12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Johnny Bye Bye”
“This is a…song that…it seems like I…I remember when I was nine years old and I was sitting, sitting in the living room and my mother had on the Ed Sullivan Show…and Elvis Presley came on… and it was like from then, from then on he was like, he was the father of my country (crowd cheers) and when he died, it was hard to understand how somebody who had so much and was so strong inside…at one time could in the end lose so bad, end up so lonely… this is called, this is called “Bye Bye Johnny…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Independence Day”
“This is…this is another song about fathers and sons…I grew up in a house where anybody never talked to each other and…when, when I left home (?)…me and my old man had never had a conversation that counted in our whole lives…and later my folks moved out to California and I’d go out to visit them and he’d changed a lot from when…when they used to live back in New Jersey and uh…it seemed like there was always things that I wanted to tell him, I wanted to say to him…and I always kept putting it off, thinking I’d call him next week or I’d go visit him next month…and then he got real sick and he went in the hospital and…I remember my mother called me up when I was home…and I thought about all the things that, that I had to tell him that I never…that I never did and…about how it’s easy to miss that chance, something could’ve happened to him and there’d been all those words left, left unsaid…and I realized that he was getting old and he wasn’t…that he was different than he was when…so if you got folks at home or if you got good friends …don’t wait too long to tell them the things that…that you got, that you got to say (crowd cheers)…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “This Land Is Your Land”
“Thanks…all you guys that are down in here – I know some of these guys are telling you to sit down when you’re rocking but you paid your money so you should be able to dance if you wanted so (crowd cheers)…somebody…told me…last night that…this building was never actually dedicated to Joe Louis (crowd cheers) which… which is a shame (?) so…this is a song, this is a song by Woody Guthrie and this is dedicated to Joe Louis (crowd cheers)…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Thunder Road”
“(after the sing-along) Are you talking to me? (crowd cheers)…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Alright, everybody dance (crowd cheers)…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, at the end of “Sherry Darling”
“(After having danced with a girl from the crowd) I’m in love…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Ramrod”
“Let’s do a little ramrodding…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, middle of “Rosalita”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we got with us tonight…a galaxy of superstars right here on our stage…I’d like to begin with over on the left, a man….from Long Island…came all the way here tonight just to play for you, he plays that thing we like to call a piano, let’s have a warm round of applause, for you know him, you love him, at least you know him, Professor Roy Bittan on the piano….next we got a guy…he’s the poet of the soul, he’s the 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 Come Home,´ ´Trapped Again,’ I’m talking about the one, the only, the great Miami Steve Van Zandt… and next we got a man, can I say he’s a great humanitarian? Can I say he’s a great veterinarian? Can I say he’s a handsome devil? Can I say he’s quite a ladies’ man? No, I can’t say any of those things, so let me say on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W. Tallent…and now way in the back we got the king of the big beat, all the way from South Orange, New Jersey, the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums….and over there on the organ, we got a man from Flemington, New Jersey, Phantom Dan Federici on the organ and the clock…and now…last but not least (crowd cheers) I don’t blame you for being excited…because we got with us a man, he’s known to the guys ´round the neighborhood as the king of the world…the master of the universe…the emperor of all things, he’s faster than a speeding bullet, he’s more powerful than a roaring locomotive, he’s 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!”) no, it ain’t! gimme a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E (audience spells Clarence’s name with Bruce)…what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”)
what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) what’s that spell? (crowd: “Clarence”) Spotlight on the Big Man!…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Jungleland”
“I wanna, I wanna thank all you guys for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much…and…this is, uh, this is for Bob, Bob, this is for you..”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Detroit Medley”
“I wanna bring out somebody whose music in the early-60´s….had a lot to do with….the foundation for ours, his hometown, would you give a nice round of applause for Mitch Ryder (crowd cheers)…”
12.08.81 Detroit, MI, intro to “Twist and Shout”
“Alright, we got one more for Detroit (crowd cheers) for you guys way up there…you think you can twist a little bit? (crowd cheers)…”
Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi
