1980-12-18 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Premiere of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop The Rain". 35-song, three hour 37 minute set also includes a full-band "The Price You Pay" and the last of four "I Fought The Law" of 1980. Roy plays the piano intro before "The River". "Growin' Up" includes the Santa Claus story. Bruce sings a bit of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" as an introduction to "I'm A Rocker". The "Detroit Medley" includes a few lines of "Pain In My Heart" and "I Hear A Train". Tonight "Who'll Stop The Rain" is the fourth song in the set and moved to later in the set the following night.

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´Independence day´
'I grew up in, in this little town (?)….and….I remember when I was….when I was a kid….. me and my, my mother and father, we lived with my grandparents…on….a street that was shaped like an ´L´ and we lived in this house…and then I had aunts on my father´s side living up here and over here, we had three or four houses….and then across the street….lived my mother's, my mother's folks, they lived in a house over there….(?) my father's, they were all real straight Irishmen (cheers) and then my mother, she was a real strict Italian (cheers)….I can always remember us living real close together and nobody ever crossing the street too much in those days, you know…..and when I was a kid, I didn't think that much about it, you know….but….this one Christmas, I went over….I went over to my aunt's house ….on my mother´s side and she, she gave me a picture….it was a picture of my dad….back in 1946 and he was standing there, it was about two or three years before they got married and he´s standing there with my mom and he had on this 1940s suit and he looked, he looked just like John Garfield, looked like he was gonna eat the photographer´s head off or something, you know…..and it was really something ´cause I could never, I could never remember seeing him like that, growing up I never remember seeing him with that kind of…..just that kind of look on his face or that kind of, that kind of feeling coming from him…..and with, like, a lot of people in the town I grew up in seemed like they were just sitting there waiting….letting their lives pass ´em by, little by little….and….I think if you grow up with that, I think that makes you scared, you know….makes you scared that it´s gonna happen to you, that you´re gonna end up being 45 or 55 and doing the same thing, living in the same house….when I was young, I….there was a point where I decided that that wasn't gonna happen to me if I could help it…..don´t let it happen to you, alright…..'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´Sandy´
'This is for everybody from down along the Shore….'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´For You´
'Alright, this is for everybody in the backseat, oh…..this is ´For You´, here we go….'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, middle of ‘Growin' Up´
'There I was….it was Christmas Eve….my car broke down…..on this New Jersey back road ….I was walking on, trying to hitch a ride….and nobody stopped…..they just passed on by…. was on a stretch of road that was real dark….and I heard this noise out in the woods….now, usually….I thought it was ghosts, thought it´d be werewolves, thought it'd be Frankenstein …coming to get me one more time….but it sounded….it sounded, it sounded…..it sounded sort of like…and I looked over at this little clearing ….and there was….there was….Santa Claus!….and Santa, he was feeling down, he was feeling bad….´cause his sleigh….(?) a runner off the sleigh and he was sitting there, presents all spilling out…reindeers all sitting in the woods…. he said ‘Man’, he said….he said ‘How am I gonna get to all these houses 'cause my damn sleigh broke down?’….I said ´Santa….let me take a look at it’….I took a look at the thing, fixed the runner up, got him going….and he took off out in the sky…I'm standing down there in the woods….I still didn't have no money….didn't have, didn't have no presents to give nobody…and just as I see him riding off…I saw something….slip out back of his bag….and drift on down in the sky, past all the stars….slipping down on the moonlight….till it dropped to the ground about a hundred feet down the highway….and I walked out of the woods and walked in the distance…I could see something starting to shine….and I picked it up and I put it on…..and man…. when we touched….'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´Stolen Car´
'During the time we were making, making the last record…..a real close friend of mine got married and we, me and the whole band traveled out to California for the wedding and uh….. we were sitting, we were sitting in the temple and the rabbi got up and he started (cheers)(?) and….he talked about how, how ´long as you´re alone in the world that, that all the things that you dream about and all your dreams, they just…..they just stay fantasies….it´s like sitting in a room or something, it´s like writing a song, a song ain't no good till somebody gets to hear it, you know, it´s like….it doesn't matter for nothing till somebody hears it and it´s like the same with people like….until you get out there…..like meeting somebody or…. it´s the first step to making the things that you dream, the first step to making them real, making ´em a part of the real world, the real life….now, some people make that connection and some people don´t, you know….and when you don´t, it´s like you end up, it´s like you end up like a ghost, it´s like you don´t have….you just end up like a ghost walking around, it´s like nobody sees you or….nobody can feel you, and this is a….this song, this is uh, this is a ghost story, this song….'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´Drive All Night´
'This is uh….here´s something for you on a cold winter night….this is for Joyce….'

18.12.80 New York City, NY, intro to ´I'm A Rocker´
'This is called I'm A Rocker…(?)…give me the beat Max…everybody, clap your hands…yeah, you're looking good…gonna sing a song, won't take long, gonna do the twist, everybody do this…'

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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