1981-07-09 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

The final show of six at Brendan Byrne Arena. Gary U.S. Bonds joins Bruce and the band for "Jolé Blon" and the tour's final "This Little Girl". Clarence sings the opening lines to Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee" in the introduction to "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)", which includes "Sweet Soul Music" in the midsection. "Detroit Medley" includes "I Hear A Train", "Sock It To Me, Baby!", "Sweet Soul Music", and "Shake".

Gary U.S. Bonds (Guest)

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Independence Day”
“I grew up…in this house…where…nobody ever talked to each other…we used to live on the left side…of this little three-room house…there was a front room and a kitchen and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs…and…with everybody living that close…it seemed that…nobody ever sat down without being angry…telling each other what was on their minds…I could never talk to my old man, he could never talk to me, my mother couldn’t talk to him…so I was glad when…I finally got old enough…and I started, started to live alone…then…then for about ten years I never saw my folks… my folks that much…and just recently, we came back…from Europe (crowd cheers) if you get a chance, you gotta…you gotta go there because it’s not, you can’t imagine it, it’s not…it’s not what, what you think it is or what you read in the papers…but we got back and my father got…I got a phone call a night or two later that my father had gotten sick…and I went out to California where he lives now, he was in the hospital there…and I started thinking on the way out about all the…about all the things that I always wanted to say to him that I never said and I always figured, well, someday we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about all this stuff, talk about why it was the way it was when I was young and talk about why he felt the way he did but the years go by and it never, it never comes up…I guess it feels like a dangerous subject or something…but he got sick and I realised that he was getting old and he, that…if I had something to say to him…I should say it now and…you know ’cause…family is forever and it’s something that (crowd cheers) it’s something that don’t ever go away, no matter how far you move away from each other or no matter what your feelings are towards each other…it’s just there in your blood all the time, in your blood …so if you got, if you got folks at home and have been waiting, waiting to say stuff to ‘em, don’t waste too much time…you know, ’cause you’ll always regret it…”

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “This Land Is Your Land”
“(Bruce begins the harmonica intro and a firecracker explodes in the crowd)…Whoever just threw that firecracker, you can do me a big fucking favor (crowd cheers) you know…and don’t do it, if anybody was around that guy, point him out, and throw his fucking ass out of here (crowd cheers) if you don’t have…you don’t have the respect for yourself, you ought to at least respect the people that are sitting around you (crowd cheers) you, you guys paid your money, you got the right to sit here without worrying about somebody throwing something, hit you on the head and try to blow you up with something…so…so whoever you are, you, you are no friend of mine, do not (?)(crowd cheers) this is a song, that’s… uh…that’s about respect…it’s about having respect for yourself… for the land that you live in…”

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Jole Blon”
“I’m gonna…we got…a friend of mine’s gonna sing a couple of songs with us (crowd cheers)(?)…Mr. Gary U.S Bonds (crowd cheers)…

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Johnny Bye Bye”
“This, uh…back in ‘77…we played in Memphis…and…Elvis was still alive…at the time we drove past Graceland…and…I remember after, after I heard he’d died, I was…I used to sit back and wonder how somebody that…that once had won so much…could, could in the end lose as big as he did…and…it seemed like…in life it’s important to have the right friends around you, you know (crowd cheers) people that…that can tell you when you’re screwing up and help you be better…and…I think I was, I was sure that he couldn’t have had many friends like that…this is, uh…this is a song that’s for Elvis (crowd cheers)…”

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Ramrod”
“Alright, let’s go ramrodding (crowd cheers)…”

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Rosalita”
“(Clarence: “The night was black and the moon was yellow…and the leaves came tumbling…
(…) Now ladies and gentlemen…comes my favorite part of the show …the band introductions (crowd cheers) I wanna begin at the far left with the guy back there (?) he’s sitting behind that big thing that we like to call a piano, I’m talking about the one, the only, the intelligent, the educated, the inimitable, the inevitable Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Roy, play a little bit (Roy plays) (crowd cheers) that’s only the first (?)…now to my left again…the man in the red shirt…the poet of the soul, master 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 Coming Home,” Miami Steve Van Zandt (crowd cheers) on the bass guitar, all the way from Neptune, New Jersey, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) back on the drums, ooh, the Mighty One, Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) to my far right, the unpredictable, the unfathomable, the great, from Flemington, New Jersey, Danny Federici on the organ (crowd cheers) and now (crowd cheers) this is the tough part…’cause words…words have no meaning when I try to describe this next gentleman…let me say we all know he’s the king of the world…he’s the master of the universe …he’s the emperor of all things…gonna be the next Governor of New Jersey probably (crowd cheers) not a bad idea…Clarence the Governor (?) I like that…so listen, let me just say that he’s faster than a speeding bullet…able to leap tall women, I mean tall buildings in a single bound, it ain’t no bird, it ain’t no plane, give me a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E, what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) Spotlight on the Big Man…

