1981-07-08 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Bruce sings the opening lines of "Stagger Lee" as an introduction to "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)", along with a snippet of "Sweet Soul Music" during the band introductions. "Detroit Medley" includes "Sock It To Me, Baby!", "Sweet Soul Music", and "Shake". Soundcheck includes "All I Need", a Springsteen composition that was eventually recorded by Gary U.S. Bonds on his album On The Line.

08.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to ´´Independence Day´´
´´We just….when we got back, we were over in Europe for a couple of months…and when I came back home….my Dad, my Dad got sick and I went out to California, he was in the hospital….and….it´s funny when you go and see your, see your folks, if they´re in the hospital or something and you´ve never seen them there before….´cause there´s something about, something about a place like that makes, makes everybody seem so helpless….and….when I came back, I started thinking about how, how if something had happened to him and how if he´d died, how I really, how I really would have never got a chance to, to meet him, to know what he was like because when I was growing up, we were, we were in two different worlds and we never really spoke except to yell at each other and as I got older, I drifted away, I drifted away from him, I didn´t see my folks much, I don´t get to see ´em that much now…. but I, I started to think about how all the things that, that I would wanna tell him…..and that if I….if I had never, if I´d never got the chance, the things I´d be thinking about, carrying around with me inside for the rest of my life instead….so….like, it took me and my old man, it took 30 years just to be able to tell each other that, that we cared about each other, that we loved each other, you know….and that….that´s, that´s just the beginning, you know, that´s just, that´s just the start, you know, so if you got folks at home and you´ve got stuff that you never told ´em and you gotta tell ´em, that you wanna tell ´em, don´t wait, you know (chuckles) don´t wait too long….´´

08.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to ´´Johnny Bye Bye´´
´´This is a song, uh….about….about Elvis and….I guess one of the most important things that you have in the world is, is friends that are around you that help make you, help make you a better person than you´d be without ´em….that´s a hard, that´s a hard thing to find and…..it´s easy to, it´s easy to get stuck in one place, hanging around with a bunch of people that, that are stuck in the same place with you, you bring each other down but, uh…..one of the things after, after Elvis died, I used to think about a lot, wonder how somebody who had so much and seemed to have won so much in his life could in the end lose so bad and….he couldn´t have, he couldn´t have had many, he couldn´t have had any friends…..but this….this is a song for him….´´

08.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of ´´Rosalita´´
´´Alright now….I´m talking about….up here on our stage tonight….we got a gentleman….at the far left, on that thing we like to call ´the piano,´ Professor Roy Bittan….and now….in the red shirt over here, this guy, I wanna tell you…..he´s the master of soul, poet of rock and roll, he 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´…. ´Daddy´s Come Home´….I´m talking about the magnificent Miami Steve Van Zandt….alright, we got now, to my immediate left, a man who came all the way here tonight from, you guessed it, Neptune, New Jersey, anybody here from Neptune? (?) on the bass, Mr.Garry W. Tallent….we got a man here in the back all the way from South Orange, I´m talking about the Mighty Max Weinberg….to my far right…..we got a man, to say, to say that he´s unpredicatable is the understatement of the year, all I wanna say all the way from the same town that gave you that fantastic Flemington Furs-commercial you saw on television all last winter, from Flemington, Phantom Dan Federici…..now….now I get to….now this is the hard part of the show because this is where words fail me….but I´m about to introduce this man, what can I say? can I say he´s the king of the world? you already know that, can I say he´s the master of the universe? you already know that….then just let me say tonight, to my immediate right….
Spotlight on the Big Man….´´

08.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of ´´Detroit Medley´´
´´You tired out there yet? (crowd: ´´No´´) good because I want you to…..I want you to…. Sock it to me, baby….
(….) Are you dead yet? (crowd: ´´No´´)….we´re gonna whip you now, let me see you shake ….shake a little bit….listen while I talk to you…..´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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