1984-08-05 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

First night of a ten show stand at the Meadowlands Arena. Encores include the first "Jersey Girl" of the tour. "Growin' Up" includes the wild animals story. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a snippet of "Hail To The Chief" during the band introductions. "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band".

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Highway Patrolman´
´´This is a….this is a song about family, how it's…it's hard to know what the right thing to do sometimes is….when it comes to the people that you love….´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Glory Days´
´´This is a song….about….(?)….before….before I wanted to play the guitar, there was only one other thing I wanted to be….a lover, no (chuckles)…..no, I wanted to be a baseball player….and…..in my younger years I concentrated very hard on this, even when I was about seven years old, I joined the Freehold New Jersey Colonial League (cheers)…..there's my team mates now….and then I joined the Little League…..and then I got around high school age I joined the Babe Ruth League….I was doing better, I only had one problem….I couldn't hit, I couldn't throw, I couldn't catch but I wasn't gonna let those details stop me…..till around 15, I got interested in a couple of other things….one of 'em was the guitar….it was about that time when I was starting to do, like on Friday and Saturday night I´d be at a gig with my band and the baseball games were during the week so they didn't get in each other´s way too much but this one, this one week we had a rained-out game and they rescheduled it for 8.30 Saturday morning…..that´s early for me…..so the night before I did a show, came home, I got in bed at about 4 a.m, then around 7.30 I heard them knock on my door….there´s some guys from my team….I told my mother, I said ´Look, Mom, go down there and tell ´em that I´m sick and I can´t make it´…. so she went down and she told them ´Oh, he´s too sick, he can´t come´ and they went away….. then about 20 minutes later they came back…..and I heard ´em saying ´Oh, Mrs.Springsteen, please, we only got eight guys, if Bruce don´t come, we´re gonna forfeit the game, it´s gonna be the end of the season´ all this stuff right….so I´m laying in bed, I´m dying, like, I hear ´em coming up the stairs, I´m laying in my bed, now….I always sleep with my guitar….it bothers my girlfriends a little bit but they get used to it (chuckles) so now I gotta make believe like I really am sick so (coughs) I´m making all these sick noises and they come up and they´re begging me and stuff so finally I´m one of those people that can´t say ´no´….if you bother me enough, I say ´yes´ to anything (chuckles)….and so I get on my suit and I go down and I get out in rightfield, my head hurts and it´s early….I´m standing out there and I´m praying that nothing comes my way ….and eight innings go by, I´m doing fine and right there on the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied….all of a sudden, gssshh!…..´I got it, I got it!´….the agony of defeat….anyway, that was when I hung up my baseball cleats and decided to dedicate my life to rock and roll…..the other night I was out in this bar….and I met this guy….he started telling me all about glory days…. in the end they don´t last…..´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Used Cars´
´´thanks….well, we finally made it back…..only took me three years this time….well, I got, got my Mom and Dad out there tonight….but….but like I tease ´em now because this is about me and my sister, she´s out there too….and when we were kids, we were quite young, my Dad would try to….he'd come in the house and say ´Well, it´s time we're gonna go get, get a new car´….now, what he meant by a new car was anything under 500 dollars (chuckles) and so we´d come down to the used car lot, it was the only time that me and my sister used to get together 'cause we used to always be, be competitive, she was a year younger than me and she used to do everything first (chuckles) she was always tougher (chuckles) but we'd get together on this one thing, we'd start bothering my old man to get us a convertible….'cause in the summer I used to, I used to sit out on my front porch, we used to live on this street called South Street ….I'd sit out there at night, I'd count the convertibles when they went by, so come around this time, we'd always start bothering my Dad, he always, I could tell that inside he, he always wanted one but he still does, but he still don't have one so if you see him, he's a big round guy (chuckles) you see him, tell him it's time he got one (chuckles) but we used to be able to get him back 'cause me and, me and my sister, we found the exact spot in the backseat where when he was driving, no matter what we did, he couldn't reach us (chuckles) (?) until we got home (chuckles) ´Wait till you'll get home, wait till we'll get home´, that's all he'd say (chuckles) anyway, this is for them…..´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´My Hometown´ (following ´Used Cars´)
´´Yeah….that´s for them…..I remember when I was…..when I was 16, I used to, I couldn't wait on the weekends I'd get on a Lincoln Transit, go up to, go up to New York City….but my town, it seemed, it seemed like it was so small, it was so narrow minded….at the time that ….that it was, it was hard staying around in, later on I used to think, I got to where I felt that I really, I really hated where I came from and I hated who I was at that time and I tried, I guess I tried to, uh….I felt that if I got far away and if I could….that who I was, where I came from might disappear just completely from me…..but I found out that no matter where you go, that´s always with you and that´s ok because it just means that, means that you're a part of something….so….so enough of that (chuckles)….´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Sherry Darling´
´´I'm stuck here in traffic on the goddamn New Jersey Turnpike….´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´No Surrender´
´´Oh, thanks….this is, uh….this is a song I wanna do for….this is for Tex and Marion…..who were two…..when I was just starting a band, when I was about 15 maybe….they really opened up their house to….to me and all the guys….they let us rehearse there….and….when I needed an amplifier, Tex, he signed the loan so (chuckles) so I wanna say ´thanks´….but uh ….this is also for Little Steven, wherever he may be….”

