here's a song for me and my…..partner in the passenger seat, this is racing in the streets…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Thunder Road’:
”Summer…..last summer me and Steve and two friends of ours, we…..drove from Salt Lake City down to Reno, Nevada…..taking some pictures and (?) for the album cover…..we were out in the desert someplace…..and we came…..just off the side of the highway, this indian had built this house…..he had sculpt it out of stuff that he'd scavenged off the desert…..and uh….out on front he had a sign, he had a picture of Geronimo with over……on top , it said ‘Landlord’…..and then he had, uh…..he had a big white sign painted in red…..it said that ‘This is the land of peace, justice and no mercy’….at the bottom, it pointed down this dirt road, it said ‘Thunder Road’…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Paradise by the C’:
”Alright….Philadelphia…..round two….in this corner……master of disaster…..weighing 260 pounds…..do I have to say his name ?…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘The Fever’:
”Here´s a Philadelphia special…..”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Sherry Darling’:
”Now, we’re gonna play some summertime songs….there ain’t that much…..(?) summer to go, I guess…..but this is a song…..that I wrote, the…..beginning of the summer before this one, it’s called ‘Sherry Darling’, the kinda song , it is….it’s like in the early 60’s……there was this, uh…..kinda music called Fraternity Rock…..and that was like, if you ever went to a fraternity party in the early 60’s, like I used to play at ‘em…..like they used to ask you like, used to have to play ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen…..’Farmer John’ by the Premiers…..and the, the premiere for….Fraternity…. Rock……(?) Fraternity Rock of all time is called ‘Double Shot of My Baby’s Love’ by the Swinging Medallions (cheers)…..now, let’s hear it for that one, huh (cheers)….(?) (chuckles)…..anyway….(?) ‘It wasn’t the wine I had too much of, was the double shot of my baby’s love’….but on this song…..thing about the Fraternity Rock records was on the records…..the audience was twice as loud as the band so (cheers)….this is an audience participation number, what we need is some very drunk party noises (cheers)….’

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Growin’Up’:
‘‘I remember…..that….oh…..I was 13 years old when I first found out….it was after a series…..of scientific experimentation……and deep soul searching….on my part….that I came to learn….on my 13th birthday…..at the first full moon…..that I….was a teenage werewolf (cheers)….I remember the first time…..I went to school that way….I freaked out….rolled over on the aisle….ran inside, sat down, took out my rhytmatic book, ate it and pissed in my desk. (cheers)….the sisters then told my mother…..that I needed psychiatric attention (cheers)….so my mother took me downtown….to this doctor….I remember I went in….sat on the couch and he said ‘Son….when did you first…..start acting this way?’…..I said ‘Doc…..Doc, I’m glad you asked me that question…..because I can remember just when it was….it was one night….when I came home too early…..in my house if I came home too early, my father used to make me go out again and come back in later (cheers)…..so I got thrown out of the house…..I hitchhiked 20 miles to the beach…..and I was standing on the boardwalk……in front of the tilt-a-whirl, looked up….saw these big white lights…..all of a sudden…..my hand started growing all hairy….gold guitar popped out of my left side (cheers)….and just for one moment…..Doc…..I’m telling you, for just one moment…..
(…..) So this went on for a long time….I remember I was 17…..like four years later…..and every night at the full moon…..(?) and haunt the arcades of Asbury Park (cheers)….and it was around this time…..like, the cops…..at the prodding of my mother and father, decided…..that I was a big pain in the ass (cheers)…..and they were gonna do something about it….so they cornered me one night….at the top of the ferris wheel at Palace Amusements (cheers)….I jumped down on to the roof…..jumped out on the Kingsley Avenue (cheers)….and I ran up Asbury until I hit the Route 35 Circle…. with the Asbury Park locals on my trail….I hit 35….got on the Route 33, I started running towards my hometown, Freehold (cheers)…..it was there that I hit the Freehold Circle …..when I had the Asbury Park cops behind me, I had the New Jersey state police (cheers)….when a guy pulled over…..in a black Sedan….I looked thru the window…..and on the front seat….I saw a saxophone (cheers)…..rolled down the window…..took a long look at me….said ‘Son…..I don't know what you did….but I like your style, come on, get in’ (cheers) …..so I hopped in the front seat….bam, Clarence hit it to the floor….we started screaming down 33, we caught every green light all the way to New Jersey Turnpike (cheers)….we must've been doing …..we must've been doing…..55……got on the Turnpike….that’s when they called out the National Guard….they called out the United States Army…..they….they got the marines….now, if this story…..sounds a little…. funny to you guys….you can ask anybody in the band….and as sure as it's 127 days to Christmas bonus time….they all….swear it's the truth (laughter)…..I know they (?) honest men…..so on the Turnpike we head south…..by this time we got…..all military forces on after us, we got the airforce, we got the navy….we’re going Exit 8…..Exit 7…Exit 6….Exit 5….Exit 4….we hit the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (cheers)…..and the sign that says ‘Two lanes to Philadelphia’ (cheers)….it was bye bye New Jersey, I was airborne….and all I heard was the state cops yelling…..’Hey, somebody…..stop that son of a bitch with the gold guitar….”
(….) and as I looked behind me all I could see out in front of all them cops was Ed Sciaky and the Sciak-mobile with a microphone screaming that he wanted an interview…."

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, middle of 'Backstreets':
"Hey little girl…hey little girl…baby I remember you…baby I remember you…back when you were standing on the corner of Richmond Avenue…yeah with your hair up high and that wild look in your eye for every boy that was passing you by…and back then I swore that I'd drive all night…I swore that I'd would drive all night…baby I would I'd drive all night…just to buy you some shoes…and to taste…to taste your tender charms…to have you hold me in your arms…for just one kiss…baby just one kiss…and a look from your sad eyes…you had such lonely sad eyes…and baby you used to cry….cry cry cry…baby cried all night long…baby cried…all night long…you cried all night long…and me I was a fool…I thought…that maybe I could stop your crying..maybe I could stop your crying…but I didn't know…only you knew…that baby'd been lying…weren't you…baby'd been lying…didn't you…baby'd been lying…didn't you…you were so young…you could tell such pretty lies…you were so young…you could tell such pretty lies…(?)…so you ran out…so you ran out…and girl, I've been out too…and I found out some things…about me, about you…I found out…little girl we've got to stop… little girl we've got to stop… little girl we've got to stop… little girl we've got to stop… little girl we've got to stop…stop…stop…stop…stop… stop…stop…stop…stop…hiding on the backstreets…

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Rosalita’:
”Wherever you are….I know you must be in Philly tonight….Rosie come out tonight….”
(…) Yeah, I can’t play if you gonna jump on me, everybody stay right there, alright…bring it down…what do you think this is, Raggedy Andy?….”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Born to Run’:
”You guys down in front be careful you’re not, you know, you’re not killing each other down here or squashing each other (chuckles)….try to make as much room as possible……I wanna….thank everybody for coming down tonight (cheers)….and uh…. just thank you for the support that like you’ve…..shown the band over the past two, three years when we were having our hard times…..we always used to say ‘Well….if we go….we can always go back to Philadelphia (cheers)….”

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Rave On’:
"Thank you…alright…there's a movie just opened…(?)…this is tough work…there's a movie opened in town called The Buddy Holly Story, this is my friend Gary Busey, he's the star, he's going to play a number with us…"

18.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, middle of 'Quarter To Three’:
"What is this?…I got Blue Cross Blue Shield?…I don't get any better gifts around here?…and all you wanna do is go on a 'blank blank blank'…God damn!…"

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi / Brucebase

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