1978-08-21 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Great version of "Heartbreak Hotel" and Bruce dedicates "Sweet Little Sixteen" to his sister Pam, who appears on stage the next night. Bruce raps a few lines from "Maybellene" during the "Growin' Up" story. Bruce is interviewed on WABC TV for ten minutes with J Siegal before the show, and some brief video footage of "Spirit In The Night" exists. Backstreets magazine #59 reports on a soundcheck that includes Hank Williams' "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" and a fifteen minute instrumental "Thunder Road" while Springsteen circles the arena checking the sound.

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Summertime Blues’:
´´How’s the summertime treating you ? (cheers)….here we go, big time rock’n’roll…… is there a chance he plays (?) dukes? (cheers)….gimme some drums….now you better be ready ‘cause tonight….I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler….´´

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Spirit in the Night’:
”What do you say? (cheers)….we’re doing ok so far? (cheers)….”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
”Hey listen, we’re gonna be playing all night long….so you guys oughta….find your seats and clear the aisles (?) so everybody can see and stuff…..Ok?….see if you can find your seats ‘cause we’re gonna be playing for a long time…..yeah, these guys…. see you later, all right (chuckles)….alright….this is uh….this is for my friend Matty, I don’t know if he´s here or not tonight….but I got a jacket on and if I stink, it’s all up on him (chuckles)…..I do this song for you….and this is for uh…..anybody else who had to drive through darkness on the edge of town…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Heartbreak Hotel’:
”Down….bring in some echo, Bobby (coughs)…one (coughs)….little bit more…. one ….. down at the bottom of that hill….let me an E-note, alright?….well….down at the bottom of that hill is a little hotel…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Factory’:
”Across the street from that hotel they….they built a factory……I remember I used to…..see my father two times a day…..one was at night when I’d come in and he’d be sitting in the kitchen in the dark….and sometimes we’d sit and talk for a while….then in the morning….I remember six a.m….my bedroom was….was out over the backyard ….my old man used to buy these 100 dollar junk cars…..and every morning I could hear him out back popping the hood, laying on the cold ground, trying to get it started to go to work…..and he did that for a real long time….I wrote this song for him…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’:
”My parents, they live in California…..and I called my mother and I told her….(?) my mother, you see like a big deal tonight, big show (chuckles)(cheers)…..and uh….I had to tell her that (?) the circus was still here, that’s how she came down (chuckles)….. anyway, she brought my little sister with her and she’s sixteen, she just got her license…..she thinks she’s hot stuff (chuckles)….and uh….this is for her, this is for her….I don’t know, she’s out there somewhere….you guys without the shirts make sure you’re not smacking my mother, alright (chuckles)…..gotta watch the guys without the shirts at the show….here’s ‘Racing in the Street’ for…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Thunder Road’:
”Last summer…..me and Steve….and some friends of mine….we drove from Salt Lake City down into Reno….Nevada….and it’s crazy out there so like….just off the side of the highway, this….this Indian had built this….house that he….scavenged from this stuff out of the desert….and out front….he had this….he had this big picture of Geronimo….and on top , it said ´Landlord’….and he a big white sign…..painted in red, said……’This is the Land of Peace…..Love….Justice…..and No Mercy’….and at the bottom , it said, pointing down an old road, it said…..’Thunder Road’”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Paradise By the C’:
”Hello, hey out there….ready for the second round, huh?…..what’s that?….I’m busy, I’m working….gotta work…..I gotta work, I gotta work, I can’t….public request….. last time I came, I came to a show here once, I remember I came through the door…..I got in an argument with an usher, I got in argument with a cop…..and I went to my seat, there was these two big guys sitting in my seat….after I went out to get my popcorn and my soda…..now, you realise I would’ve thrown ‘em right out except my hands were full….so anybody with your shirts off and in somebody else’s seat, go back to your own seat, alright (chuckles)…..anyway, in this corner…..the master of disaster…. weighing in at 260 pounds ….(?)….the Big Man, Clarence Clemons…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Sherry Darling’:
”This is uh….it’s summertime, we’re gonna do some summer songs and uh….here’s a song I wrote the summer before this one and uh….it’s a song, in the early 60’s there was this kind of music…..that not too many people know about, it was called Fraternity Rock….and that was ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen, ‘Father John’ by The Premiers, ‘Farmer John’ by The Premiers, ‘Double Shot of My Baby’s Love’ by the Swinging Medallions…..and the thing about these records was that on these records the audience was always twice as loud as the band, you see (cheers)….so….what we need to start this song, this song is called ‘Sherry Darling’, we need loud party noises….party noises (cheers)….pretty good…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Sandy’:
”This is for uh…..the guys from Dion that came up….down at the Casino, they came up…..and left me a note at my house…..you guys, you guys over there ?…..right there, alright….spotlight these, these crazy men there….where are they?….will you do that? …..they’re over there….hey, you’re not them (chuckles)…..(?) but I know they’re here ‘cause they left me a note that they was gonna be….and this is for them, this is their song…..this is ‘Fourth of July, Asbury Park’…..(?)….I think we broke the accordion (chuckles)…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’:
”We’re gonna do a song that everybody’s done, I used to, we used to do it in bars, every band ever did it, nobody did it better that Chuck Berry but we’re gonna do it anyway because…..because what happens is my mother, she calls me up on the phone, she says ‘Bruce….your sister, man, she’s running out, she’s taking the car….she’s skipping school and she’s not behaving herself’…..she always….(chuckles) she always wants me to talk to her, right, like….’She’ll listen to you, you talk some sense into her’, you know….and she’s doing all the stuff like I used to do, you know, when I was sixteen….but uh….she’s over there so I’m gonna do this….(?)….(cheers) I guess my little sister, she’s looking pretty good, huh?….”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Growin’Up’:
”I remember…..I was thirteen….it was after….long series of tests….scientific experiments….that I found out one night….when the moon was full…..that I….was the teenage werewolf (cheers)….I started acting strange….I went to school….sat down….ate my arithmetic book….I pissed in my desk (cheers)….a very popular pastime, I guess…..so finally….the sisters told my mother…..that I needed some psychiatric attention…..went down to the doctor’s…..laid on the couch…..Doc says ‘Son…..when….did you start….acting this way?’…..I said ‘Doc, I’m glad you asked that….. I really am….because it was one night….when I came home too early…..my house if I came home too early, my father used to tell me to go out….and come back in a little later….so I was outside, looked up….seen these two big bright lights….and Doc…. I remember this hair started growing all over my face…..full moon over my left shoulder…..a gold guitar popped out of my left side (cheers)….and for just one moment…..for just one second….
(….) So that’s how it went….for years that come after that…..every full moon….I used to haunt the arcades down Asbury Park (cheers)….one night….my mother and my father and the local cops decided….that I was more than just ….a local nuisance…..I was definitely….a big pain in the ass (cheers)….so they tried to catch me (chuckles)….. they cornered me at the top of the ferris wheel….I jumped off onto the roof of Palace Amusements….right into the middle of Kingsley Avenue (cheers)….started hustling up Asbury Avenue till I hit the Route 35 Circle (cheers)…started running till I hit Route 33….all the way to the….New….Jersey….Turnpike (cheers)….by this time I had the Asbury Park local police, I had the state police, I had the Freehold local police, I had the….New Jersey national guard after me…..I had…I think…I think I had the United States army, the marines….I think I got the navy….trucking down the Turnpike on my heels….so I was hustling as fast as I could….but there on about a mile behind me, they were catching up….and all of a sudden …..over pulled….a black sedan….I looked through the window…..and on the frontseat….instead of a four-on-the-floor…..there was this saxophone…..(Clarence plays a bit)….so the man rolled down his window, looked at me….said ‘Son, I don’t know what you did or why you did it, but I like your style…. Step inside’ (cheers)…..we got in…we started tearing down the Turnpike, heading north…..Clarence had that thing to the floor, we must’ve been doing….. what?…. what?….55 (cheers)….finally….the motor cooled down….the heat went down….that’s when I heard that highway sound…..rainwater was blowing into the hood…..I knew it was doing the engine good…and all I could hear was the chief of Asbury Park police …. leaning out the window with a megaphone…..screaming ‘Stop that son of a bitch with the gold guitar!…..”

