1981-07-06 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Fourth night in New Jersey is a 27-song set that opens with "Thunder Road"; unusually "Out In The Street" rounds out the first set. Bruce and Steve share lead vocals on "I Don't Want To Go Home". "Detroit Medley" features the debut of Mitch Ryder's "Sock It To Me, Baby!", as well as "Sweet Soul Music" and "Shake". "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a snippet of "Sweet Soul Music" during the band introductions.

Intro to "Independence Day"
´´I remember when I was 16, I used to, I lived in this house, it was on, like, a main street in town and I had a bedroom that was out over the back, over the backyard….and I remember at 6am I used to lay in bed in the winter and I´d hear my old man getting up downstairs in the
kitchen, then I´d hear him out in the backyard, pulling up the hood of the car, trying to get it started so that he could go to work….and….I didn´t think too much about what my parents´ life was like at that time….I was always interested in, in other things….but I used to watch my old man get home at night and sit in the kitchen….and we´d only, we´d only end up talking to each other like 11 or 12 at night after I´d been out too late and he´d been sitting in the kitchen too long….and….I used to think…..that he…..that he lost the power to imagine and to dream that his life could be different than the way he was living….but…..´cause I was full of ideas and I, ´bout what I was gonna do and what things were gonna be like for me….but for all the time that I, that I lived with him, and he used to sit in that kitchen every night by himself and not talk to anybody, sit with the lights out…..and I remember when I was growing up, for all the 18 years that I was home, I never, I never once asked him what he was thinking about…..and…..and later I realised that what he was doing every night was he was sitting there dreaming….but what happened to him was he lost, he didn´t have the strength any more or the way or the power to begin to make any of the things that he was dreaming about real….so….but that´s what the world does to you, I guess, I saw it take it out of him and now I go back and sometimes I see some of my old friends and I remember people that were, like, you know, when we were, like, 18 or 19, that were, that were real strong and real….and real heart and good inside that….that lost it somewhere along the way ….and that´s the hardest thing you gotta hold on to, I guess….so don´t lose it…..´´

Intro to "Johnny Bye Bye"
´´I remember when I was….nine years old, my mother had on the Ed Sullivan Show, it was the first night that Elvis was on….and….I can always see myself sitting, we lived in one side of this real small house and I remembe sitting on the carpet in front of the T.V, watching, and I remember I was nine and I said ´I gotta go, I gotta go get a guitar´ and my mother went out and we rented this guitar and I had guitar lessons but I didn´t learn because my hands were too small and I quit when I was nine years old, and I started again when I was 13 but, uh…. but…. and I remember following him, you know, throughout his whole, his whole career and I went to see him in Philadelphia….just before he, just before he died and I remember feeling, feeling disappointed because he didn´t play, I guess, the old songs like I thought they were gonna sound…..the stuff that he sang real good was, he sang this song ´American Trilogy´ and this song ´How Great Thou Art´….but uh….this is, this is a song I wrote for him, I guess ….´cause he, he deserved a lot better than what he got…..´´

Middle of "Rosalita"
´´Alright, ladies and gentlemen….(?)…..we got to the far left of the stage….how can I say it? ….they throw around words like ´genius´….they throw around words like ´master of his trade´….they throw around words like (?) ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, to the far left of the stage, Mr. Tony (?)….thank you and now on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan….now on the guitar, we have a man that brought you such great hits as ´I Don´t Wanna Go Home,´ ´Sweeter Than Honey,´ ´This Time It´s for Real,´ ´Some Things Just Don´t Change, ´ I´m talking about Miami Steve Van Zandt on the guitar….on the bass we have Mr.Garry W.Tallent….on the drums, from South Orange, New Jersey, the Mighty Max Weinberg….on the organ, the only human being ever known that made it out of Flemington, from Flemington, New Jersey, Danny Federici….and last but not least….I don´t have to tell you who you´re gonna meet now….I don´t even have to say his name…..but let me say that around home we like to call him ´The greatest living human being on the planet´….(?) we just call him the king of the world….the master of the universe….the emperor of all things….the prince of the city, he´s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a roaring locomotive, able to leap tall women, I mean tall buildings in a single bound, is it a bird? (crowd: ´No´) is it a plane? (crowd: ´No´) is it, is it, is it, is it…..Spotlight on the Big Man….´´

Intro to "I Don´t Wanna Go Home"
´´Here´s a song Steve wrote, he´s gonna sing it with me….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Reach Up And Touch The Sky

Bruce Springsteen began headlining arenas in the northeast as far back as October 1976 when he gigged two nights at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. He returned there for four concerts on the Darkness tour, and hit Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum, too, then yet again in late 1980 on the River tour along with various regional Gardens and Civic Centers.

However, Springsteen wouldn’t play an arena show in his home state of New Jersey until July 1981 because, until then it didn’t have one. When the Brendan Byrne Arena opened in E. Rutherford, Bruce and the E Street Band christened the future home of the Nets and Devils with a sold-out, six-show stand.

The new building already made this summer run a special occasion, but it also functioned as a genuine homecoming for Springsteen. The Brendan Byrne shows marked the beginning of the end of a particular chapter of his life where he had undeniably “made it” as measured by external standards (e.g. Top Ten hit, No. 1 album, sold out arenas). The story of how he felt internally after the River tour is soon to be told elsewhere.

