1985-04-11 Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyōgi-jō, Tokyo, Japan

Scheduled: 18:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

First ever performances in Japan of "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", "Trapped", "No Surrender", and "Growin' Up".

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Darlington County´´
´´Gonna take you on down to Darlington County….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´The River´´
´´Arrigato….when I was young….I was living at home with my parents….my father would come home from work every day and he would sit down in the kitchen with a six-pack of beer and, uh, he´d sit there all night long, every night….and my mother would sit in the livingroom with the TV on….with a blue robe and curlers in her hair and slippers with big flowers on the toes (chuckles) my father would lock up the frontdoor so me and my sister would have to go by him in the kitchen so he could tell what time we were getting in….and if you were gonna get in too late, sometimes you were better off waiting until the morning…. and, uh, I had a sleeping back that I used to hide out on the edge of these woods…..and sometimes if it was late, I´d sleep out there or sleep in some of my friends´ cars or on somebody´s porch….and, uh, now when I go back home, I go by those places where I used to sleep out at night and sometimes they felt more like they belong to me than my own house did, so this song is because everybody needs someplace to go on the nights when they can´t go home….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Glory Days´´
´´Now, this is a song about getting old….about how time sneaks up on you….about how you go into a bar, somebody´s always telling you what a great time you had in high school….I remember when I was a kid, I hated high school….couldn´t stand no high school….I´m still glad when six o´clock comes around I get to play the guitar instead of doing my homework ….but anyway…now, I´ve been out of high school a pretty long time….now, Big Man, he´s been out longer than me….but as you can see, he has maintained all of his youthful beauty…. (?)…in the end all things must pass….and it´s nothing but glory days….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´My Hometown´´
´´Thank you….oh….yeah….this is, uh, this next song….I remember when I was growing up…. I grew up in a very small town and uh, it was also a very small-minded, I couldn´t wait, I remember thinking I couldn´t wait to get out of there….and I thought that once I left, I´d never, I´d never miss the place, I´d never be lonely for my friends that were there or my family, I´d never wanna go back….and, uh….for a long time, I got a chance to go out on the road and for a long time I didn´t miss it….and, uh….as I grew older, I started to come home, I´d get in my car and I´d drive down the streets that I grew up on, go see my old friends, see what their lives were like and I realised that the place where you´re born and raised never leaves your blood, it never leaves you….and, uh….so what I´d like to say is….watashino foodoo sato cara meanasan no ko koro eh *….from my hometown to your hometown….´´
(* according to Marsh´s book ´Glory Days,´ this is the translation for ´This song is from my hometown to your hometown´)

