1984-11-04 Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Another fine show, and the last night of a seven night stand at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. "Johnny Bye-Bye" includes the "Mystery Train" outro. "Shut Out The Light" dedicated to Born On The Fourth Of July author and anti-war activist Ron Kovic who is in the audience. "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band", "I Hear A Train", "Shake", and "Sweet Soul Music".

Intro to "Reason to Believe"
´´This is a song about, uh….blind faith….and uh, its tragic results….it´s about believing in ghosts….”

Intro to "Johnny Bye Bye"
´´Thanks, this is uh….I guess, uh….everybody has certain, uh, certain events they kind of mark their lives by….you´re feeling like you remember just that spot where you were….and I remember that….I remember I was in gym class the day John Kennedy was shot and I remember the kid running across the field and saying that the President´d been killed….and I remember that I was sitting at home when I heard that Elvis Presley died and uh…. sometimes a dream that comes true can be a dangerous thing…..”

Intro to "Glory Days"
´´Now, this is a song about….about glory days….everybody´s had some of those…..I´ve had my share….the older you get, the more you´ve got….Clarence´s probably had more than anybody in here tonight….but, but he somehow maintained his youthful beauty….see, before, before I wanted to be a guitar player, there was only one other thing I wanted to be….a lover, no, no….I´m still working on that, I´m still working on that (chuckles) I wanted to, I wanted to be a baseball player….and like I started in Colonial League and then I went to Little League and then I went to Babe Ruth League…..I´d amassed a career batting average of a .156….but I wasn´t discouraged but then I got to be around 15 and I got interested in a couple of other things….both of them keep you out late at night….one´s more fun standing up ….anyway….I got in my rock and roll band and….it wasn´t too bad because I had the rock and roll shows on the weekend and then I had the baseball games during the week but one time we had a game that got rained-out and they rescheduled it for like 8 o´clock on Saturday morning and so like I….like I was in there in bed and I heard the guys knocking at the door and I told my mother, I said ´Mom, tell ´em, tell ´em I´m sick, tell ´em I can´t make it to the game´….so I heard my mother go downstairs and she says ´Oh, boys, Bruce is too sick today, he can´t make it to the ballgame´ and then they went away and I tucked myself under the covers and….and then, but they came back about 20 minutes later and I heard ´em talking to my mother and they were saying ´Mrs.Springsteen, Bruce´s gotta come to the game ´cause we only got eight guys and if he don´t come, we´re gonna forfeit the game, it´s gonna ruin the whole season, he´s gotta come !´….so my mother sends ´em upstairs, now I gotta make believe like I´m really sick, you know, I´m laying there in my bed….this is, my bedroom looks just like this….I always sleep with my guitar too….my girlfriends, they don´t like it but they get used to it….but, so I´m laying there in bed like (coughs) I´m making believe like I´m really sick but they keep begging me and begging me and I´m one of them people that like when somebody starts begging me, I can never say no….I get my uniform on and I go down to the field and they put me out in the rightfield and I´m kind of standing there…..it´s kind of a nice day…eight innigs go by, nothing´s coming to me, I´m feeling good and I´m starting to daydream….there´s this girl….she´s climbing over the outfield fence….she´s coming out into the rightfield….she´s telling me it´s too hot to be wearing this uniform….we lay down in the rightfield grass….all of a sudden ´gsssh´….´I got it, I got it´….I lost it in the lights….I suffered defeat, the runner scored, we lost the game, I suffered defeat and humiliation in front of my peers….and that was the day I decided to give up baseball and sports and dedicate my life to rock and roll….and I haven´t regretted it since….but anyway, in the end all things must pass….and here´s my story….”

Intro to "The Promised Land"
´´This….this is for Peter, if you´re out there….”

Intro to "Shut Out the Light"
´´Thank you, thank you…..this is uh….this is for Ron….Ronnie, I know you´re out there, this is for you….this is called ´Shut out the Lights´….”