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´
´´Well, now, this is a song about the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health….. between desires of the flesh…..and spiritual ecstasy….between the mansion on the hill and the mansion in the sky, between the cynics and the skeptics and the true believers….now, you can´t have both…..now, what I wanna know is how many of you think that tonight if, and I hope this doesn't happen, if you should die during the show due to excitement, how many of you think that you´re gonna go to heaven? (cheers) well, now, how many of you believe that if you should pass away during the final moments due to heart failure that you just may end up taking the down-elevator? (cheers) well, now, personally I know I´m gonna go to heaven ….now, I´m gonna miss the band but I´m gonna get over it….in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth and He sat back and said ´This is good´, on the First Day, He was hot so He created air-conditioning and the Lord sat back and said ´This is good´, on the Second Day, He grew hungry and He created cheeseburgers and the Lord sat back and said ´This is good´, on the Fourth Day, He created tight blue jeans, He sat back and said ´This is good´, on the Fifth Day, He created rock and roll and He sat back and said ´This is good´ and on the Sixth Day, which was the weekend, He wanted to go for a drive, He created the pink Cadillac and He sat back and said ´This is wild´….´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Growin´ Up´
´´Well, there we were….it was a night just like tonight….a long, long time ago….I'd just met Clarence….he was working in the pizza parlor, I was working in the Laundromat….we didn't know what to do with ourselves….we had no direction, we had no guidance…..we were frustrated…..our lives were meaningless….and then Clarence decided that what we needed was a couple of girls….this made a lot of sense…..so we got in his old car….and we started to drive….he said they lived just a little ways outside of town…..but we drove and we drove down into the pines….and then….we got a flat…..it was dark…..it was scary….clouds covered the moon….there was a lot of strange things going on…..so….we were trying to decide whether to roll up the windows and lock the doors or go out and see if there was a spare….so being that this was a democracy we decided we'd shoot for it….I won but then I went out and looked and seen if there was a spare…..nothing, the trunk was empty so Clarence decided that he knew where there was a gas-station just on the other side of the woods….so into the forest we went…..Big Man, now, there ain't no like big wild animals in New Jersey, is there?…. there ain't no big wild animals in the pines right?….you sure? you positive?….I think I hear something….you sure now, you sure?….I think I hear something….Big Man…..whoooa!….then I lost Clarence…. Big Man, where are you?….where are you?….where are you?….oh, Big Man….Big Man, don´t do that! don't do that!…and then….and then out of the sky we seen what looked like a falling star fall off into the trees….and we went a little further and the moon shone down on this clearing and there in the clearing we saw the answer to our quest…..and then…..when we touched….. ´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´I remember….you said….if you made it out first you´d help me…..and if I made it out first I´d help you…..and we swore on it….then you said it was nothing but a promise…..you said it wasn´t anything but a promise…..you said it was nothing but a promise…..´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Rosalita´
´´Alright….ladies and gentlemen…..children of all ages….it´s now my pleasure to introduce to you the members of the E Street Band….beginning…..beginning…..beginning to my far left…. Jim the Dancing Bear!…don´t worry, folks, he´s completely docile….on the piano….the most intelligent member of the band - no offense to rest of you guys, a man…..who gave up a scholarship to Harvard in mental surgery to tour with the E Street Band….well-known for his theory of promiscuity, for his study of the lost tribes of Hoboken, on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan….he´s so smart, he´s so smart….on the vocals, an alumni of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes….from Long Branch, New Jersey, Miss Patti Scialfa….on the bass, bringing you the thunder from down under, Mr. Garry W.Tallent….on the drums, drummer, author of The Big Beat, that you can find in any bookstores at the mall, the Mighty Max Weinberg…. on the organ, the inevitable, the inimitable, the immovable, the irreprovable, the immoral, the unfathomable, the understandable, the incredible Phantom Dan Federici…..and on the guitar, as sweet as life itself, drumroll please….Mr.Nils Lofgren…..(Nils does his trampoline stunt) ….that´s incredible….and now, last but not least….do I have to say his name?….you know he´s the king of the world….the emperor of the universe…..the master of all things….but tonight I´d like to place his name in nomination for to be the next President of the United States….it´s time there was a Big Man in the White House…..so gimme a C-LA-R-E-N-C-E, what's that spell? (crowd : ´Clarence!´) what's that spell? (crowd : ´Clarence!´) what's that spell? (crowd : ´Clarence!´) the one, the only, for now and forever, my buddy, Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons on the saxophone….´´