This recording from E. Rutherford night four on July 6, 1981 captures what might be one of the first shows where Springsteen didn’t have to lay it all on the line or prove it every night. That’s not to suggest it’s a lesser performance, far from it. But having just conquered Europe and in doing so opened a second front fanbase that would support him for decades to come, Bruce’s return to New Jersey was a victory lap. A flex for the converted. Tellingly, as joyful as the performance is, it is equally affecting when it visits the darker parts of the soul.

Opening with “Thunder Road” alone makes clear Springsteen is playing on his home court. The performance sets the standard for an evening of supreme confidence, and Bruce has an unmistakable hint of swagger in his voice.

Applying modern vernacular, by this point in 1981 he and the band were in flow state. “Prove It All Night” is teeming with brilliance: Stevie Van Zandt stretching “night” to two syllables in his backing vocals; Roy Bittan’s piano cutting through the guitar richness of the mix; Danny Federici’s organ astride Springsteen’s bendy guitar solo that carries the song to conclusion.

Van Zandt's instrumental inventiveness shows up repeatedly on the night. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” starts with a thicker, chugga-chugga riff than we’re used to and he leads the way with fine support from Bittan and a strong Clarence Clemons solo. E Street is on tonight and we quickly sense how much they are enjoying themselves.

“Darkness on the Edge of Town” brings additional thick guitar layers in a peak performance across the board ahead of the night’s first new song, “Follow That Dream.” The keyboard drone that starts this version is something Springsteen did as well on “Factory,” but the sound seems to suggest something entirely different here: not the drone of work, but something spiritual. “Follow That Dream” could be Springsteen’s first mantra or affirmation. The musical build of the arrangement: drone and vocal, followed by guitar, drum and bass, then piano, and finally a coda of five synthesizer notes is glorious.

Three tracks from July 6 were selected for Live/1975-85, and it's easy to see why this "Independence Day” was chosen. Springsteen tells the story about his father at the kitchen table in its most compassionate form, and his vocals shift powerfully between spoken word and singing, including a last “ahh” held until the final note.

Jon Altschiller’s mix offers clarity, proximity, and, as noted above, sets guitars as its foundation. As Bruce starts “Trapped,” we hear each pick-to-string nuance, while Van Zandt’s playing lashes the chorus, and his exquisite phrasing, particularly behind the second verse, shines.

The pair share the spotlight and the microphone for the first of two occasions on “Two Hearts” ahead of “The Promised Land,” which features fine Federici organ and satisfying support vocals from SVZ, notably his reading of “into my hands” in the second chorus. His later solo in “The Promised Land” is intriguingly Nils Lofgren-like, and moments later, he switches to acoustic guitar to paint the landscape for “The River.”

“This Land Is Your Land” is an example of further arrangement finesse, as Bruce plays Woody Guthrie’s song for America solo acoustic, until Bittan and Federici arrive with a poignant coda. The first set wraps with winning takes of “Who’ll Stop the Rain” (another robust Clemons solo), “Badlands” (where Max Weinberg gets his chance to show out a little) and “Out In the Street.”

With a couple of key exceptions, the second set is an upbeat celebration, commencing with a crowd-pleasing five pack of “Hungry Heart,” “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch),” “Cadillac Ranch,” “Sherry Darling,” and “Jolé Blon.” This is the same “Caddy” that made Live/1975-85 and it boasts impressive harmony vocals, including those of Garry Tallent. The seventh performance ever of the Gary U.S. Bonds classic might be the best “Jolé Blon” of them all, full of reverence and exuberance, as well as first-rate guitar work by Springsteen.

There’s a melancholic tone shift for “Johnny Bye Bye,” preceded by Springsteen’s story of seeing Elvis Presley in concert. The 1981 tour specialized in spare, pensive arrangements, and here it deepens the emotional heft of the song, as do Tallent’s enveloping bass notes. A tonally complementary “Racing in the Street” follows, the last of the Live/1975-85 picks, notable for the weaving of Springsteen and Van Zandt’s guitars in the heart-rending outro to an exemplary version.

But the touching sentiment barely lingers before the thick sludge of “Ramrod” shifts the mood to fun for the rest of the evening. Case in point: Springsteen roams wild and free in “Rosalita,” where his first band introduction “on the far left of the stage” is not to Bittan but crew member Tony “Brokowski” Gallichico, “behind the speaker there.”

The encore commences with one of the evening’s highlights as Springsteen and Van Zandt again share lead vocals on a jubilant, if in hindsight revealing “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” which Stevie penned for Southside Johnny’s debut album. It’s four minutes of pure New Jersey soul revue bliss.

“Jungleland” is an epic performance, benefitting from the guitar-soaked mix and again exhibiting the E Street Band at the top of their game: Springsteen brings his all to the lines “dressed in the latest rage” and “desperate as the night moves on”; Van Zandt reinterprets the guitar solo; and Bittan drops deeply moving piano refrains after Clemons’ crushes his saxophone centerpiece.

The pitch-perfect evening ends with “Born to Run” along with one further surprise as Springsteen adds two verses and choruses of Mitch Ryder’s spunky “Sock It to Me, Baby!” to the rest of the Ryder tunes in a 13-minute plus “Detroit Medley.”

What was to follow after the River tour may have been marked by isolation and uncertainty, but on this night Bruce Springsteen knew he had delivered greatness. “That’s all there is,” Springsteen concludes assuredly. “There ain’t no more.”

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

Links:

Springsteen archive release includes Van Zandt duet on ‘I Don’t Want to Go Home’ ^(NJArts)

Brucebase Wiki

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Reach Up And Touch The Sky