1985-08-18 Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

First show of six at Giants Stadium.

Intro to "Out in the Street"
“How you doing, New Jersey? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "Johnny 99"
“Thanks…sorry we’re late (chuckles)…”

Intro to "Seeds"
“We were traveling down through Texas on the first part of our American tour…there was a lot of folks down there from up north, from Detroit…packed up their wife and their kids and went down south to find work in the, in the oil fields or in the oil rigs…then when the price of oil dropped, they were shutting them down, laying them off, they had no place to go…they ended up in tents, sleeping in tents out on the edge of the highway or sleeping in their cars at night…this is a song called “Seeds”…”

Intro to "Atlantic City"
“This is a song about…blood money…and losing…losing yourself in Atlantic City…”

Intro to "The River"
“Ah…yeah…whenever I come back to New Jersey, it’s always, uh (crowd cheers) it’s always like family night when my relatives come (chuckles) yeah…they get all dressed up and they come down…to see if I’m behaving myself, I guess (chuckles)…but, uh, my mother comes and my aunt comes, gets her hair all fixed up, doesn’t let anybody touch it, you can’t go near it (chuckles) and uh…now, this is a song I’d like to do…like to do it for my sister and my brother-in-law whenever they come down (chuckles) this is, uh…they got married young and had kids when they were just kids themselves and I see them struggle so hard…they got two nice boys now…and uh…when I was a kid, it was like my parents were like a part of the furniture most of the time, I always felt…so, anyway, Mike and Chris…this is for your Mom and your Pop…”

Intro to "Darlington County"
“Come on let’s get on out of here…”

Intro to "Glory Days"
“Are my people out there? (crowd cheers) good..(Bruce leads the crowd in the sing-along) alright, you sound good (crowd cheers)… now this is a song…about Father Time…about time’s winged chariot …it’s about getting old…oh yeah…I’m talking old, man…I’m talking, like, I’m old, I’m 35 now…anybody out there as old as me? (some cheers) hey, alright, alright, my brothers, my sisters (chuckles) but now the Big Man – let me see…well, the Big Man, he is…he is…he is much older than me (chuckles) but somehow he always maintains his youthful beauty all the time (crowd cheers)(?) Tom Seaver, he’s forty, right? he got his 300th victory…that’s not so bad…anyway… gonna do this for all you old guys out there (chuckles) if you got your kids with you or if you’re married…you’re a husband (chuckles) like me, this is for you out there tonight (crowd cheers) are you ready, people? (crowd cheers) are you ready back there? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "The Promised Land"
“(chuckles)…Oh…you gotta keep searching…for that Promised Land…”

Intro to "My Hometown"
“Man…yeah…so how’s things been here in New Jersey, huh? (crowd cheers)(?)…I remember…when I was growing up…I grew up in a real small town…and uh…I used to hate it and I couldn’t wait…I couldn’t till I got old enough to get out of there…and I was sure I’d never miss it, I’d never wanna go back and…I didn’t care whatever happened back there…and uh…for a long time I got a chance to get out on the road and travel and for a long time I didn’t miss it…I remember when I picked up the guitar, I figured it was the best way…of avoiding responsibility and of avoiding a nine-to-five job, you know (chuckles) (crowd cheers) you know, it was (chuckles) it was, uh (chuckles) but as I got older, I realised I guess that you can run but you really can’t hide and when I was a kid, I think the thing I was afraid of the most was I was afraid of belonging to something ‘cause if you belong to something, I guess that means you got some responsibility to that thing…like, uh…if you say you’re from New Jersey, you’ve got some responsibility to your state (crowd cheers) and if you’re from New York, you’ve got some responsibility to your city (crowd cheers) you know, sometimes that’s hard to face up to but tonight in the audience we got some folks who are trying to live up to their responsibility to their community…[the rest of the intro is missing from the source tape] …”

Intro to "Thunder Road"
“(After the sing-along) Are you talking to me? (crowd cheers)…”

Towards the end of "Dancing in the Dark"
“Hey…sometimes…I get so downhearted…and I feel like…like I just can’t stand myself…like nothing’s gonna work out…and that’s when I wanna reach out to somebody…somewhere…’cause I’m feeling lonely…and I need a little help…and I just wanna say…hey, come on, baby…”

Intro to "Cadillac Ranch"
“I said has anybody seen that Cadillac now? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "I’m on Fire"
“I can remember…when I was a kid…my folks…were always working so hard…I can remember my mother…always going down to the finance company, always visiting the finance man…she’d borrow stuff for Christmas and get it paid off and have to borrow money for Easter and get it paid off and borrow money for school clothes…but for some reason she never let on like it, like it bothered her…but my dad couldn’t hide it…as good…from work he’d come home and it seemed like all he ever had was the kitchen…at night…and he’d sit there thinking about everything that we were never gonna have… till he’d get me thinking like that too…I’d lay up in bed and I remember feeling like…like if something didn’t happen…I was just gonna…like someday I’d just…I remember feeling like…feeling like I was just gonna…feeling like someday I’d just…I’d just…”

