1985-01-24 Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

"Working On The Highway" makes a return to the setlist - only previously played once at the start of the tour in June 1984. Final tour performance for "Mansion On The Hill". "Johnny Bye-Bye" includes a line from "Mystery Train" at the end. "Growin' Up" features the bear story. "Thunder Road" moves to an encore slot. Pete Lamothe reports that "the last two tunes - "Wooly Bully" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" were played a full 15 minutes after the show ended. At least 1/2 of the fans had left, the house lights were up and the roadies were taking lights down. I know because I was 15 years old and sitting in the first row behind the stage. Had to be one of the best shows on the whole tour!" Following the show Springsteen donates $10,000 to the Rhode Island Food Bank. Some sources report "Darlington County" played as third song, but that cannot be confirmed by the available audience tape.

Intro to "Reason to Believe"
´´It´s uh….guess the hardest thing to do these days is to find something….that you can hold on to or something you can believe in….or even, uh, finding a part of yourself that you can believe in….so, I guess this song is about a….search for faith and uh….you gotta be careful, there´s a lot of….fools´ gold out there….”

Intro to "Mansion on the Hill"
´´Oh, I guess I was….I remember when I was growing up….there was this house that used to stand out on the edge of town….and uh, you know, sometimes at night…..like, at night in my house….the only lights on downstairs was my father´d be sitting in the kitchen smoking a cigarette….and my mother´d be in the frontroom with just the TV on and she´d have the robe on and those pink curlers like the ladies used to wear all the time (chuckles)…at night she used to have her false teeth out too (chuckles)….sssh, don´t tell her (chuckles)….but uh….she used to scare me and my sister when we were kids….you know (?) when it get dark….but uh ….there was uh….sometimes we´d be sitting there and my dad´d ask me if I´d wanna, if I´d wanna take a ride with him and we´d get in the car and he´d always drive out by this house and sit, sit there by the side of the road….and he´d just kind of sit there with the window down, smoking a cigarette and he wouldn´t say much….uh….so, factories close down but the mansion on the hill remains….”

Intro to "Johnny Bye Bye"
´´There´s certain images from your childhood that you never forget….and uh….I remember I was living….we were living in a one side of this little house, had about four rooms….and we had a black and white television, was around 1959….and uh….my mother, she was kind of into rock´n´roll before I was (chuckles)….you know she was, I guess when I was around nine or ten, she was young and she´d have, always have the radio on to the Top 40 station in the kitchen when we´d come down to eat breakfast in the morning and….and uh, so I remember it was a Sunday night when she had on ´Ed Sullivan´ and the first time Elvis Presley came on ….and uh, I remember my sister and her being real excited and I remember being real quiet for some reason, just kind of watching…and uh….I went out a couple weeks later and I got a guitar….rented it, I rented it from the music store….I couldn´t really play it right ´cause my hands were too small at the time….but I never ever forgot….I could always just….lot of times I think back to that night….and around, it was around ´76….we were down in Memphis and uh…..it was late at night and I took a taxi cab out to Elvis´ house….and uh….I seen a light in the second story window and figured Elvis must be up reading or something….so I jumped over the wall and I started to run up the driveway, I guess I thought I was gonna…..I don´t know what I was gonna say to him if I´d met him…..anyway, I was (?) feet up the driveway and I got to the frontdoor…and I was just about to knock….and these guards came out of the woods and asked me what I wanted….I said ´Is Elvis home ?´….and….now I, I kind of think, now I know it was a stupid thing to do because like I always hated it when people do it at my house, you know (chuckles)….but anyway, there I was and they said ´No, Elvis isn´t home´, I said ´Oh, you see, I play the guitar too and, and, like I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and stuff´….´Yeah ? You´re that guy ? Sure you are´….and they took me down and they put me back out on the street….but uh….that was something where….I can remember how strange it felt when a friend of mine called me up and told me that…..that Elvis had died….´cause he was so young….and it was hard to understand how somebody who seemed to win so big and for so many people….could´ve ended up losing so bad in the end…. but uh….´cause he deserved a lot better….but uh….I guess a dream….a dream, even a good dream that comes true is a dangerous thing….this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´….”