09.07.81 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Jersey Girl”
“This is our last night here and (crowd cheers) I just wanna, I wanna, we’ve, we’ve done, we’ve played a lot this year and I just wanna thank you guys for making this really seem like home for us (crowd cheers) ‘cause, ‘cause you’ve been the best and I mean it, thank you (crowd cheers) this is especially for you…”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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Thank You Guys For Making This Really Seem Like Home

I was 15 years old in the summer of 1981. My friend Marc had just turned 16 and obtained his driver’s license. The previous October, my father took Marc and me to the Seattle Center Coliseum to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and that changed everything.

My parents subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine, which ran a Random Notes item that Springsteen would be doing a return leg of the River tour over the summer. With only that single data point to go on in the pre-Internet days, Marc and I would get up early and drive to the local mall every Sunday in June and July to see if, by chance, a line had formed and Springsteen tickets were going on sale. The Seattle ’80 show had gone up with no prior warning on a Sunday morning. We figured, better safe than sorry.

A Seattle ’81 show never materialized, but the story illustrates the heightened levels of anticipation for Springsteen’s summer return. If Marc and I were going to all that trouble in hopes of getting tickets to a Seattle concert that was never even contemplated, imagine what it must have been like in New Jersey when it was announced that Bruce and the E Street Band would christen the newly constructed Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford with a six-show stand to kick off their post-Europe victory lap.

Though only 32 dates in total, the Summer ’81 tour is one of the most celebrated in Springsteen’s long performance history. The epic-length sets of the previous winter had tightened up, giving the shows a sharper focus. The summer run also came after Springsteen’s first extended tour of Europe, an inflection point in his musical development that, with the introduction of three vital new songs to the set, brought with it the first indications of where his music might be going.

East Rutherford 7/9/81 is the final night of the Brendan Byrne run and a moment of culmination for Springsteen and the E Street Band. Their confidence and a new sense of purpose developed on the stages and streets of Europe drives this outstanding performance, and the audience is there to meet them. Even when Bruce assays new songs, the crowd sounds fully on board. Listen to the sympathetic clapping they add to “Follow That Dream”; the live archive version from London a month earlier has no audience participation at all.

The 7/9/81 show wastes no time getting to the meat of the matter, opening with “Thunder Road” into “Prove It All Night” and “The Ties That Bind.” Playing his sixth show in nine nights, Bruce’s voice needs a little warming up at the start, but his passion is already dialed in at 10. By “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Bruce and the band lock into gold medal form, and the song spotlights Stevie Van Zandt’s critical vocal contributions in this era.

“Follow That Dream” is the first of the new songs, all three of which blur the line between cover song reinterpretations and originals. The Elvis Presley reinvention retains its stark, meditative arrangement debuted in Europe and closes on one of the most disquieting, chilling notes in the Springsteen catalog.

“Follow That Dream” has an especially curious place in the canon in that it feels like an extremely significant song in Bruce’s evolution as a songwriter, despite having never had an official studio release (it was recorded for Born in the U.S.A. in 1983). It’s only been performed 15 times since the Bridge School Benefit in 1986, but it shows up in every decade, as recently as Australia 2017, the last E Street Tour to date. Is there a more meaningful unreleased song?

Carrying on, “Independence Day” revisits Springsteen’s father-son narrative, but this time with a new chapter recognizing the need to say the things that need to be said, now, while there’s still time. The sentiment couldn’t be more timely in the Covid-19 era.

“Who’ll Stop the Rain” has never sounded bigger or bolder than this terrific rendition, and Jon Altschiller’s mix offers incredible instrument separation. The acoustic and electric guitar interplay is marvelous — and listen for the electric to kick in again, quite thrillingly, five seconds into “Two Hearts.” What a great version. The same can be said for “The Promised Land,” as heightened vocal phrasing brings the song to another level.

