1984-10-25 Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

First night of the seven show stand at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Set features five songs from Nebraska. "Glory Days" includes a couple bars of "Out Of Limits" in the introduction. "Backstreets" includes the extended intro but no "Sad Eyes" (though Bruce does at a few words in the midsection). "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band". Following the show Springsteen donates $10,000 to the Steelworkers Oldtimers Foundation, a local food bank.

Intro to "Reason to Believe"
´´This is, uh….this is a song about blind faith…..seems to be a lot of blind faith out there these days (chuckles)….now, blind faith´s a dangerous thing…..if you got it in your girlfriend….or if you got in the government….´´

Intro to "Mansion on the Hill"
´´Thank you….this is, uh….when I was a kid….there used to be this big house, used to sit on a hill on out, outskirts of town….and I remember me and my, me and my sister would walk by it…and for some reason we always thought that the people inside were real different, different than we were…..and we used to like run up to the gate and, and peek through…. and then somebody’d come down and, and chase us away…it was, uh, like kids’ game….´´

Intro to "Glory Days"
´´Alright…now, this is a song….about history….now, I don´t mean history like what the Greeks were doing or what Pythagoras was thinking….or who Sofokles was fooling around with….I´m talking about personal history….I´m talking about the National Enquirer kind of stuff….you´re getting the dirt now…I´m in a confessional mood…..you see, now….what this is kind of about is that….usually when I get home, there´s nothing on TV but ´The Twilight Zone´….now, the strange thing about it is it´s usually only on the TV in my room…..but this is a song about, there was this one actor on this one ´Twilight Zone,´ he was old and he wanted to be young again ´cause he thought when he was young, he had all that fun, he had all the girls (chuckles) and all the good jobs and he was feeling old, feeling like a drag and so….of course….(plays of a bit of ´Outer Limits´) the man slips into the Twilight Zone….but when he goes back there, he finds out that everybody that he thought was being nice to him was treating him like a dog and that his girlfriend was running around with these other guys and in the end he wants to come back and be the age that he is…..and the reason I bring this up is because ….is that always happens to me…..like I go out and somebody´s always coming up to me and saying ´Bruce….remember me, man, we used to have all that fun in high school?…we was going out with all the girls and having a great time, we didn´t have any responsobilities, we didn´t have any cares in the whole world´….you know, I always sit there going ´Alright, alright´….but then when I think about it, I realise….that I hated high school….I couldn´t wait to get out of high school….I´m glad right now that I don´t have to go back to high school when fall comes around…in high school I was only interested in two things…one of them was the guitar….and the other one…..now, the guitar´s the one that I became proficient at….but the other one….I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise….anyway….this is about how all things must pass….ain´t it right, Big Man? ….the Big Man says it´s so, he´s got the wisdom of the ages, he´s gotta be right…..it ain´t nothing but glory days….let me tell my story….´´

Intro to "My Hometown"
´´Oh, thank you…..this is a song, I guess when I originally, I originally wrote this song, I thought I was trying to write a song about, uh…..growing up in the town that I grew up in….. but in the end I guess it´s a song about, uh…..about responsobility to the place that you live …and uh…..tonight there´s some people here that are, are trying to hold up their end of that responsobility, there´s, uh…..there´s an organization in the area…oh, called, uh, Steelworkers Old-Timers Foodbank…..and….what they´re doing is, uh, they´re feeding people that´ve been hard hit by some of the plant closings that you´ve had here in Los Angeles over the past three years, they, they feed 5,000 people a month and….during intermission they´ll be out there, you should check out their organization, I know they could use your support, they´re the Steelworkers Old-Timers Foodbank….and uh, they´re trying, they´re trying to make your hometown a better place to live…..´´

Towards the end of "Dancing In The Dark"
´´Sometimes I feel….I feel so lonely….and I get so downhearted….and that´s when I need a little help….and I just wanna reach out….I said I just wanna reach out to somebody somewhere and say….´Hey, baby,´ come on….´´

Intro to "Cadillac Ranch"
´´Now the question is….is there a Cadillac in the house?….´´