Intro to "Glory Days"
´´(after the singalong) You´re hired, that´s it….gotta make more room on the bus…. now, anybody out there had a birthday recently ? (cheers)…everybody did, that´s good, good (chuckles)…now, you know, some people (?) get a little nervous about their birthday….I mean not me, I´m not talking about myself, no….some people though….they start, like, you know, checking in the mirror….see where wrinkles are coming up….(?) not tell anybody, hope nobody will notice, your birthday will just slip on by….but now, January´s a big (?) for birthdays in the E Street Band….Danny had his yesterday….Little Steven´s birthday´s in January…and the Big Man had one just a week or so ago….now….as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty….no doubt….anyway…some of us got it and some of us don´t …here´s a song about old times….getting older…anybody over 30 out there tonight ? (cheers) …..wo, that´s not that many (chuckles)….come on, boys, let´s talk about it….”

Intro to "My Hometown"
´´Thanks….(?)….Oh, after….after we did the ´Born to Run´-album….I spent a lot of time, I was living on this farm in New Jersey….and uh….I guess I was trying to think about what I wanted to do next….what kind of songs I wanted to write…..what I wanted my music….and our band to be about….and uh….I guess I decided I wanted to write about….about struggle ….because, I guess, for everybody out there, no matter what your situation is, it´s a pretty hard way to go most of the time….but uh….some people have it a lot tougher than other people….there´s certain people, there´s a lot of people out there that just don´t have their…. their basic needs being met….you know, it´s, in a country as rich….as rich as America is….. it´s hard to believe that 15 percent of our entire population is living below the poverty line…. and tonight when you go out into the lobby….you´re gonna see some folks that are out there trying to help those folks out….they´re from the Rhode Island Community Foodbank….and what a foodbank is is every year, every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in America ends up just getting wasted or thrown away….and what a foodbank does is it gets that food and it gets it to the agencies that serve the people that need it ….and….it´s something where everybody can, can help out a little bit, tonight as you go out, check ´em out….if you can spare a dollar or something for ´em, if you can volunteer some time….they can sure use your support….right now….the economic recovery is not reaching down to the people who need it the most…..there´s old folks whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month….there´s people who been hit hard by unemployment, there´s kids that are undernourished….and uh, it doesn´t seem like in a country that has so much….so much as ours that there should be people out there still hurting for the basic things in life….and…..so this, this is your….this is your Rhode Island and this is your America so go out there and do something about it….”

Intro to "No Surrender"
´´Oh yeah….well, I remember I was….I was 16….and I went into this little, it was called the Hulabaloo Club in Middletown, New Jersey….and there was this guy on stage, had a real long hair, singing, uh….this Paul Revere and the Raiders´ song….it was ´Kicks´…and uh….. he had a pretty good band….and after the set was done, we got talking….and we became good friends…spent a lot of…lot of our time together, going up to the Village….going into…. going into clubs….trying to learn all the tricks that guys had on the guitars….seems like those friendships that you make….get set around the music that you love….sometimes at least…. now, this is for Little Steven tonight wherever he may be….he had a record out called ´Voice of America´…which if you haven´t heard….it´s a real great record, you ought to….you get a chance, pick it up, it´s called ´Voice of America´ by Little Steven….(?)….”

Intro to "Growin´Up"
´´Now, this is for the old timers out there…..this happened a long time ago….in a land not too far from here….so, once upon a time….
(….) Well, now, there I was….I was still in high school….but I wasn´t doing too good….I was getting bad grades…I was daydreaming in class all the time….they used to call me ´The Dreamer´, I´d just sit at my desk and kind of look out the window….the teacher´d call,
´Huh ?´ …so they sent me down to the guidance counsellor…so I walked in, he said …´Mr . Springsteen….what´s your problem ?´….I said ´Well, Sir, seems like I don´t know what I wanna do with myself, I don´t know what I , I don´t know what I wanna be….I don´t know what I wanna do with my life, I got no direction, I, I need some faith, I need some hope, I need some, I, I, I need a date for Saturday night !´….he said ´No, that´s too big a problem for me, you better go home and talk to your folks´….so I went home and went into the kitchen, my dad was sitting there….I said ´Dad, uh, I got something.real important I gotta talk to you about now, you know, it´s like….I´m getting into a lot of trouble at school….and I don´t know what I gonna do with myself, I don´t know, I don´t have any interests, I don´t have any confidence, I don´t know what I´m gonna do with my life, I mean I ain´t got no, I need some faith, I need some hope, I need a….close interpersonal relationship with a member of the opposite sex !´….and he just, he just looked at me and said ´Get me another beer out of the icebox´….so that was it, I decided I was gonna do myself in….I was gonna end it all….life wasn´t worth living….decided I was gonna drown myself….so I get out on Route 33 and I started to hitchhike down towards the ocean….I got to Asbury Park…..but I had this, I had this phony I.D so I decided that before I was gonna drown myself that I´d go get a drink first…..so I went into this bar and I went into the men´s room…..and on the wall it said…. ´Advice and answers to all problems, big or small, just call this number´, I said ´Well, this is my last chance´ so I got a dime and went outside, put it in the payphone….phone rang once ….rang twice….then I heard….(Clarence: ´Hello´)….It was some guy called Clarence ´He-who-knows-all´ Clemons….so, so I told him my problem and he said he thought he could help me out…..so he gave me his address, I walked over to his house….knocked on the door….door opened up….we checked each other out for a while….we decided we´d make a good team, we became partners …..Clarence, now, Clarence, he´d been having trouble of his own….and he´d been to see the gypsy and from the gypsy he´d bought this map, he said it was the map to the secret of the world….and if we followed this map at midnight…..tonight, that we´d find out the answer to all our troubles ….so that night we packed up the car with a lot of peanutbutter-and-jelly sandwiches…. we got in his old Oldsmobile and we started driving south….down Route 9….through Freehold….through Lakewood….through Toms River….south….and it started raining….and then it started hailing as big as baseballs….and then a snowstorm came up and hit us….and then a hurricane came wailing across the highway…and then a tornado come up and blew the roof off the car….and then we got some flat tires….then the engine block cracked…..and the hood flew off and the fenders flew off and then and then and then….the radio broke !!!!….and there we were…..parked by the side of this spooky dirt road….and according to the map what we were looking for was just on the other side of those woods….so into the forest we went….it was spooky in there…..we came upon this big shade tree…..we could tell it was a shade tree because….it had its shades on ….and deeper into the forest we went…..we started to hear sounds like werewolves howling (crowd howls)….we heard lions roaring (crowd roars)….we heard…..homicidal cows (crowd moos)….we heard killer dogs (crowd barks)….and then what´s worse, we heard the theme from ´Entertainment Tonight´….oh no, Big Man….now, there ain´t no beasts in these woods, is there ?….I mean I ain´t ever heard of nobody getting ate alive in New Jersey …I don´t think so….you never heard of nothing, man, getting ate alive or nothing ?…. I think I hear something behind us….I think I hear something behind us….I´m telling you, Big Man (sounds like Stan Laurel)…whooa! and all of a sudden there was this big man-eating bear but instead of jumping on us and making us his dinner, he was acting kind of friendly….he said that he wasn´t mean that he was just lonely….that he´d been out in the woods for a real long time…. and he was needing some friends, he´d run away from the circus where they´d been keeping him in these cages….and he said that if we´d be his buddies, he´d help us find the answer to our troubles….I could tell by the way he wore his hat that he was smarter than the average bear….and so he, he took us back into the woods…..and then all of a sudden….the clouds pulled away from the moon …. and there in a clearing ….we seen the answer to our quest ….and we stood there in the forest and we knew that everything was gonna be all right … because …because….when….when we touched…”

Intro to "Racing in the Street"
´´I remember it was like right around the end of the summer….I think I was just….I was just in my early 20´s….and I had this old Camaro that I´d bought for 500 dollars that I was driving around in….it was a convertible….but the top wouldn´t go up so when it rained….it rained (chuckles)…and uh, there was this little strip down off the river, I guess it was like a junkyard where people from town had come down and dumped off the things that they didn´t want no more…..and leave ´em there to rust….on the weekends we´d meet down there and sit around on the cars, drinking some beer, just talking….and that was the first place that, that I ever saw her….and we started going out…..and uh, it was a lot of fun, the way it, I guess the way it is like when you always first start seeing somebody, it don´t matter what you do, everything´s a good time….we´d go riding….but time passes, people change, sometimes they don´t change together….and the things that made her happy once….didn´t seem to make her happy any more….and I was spending most of my time trying to figure out what it was….and how to make her happy again…and she got to where she didn´t talk too much and she wanted to stay in a lot….to where she´d be hiding my keys so that….I didn´t take the car out at night …..it got hard to make her understand, and I know that one time that she knew….that when I took the car out….and when I won….that it was the only time I got to feeling good about myself….and that to have just one thing….one thing that, that you can do….in your whole life, that makes you feel like somebody…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….just packed up our bags….we still don´t know where we´re going yet….but I guess that´ll come in time…..but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you….you leave so much behind….there´s not much ….you can do….but keep going…and to keep on going….and you keep on going….and you keep on going….you keep on going….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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