There’s an intriguing break in the mood as Bruce begins the harmonica intro to “This Land Is Your Land” only to be interrupted by the explosion of a firecracker (heard clearly in the right channel). Condemnation is immediate. “Whoever just threw that firecracker, you can do me a big fucking favor and don’t do it,” he says with total convinction. “Whoever you are, you are no friend of mine. This is a song about that respect; it’s about having respect for yourself, for the land that you live in.” Pure conviction powers Springsteen through the daunting take of “The River” that comes next as he attempts to reset following the firecracker, leading to one of the highlights of the night — if not the whole of the 1981 tour.

Word of this incredible new song “Trapped” had even reached me on the other side of the country (again, likely through Rolling Stone). I had to hear it. Through the magic of mail order, I bought a bootleg LP called Prisoner of Rock and Roll that included “Trapped,” and I was gobsmacked. The simple start, the build, the intensity, the crescendo, then again and AGAIN, with the final release coming as Springsteen shouts “I’M TRAPPED” and the last note sustains. Mesmerizing and unlike any Springsteen song that had come before it.

“Trapped” is a cover (originally recorded by Jimmy Cliff), not an original. Cliff’s lyrics are basically intact, and fundamental melodic elements are there, too. But how Springsteen listened to this and developed the arrangement he performs in New Jersey is the alchemy of a musical genius. Hearing the song in this context—following the firecracker incident, “This Land Is Your Land” and a tentative “The River”—“Trapped” offers unmistakable catharsis.

Set one wraps with a high energy “Out in the Street” and full-tilt “Badlands,” rich with Van Zandt vocal accents, Roy Bittan piano, and plenty of Max Weinberg propulsion.

East Rutherford 7/9/81 is marked by its new songs, but it was also a summer Shore party as the second set makes clear. The festivities begin with “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch),” replete with some interesting lyrical additions where our protagonist is “going downtown, gonna buy a gun.” Love the guitar mix on this one.

From there, bang bang into “Cadillac Ranch,” Bruce’s ultimate party song “Sherry Darling,” and “Hungry Heart” (with the audience taking the first verse capably) before we’re treated to a guest appearance. Gary U.S. Bonds, whose Springsteen-Van Zandt-produced album Dedication was released that April, duets with Bruce on the traditional “Jolé Blon” (which Springsteen introduced to his own sets in the UK), and Bonds takes the lead vocal on his hit single, the Springsteen original “This Little Girl.”

The third and final new song of the show, “Johnny Bye Bye” follows. Bruce offers a eulogistic rumination on Elvis Presley to introduce the song, which, like “Follow That Dream,” draws potency from its spare arrangement. It is a compassionate farewell to The King. Paired together, “Racing in the Street” extends the elegiac sentiment in a resplendent reading led by Bittan on piano.

Time to party. “Ramrod” low rides into an extra playful “Rosalita,” as Clarence Clemons set the scene with the opening lines from Lloyd Price’s “Stagger Lee”: “The night was clear, and the moon was yellow. And the leaves came tumblinggggggggg.” Band intros are on point, accented by tasty Stevie guitar licks throughout and concluding, of course, with The Big Man himself, who Bruce posits could be the next Governor of New Jersey. “Sounds like a good idea. Clarence Clemons Arena, I like that,” he says, referencing the new arena named for Governor Byrne. All of which leads to “Spotlight on the Big Man” and its brief vamp on “Sweet Soul Music.”

For the encore, the most Bruce Springsteen song Bruce didn’t write, “Jersey Girl.” This performance of the Tom Waits classic is the one that would be officially released as the b-side to “Cover Me” three years later, but I don’t recall that mix bringing Van Zandt’s guitar so charmingly to the fore. A superb “Jungleland” accompanies, with sublime soloing from Stevie and Clarence, along with a pacey “Born to Run” with Bruce soaring for “girl I’m just a scared and lonely rider.”

The New Jersey homecoming wraps with an extended “Detroit Medley” which takes several exciting detours as it careens along the turnpike. The first is “I Hear a Train,” then a rare romp through Mitch Ryder’s “Sock It To Me, Baby!” (written by Bob Crewe and Russell Brown), another scoop of Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” and finally a generous slice of Sam Cooke’s “Shake” in what might constitute the best “Detroit Medley” ever.

The phrase “giving the people their money’s worth” would be an apt description for the final night at Brendan Byrne Arena 39 years ago. Now, it is time to return the favor. All net proceeds from the sale of the East Rutherford 7/9/81 will be donated to the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund (https://njprf.org/).

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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