Intro to "Pink Cadillac"
“Now today is Sunday (crowd cheers)(?) church out there today… because this next song is about the conflict…between worldly things and spiritual health…between desires of the flesh – and I’m talking about sexual desire (crowd cheers) and spiritual ecstasy… that’s right…now, where did this conflict begin?…well, it began in the beginning…and tonight to help me out I’d like to introduce to you one of our state’s leading biblical scholars, handsome Jim McDuffy – bring out the chart, please, Jim…watch the screen, ladies and gentlemen…now, it began in a place called the Garden of Eden …the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia – that’s what this is, somewhere in there…but the latest theological studies, the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was (crowd cheers) ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike (crowd cheers) and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call this the Garden State (crowd cheers) but, now, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living, no, man, you couldn’t go home and turn on your little TV at night, put your little Pop-Tarts in the toaster, jump in the sack with your baby and watch David Letterman on TV – you couldn’t do that…you couldn’t 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 (crowd boos) 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 (crowd cheers) but, oh, man, in the Garden of Eden there was many wondrous things:there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, oh yeah…there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine…and 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…and he snuggled up real close to her and he said “Oh, I love you, Evie”…and they took a walk…out into the green fields…and they lay down…and when Adam…well, let’s just say it was the first time (crowd cheers) but 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 driving down into the darkness below…but that’s alright because right here tonight on this back lot I’ve got their getaway car and for 9,995 and no money down, if you’ve got bad credit, it’s good here, we’ll finance, we’ll take a chance on you, don’t worry about it, if you’ve got the nerve to ride…I’ve got the keys to the first….pink….Cadillac (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "This Land Is Your Land"
“This, uh…I’d like to just take a second and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight in New Jersey (crowd cheers) and I know, uh, a lot of youse waited out in line for a long time for tickets, I want you to know we appreciate it (crowd cheers) and uh, it’s always nice to come back home – I guess…it’s funny ‘cause no matter how I felt about it when I was a kid, I guess I always liked it here (chuckles) you know…yeah…but I’d like to do this song for you, this song is I guess about the greatest song ever written about America…and it’s by Woody Guthrie…and uh…it’s a song that gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about…uh…it’s a promise that is, as we sit here tonight, eroding for many of our fellow Americans…I think that if you spoke to the steel workers in the Monongahela Valley or in Gary, Indiana or in East Los Angeles, I don’t know if they’d feel that this song was true any more and I don’t know if it is but I know it ought to be… so, uh, I’d like to do this for you, wishing you all the longest life with the best of everything…and ask you to be vigilant because with countries, just like with people, it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "Born to Run"
“Thanks…remember in the end…nobody wins ‘less everybody wins …”

Middle of "Twist and Shout"
“Oh yeah…well, Big Man, how you doing, man? (Clarence: “Big Man grooving”) alright…how’s the band doing?…alright, alright…how’s the sound men doing?…they’re doing great…how’s everybody up in the stands over there? (crowd cheers) good, good (chuckles) how about you guys up over here? (crowd cheers) alright…now what about you guys way in the back there, are you dancing? (crowd cheers) hold on back there, man, are you alright? (crowd cheers) good…then what about all the folks in the bleacher seats back here? (crowd cheers) they’re psycho back there, always the nutty guys back there (crowd cheers) now, what about everybody down on the dance floor? (crowd cheers) good…that’s good because before I go, there’s one thing I got to know…I came all the way home to New Jersey…to find out the answer to this one question…came back to my home…because I need to know…I mean what I need to know is …I mean what I have to know is (crowd: “What?”) I mean I can’t leave without finding out is (crowd: “What?”) I mean what I need to know is (crowd: “What?”) I mean what I have to know is (crowd: “What?”) I mean what I need to know is (crowd: “What?”) I mean what I’ve got to know is (crowd: “What?”) Do you love me?…
(…) This is the big one…we’re gonna shake the state now…we’re gonna mess with the whole city…Aah, aah…
(…) Don’t push me now (crowd cheers) don’t push me (crowd cheers) you know I’ll do it (crowd cheers) you know my reputation (crowd cheers) I’m a sick man (crowd cheers) you know I’ll do it (crowd cheers) AAAH! Shake it a baby…
(…) Can you stand yourself? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "Jersey Girl"
“(?) two more we got for you (crowd cheers) this is, uh…this is a special one, uh…I wanna just, uh, get real corny now (chuckles) uh …I’d like to do this for my Mom, she’s here tonight, yeah (chuckles) (crowd cheers) first night home, gotta go for it (chuckles) and my sister ‘cause for their whole lives they’ve been two of the hardest working women and sweetest women and strongest that I’ve ever known and when I think of the word “Jersey girls” (?)(crowd cheers)…”

Intro to "Sherry Darling"
“Alright…have a good summer…let’s rock it one more time, boys, “Sherry Darling”…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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SPRINGSTEEN BEGINS 6-CONCERT SERIES

Let us not pussyfoot about this: Bruce Springsteen's opening-night New York-area concert at Giants Stadium here tonight - nearly four hours of it, counting a 40-minute intermission - was a flat-out, unqualified triumph. It was even markedly better than the remarkable show that Mr. Springsteen and his E Street Band offered here just over a year ago, in the Brendan Byrne Arena right across the parking lot.

That show inaugurated a worldwide tour, one that has helped lift Mr. Springsteen from the ranks of mere rock megastars into the more rarefied group of artists who have defined the history of the rock genre - and won themselves a mythic place in that history.

There was some reason to fear for these Giants Stadium shows. The six of them will play to an estimated 390,000 people, adding up to an unparalleled exercise in rock-and-roll gigantism.

The progression from arena to stadium encapsulates a decision that all massively successful rock stars must make - whether an increase in audience size is worth the inevitable loss of intimacy. It's a more complex question than one might think, particularly for a genuine populist artist like Mr. Springsteen.

Clearly, most rock acts sound better in the hot, closed-in, ready-to-explode-with-excitement ambiance of a club. Yet when a performer becomes as popular as Mr. Springsteen has in the last year, he also has an obligation to play for as many fans as possible of the multi-millions who want -desperately need is more like it - to see him. And at its best, like tonight, a mass show brings an extraordinary sense of communality that no club can quite match.

Tonight's show suggests that the real gulf to be bridged is between the theater and the indoor arena. The jump up from there to a stadium is not so big - at least in a relatively compact environment like Giants Stadium, in which the stage still seems reasonably close from the highest tier at the rear.

One big reason this show was superior to last summer's was the presence of two large video screens flanking the stage. They allowed for an intimacy that wasn't possible a few years back, even in theaters, simultaneously offering Mr. Springsteen as confidant and heroic icon. And with a sound system as clear and focused as the one Mr. Springsteen has at his disposal, without the distracting echoes that indoor spaces sometimes entail, both the broad anthems and the intimate between-songs narratives came across with exemplary clarity. One could actually understand nearly all the words - not that most of tonight's 65,000 fans didn't know them already.

Some of those words have direct political implications, but in the past - as recently as last year - Mr. Springsteen wasn't always forthcoming about his intentions. Tonight he specifically advocated assistance to New York and New Jersey food banks, and for his first encore he chose Woody Guthrie's ''This Land Is Your Land,'' which he prefaced with another unambiguous call for national renewal.

Another reason for this triumph was that the nature of Mr. Springsteen's music allows it to be inflated up to stadium size with relative ease. He writes strong, solid, almost ponderous melodies, and even his uptempo songs have a clean-cut directness that allows for amplified expansion.

But the best reason of all for this show's success was that Mr. Springsteen and his wonderful band have a year and a world's worth of practice under their belts. One sign of it was that Patti Scialfa, who filled a mostly ancillary role last summer, seemed more surely integrated as both keyboardist and singer into this former boys' club of a band. But the show's execution as a whole combines sure precision with endearing spontaneity in the best Springsteen manner, and Mr. Springsteen's hoarse, hortatory baritone sounded more fresh and powerful than ever.

In keeping with his political reticence, he had seemed last summer to slight, just a bit, the somber, austere laments about contemporary American working-class life that have defined his mature output. What was especially heartening about the first half was that he gave us those songs in full measure - including a powerful new one, ''Seeds,'' about auto-industry migrants out of work in the Texas oilfields. And this, remember, was in a monstrous stadium that might have seemed to preclude such intimate intensity altogether.

Mr. Springsteen not only sang those sad, gospel-flavored ballads, he made them sound like the affirmations they are, down deep. And when he got to the ebullient songs, which lightened the lowering gloom of the first half and brilliantly illuminated the second, the crowd was dancing not just in the dark, but in the aisles.

^{By John Rockwell via The New York Times.}

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Springsteen Begins 6-Concert Series ^{(NewYorkTimes)}

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SPRINGSTEEN BEGINS 6-CONCERT SERIES