1984-11-23 Frank Erwin Center, University Of Texas, Austin, TX

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Set includes five songs from Nebraska and the last of only five 1984 performances of "Stolen Car". "Johnny Bye-Bye" includes the "Mystery Train" outro. "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band".

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Reason to Believe´
´´Thanks….here´s a song, it´s about blind faith….blind faith and its….and its tragic consequences….about, uh….believing in ghosts….´cause everybody´s waited for somebody who wasn´t ever coming back….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Nebraska´
´´Here´s a song about, uh….isolation….and where it can take you….(?)….seems more and more people feel isolated from….from their jobs or from their families or from the community that they live in….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Mansion on the Hill´
´´I remember when I was a kid, I used to, uh….at night in my house the only lights´d be on my mother´d be in the livingroom watching television and my father´d be sitting in the kitchen in the dark smoking a cigarette….and sometimes, uh….sometimes he´d ask me if I wanted to go for a ride and he´d take me….take me in the car outside, outside of town, there was this big white, big white house, used to stand on this hill….and he´s just pull over and sit there by the side of the road, smoke a cigarette and look up at it….I don´t know exactly what it meant to him….I don´t know if he loved it or hated it….but uh….it was always, always there, that mansion on the hill….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´
´´Yeah, thank you…oh, there´s uh….there´s all kinds of, uh….I guess everybody, everybody has certain events that they, they kind of mark their lives by….I remember when I was 13…. I remember I was in gym class when this kid came running across the field and….and told me that John Kennedy´d been shot….and uh….I remember I was, I was living on this farm in New Jersey when somebody called me up and told me that….told me that Elvis Presley had died…and it was hard to understand how somebody who´d taken away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up so lonely….and uh….I guess a dream…..a dream that comes true can be a dangerous thing….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Glory Days´
´´Now, this song….it´s a song about ancient history….now, I don´t mean the Mesopotamians ….or Italians….I´m talking personal stuff….the kind of stuff that when I die, you´ll read in the National Enquirer…or if my girlfriend gets mad at me, you´re gonna read it while I´m still alive….when I was a kid, there was three things that I was interested in….one, my father was a good poolplayer so I wanted to play pool….two, was the guitar….and the third one was ….you know, that one….anyway one Christmas, my mother took me down to Sears and she got me a pooltable, we tied it to the top of the car, we brought it home, lifted it up the stairs, I got it in my bedroom….so I used to bring my girlfriends over and told my father : ´Dad, we´re gonna go upstairs and play pool for a little while´….but, now, my bedroom was right over the kitchen where he used to sit so if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around or if he didn´t hear the guitar strumming., he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling all the time….but like I had it all figured out because I used to, I would move the pooltable real over close to the bed and like every once in a while I would just kind of like lean up and knock the balls around little bit…but as I grew older and matured….I gave up pool ….and of the other two….the guitar is the only one I became proficient at….but I´m still looking for some volunteers for the third thing who wanna practise, practise, practise…. promised myself I´m gonna get it down this year, this year (chuckles)….anyway, in the end …this is for your glory days and my glory days and all things will pass….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´My Hometown´
´´This is uh….this is a song, I guess, I wrote about, uh….the town that I grew up in….when I was a kid I used to have a real, kind of, love-hate relationship with the place….mostly, I think it was about 95 percent hate (chuckles)…couldn´t wait to get out, used to go to New York City all the time, get on the bus….you know, you could breathe, breathe a little bit up there….but it´s a good town you got here, this a free-thinking town…it was funny because when we first came down here, this is one of the first places, here Austin and Houston, where people…people kind of took to us right away so….so if there´s anybody here tonight from the glory days (chuckles)….the Armadillo….it´s funny, got a lot of good memories here, I remember the first time we toured Texas, we took like commercial transit, like a Greyhound Bus and I got off down at the Greyhound Station here in town….and I met this beautiful girl (chuckles)…anyway, this is, uh, I guess this song is kind of about responsobility to your town and to the place that you live….and tonight when you go out into the lobby at the….out where the concessions are, you´re gonna see a number and some information about the Capital Area Foodbank of Texas and uh….what they do (?) that are going hungry, that need to be fed, that´ve fallen on hard times, little kids, old people, people that just deserve a better break….and uh, every year here in America, about 20 percent of all the food that gets produced just gets wasted and gets thrown away and these are people that are trying to do something about it, getting that food, getting it to the people that need it….and uh….what they need, if you get a chance to give ´em a ring, they need financial support, they need volunteers, they need food and uh, they´re trying to make your town a better and a more decent place to live….so….after all, this, this is your hometown….”

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´
´´Ah, that´s alright now, bring it down a little bit….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 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….I mean you didn´t have no Laudromats or washers and dryers, you didn´t have no TV, you couldn´t go home at night and put your little Pop-Tarts in your toaster and then jump in bed and watch Johnny Carson…..you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one….no Sir !….in the Garden of Eden 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 in the beginning of this tour I decided I´d make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these conflicts, why body pulls me in one way and why my soul pulls me in another…so I went and I found out that that location is now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot….I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, 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, that´s not, that´s really not the reason why I came, I wanna know the answer to some of this mysteries, he said ´Well, son, that´s easy ….because right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, 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 Adam, a man, there was Eve, a woman, and she looked fine ….and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman ….and she had legs that were long and soft….and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman….and then they lay down in the green grass…..and when Adam….well, it was the first time….and now right here tonight on that backlot…. for 99.95 and no money down, I have the car that they used to get away when old Satan came slithering up on his belly and got banished down into the darkness below…and if you´ve got the nerve to ride….I´ve got the keys….to the first….pink….Cadillac…´´

23.11.84 Austin, TX, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´Like when, when we first started going out, we were….laughing all the time, going out riding all the time, everything we did was….was funny, was fun….and uh, then it seemed like the things that made her happy once….just didn´t make her happy no more and I was, I was spending all my time trying to find something….some way to make her happy again….and she got to where….she started hiding my keys so I couldn´t, so I couldn´t go out at night….and… it got hard to make her understand….that when I took the car out….and when I won…..that it was the only time…..the only time that I felt good about myself….and that to have just one thing….one thing in your whole life that makes you feel proud of yourself…I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask….is it ?….
(….) Well, that was the night….that was the night that we left….we don´t know where we´re going yet ….but I guess that´ll come in time….as for this place….there´s a lot here that we´ll always remember….but sometimes I feel like time´s getting so short….just keeps getting shorter on me…but you can´t do nothing but keep on searching….keep on going, keep on going….”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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