1984-12-02 LSU Assembly Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

"Johnny Bye-Bye" includes "Mystery Train" in the outro. "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band" and a tour one-off snippet of "New Orleans".

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Darlington County´´
´´Alright….ready for a little roadtrip? (crowd cheers)….let´s go on down to Darlington County….
(….) That´s it…they got him for, uh, drunken disorderly, failing to give a good account of himself, uh, and impersonating a human being….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´The River´´
´´Thanks….yeah, we´re gonna be playing a while so you guys could sit down if youse want to, it´s gonna be a long show so….this, uh…..this is a song about…I guess everybody….needs someplace to go on them nights when you can´t go home…..´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Reason To Believe´´
´´Oh….this is, uh….a lot of people falling through the bottom out there, people thinking that somehow it´s gonna be alright, this is a song about blind faith….(plays harmonica)….and its tragic results….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Johnny Bye Bye´´
´´This is a song about, uh, I guess, I guess it´s about isolation (?)….I remember I was living on a farm, it was in New Jersey and uh (crowd cheers) it´s not that nice (chuckles)….I was living up there when a friend of mine called me and told me that Elvis Presley had died…. and uh, it was hard to, it was hard to understand because like….I think everybody that like picks up a guitar or sometimes picks it up mainly for the same reasons or does anything…. one of them´s, you know, you wanna, you wanna be around people, you wanna have a lot of friends (chuckles) and uh….it seems strange that somebody who had taken away so many people´s loneliness could in the end end up, end up so lonely….and how it gets you whether you´re on the top or you´re on the bottom so this is, uh, this is called ´Bye Bye, Bye Bye Johnny´….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Glory Days´´
´´(after the singalong) We got some bass singers out there….now, now, this song is instructional in purpose….besides being fun to dance to….it´s about ancient history…I´m not talking about the Mesopotamians and I´m not talking about the Greeks, I´m not talking about the Italians….I´m talking about personal stuff….the kind of thing that like when I die, you´re gonna read all about it in the National Enquirer….or if my girlfriend gets mad at me, you´re gonna read about it while I´m still alive in one of them tell-all books, you know….anyway, I´m gonna beat ´em to the punch, I´m gonna confess right now, I´m in a confessional mood ….when I was young, I had three interests in life….my father was a good poolplayer, his father was, so I got interested in pool….and then I got interested in the guitar….and then I got interested in….you know, that one, that one….so anyway, one Christmastime my mother took me down to Sears and for 69.95 we bought this little pooltable and like we tied it to the roof of the car and I was holding on to it coming home but my father wouldn´t let me have it downstairs so I put it up and it just fit in my bedroom….so like I used to bring my girlfriends over and I would say ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in my room and play pool for a little while´…. but, like, but he had it figured, see, he used to sit in the kitchen and the kitchen was right underneath my bedroom so if he didn´t hear like the poolballs knocking around or if he didn´t hear the guitar playing, he had a broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling all the time…. but like, like I had it all figured out, you see, I used to pull the pooltable like way, real over close to the bed and then every once in a while like I would lean up and knock the balls around a little bit….that worked pretty good (chuckles) anyway, as I matured, I put away my childish things, gave up pool and of the other two, the only one I really became proficient at was the guitar….but the third one - I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise….I gotta get it down this year, I´ve decided (chuckles) it´s tricky, it´s tricky, it´s one of them tricky things, you know (chuckles) anyway, in the end, as the Big Man will tell you (chuckles) all things must pass….and all this stuff ain´t nothing but glory days (chuckles)….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´
´´Oh, yeah….what a predicament (chuckles) oh….no matter how young or old you are, you gotta keep, keep looking for that Promised Land….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´My Hometown´´
´´Thanks….oh….thanks, I wrote this next song I guess about three or four years ago, I was living in California for a while….I was thinking about the town I grew up in and uh….I guess when you´re, you know, I remember when I was a kid growing up, I always had kind of a love-hate relationship, I guess when I was a kid, it was mostly hate (chuckles) love didn´t come till later but uh….(?) you´re kind of afraid of belonging to something or belonging someplace because when you, when you admit to that, that means you´ve got some responsobility about the things that happen there and, uh, so this song in the end is a song about responsobility and….tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks from the Greater Baton Rouge Foodbank….and what they´re trying to do is they´re trying to get a foodbank going here in your city and what that is is every year in America 20 percent of all the food that gets produced gets wasted and just gets thrown away and meanwhile you´ve got people that´ve been hit by unemployment or they´re elderly that are having a tough time, that are going hungry in every city and town in the country….so what these people do is they try to get a hold of that food and get it to the people that need it and everybody deserves, deserves a decent break and a shot at a life with some decency and some dignity, that´s what I thought that this country was supposed to be all about…..so….. you know, it´s, it´s getting near Christmastime and I know they can really use your support so when you go out there, check ´em out, they´re trying to make this place a better place to live and uh….sometimes these things, they seem like they´re happening a long ways away but they´re not, they´re happening right here, right now in your hometown….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, middle of ´´Thunder Road´´
´´(after the singalong) are you talking to me?….you gotta talk louder than that….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, towards the end of ´´Dancing In The Dark´´
´´Sometimes I feel….I just feel so lonely….and I get so downhearted….and that´s when I wanna reach out….to somebody somewhere….and just say….hey baby….come on, sugar, come here….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Hungry Heart´´ (following ´´Dancing In The Dark´´)
´´It´s all in the day´s work….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Cadillac Ranch´´
´´I´m a roadrunner, honey….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´No Surrender´´ (following ´´Cadillac Ranch´´)
´´Cadillac, Cadillac….thanks….oh, thanks, this is, uh….this is a song, when I was….when I was 16, I went into this club in a place called Middletown, New Jersey (crowd cheers) you couldn´t have been there, right (chuckles) but uh, they used to have these clubs called hullabaloo clubs and there was this dance tv-show called ´´Hullabaloo´´ on television with the girls in the cages in their white go-go boots dancing all around….they had these clubs all around the country then that looked just like this tv set and I went in and I met this guy, first time I seen him, he was onstage doing a Paul Revere and the Raiders´ song called ´Kicks´ (chuckles) and we became real, real, real good friends, kind of at a time when, when you´re 16, that´s when you need a good friend (chuckles) so this is for him, this is for Little Steven wherever he may be tonight….he made, made a real good record called ´Voice Of America´ ….if you get a chance, you should check it out….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´
´´Take it easy now, 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 Garden of Eden….well, 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….but now understand….in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living…there were no houses, there were no little pillows you could snuggle up into at night, you couldn´t go home and put your little Pop-Tarts in the toaster and get 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 before the beginning of the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries, why body pulls me one way and why my soul pulls me the other way, what´s the meaning of this temptation….and so I went to that location and I found out that it was 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, 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’….but then I said ´But Dan, that´s not, that´s not really the reason why I came, what I wanna know, I wanna know the answer to some of these mysteries and he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy because right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man has ever seen, in the beginning of time there was the Garden of Eden and in the Garden of Eden was many wondrous 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 looked so fine….and when Adam kissed her, Son, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman….and she had legs that were long and pale 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….but there was something else in the Garden of Eden that day, Satan came slithering up on his belly and he turned their beautiful love into a betrayal
and sent them running down into the darkness below….but right here tonight on my backlot for 9995 and no money down, I´ve got their getaway car….and if you´ve got the nerve to ride ….I´ve got the keys….to the first….pink Cadillac….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Racing In The Street´´
´´I remember we met….it was in a spot down by this river where they had these little arcades, just off this strip and you know how it is when you first meet somebody, you´re going out and laughing all the time, always having fun, no matter what you do….and uh, I don´t know what happened, it seemed like later on the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy no more….and I was spending most of my time trying to figure out what, what it was I was doing, trying to figure out ways to make her happy again, she got to where she just wanted to stay home at night, she´d hide my keys so I, so I couldn´t go out….and….I don´t know what it is, I think sometimes….sometimes people just….expect too much of each other, it´s like you meet somebody and you think that they´re gonna take away all your loneliness….when in the end nobody can take away your loneliness….you just hope that you find somebody that you can share it with….and that ain´t so bad…..
(….) Well, that was….that was the night that we left….we still don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´s gonna come in time….but sometimes it seems, seems like time gets running so short on you….just starts running shorter and shorter….I guess there´s nothing you can do but, but keep going….and keep searching….and keep going….and just keep going….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Jungleland´´
´´Thanks….yeah, this is for anybody from my homestate out there tonight (crowd cheers)(?) alright, this is for you….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Born To Run´´
´´Oh, thanks, I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show here in Baton Rouge, thank you….I know, I know a lot of you guys waited a long time in line for tickets and I want you to know that we appreciate it, we know you´re out there….and….. I´d also like to thank you for your support of the Greater Baton Rouge Foodbank…..they´re people out there trying to, just trying to do something and it´s, like, rock and roll´s always, in the end it´s got its power from community, from friendship, it´s a lonely planet and in the end nobody wins unless everybody wins….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, middle of ´´Detroit Medley´´
´´In the traveling band we got Roy Bittan on the piano….Patti Scialfa on the vocals….Garry W. Tallent on the bass guitar….Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums….Phantom Dan Federici on the organ….Mr. Nils Lofgren on the guitar….and the king of the world, the master of all things….on the saxophone, the Big Man, Clarence Clemons….I´ll be checking that schedule now….coming down from Denver, Colorado….Phoenix, Arizona….on into Austin, Texas…. Dallas, Houston….and moving on down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana….pick it up, boys….(the band goes into ´´New Orleans´´)….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Twist And Shout´´
´´You know, I think I´m just about getting my second wind now….come on, boys!….´´

02.12.84 Baton Rouge, LA, intro to ´´Santa Claus Is Coming To Town´´
´´You asked for it now! (?)….
(….) Here he comes now….he´s packing up that Cadillac sled….he´s flying over the North Pole, flying over New Jersey….coming way down down to Louisian….going to New Orleans, going to Baton Rouge….has everybody been good? (crowd cheers) all year? (crowd: ´Yeah´) are you sure now? (crowd: ´Yeah´) alright (?) here we go, boys and girls….´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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