05.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Born to Run´
´´I wanna thank everybody for coming down (?)….all my friends, my mother and my father…my doctor and my lawyer (chuckles)…. this is, uh, when I was, when I was a kid, I heard the music of Elvis, Elvis Presley, it just said to me….I guess the thing it kind of said to me was just ´Let freedom ring´….so….that´s what we were here for tonight but you gotta fight for it…..´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IN CONCERT

WITH all the excitement swirling about the Jacksons, let us not forget Bruce Springsteen. He did have a No. 1 album this summer, after all, with ''Born in the U.S.A.'' And he is playing to more ticket- buyers in the New York area than the Jacksons or anyone else has ever done in a single engagement - 202,000 of them, to be exact, in 10 long- since-sold-out concerts in the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands of his native New Jersey. The first of those concerts was Sunday night, and they continue in pairs, with rest days in between, through Aug. 20.

Mr. Springsteen and his E Street Band will need the rest. Without an opening act, they offer a prodigious four-hour performance, an almost unstinting (there is one intermission) outpouring of music, dancing energy and heartwarming communal feeling. Mr. Springsteen is, not to put too fine a point on it, the best rock-and- roll performer this writer has ever seen. At one point Sunday, Mr. Springsteen pulled a teen-age girl on stage with him. Through binoculars, one could read her lips: ''I love you so much,'' she said, and in that she spoke for the entire audience.

To say Mr. Springsteen is the best rock performer ever is not to say he is the best composer, the best singer, the best guitarist or the best top-10 singles artist. He has his limitations - of musical invention, of audience (there was hardly a black face to be seen Sunday), of social impact in a time that distrusts the redemptive power of popular art.

But for his very perseverance, his proud assertion of the values that have made rock music so beloved, Mr. Springsteen deserves our admiration. But if that were all there was to it, he would have to rest content as a wax dummy in a rock-and-roll museum. What makes him so appealing is how he carries on, alive and literally kicking, entertaining and instructing us in a way that we can't tell the difference between the two.

The entertainment part is obvious: not just in his ebullient uptempo songs, but in his set as a whole Mr. Springsteen gives his people what they want. And yet he's made them want more, and better, than they usually do today. Unlike so much of the best rock, which evoked a rebellious negativism, and so much latter-day rock, which panders to what the Soviets call ''hooliganism,'' Mr. Springsteen's projects an almost unfailing positive vision. It is a remarkable feat: passion without enduring pain; positivism without sacrifice of power.

The instruction also comes because Mr. Springsteen is such a deep and all-encompassing encyclopedia of rock idioms. His historicism can be heard most clearly in his encores, when he sings the songs of others - Sunday, Tom Waits's ''Jersey Girl,'' his Mitch Ryder medley and ''Twist and Shout,'' based on the Beatles' version. But such a love for the past suffuses his own composition, as well. Mr. Springsteen's detractors complain about his lack of musical invention, but the charge seems misplaced. He works within a set of idioms; together they constitute a tradition. But he uses those idioms as if it never once occurred to him that they might be stale, and in his hands they aren't.

Furthermore, he was in fine voice Sunday, and the E Street Band (despite a sound system that seemed a little overblown and muddy from this writer's seat) was in solid form, with Nils Lofgren filling in adeptly for the departed Steve Van Zandt. There is also a new backup singer, Patti Scialfa, but she had little to do.

For all his traditionalism, however, there is also a discernible evolution in Mr. Springtseen's work. He hardly does anything now from his period of the early 1970's, apart from ''Growin' Up'' and ''Rosalita.'' The self-conscious myth-making and inflated verbosity live on in some of his best-loved songs of the mid-70's, however. Those songs perhaps overdominated the set selection Sunday, bumping out some of his more sombre recent work. But the crowd - his crowd - loved it. To hear 20,000 people singing whole songs a cappella, loud and clear, was extraordinary.

Since the mid-70's, Mr. Springsteen has moved into an austere phase, telling grim heartfelt stories about people struggling to survive in a society indifferent to them. What was interesting about Sunday's show, in part, was how all this work sounded of a piece. The acoustic songs on his ''Nebraska'' album were fleshed out (sometimes too sweetly, as with the overuse of a noxious chime effect from one of the electronic keyboards); the synthesized dance-rock textures of ''Born in the U.S.A.'' were revealed as superficial overlays of his standard rock arrangements.

For sheer excitement, this writer still prizes Mr. Springsteen's club shows of the mid-70's: arenas inevitably rob music of some of its impact. But their large scale also becomes a fitting setting for an artist of such genuinely popular aspirations.

This is not ''pop''; not commercial calculation. What makes Mr. Springsteen such a satisfying harbinger of the ''rock-and-roll future'' is not his anticipation of today's trends - they have grown almost foreign to him - but his role as a musician working lovingly within the rock tradition to make serious adult art. That's worth cheering about, just as much as the spellbinding fervor of his actual performances.

^{By John Rockwell via The New York Times.}

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