21.08.78 New York City, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´Hello baby….hey now little girl….it´s good to see you back again….and I remember you….. I remember you…..standing on the corner of Richmond Avenue…..with your hair up high, that crazy look in your eye for every boy that was passing you by….and I remember back then I swore….I promised…..that I´d drive all night anytime anyplace…..I´d drive all night anytime anyplace…..I´d drive all night anytime anyplace…..I´d drive all night anytime anyplace…..just to buy you some shoes….and to taste your tender charms….to have you hold me in your arms….and for just one kiss….and a look from your sad eyes….you had such lonely sad eyes….baby, they used to cry all night long…..oh, how how they´d cry all night long….you used to cry all night long….you used to cry all night long….you used to cry all night long….and me, I was your fool….I thought that maybe I could stop….your crying….. maybe I could stop….your crying….somehow I could stop….your crying, but I didn´t know that them pretty eyes….baby, they were lying….baby, they´d been lying…..baby, you were lying….(?) you were young and you could tell such pretty lies…..and you were lying, weren´t you now ?….baby, you´d been lying (?)….baby, you was lying (?)….and now you´re back…. and now you´re back…..well, baby, I´m back too…..and I´ve been out….and I´ve seen some things….about me…..about you…..and I found out…..I found out…..we´ve got to stop, little girl, you´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….´´

21.08.78 New York City, NY, middle of ´Rosalita´
´´….this is his last chance ‘cause daddy, I’m almost grown…..tell him I’m a big deal now, I got my picture on the cover of Rolling Stone…..´´

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Born to Run’:
”I wanna thank everybody for coming down to the show….I’d like to thank you for your support over the past two or three years when we were going through the hard times….and….I’d like to thank the….New York radio for keeping it alive for us….. WNEW, when I didn’t have new records out and stuff (cheers)….I wanna thank youse all very much…..”

21.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘Quarter to Three’:
”Can you stand one more? (cheers)….then you’re worst than I am…..
(…) (The band stops playing)(crowd cheers) What's going on around here? (crowd cheers) Am I dead?…am I in Heaven? (crowd cheers) wait a minute (?) this is New York (crowd cheers) yes, this is probably the closest I'll get - Don't you know that I can't stop dancing till quarter to three…."

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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