Intro to "My Hometown"
´´This is a song, I guess about….about being a part of something….belonging somewhere…. that´s a hard idea to get used to sometimes, I know it was for me (chuckles) you know, and uh, when I was a kid, I remember I started playing the guitar, I said ´Well, if I play the guitar, I won´t have to work and I´ll be able to avoid all responsobility for the rest of my life´ (chuckles) you know, that was the idea anyway (chuckles) didn´t work out like that, I don´t think (chuckles) but uh, this is a song about being responsible to the place that you live and the people that live there…and uh….since we´ve been here, we´ve been working with the Steelworkers-Oldtimers Foodbank…..and uh…..they been doing real good and I wanna thank all you folks that´ve been here other night, other nights for supporting ´em….they feed 5,000 people a month, they got a support system so that when you´re, when you´re down and out, when you´re hit by unemployment, some of the plant closings you´ve had around here, you´ve got some place to turn and something, something to turn to….´cause it´s lonely out there….and, and this is your hometown….”

Intro to "No Surrender"
´´This is uh….when I was 15, I guess, I went into a hulabaloo club in Middletown, New Jersey….and uh….and uh, there was this guy onstage playing a Paul Revere and the Raiders´ song, I remember, I think it was ´Kicks´ (chuckles)….and we got, uh….hit up a friendship where…..I guess, it´s been going on for, oh, 20 years (chuckles) a long time….he´s not here tonight, this is for Little Steven…..he´s got a….he´s got a record out called ´Voice of America´, a real good record, if you get a chance, you should check it out, he´s got a lot to say….”

Intro to "Pink Cadillac"
´´Take it easy, boys….now, this is a song…..about the conflict….between worldly things and spiritual health….between desires of the flesh…..and spiritual ecstasy….now, where did this 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 !….but now understand, in the Garden of Eden there were none of the accoutrements of modern living….you didn´t have no Laundromat you could run down to and wash your clothes in, you didn´t have no house, you didn´t have no little bed you could snuggle your little head in and sleep in at night, you didn´t have no microwave ovens, you didn´t have no Pop-Tarts that you could just put in the toaster and watch Johnny Carson….you couldn´t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger when you wanted one….in the Garden of Eden there was…. 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 at the beginning of the tour I decided I had to make a spiritual journey to find out about the mysteries of temptation and why flesh calls me in one direction and my soul calls me in the other….so I went to the location of the Garden of Eden and I found that it was occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot….I walked in, the man 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 ‘I’ll take two’…then I said ´But Dan, what I wanna know is I wanna know about, I wanna know about the mysteries of temptation, I wanna know where the conflict began, he said ´Son, that´s easy….because right here on these beautiful ten acres of industrially-zoned real estate, there was the sweetest little paradise you ever seen on earth, now in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil….there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she was fine….she had lips like honey and when Adam first kissed her….and she had legs that were pale….and when Adam first touched her….but somehow Satan came slithering in on his belly and he turned their love into, into betrayal, but, Son, right on that backlot, for 99.95 and no money down….if you´ve got the heart to ride, their getaway car is sitting right back out there….(?)….”

Intro to "Racing in the Street"
´´When we first met….we were just, we were like laughing all the time and stuff and….for some reason later on the things that….things that made her happy didn´t seem to make her happy no more….and I can remember the night that she cut her hair, she used to like to go out riding….and now she just calls me, she tries to hide the keys, she doesn´t like it when I …when I take the car out at night…..and now sometimes it´s so hard to make her understand that when I take the car out and when I win….that it´s something that I do good….it´s the only time that….that I really feel good about myself….and to have just one thing, just one thing in your whole life that you do that makes you proud of yourself, I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask…..
(….) Well, that was the night that me and her left….and we don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time….but sometimes it feels like we´re just…..just kids running around out here trying to get home….before it gets too dark…..but I guess you just gotta keep searching….”

Intro to "Born to Run"
´´I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to these shows that we´ve done here in Los Angeles….want you to know we appreciate it, I know a lot of you guys been back here more than one night and stuff (cheers)(?) and I´d like to thank you for your support of the Steelworkers Foodbank….it´s…..meant a lot to them and it´s meant a lot to me, it´s kind of all tied up in this stuff that I´ve been trying to sing about for the past ten years and….in the end, you´ve got some power, you can make a difference if you fight for it ….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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