1985-01-04 Hampton Roads Coliseum, Hampton, VA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Bruce and the band return to the stage after the Christmas and New Year break. "Johnny Bye-Bye" includes the "Mystery Train" outro. "Detroit Medley" includes "Travelin' Band".

Intro to "Darlington County"
´´Are you ready to prove it? (crowd cheers)….now let´s go on down to Darlington County…
(….) They got him for resisting arrest….uh, failing to give a good account of himself, uh…. and impersonating a human being….´´

Intro to "Johnny 99"
´´This is about falling to the bottom….´´

Intro to "Reason To Believe"
´´Thanks….thanks…nice to be back in Virginia…this is, uh….this is a song about trying to find something to hold on to, I guess, that keeps you afloat and uh….sometimes people need something to believe in so bad that they´ll believe in anything that comes along just so that they got some reason to believe ….´´

Intro to "Mansion On The Hill"
´´Oh, thanks, this is, uh….I remember when I was a kid, there was this house that used to sit on out on the edge of town….and uh, sometimes at night, as my mother´d be sitting in the livingroom and watching television with all the lights out and those pink curlers in her hair, the kind that the ladies used to wear and a bathrobe and slippers (chuckles) and my dad´d be sitting in the kitchen with the lights out (chuckles) smoking a cigarette….and sometimes he´d ask me if you wanted, if I wanted to go for a ride….and he´d put me in the car and I remember he´d always drive out past this one house and uh, he´d just roll the window down a little bit and sit there and he didn´t talk, just kind of sat there and smoked a cigarette….but uh….anyway, factories close down but the mansion on the hill remains….´´

Intro to "Johnny Bye Bye"
´´Thanks…..back in, uh, nineteen….I guess it was mid-70s, we did a show down in, in Memphis….and uh, it was about three o´clock in the morning and I got this taxi cab, me and Steve, Steven Van Zandt, and uh….this taxi driver took us out, we wanted, we wanted him to take us someplace to eat and he took us out to Elvis´ house….now, I remember I was standing out in front and I saw a light in the window and I jumped over the wall and I ran up the, the driveway, trying to get to the frontdoor….which, when I look back on it, was a stupid thing to do ´cause I hate it when people do that to my house (chuckles) but uh (chuckles) but I did it any way (chuckles) and I got to the frontdoor and these guards came out of the woods and they asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted to meet Elvis….and they said ´Well, you know, he´s, he´s in Lake Tahoe,´ I said ´Yeah, but, but like, you know, I was, like, I was on the cover of, like, Time and Newsweek´ and they said ´Oh yeah, sure you were, yeah (chuckles) oh yeah? so that guy, alright, just come with us´ (chuckles) you know (chuckles) and they took me and they put me back out on the street but, but, anyway, this is a song I wrote after a friend of mine had called me and told me that Elvis had died, it´s called ´Bye Bye Johnny´ and uh….it was hard to understand how somebody who came in and took away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up so lonely ´cause he deserved a lot better….´´

Intro to "Glory Days"
´´(after the singalong) Got any bass singers out there? (crowd cheers) now, this is a song…. about ancient history….now, I´m not talking about the Mesopotamians or the Trojans or, uh, the Italians….I´m not talking about any of that school stuff, I´m talking about personal things ….my own past….the kind of stuff when I die, you´re gonna read all about in the National Enquirer…or, or if my girlfriend gets mad at me, you´re gonna read all about it while I´m still alive….in one of them tell-all books….yeah….but, anyway, when I was a child, there was only three things I was interested in….my father was a real good poolplayer so I wanted to learn how to play pool….now, the second thing I was interested in was the guitar….now, the third thing was….uh….you know, that one, the one everybody´s interested in….I can remember like one Christmastime….my mother bought me a pooltable for 69.95 in New Brunswick, we went to Sears….and uh….we tied it to the top of the car in the snow and held on to it driving home, we got home, we lugged it up the stairs ´cause my father wouldn´t let me have it downstairs and we put it in my bedroom….it just fit in, but I used to bring my girlfriends home and say ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in my room and play pool for a little while´….but, but, like, you see, he was slick, he had it down because if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around and if he didn´t hear the guitar strumming, he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling….to interrupt my rhythm and my concentration….but like, but like what I did, you see, was I pulled the pooltable like real over close to the bed and then every once in a while I would lean up and knock the balls around a little bit….anyway ….I got older and I put away the childish things, gave up pool, and of the other two, the only one I really became proficient at was the guitar….but now the third one - I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise….I promised myself I was gonna get it down this year, it´s my New Year´s resolution….it always happens so fast (chuckles) alright, in the end all things must pass (chuckles) and it ain´t nothing but glory days….´´

Intro to "The Promised Land"
´´Oh….oh, I was having so much fun, I hurt myself, alright (chuckles) this is….no matter how old you get, you gotta keep searching for that Promised Land…..´´

Intro to "My Hometown"
´´Thanks, this is, uh….this is a song I wrote, I was living in California for a while and….I started thinking about the town I grew up in, what it was like there, what was happening there….and uh….I guess everybody kind of has a love-hate relationship with the place that they were raised in, I know when I was, when I was 15 or 16, I think it was mostly hate, you know, it seemed like such a small-minded town, I used to try and get away to the city where they let you breathe a little easier…but….for a long time I felt like I´d never go back but as I got older, I´d come home from the road and I´d get in my car and I´d drive back down there and see how my friends were doing and see what was going on….and I realised that when I was a kid, one of the things I was afraid of was maybe belonging to something because when you belong to something, that means that there´s some, some responsobility there….and uh…. I guess if you say ´Well, I´m American,´ that means you´ve got some responsobility to the kind of place that America is….and uh….we got a lot here to be proud about and we got a lot here to be ashamed of….but tonight when you got out into the lobby you´re gonna see some people who are trying to pick up that responsobility and make Virginia a place to be proud of ….you´re gonna see some folks from the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and what a foodbank is is every year in the United States 20 percent of all the food that gets produced just gets wasted and thrown away and what a foodbank does is they try to get a hold of that food and get it to the agencies that can serve the people that are either having a hard time or maybe it´s old people whose social security checks ain´t making it, people that are hurting on unemployment or kids that are undernourished, they´re out there trying to do that….they´re trying to make Virginia a fairer and a more decent and dignified place to live and they can use your support, whether it´s a buck, money or some time you´ve got to volunteer, so when you go out there, check out, check ´em out and see what they got, help ´em out if you can because in the end this is your hometown….´´

Intro to "Pink Cadillac"
´´Alright now….take it easy, boys….well, now, this is a song….about the conflict…between worldly things and spiritual health….between the desires of the flesh….and spiritual ecstasy ….and they say you can´t have both….now, where did this conflict begin?…well, it began in the beginning….in a place called 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 out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City off the New Jersey Turnpike!….well, now understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living….there wasn´t no Laundromats you could run in and do your little clothes in, you couldn´t run home at night and tuck into bed and sleep on a nice soft little pillow, you could go ahead and put the Poptarts in the toaster and then jump in bed and watch Johnny Carson….you couldn´t go out onto 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….well, 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….and so I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that spot is now 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-conditioner, automatic heat, a full fold-out bed in your backseat, 8-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´…I said ´But, Dan, you see, that´s not really the reason I came, I wanna know why I feel all this conflict all the time, why I feel this temptation, why my soul pulls me one way and my body pulls me the other´…and he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy because right here on these ten beautifully commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man has ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden, there 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 good….and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman….and she had long, soft legs….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 fields…. and when Adam….well, let´s just say it was the first time….but there was something else in the Garden of Eden that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal….but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot for 9995 and no money down, I have their getaway car….and if you´ve got the nerve to ride ….I´ve got the keys to the first….pink….Cadillac….´´

Intro to "Racing In The Street"
´´I remember it was right around, right around the end of the summer, there was this little spot off the river, off this strip, and that was where we first met….and you know how it is when you´re first going out with somebody, like, everything you do is fun, you´re laughing all the time, we used to go out riding, it didn´t matter what we did….but then later on it seemed like the things, the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy any more….and she got to where she wanted to stay home, she didn´t talk too much….she´d hide my keys 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 that I got to feeling good about myself….and that to have just one thing, one thing that you can do good, one thing that makes you 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 gonna go yet but I guess that´ll come in time….but sometimes it seems like time gets running out on you, gets running so short on you….and you gotta run so fast….and so much gets left behind….and there´s not much you can do but to keep going….and to keep ongoing….and to keep on going….and to keep on going….and hope that….hope that you´re gonna make it home before it gets too dark….´´

Intro to "Born To Run"
´´I´d just like - my hat, alright (chuckles)….I´d just like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show here tonight….let you know that we appreciate it….I know a lot of you guys wait out in line for a long time for tickets and I want you to know that we know you´re out there and we appreciate it….I´d like to thank the folks that are here from Richmond, if there´s anybody out there (crowd cheers) we had a lot of good times down there….people treated me real nice way before I had any records out or, or anything so I wanna say thanks….and I´d also like to just thank you for your support of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia….they´re out there trying….just trying to make your state a better place to live….and in the end nobody wins unless everybody wins…..´´

Intro to "Twist And Shout"
´´You know….I think I´m just about getting my second wind right now…..let´s go!!!!…..´´

After "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"
"Happy Christmas, Happy New Year…Happy Birthday, Happy Halloween…Happy the rest of you life. You guys have been fantastic, thanks, we love you."

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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