1981-04-16 Olympiahalle, Munich, West Germany

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is dropped for the first time this year. European debut of "The Ties That Bind" in its first performance since January. Roy plays the piano intro before "The River" and "Once Upon A Time In The West" as a bridge between that song and "Badlands". "Detroit Medley" includes "I Hear A Train". Soundcheck captured on video by Bruce Jackson includes workouts of "The Ties That Bind" and an early "Johnny Bye-Bye" in an arrangement similar to "Preacher's Daughter". The video also features views inside and out of the Olympiahalle, as well as a brief clip of the end of "Detroit Medley".

Intro to "Independence Day"
´´Listen, it´s gonna, it´s gonna be a real long show and…..there´s too many people squashed too close together up front here so I want you guys to do me a real big favour, it´s gonna be a long show tonight and I don´t wanna see you squashed in like this all night long, I´d appreciate it if you´d walk up here, follow this guy and get down off onto the side a little bit, it´s too crowded up here so will you please do that for me starting with whoever wants to take the lead, alright?….yeah, thank you…..that´s, that´s better….there´s some room over on both sides….alright, yeah….now you´re standing all on top of each other….alright, thank you very much (?)….can´t stand on top of each other all night long…..this is, uh, this is a song…. I´m gonna need a little quiet for this, this is called ´Independence Day´….(music starts)….I grew up in this small town, it was about 10,000 people….and I remember every day….my bedroom was out over the backyard and I used to watch my old get up at 6am in the morning and go out back and try to start some car that he´d bought for 200 dollars, laying on the ice-cold ground….and he worked down at this plastics´ factory, I used to go down and bring him his lunch sometimes and I remember it was so noisy that we couldn´t talk…..all he did was move stuff from one place to another….and….it didn´t seem at the time that there were, that there was any way possible….to break out of living my life the way that my father was living his and the way that his father lived his before him because I couldn´t find out the information that I needed, I couldn´t, I couldn´t get it in school because…..somehow they manage to take all those great books and make ´em sound so boring and….and I couldn´t get it on the street and I couldn´t get it from my friends and it wasn´t until I started listening to the radio, I used to slip the transistor under my pillow and lay up in my room at night and it wasn´t so much in what, in what the songs were saying but it was in the sound of the singers´ voices, it sounded like….like they knew that somehow somewhere there was a better life than the one that I was leading and the one that my old man was leading….but it was…..I decided real young that if I was gonna have to live that way that….that I was gonna die and I decided that I wasn´t gonna miss it….so the thing is….it isn´t all clapping and yelling, if you don´t listen, you´re gonna miss it too maybe, you know, and the idea is, the idea is don´t miss it….because it gets easier to miss every day….´´

Intro to "Who´ll Stop the Rain?"
´´This is a song, was….written by John Fogerty….you see, the whole thing wasn´t, for me rock and roll wasn´t just about going out and, and, and living it up and having a good time but it was about….learning, learning how to….learning how to live with the things that, that you gotta live with today….´´

Intro to "This Land Is Your Land"
´´This is….this is a song written by Woody Guthrie….it gets sung a lot and I think it gets misinterpreted a lot in the States and…..it was just a song about…..about the land that you live in and how it should….how it should belong to each and every one of you…..and somebody asked me tonight how I could sing this song knowing it´s not true….uh…..the title is more, it´s a question, it´s not a statement and it´s just, it´s a fighting song because you gotta fight every day to make it, to make it true….now, it´s a song, it mentions, the places it mentions are in the States but it´s a song for all the people all over the world….´´

Intro to "Wreck on the Highway"
´´This is….this is a song….sometimes something happens to you in your life that just changes the way you look at things….and, uh….this is called ´Wreck on the Highway´….we´re gonna need, we´re gonna need a little quiet for this number, ok? thank you….´´

Middle of "Rosalita"
´´To the far left of the stage…..on the piano….the only member of the band with a full high school diploma…..let´s hear it for education and Professor Roy Bittan….play it, Roy…..on the guitar….poet of the soul, master of rock and roll, Miami Steve Van Zandt….on the bass….a man whose brother was a Tallent, his father was a Tallent, his great-grandfather was a great, great Tallent, Mr.Garry W.Tallent on the bass guitar….on the drums…..the Mighty Max Weinberg….on the organ, from Flemington, New Jersey (cheers) have you ever been to Flemington? (cheers) come on now, you´ve never been to no Flemington now (cheers) I don´t know about that….Phantom Dan Federici on the organ….in the audience, your personal selves….and last but not least….how can I say it?….let me say king of the world….master of the universe….emperor of all things….he´s bigger than life and twice as natural…..I don´t care who you bring down here, daddy, (?) Muhammed Ali, ain´t none of them turkeys gonna stand to the power and the glory of the Big Man Clarence Clemons on the saxophone….´´

