1985-08-14 Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, PA

Scheduled: 19:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

A Brucebase reader present comments "That night, it was insanely hot in Philadelphia, during the day the temperature was well over 100 degrees. By show time it was around 90 degrees. Oh yeah, add in 100% humidity. (I am not exaggerating) Now, Veterans Stadium was a round stadium so the air did not circulate at all. So you can imagine how bad the heat was. To this day, when I watch a video of that show, I start sweating. Anyway, at some point in the encores I believe, Bruce yells out, "I need some air conditioning." Starting at the next tour stop at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, Bruce's road crew rigged cold air blowers from underneath the stage. This was the first time it was ever used. "Sherry Darling" includes a snippet of "Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" in the outro.

After "Out in the Street"
”Hello !…..Is it hot enough for you ?”

Intro to "Seeds"
”On the first part of our…..American tour…..we traveled down through Texas….and down there you’d see a lotta folks who came from up north….outta Detroit….packed up their whole families and went down south looking for work…..in the oil fields, in the oil refinaries…..and when the price of oil dropped, they started shutting them down and laying ‘em all off and these folks’d be in tents on the side of the highway ….sleeping in their cars….with nothing to do and no place to go….this is called ‘Seeds’…”

Intro to "Atlantic City"
”This is a song about blood money…..and Atlantic City….”

Intro to "The River"
”Thanks….yeah….when I was a kid….my old man used to have this trick….he’d play on me and my sister…..he’d…..lock up the frontdoor of the house so when we came in at night, we’d have to come in around in the side….he’d be sittin’in the kitchen….. waiting for us….he’d always know what time you’d got in….and he used to sit there in the dark with all the lights out…..and my mother used to sit in the frontroom with those pink curlers in her hair (chukles)….and uh….slippers with like big flowers on the toes (chuckles)…..and uh, fall asleep in front of the T.V….but I’d stand out in the driveway and I’d look through the screen door and I could see the light of my pop’s cigarette and I used to have, like when I was 16 or 17 , I used to have a real long hair (cheers) (chuckles) yeah, down to my shoulders….and my old man used to hate it, couldn’t stand it….we used to fight about it….so I tucked it way down inside my collar and I pulled my coat up….I’d get my nerve up and I walked through the kitchen door and he’d always let me get through the kitchen…through the livingroom, he’d always let me get through the livingroom and just as I got my foot on that bottom step, I’d hear ”Bruuuce” (crowd ‘bruuces’)…..he´d call me to come and sit down with him …..so I’d go back and I’d sit across the table and the funny thing is we never used to….we never used to talk, we never to say anything, I’d just sit there, he’d just sit there and after about twenty minutes he’d ask me something like, uh…..’What you think you’re doing with yourself ?’…. and then we wouldn’t say nothing for about ten more minutes and then I’d hear….’When you’re gonna get your hair cut ?’ (chuckles) ….and uh….that was the extent of our conversation (chuckles)……but when he’d been sitting there too long, some nights I….I had a sleeping bag I used to stash under a friend of mine’s porch……and I’d sleep on somebody’s porch or sleep in a friend of mine’s car….now when I go back home , sometimes those places where I used to sleep feel more like….my home to me than my house did when I was growin’up …. anyway….this is a song because…..everybody needs some place they can go those nights when they can’t go home…..”

Intro to "Darlington County"
”Say ‘Bruuuuce!’….”

Intro to "Glory Days"
”Man , I gotta take a rest, yeah ….(Bruce sits down on the edge of the stage)….I’m getting up there now, man, I’m 35…..the heat , you know….you get older, the heat gets to you so easy, I’m telling you….oh God, it’s terrible….oh yeah, man….I don’t know ….Tom….Tom Seaver , he was 40 , he got his 300th victory last week…..I’m starting to worry about it, you know…..now Big Man…..Big Man, he’s older than Tom Seaver….but somehow…..somehow he maintains his youthful beauty all the time….yeah, getting old….married now so….yeah (giggles)….this is uh….gonna do this for anybody out there with your kids tonight….anybody out there old as me…..that’s alright….’cause in the end…. ain’t nothing but glory days…..are your ready, band ? ….are you ready, people ?…..”

