1978-08-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Second show of three at Madison Square Garden opens with "Good Rockin' Tonight and includes the fifth "Streets Of Fire" of the tour in the third spot. "Streets Of Fire" no longer has the slow organ intro from earlier in the tour, and instead segues directly from "Badlands". Set also features Bruce's sister Pam on stage during "Quarter To Three" - see our Gallery tab to view photographs. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a couple lines from Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" in the midsection. "Quarter To Three" includes a few lines from The Dells' "Oh, What A Night".

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Good Rockin’ Tonight”
‘‘New York City! (crowd cheers) Hey! (crowd cheers) I know the newspapers are on strike, have you heard the news? (crowd cheers) have you heard the news? (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Darkness on the Edge of Town” (following “Spirit in the Night”)
“How are you guys over there? huh?…somebody pushed me in the tooth…you guys can sing all right, I tell you (chuckles)(?)…this is “Darkness on the Edge of Town” (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Factory”
“This is for my friend John Johnson…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “The Promised Land”
(Tests the harmonica off-mike)(crowd cheers) He brought this harmonica for me (chuckles)…(?)…Can only use one at a time! Is this too little or what? (fan laughs) … Look at this, for you guys in the last row, this is about, uh (chuckles)(blows into the harmonica)(?) … Can't use this one, thanks anyway, alright … this one I can use, alright…we were out in the desert, we were out in Utah and we found this little, old dirt-track called Rattlesnake Speedway, (?) song called “Promised Land” (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Prove It All Night” (following “The Promised Land”)
‘‘Thank you, give the Big Man some sugar (some cheers)…(intro music starts)…I remember last summer…we were making, uh…we were recording…down on 44th street and, uh…I got in this taxi cab and this guy was about 43 years old and he was driving…and you know, some of the New York taxi cab drivers, they got a running monologue that they…they keep going whether somebody’s in there or not, I guess…and I get in with this cat and he was…he was complaining about how it seems you gotta prove it all night to your boss (crowd cheers) then you gotta…go home and prove it to your wife and kids…and, uh…it seems like it never stops…I guess it never does, you know (chuckles) there’s a big philosophy there (chuckles)…guess you just gotta prove it all night long all the time (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Racing in the Street” (following “Prove It All Night”)
‘‘Big Man on the saxophone (crowd cheers) Dan Federici on the organ (crowd cheers)…how many folks here from outside of the city? (crowd cheers) wait a minute, who’s here from New York? (crowd cheers) that was close, I thought it was the same people following me around…it’s funny ‘cause the folks outside of the city, see, they think there’s two things New Yorkers can’t do, they think they can’t swim and they can’t drive, you know…anyway…you gotta be able to drive, gotta get out of the subway somehow (chuckles)…this is, uh… here’s “Racing in the Street,” this is for everybody (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Jungleland”
“This is for the lady with the ribbon…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, after “Jungleland”
“Big Man (crowd cheers) E Street Band (crowd cheers) Steve Van Zandt on the guitar and Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) we’re gonna, we’re gonna take a 15-to-20-minute break, then we’re gonna be right back and do another set, see you in a little while (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Paradise by the C”
“Oh, hey (crowd cheers) are you all warmed up, ready to go? (crowd cheers) that’s good…(?)…what do you got, what’s this?…(?) …what is this, what is this now?…am I supposed to wear this? (some cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “For You” (following “Paradise by the C”)
“The Big Man, I presume (crowd cheers)…this is for, uh…here’s for the folks from Asbury Park, 1971 (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Sandy”
“I wrote this song, I was living…in Bradley Beach which is about (some cheers)(?) one town away from Asbury…on this piano my grandfather gave me…so here’s for, uh…what you got, what are you doing up here, huh?…hey, I can’t do this on stage…this is wrong…alright, this is for you, alright…for you and everybody from Asbury Park (?)(crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to ‘‘Growin’ Up”
‘‘There I was…I remember it now…all of a sudden…I was some place…and there was 60,000 people and they was screaming all for me (crowd cheers) but I realized…that I had my hands full of popcorn and somebody pushed me over the infield fence at Yankee Stadium…and they was screaming for me to get the hell out of there…the cops came and threw me out…but I didn’t care…as I walked home that night…all the way to New Jersey (crowd cheers) I was some place…some place on the New Jersey Turnpike (crowd cheers) that I peeked out of the trunk of this guy’s car that I was riding in…and I saw this big bright star…and for just one moment …I stood stone-like at midnight…
(…) Got this weird sensation when I…walked into my house last night, late at night…my father and my mother, they were sitting at the kitchen table…and they were looking real serious…and then they said “Son, sit down, we wanna talk to you”…so I sat down, they said “It’s time that you stopped fooling around with yourself and got down to something serious”…now, how’d they found what I was doing in my room every night, I’ll never know (chuckles)…but I knew I was already serious…they said “We made an appointment for you to go see the priest and talk about your vocation, about what you’re gonna be”…well, my mother, she’s Italian, my father, he’s Irish – this was what you had to do…so I went to see the priest, but before I went, my father says “Now, you tell him you wanna be a lawyer or you tell him you wanna be a doctor or an author but don’t you tell him nothing about that goddamn guitar” (crowd cheers) so I said “Ok, ok, ok”…so I go over to see the priest, I ring the bell, he comes out, we walk around the church a few times, doing imitations, the guy, the guy had illusions of the “Bells of St. Mary’s” or something…he’s talking to me, he says “Listen…I decided…that this decision is too big for me…what you gotta do, Kid, is you gotta go see God”…alright…“Now, when you go see God, you tell Him you wanna be a lawyer, you tell Him you wanna be an author…but don’t you tell Him nothing about that goddamn guitar” (crowd says “Goddamn guitar” with Bruce)…so I figure how am I gonna find God, I don’t know where He lives, I don’t know what His address is, I’m not too familiar with Him…so I figure I go over Clarence’s house because Clarence, he knows everybody (crowd cheers) so I go over there…I knock on the door and say “Clarence, this is important, I gotta go see God right away” …so he don’t say nothing, he looks outside, looks at the curb, I was in my mother’s Rambler, it had scratches on the side, the paint was all messed up, he said “Listen, I know you’re going to see God but are you gonna go see God in that car?”…I said “Yeah,” he says “There’s gonna be guys up there in Lincoln Continentals, there’s gonna be guys up there in Monte Carlos and you’re gonna go up there and see Him in this piece of junk? You ain’t even gonna get noticed!”…so we took it down to Earl Shy (some cheers) 39.95…we left the windows down, he did the interior for free…I put my little sister in the front seat, he did that for free too (chuckles)…so anyway, midnight we go back, we get the car all banded up, right… and he takes me way outside of town…and we come into this dark hill, next to the cemetery, he says “You see that up there?” I say “I don’t see anything up there,” he says “Right up on top of that hill… that’s where He hits every Friday night”…so I said “Ok,” so up the hill I go and there’s all these spooky noises coming out of the woods (crowd cheers) I finally get to the top…the place is packed with people…there’s people all over…I gotta look to find myself a spot and then they got a little meter, you gotta put 25 cents in…so I put in my quarter and I kneel down and I looked up, I said “Uh, let me see (?)”…I said “God, listen…now, my father, he wants me to be a lawyer ‘cause he says lawyers own the world but I don’t think they do yet…and my mother, she wants me to be an author… ’cause she don’t want me to play no guitar (chuckles)…and well, me, I got this guitar and…well, what do you think?”…so it was real quiet…for a little while and all of a sudden I heard this thunder (Max pounds the drums)…and I saw this lightning…and then just three words came out of these big dark clouds…and they were… “Let it rock!” (crowd cheers)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, middle of “Backstreets”
‘‘Hey little girl…hey little girl…Baby, I remember you…standing on the corner of Richmond Avenue and I know you remember me too …I know you remember me too…‘cause back the…I swore I’d drive all night, anytime anyplace…I’d drive all night, anytime anyplace …I’d drive all night, anytime anywhere…just to buy you some shoes and to taste, to taste your tender charms…to have you hold me in your arms…and I remember we used to hitchhike out of town…out in the middle of this old field, there was this abandoned Cadillac…it was all stripped down except for the seats in the back… we’re still riding, riding, riding, riding, riding round, little girl, and down and down and down and down and down…we’re still riding, riding, riding, riding, riding round, little girl, and down and down and down and down and down we go…and now you’re back…and you’re still looking fine…tell me are them pretty eyes still crying? …are them pretty eyes still crying?…are them pretty eyes…still crying?…when you thought you was gonna be Natalie Wood…I thought I was gonna be James Dean…except…except I wasn’t James Dean…and are your pretty eyes still crying?…are your pretty eyes still crying?…and Baby, are them pretty eyes still crying?… and Baby, are they still lying?…tell me now are they still lying?… tell me are they still lying?…tell me now are they still lying?…tell me are they still lying? …’cause, Baby, I’ve been out and now I’m back too, Baby, I’m back too and I found out some things about me, about you…but I can’t cry for you any more…I can’t cry for you any more…but I know…I know we’ve got to stop…little girl, we’ve got to stop…oh, we’ve got to stop…little girl, we’ve got to stop…Baby, we’ve got to stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP!…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, after “Backstreets”
“That was for Karen…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Rosalita”
“(Someone yells “Kitty’s Back”) I don’t remember “Kitty’s Back” (chuckles)…
(…) Professor Roy Bittan at the piano (crowd cheers) Miami Steve Van Zandt on the guitar (crowd cheers) Garry Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) Mighty Max on the drums (crowd cheers) Dan Federici on the organ (crowd cheers) and last but not least…king of the world…master of the universe…the Big Man himself, Clarence Clemons (crowd cheers) I’m gonna sing my song, it won’t take long, we’re gonna do the twist and it goes like this (the band starts playing)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Born to Run”
“I wanna thank everybody for coming down to the show (crowd cheers) I’d like to thank you for the support you’ve shown the band over the past two or three years (?)…for a lot of that time we were touring around the country and we played, uh, the Palladium and it was just…kept us going, kept us alive, so I wanna thank you all very much…and…here’s my favorite song (chuckles)…”

22.08.78 New York City, NY, intro to “Quarter to Three”
“Are you ready for a double shot? (crowd cheers)…
(…) Alright…now ain’t you tired yet? (crowd: “No”)…
(…) That’s all there is…are you crazy? (crowd cheers) there ain’t no more…(the music stops)…(crowd cheers) I’m sick, I gotta go home (crowd cheers) I really can’t do this, you know (crowd cheers) haven’t we taken this far enough? (crowd cheers)(?) you guys are kidding, right? (crowd: “No”) no? (crowd: “No”) no? (crowd: “No”) no? (crowd: “No”) oh shit (goes back into the song)…
(…)(Bruce brings his sister Pam onto the stage) This is my sister… what are you doing out this late?…”

Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi

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