Middle of "Detroit Medley"
´´Wait a minute….wait a minute…..I got a gas crisis going….got a gas crisis going on…..got to leave the car by the side of the road….Big Man….I gotta leave the car by the side of the road ….but we don´t need no car….because….I said because…..I said we don´t need no car because (crowd: ´´Why?´´) I´m glad you asked…..I see a train…..´´

Intro to "Rockin´ All Over the World"
´´Thanks….I´d like to, I´d like to thank….I´d like to thank all the people in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, people of Germany for giving such a wonderful welcome, this is our last show here in Germany tonight….and…..I´d just like to thank youse, we were real nervous before we come over here because we hadn´t been out of the States hardly at all and I just wanna say you couldn´t have made us feel more at home and I wanna thank you from the bottom of our hearts…..thank you, thank you, Germany….I´d like to thank Fritz for being such a terrific promotor and treating us like his sons, thank you, Fritz….now we´re gonna go rocking all over the world….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Where The Band Was: Munich, April 16, 1981

Dan French's Story - Part 2

Following……………

The next morning we had a late breakfast, took photos outside the hotel, and left – but not before I encountered Roy by the postcards and asked him for a scribble. ‘Sure,’ he smiled. ‘Take it easy.’ No one else was there.

We took a train back to Rena’s place in Mannheim, and I met Ilona and Hubert, her neighbours. Spent the day resting, and the next day went into town to eat and visit her friend’s hi-fi shop. In the afternoon Rena called some hotels in Munich until she found the one Clarence was staying in, the Hilton, and asked him if she and three friends could come to the show tonight. Sure, said the Big Man: ask Glen for your tickets when you come.

So Hubert drove Ilona, Rena and I the 200km to Munich that evening! We got to the Olympiahalle just before 8 o’clock, and found Glen – but only three tickets and passes. A misunderstanding: Glen found another set, and we went in.

There was quite a different feel from the Frankfurt atmosphere – moody. Early into the show the crowd surged into a space near the front and Bruce had to stop before introducing “Independence Day” and ask people to go back to their seats. Rena and I moved from our places in the guest rows on the side down into the stalls where there was room to stand and dance.

As it was the last night in Germany, there was a big reception laid on backstage, and as guests we took the chance to eat and spot Roy, Max, Danny, Garry and Clarence mingling. Bruce and Steve didn’t show up this time: we spent a while hunting for the dressing-rooms in the large backstage area, but no luck.

So we drove to CC’s hotel, went up to his room, and he welcomed us all with champagne!

We sat and listened to his latest recordings on Dedication: ‘That’s me!’ he’d say, on a sax solo. His other cassettes included the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Wonder.

Rena took photos and got Ilona and Hubert to take some of us. I saw the tour handbook and made a mental note that a second Stafford gig had been penciled in for 22nd May. Entries included: “Tuesday – day off – have a good time!”

We must have stayed a couple of hours. Clarence offered to give us rooms at the Hilton, but the others had to go to work the next day, so we all drove back in the wee wee hours and left CC to travel to Paris the next day with the band.

It was light when we got back to Mannheim, and I slept until the afternoon. We had a bite to eat, played some records and watched a few German videos – she had a good collection. Rena couldn’t go to Paris, so I left and tried to hitch out of Mannheim on the outskirts of town, but gave up after trying for a long time and getting cold and restless. So I took a train again back to Paris, and slept rough once more – Good Friday, I think it was.

On the 18th, I found the address where John H was staying before seeing the show that night, and once again feeling very consciously the tramp, called in at the posh block of apartments, and found him and the friend whose flat it was. It was a relief to speak English to a familiar face and sit on the sunny balcony having coffee!

We agreed that although I didn’t have a ticket, we’d wander up to the hall, the Palais de Sports on the north side of town, and have a look around. We walked from the Metro stop over the bridge of the river to the site of the odd-shaped sports hall rising on the far banks.

No sign of any posters or ads for the show, but we walked up the drive as far as we could and found a small box-office. It was open, and inside at a table, a little old lady was opening envelopes containing tickets for both shows!

Quickly I borrowed some money from John (which was to take me six months to repay!) and we bought three extra tickets for each show, plus one for John for the Sunday night; we knew that Geoff N and Kristina V were coming and didn’t have tickets. We couldn’t believe our luck! I was going to see Bruce twice more before I had to go back!

To be concluded…….

^{By Dan French via E Street Shuffle.}

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Where The Band Was: Munich, April 16, 1981