1984-08-09 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Show features J.T. Bowen (from Clarence's Red Bank Rockers) guesting on a one-off version of "A Woman's Got The Power" (not to be played again until 2011), played after complaints from Bruce's mother that Bruce always sings about his father and not his mother. Bruce's parents are in the audience. "Growin' Up" includes the bear story. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes Roy playing a snippet of "Hail To The Chief" during the band introductions.

J.T. Bowen (Guest)

9.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Highway Patrolman´
´´(?)….this is a song about, uh….family and friends….and uh….it´s hard to know what the right thing to do sometimes is when it comes to people that you love….(?)….´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Glory Days´
´´Now….before I started playing the guitar….the only thing I ever wanted to be….was a lover ….no, it was a baseball player….and I had these stone steps out back of my house and I had one of ´em little rubber balls and I had the bottom of the ninth, like, in the World Series….(?) ….then I joined the Little League in Freehold….then I was in Babe Ruth League….and that was about the time I was 14 and I was getting interested in a couple of other things…..one of ´em was the guitar….so…..I started doing some gigs with my, with a local band I had and it wasn´t too bad because the baseball games were during the week and then the, you know, like, the club dates were usually on the weekend so everything was going along pretty smooth, I was juggling my two career tremendously….and then all of a sudden we had a rained-out game that they rescheduled for Saturday morning at 8.30….now, I can always remember this day ´cause it was the last time I was ever up at 8.30….so I did a show the night before and I was feeling pretty tired and I gotta admit I was starting to lose my commitment to the sport….(the rest of the intro is missing from the source tape)….´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Used Cars´
´´Thanks….oh, when I was, when I was a kid, I had a bedroom….I had a bedroom right over the backyard and uh….my Dad used to park the car on the lawn in the back (?)….and I hear him every morning six a.m….one of the first things I´d hear is I´d hear the hood come up…. and him laying on his back on the cold ground trying to get it started to go to work….(?)…. but anyway, he´s here tonight, Dad, you did a good job….´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´The River´
´´This is, uh…..everybody needs someplace to go when they can´t go home…..´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´The Woman´s Got the Power´
´´Now this is a song….anybody see Clarence and the Red Bank Rockers when they were on tour ? (cheers)….Clarence is lending me this song for tonight and the reason he´s gonna lend me this song is we´re in Jersey….everytime I go home….my mother´s always bothering me, she says I´m always singing about my father and that I never sing about her….now, everybody knows that a boy´s best friend is….his mama ! (chuckles)….J.T, where are you ? ….J.T.Bowen, singing in Clarence´s band…..and this for Cheryl on her birthday and for all the women out there…..´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´No Surrender´
´´J.T. can sing (chuckles)….when I was….when I was just 14, 15…..and I was just kind of getting into the guitar, I´d been playing about a year…and I went into this Hulabaloo club in Middletown, New Jersey (chuckles)….and there was this kind of funny-looking guy on stage (chuckles) and we kind of became best friends and we´d travel to the City together and….try to pick up all the latest records….try to figure out the guitar solos…..and uh…..this is for Little Steven, wherever he is tonight…..´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´
´´Take it easy now….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 sceptics and the true believers, now, what I wanna know is how many of you out there tonight believe….that if, and I hope this doesn´t happen, that if you should die during the show due to excitement, that you´re gonna go to heaven ? (cheers) now, how many of you believe that if you should pass away during the final moments due to cardiac arrest or some other terminal illness that it´s possible that you´re gonna take the down-elevator ? (cheers) now, me personally I know I´m going to heaven ….now, I´m gonna miss the band but I´ll get over it….you see because in the beginning there was a Garden of Eden, there was a man, there was a woman, there was an apple, there was temptation, there was sin and parked curbside there was a pink Cadillac …..´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Growin´ Up´
´´And there we were…..it was in the middle of the summertime…..it was on a night just like this night…..a long, long time ago….I´d just met Clarence…..he was working in the massage parlor, I mean the lawyer´s office….I was working in the bowling alley setting up the pins…. we were sitting around outside one day (?) and we realised….that we had nothing going on…. we didn´t know what to do with ourselves, we had no guidance, we had no direction, we didn´t know what we wanted to do with our lives, we were lost, we needed some hope, we needed some faith, we needed a couple of girls….it was then that Clarence mentioned that he knew two young ladies who lived not too far outside of town…..so we got into his old Oldsmobile and we started to drive south down Route 9….and we drove and we drove and we drove down into the pines….and then the unspeakable happened….on a dark back road, far out from civilization, we had a flat…..and it was scary we didn´t know whether we were gonna roll up the windows and lock the doors and wait till morning or go out and see if we had a spare….so this being a democracy, we decided we´d choose to see who´d get to check the trunk….I won…..then I went out and checked the trunk…..I looked….there was nothing…. Clarence said he knew where there was a gas-station just on the other side of those woods …..so into the forest we went….the trees were so tall we couldn´t see the moon, we couldn´t see anything, there was spooky noises coming from everywhere (cheers)…..we got walking for about 15 minutes…..and then…..I thought I heard something behind us…..Big Man, do you hear it ? behind us….now, there ain´t no wild animals, there ain´t no like killer chipmunks or anything ?….(?)…..whoooa !….(?) Clarence…..hey, Clarence !….oh, Clarence ! ….hey, Clarence !….don´t do that !….(?) we didn´t know what was gonna happen….but then all of a sudden, a light came shooting across the sky and the moon shone through the clouds and over in the clearing we saw the answer to our quest…..and we stood there and the stars came out…..and when we touched…..´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, middle of ´Rosalita´
´´Alright now….ladies and gentlemen…..and children of all ages….it is now my pleasure…..it is now my honor….it is now my responsobility….to introduce to you the members of the E Street Band….beginning with our newest member, a gentleman who lives in South Jersey, Jim the Dancing Bear….have no fear, he´s completely docile….and next, to my far left, there´s a gentleman here tonight who gave up a scholarship to Harvard University in unusual sexual practises to do the 1984 tour with the E Street Band…..he´s the most intelligent member of the band, you may have read his papers…..(the rest of Roy´s intro, plus the intros of Patti, Garry and Max are missing from the source tape)…..and on the organ, the inimitable, the immovable, the irretrievable, the immoral, the (?), the unbelievable, the original sinner, lookout, girls, he hates to be alone, Phantom Dan Federici …..and now….on the guitar, a man as sweet as life itself, drumroll please….Mr.Nils Lofgren (Nils does his trampoline stunt)…. that´s incredible….and now, last but not least….what can I say about this gentleman that hasn´t already been said ?….you all know he´s the king of the world….you know he´s the emperor of the universe…..you know he´s the master of all things ….from this week (?) he´s a contestant to be the next man in the White House, it´s time we got a Big Man up there….. 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 !´) Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons on the saxophone….´´

09.08.84 Meadowlands, NJ, intro to ´Born to Run´
´´Thanks…..I wanna thank everybody for coming down tonight…..when I was a kid I heard, heard Elvis on the radio….I guess he, later when I thought about it, it was just saying one thing to me, that was just ´Let freedom ring´….that´s why we´re here tonight, remember you gotta fight for it every day….´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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