Intro to "Pink Cadillac"
´´Take it easy, boys…..now, this is a song about the conflict….between worldly things and spiritual health…..between the desires of the flesh…..and spiritual ecstasy….about temptation ….everybody´s been tempted…..and everybody has succumbed….now, where did the conflict begin?…..well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden….now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City off the New Jersey Turnpike…..that´s why they call it the Garden State…..now, understand in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living ….there were no houses, there were no beds, no little pillows you could tuck your little head in at night, you couldn’t go out on the highway and buy a cheeseburger or a fatburger when you wanted one ….there was no sin…..there was no sex…..man lived in a state of innocence ….now when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in….but before the tour, I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden and I found out that the spot is now occupied by Happy Dan’s Celebrity Used Car Lot….I walked in, Dan saw me, he said ‘Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone´….I said ´Dan, no, no, I´ve come, I´ve come to find about the mysteries of temptation,´ he said ´Oh, Son, that’s easy….you see, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and He sat back and said ‘This is good’….and then on the first day, He separated the light from the darkness and He called the light the day and He called the darkness the night and the Lord sat back and said ´This is good´….and then on the second day, He grew hungry so he created the hot dog….and the Lord sat back and said ‘This is good’….then on the third day, He grew hot so he created air-conditioning….and the Lord sat back and said ´This is good´, on the fourth day, He grew bored, He created rock and roll…. and the Lord sat back and said ‘This is good’…on the fifth day, He wanted to take a drive but he needed some highway so He created the L.A.Freeway….and the Lord sat back and said ´What the fuck is this?´….but then on the sixth day, on the weekend, He needed some wheels and so He created the pink Cadillac…and the Lord sat back and said ´This is wild´…´´

Middle of "´Backstreets"
´´Until the end….and we swore that it´d last forever and forever and forever….then you said it was nothing but a promise….then you said it was nothing but a promise….´´

Middle of "Rosalita"
´´Alright….ladies, gentlemen….children in all stages….it is now my opportunity….it is now my honor….it is now my duty, my pleasure, and if I don´t, they´ll get mad, it´s time to introduce the members of the E Street Band….we´ve got a wide array of gentlemen and gentlewomen up here tonight….practisioners in music in their own right….ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by introducing to you….the individual we refer to as ´The Smart Guy,´ the man turned down an education at Harvard University….where he was working on his PhD in unusual sexual practises….to join the 1984 tour with the E Street Band….he´s a man that gave up higher education to rock the nation…..the dedicated, the complicated, the educated, the heterosexual intellectual, Professor Roy Bittan on the piano….next we got an alumni of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes….from Long Branch, New Jersey, the lovely, the talented, the beautiful, Miss Patti Scialfa on the vocals….then we got a man that, brings up that thunder from down under, that puts the bass in your face, Mr.Garry W.Tallent on the bass guitar….then we got a gentleman, not only is he a drummer but he´s an author too, he´s got a book out now called ´The Big Beat,´the man that puts the heat in the beat that gets you moving your feet and your asses out of your seat….the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums….next we got a gentleman….he´s indescribable….the inimitable, the inevitable, the incorrigable, the incredible, the unfathomable, (?) the unbelievable, on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici….and now we got a gentleman, the newest member of the E Street Band….on the guitar, Mr.Nils Lofgren (Nils does his trampoline stunt)….and now we got a guy….he´s bad, he´s nationwide ….let me just say you may have seen him with his own band, The Red Bank Rockers….and if there was any justice in the universe, he´d be the next president of the United States….so gimme a C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E, what´s that spell?….what´s that spell?… who´s that man?…. Clarence Big Man Clemons on the saxophone….
(….) This is his last chance to get his daughter with something mean…..´cause I got my picture on the cover of People Magazine….´´

Intro to "I´m A Rocker"
´´I´m starting to get loose now….as Shakespeare once said….´Is you or is you not a rocker?…´´

Intro to "Follow That Dream"
´´I´d like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show, thank you very much…..and uh….just gonna remind you about the Steelworkers Foodbank that´s out there, I know they could use your support and uh….they´re just here trying, trying to bring a little…. little more decency to the town you live in so….´´

Intro to "Twist And Shout"
´´You gotta be tired out there now (crowd: ´No´) you´re just too proud to admit it….I can´t take the responsobility of what´s gonna happen if we continue on here….don´t sue me…. boys, attack…..´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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