Intro to "My Hometown"
”Thanks….you swetting out there yet ?…..good (chuckles) ‘cause we’re just getting warmed up….this is a song I wrote, I guess about…..I was living in California…..I was thinking back on the town I grew up in…..and what was happening there….now when I was a kid….I can remember, you know, the whole thing was avoiding responsibility ….that’s why I originally picked up the guitar…..to keep from working for a living, you know (chuckles)…..and uh (chuckles)….but as I got older, I realised that you can run but you can’t hide…..and what I was afraid of as a kid was I was afraid of belonging to something…..’cause if you say that you belong to something , it means that you got some responsobility to that thing…..you say you are a Philadelphian, that means you got some responsobility to Philadelphia (cheers)….and uh…..I guess…. tonight in the audience there’s representatives of three different organizations that are trying to live up to their responsobility to their community…..there´s some folks from the Greater Philadelphia Foodbank……and…..there’s some folks from the Community Food Distribution Programme…..and there’s some folks from the commimity (Bruce mispronounces)….Committee for Dignity and Fairness for the Homeless (cheers) … and what the Greater Philadelphia Foodbank does is every year about twenty percent of all the food that gets produced in the United States just gets wasted …..meanwhile in every city and in every town , there´s people going to bed hungry…..there’s kids that aren’t getting the proper nutrition…..there’s old folks whose….whose social security checks don’t get’em through the month……so the Foodbank gets that food and it distributes it to the agencies that serve those people (cheers)….yeah…..The Food Distribution Programme , they got forty different kitchens and cupboards all around the city where they deal directly with the people that need help and assistance …..every day….and the Committee for Dignity and Fairness for the Homeless…..was started by homeless people who are trying to help other homeless people become productive members of society….now…..right now that the government cut back on social spending, these people need all the help they can get…. and what they’re doing is they’re making the ideas that I sing about in my songs , these are the people that are trying to make it real every day (cheers)….it’s a shame that in a country as rich as ours , we have 15 percent of our population living below poverty line and there’s really, absolutely no reason for it….people take it for granted, that it’s a part of our national life but what it is, it’s really a shame on all of us and …..I guess all I’m trying to say us these people are out there making your hometown a better and more decent place to live….and they could use some help….so their phonenumbers will be on the concession stands during the break so if you can, check ‘em out , find out about ‘em ….they´re here in your community so give ‘em a hand…..they’d appreciate it, I’d appreciate it…..after all this is your hometown so do something about it, Philadelphia ….”

Intro to "I’m on Fire"
”I always remember….my folks…having to work so hard just to get by…..I can always remember my mom…..going down to the finance company…..she’d go down to (?) to get money for Christmas and when she’d get that paid off, it’d be time for Easter….. when she’d get that paid off, it’d be time to buy school clothes…..always going down, always making that trip…..and for some reason it always seemed like….like it never bothered her…but I can remember it bothered my dad….and he’d sit there at night thinking about everything…..that we weren’t ever gonna have…..and I’d be thinking like that too….I’d sit up in bed…..and I remember feeling like….if something didn’t happen…..feeling like I was just gonna….if something didn’t happen someday…. feeling like I just…..like I was just gonna…..”

Intro to "Pink Cadillac"
´´Well, now….this is a song about conflict….between worldly things and spiritual health…. between desires of the flesh, and I´m talking about sexual desire..…and spiritual ecstasy ….now, where did it all begin ?….well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden….oh yeah….now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia….but the latest theological studies, and you´re gonna be reading about this in the Christian Science Monitor any day now, the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was 10 miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike….and let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that's why they call this the Garden State !….that´s right….in the Garden of Eden, oh man, there wasn't none of the accoutrements of modern living….no Sir ! ….they didn´t have no television….you couldn´t go put your Pop-Tarts in the toaster and then go home and watch Johnny Carson or David Letterman all snuggled up in your little bed…..no….you couldn't go downtown and buy none of them Philadelphia cheesesteaks !….no Sir !…..man, 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 constantly live in….oh yeah…..man, they had it all, man, they had a tree, a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, boy, that was trouble….they had a man, Adam….they had a woman, Eve and she looked so fine….yes….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 to the touch….and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman.…oh yeah….and then he crawled up real close to her and he said ´Eve, I love you, baby´ ….and they went walking out into the green fields and they lay down….and when Adam….well, let´s just say it was the first time….but, man, there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them running down into the darkness below….but that´s alright ´cause right here tonight on this backlot for 99.95 and no money down, don't worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, I've got the keys to their getaway car ….and if you´ve got the nerve to ride….I´ve got the first pink Cadillac …"

Intro to "This Land Is Your Land"
”Thanks….I wanna take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight , thank you very much…..I wanna say I salute you, the heat did not get you down, you were troopers …..yeah (chuckles)….I’d like to do this song for youse….. this is uh…. this is, I guess , about the greatest song that’s ever been written about America…..it was written by Woody Guthrie…..and uh….it gets right….it gets right to the promise that was at the very heart of our country…..and as we sit here tonight, it’s a promise that’s eroding for many of our fellow Americans……and I guess it’s kinda ….the title of the song is really a question….it’s up for us, up to us to make it as true as we can everyday…..but we gotta be vigilant because with countries , just like with people….it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away….but anyway….here’s to you wishing you the longest life and the best of everything……”

Intro to "Sherry Darling"
”All warmed up now ?….can you dance on for one more song ?…..I can’t go home now, I’d ruin my reputation…..if it only was a little hotter tonight (chuckles)….alright, boys….and girls….here’s happy summer to you……
(…)(Bruce and the audience are waving their hands in unison) ‘‘Jane Fonda, look out ! ”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Jack M.	What I remember about this concert was how hot it was. Bruce had a big trough of water that he kept dunking his head into. You could tell the heat slowed him down a little. Still a great concert.
Jason S.	Ahh, my first Bruce concert. 13 years old, 3rd row center stage and changed forever.

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