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, end of ´´Dancing In The Dark´´
´´Well, now sometimes I feel….I feel so lonely….and I get so downhearted and that´s when I wanna reach out for a little help….to somebody somewhere….I wanna say….´Hey there, baby,´ come on….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´I´m On Fire´´
´´I remember when I was growing up….my father always telling me that I wasn´t gonna amount to anything….I remember him sitting at the kitchen table, thinking about everything that he didn´t have, that he wasn´t ever gonna have….until he got you thinking the same way …and you stand down on the corner….and watch the girls go by in the cars….and you felt like someday you were just gonna….someday….you were just gonna….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Growin´ Up´´
´´Now, once upon a time….(speaks Japanese)….
(….) Well, now, there I was….I was still in high school but I was doing very badly…and so they sent me down to the guidance counsellor….and he looked at me and said ´Mr.Springsteen, what´s your problem?´…I said ´Well, you see, I don´t have any faith, I don´t have any hope in anything, like, I don´t know what I wanna be, I don´t know what I wanna do when I get out of school´….he said ´That´s too big a problem for me, you better go home and talk to your parents,´ so I went home, went into the kitchen where my dad was, I said ´Dad, I´m getting in trouble in school and I don´t know what I´m gonna do with myself, I don´t know what I wanna be, I don´t have any faith in anything, I don´t have any hope, I need some confidence, I need, I need a date for Saturday night´….and he said ´Get me another beer out of the icebox´….so I decided I was gonna do myself in, I was gonna go drown myself, I got out onto the highway and I hitchhiked down to Asbury Park….I had this phony identification and before I was gonna drown myself, I decided that I´d get a drink first, so I went into this little bar, then I went into the men´s room and on the wall it said ´Advice and answers to all problems, call this number´….so I got a dime, I went outside, I dialed the phone….it rang once….it rang twice and I heard (Clarence: ´Hello´)….it was somebody named Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons, ´He knows all things´….so I told him my problem, he told me he could help me out and I went over to his house….knocked on the door….the door opened up….we checked each other for a while….we decided we´d make a good team and we became partners….now, Clarence, he was having problems of his own so he´d just been to see the gypsy and she´d sold him a map to the secret of the world and if we followed this map at midnight, we´d find the answer to all our troubles, so that night we got in Clarence´s Oldsmobile, we packed plenty of peanutbutter-and-jelly sandwiches, he packed some sushi (chuckles) and we started driving south down Route 9….we were driving along, all of a sudden it started to rain and then it started to thunder and lightning and then a hurricane came and blew across the highway and then a tornado came up and then it started to snow and there was a blizzard and then we got hit by a heatwave and then the roof blew off the car and then we had two flat tires and then the engine block cracked and then the carburetor fell off and then the windows blew out and then and then….the radio broke! oh, no!….so there we were on the side of the 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 scary in there….there were spooky noises coming from everyplace….sounded like wolves in the forest (crowd howls)(speaks Japanese)….then we thought we heard lions in there (speaks Japanese) (laughter from the crowd)….then we heard bears roaring (speaks Japanese) (laughter from the crowd)….(chuckles)….now, Big Man, there ain´t no dangerous beasts in the forest, is there?….no man-eating animals….no, I think we´re all right….Big Man, are you, are you sure? you´re sure….Big Man, I think, I think something´s following us, man, yeah, yeah…. WOOAH! 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 was lonely and that he had run away from the circus and that if we´d be his friends, he´d help us find the answers to all our troubles….so we made a deal and we followed him back into the woods and there the clouds pulled away from the moon and in the clearing we saw the answer to, to our quest….that´s when we knew that everything was gonna be alright….because when we touched….
(….) And here we are tonight….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Racing In The Street´´
´´I remember….it was ´round the end of the summer when it was still warm in the daytime but we would get cool at night and I remember I´d bought this old Camaro for 500 dollars and at night I´d put on a couple of t-shirts and a sweatshirt and my leather jacket, I´d lock up my house and I´d get in the car, I´d put the top down and I´d drive down along the coast…. and the air was real clear…and there was this place, this little strip down by the river where on the weekends we´d get together, we´d meet, sit around and talk…..and that was the first place that I met her….and we first started going out and I guess it was like it was when ever you first start going out with somebody, it´s fun all the time, you know, laughing at each other´s stupid jokes and stuff….and, but time passes, I don´t know what it is that pulls people apart but it changed, she got to where she didn´t wanna go out at night, we didn´t talk as much and she started hiding my keys so I couldn´t take the car out….and it got hard to understand because I knew once we were good friends….and that she understood that when I took the car out and when I won….it was the only time it felt like something was happening to me….like I wasn´t just there….I felt like something….and to have just one thing in your whole life that you do that makes you feel proud of yourself….that´s not too much for anybody to ask anywhere….it´s not too much at all….
(….) Well, that was when we packed our bags and we left….we still don´t know where we were going yet….but I guess that´ll come in time….but sometimes it feels like time gets running so short on you, like it´s gonna run out on you….until you get to where you wanna go ….there´s not much you can do but keep going….keep searching….and to keep going….and to keep going….you keep on going….and you keep on going….you keep on going….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Born To Run´´
´´Arrigato, domo arrigato, thank you very much….I´d just like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the shows here in Tokyo, thank you very much….and I´d also like, like to thank you for your support of our band in the past ten years when we haven´t been able to get over here, I want you to know we appreciate it….so here´s to you….´´

11.04.85 Tokyo, Japan, intro to ´´Twist And Shout - Do You Love Me?´´
´´Thank you, are you ready to rock or what? (crowd cheers) let´s go….´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi