1985-08-22 Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Little Steven guests on the final encores. "Twist And Shout" includes "Do You Love Me". "Sherry Darling" includes a snippet of "Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" in the outro.

Steven Van Zandt (Guest)

Intro to “Seeds"
"We were down in Texas….the first part of our American tour….down around Houston you could see people….that'd come down there from up north…when they didn't find work…. packing up their wives and their kids, coming down to work in the oil fields….or on oil rigs ….but when they got down there, the price of oil dropped….they were shutting them down and laying 'em off….they'd end up down there with everything they had, with no place to go they'd end up sleeping in tents on the side….of the highway or sleeping in their cars at night ….this is called 'Seeds'…."

Intro to “The River"
"Yeah….so how's you guys been since I seen you last ? (cheers)…yeah, yeah….this is, uh … seems like getting older sometimes….is a process of leaving stuff behind….you know and uh….I guess that's the way it ought to be, that's what growing up's about….but there's, uh…. sometimes there's things that seem to, that never leave you….that always stay with you…. throughout your whole life…this is a song, uh, I guess this is about living….in the shadow of a dream…."

Intro to “I'm Goin'Down"
"This is uh…this next song is a song about…relationships…so….anybody out there with a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend ? (cheers)….anybody out there married ? (cheers) most of you guys know what I'm talking about (chuckles)….here's a song like when you first meet somebody, you know, how everything's great all the time and everything they say is brilliant and…they always look so wonderful and….and I know you guys, you're always putting on the aftershave lotion and stuff so….so then you smell real good (chuckles)….and if you wanna go out, you know, like, uh, 'What movie do you wanna go see ?' 'Oh, honey, whatever you wanna go see….I don't care if we stay home just as long as I'm with you'… and like, you know, you tell 'em that you love 'em and they say 'Oh, I bet that you said that to your other girlfriends' and you say 'Oh yeah, but this time I really mean it'…yeah, everything's great then, you're making love all the time….can't stay away from each other (chuckles)…oh, but then you come back about six months later or a year later…and it's like 'Are we going out tonight or do I have to sit here and look at your face all night ?'…'Are you gonna make love to me or do we have to wait for the full moon ?'…hey, why does that happen ? (chuckles)…I don't know, anyway…this is for all you lovers out there (chuckles)…"

Intro to “Glory Days"
"This is a song about….Father Time….about time's winged chariot….how it comes and gets you….and how in the end….it ain't nothing but glory days….."

Intro to “My Hometown"
"Thanks….we've been, we've been everywhere this year, I think (chuckles) feels like it…. and uh, every place you go no matter what country you're in….or what city….it seems like whenever you say the name of that city, everybody always cheers….let's try it out….New Jersey (cheers)….what'd I tell you ? (chuckles) New York (cheers)….happens every place you go (chuckles)….I guess, I guess what I've taken that to mean is that people are kind of proud of where they come from…..and uh, I guess…..tonight there's some people in the audience that are showing their pride….who are showing their responsobility to the community that they come from….there's folks from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey….and from the Food and Hunger Hotline of New York City….and what a foodbank is is every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in the United States ends up getting thrown away…and meanwhile in every city and in every state we got….kids going to bed hungry, eating, not eating the correct kinds of food, we got old folks whose social security checks don't get 'em through the month, we've got people that'd been hit hard by unemployment….and what's happening is we have a system where they are not getting caught in the safety net, they're falling straight through the bottom….and they need some help ….and what a foodbank does is it gets that food that would normally be wasted and it gets it to the agencies that serve the people….and uh, right now….as the government cut back in social spendings….they need all the help they can get because it's a problem that is not getting better, it's getting worse and it is true that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer…and uh, in a country that's as rich as ours….it just doesn't seem to make sense that we should have the kind of poverty that we do….it's really, it's really an embarrassment and a shame in all of our national pride….so, if you're proud of where you come from….you can do something about it….some people, they don't believe that people can make a difference but I think that they can…..so the numbers for those organizations are gonna be out in the lobby during the break, if you could check 'em out, I'd appreciate it 'cause these are the people that are out there in real life every day taking some of these ideas that I'm singing about tonight and make 'em real in people's lives….and without them what I'm doing up here is just words….so check 'em out, Community Foodbank of New Jersey and the Food and Hunger Hotline in New York City and remember this is your hometown so you can do something about it…."

Intro to “I'm on Fire"
"I always remember growing up….and my folks working so hard all the time….I remember my mom….always going down to the finance company….borrow money for Christmas….and getting it paid back just in time to borrow money for Easter…and getting it paid back just in time to borrow money….for school clothes….it seemed like it never bothered her…when you're real little, you don't think about it that much….but as I got older….it started to feel in the house like something wasn't right….I remember laying in bed at night….feeling like if something didn't happen….I felt like I was just gonna….like someday….if something didn't happen….I felt like someday I'd just…..someday I was just gonna….someday I'd just…."

Intro to “Pink Cadillac"
"Temptation….yeah…..where did it begin ?….I'm gonna tell you….because this is a song about the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health…. between desires of the flesh, and I'm talking about sexual desire….and spiritual ecstasy ….oh yeah, I'll tell you where it began….it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden….now, tonight we have with us one of our state's greatest biblical scholars…who's gonna come out and help me explain the nature of temptation to you….please give a warm (?) to 'Handsome' Jim McDuffy ….well, now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia, somewhere in there….but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was….please, Jim….ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike….that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call this the Garden State !….oh yeah…. well, man, in the Garden of Eden there were none of the accoutrements of modern living, oh no….man, you couldn't go home at night, put the little Pop-Tarts in the toaster, go on to the refridgerator, get out the ham and cheese, jump in sack with your baby and watch David Letterman on television….you couldn't go, you couldn't go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one….no, Sir !…man, in the Garden of Eden there was no sin…. there was no sex….man lived in a state of innocence….now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in….man, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : they had a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, oh, that got everybody in trouble….they had Adam and they had Eve and Eve looked so fine….when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman….and when she kissed him, it was the first time that a woman had ever kissed a man….and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch….and when he touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman…and then she touched him and it was the first time that a woman had ever touched a man….and then he crawled up real close to her and he said 'Oh, Eve, I love you, baby' …. and they went walking out into the green fields….and then they lay down….and then when Adam….well, let's just say it was the first time….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 'cause right here tonight on this backlot we've got their getaway car….that's right, for 99.95 and no money down, if you've got bad credit, don't worry, it's good here, we'll finance, we'll take a chance on you….if you've got the nerve to ride….I've got the keys….to the first….pink… Cadillac …"

Intro to “This Land Is Your Land"
"Thank you, thanks a lot….like to, uh, just take a minute, thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much….we know a lot of you guys had to wait out in line a long time for tickets, I want you to know we appreciate it, thank you….and uh….I'd like to do this song for you….and an old friend of mine, (?) Tex, this is for you, Tex…..and uh, I guess this song's about the greatest song ever written about America….it's by Woody Guthrie….and it gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about….and as we sit here tonight that's a promise that's eroding every day for many of our fellow Americans….I think if you talk to some of the steelworkers in the Monongahela Valley or in Gary, Indiana or in East Los Angeles or if you talk to some of the farmers in the Midwest….that are losing their farms, I don't know if they'd tell you that they believe that this song is true any more….and I'm not sure that it is but I know that it ought to be….and uh
….I believe I guess that in some way it's up to each and every individual every day somehow to makes this closer to a reality….and uh, I guess we all gotta be real viligant….vigilant (?) that's right (chuckles)….one thing to (?)(chuckles)….but anyway, because with countries, just like with people, it's easy to let the best of yourself slip away…."

Intro to “Two Hearts"
"I wanna do, uh, what I wanna do tonight is…I wanna thank my crew who been working so hard for me all year long….and….it was really hard getting this stuff in here, they had a football game the night before, they work their ass off, nobody ever thanks 'em so let's hear it for 'em ! (cheers)….yeah, and we got a special guest, Little Steven gonna come out and sing a song….Stevie !….all the way from New York City…"

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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I Got You And You Got Me

Bruce Springsteen has enjoyed many a Jersey homecoming: Red Bank 1975; Passaic 1978, Meadowlands 1981, 1984, and 1999; Asbury Park and Freehold 1996, to name only a few. But surely none was bigger than the six-show run Bruce and the E Street Band performed at Giants Stadium in the summer of 1985, arguably the zenith of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Springsteen’s Giants Stadium stand kicked off on Sunday, August 18. It was a tight load-in for the crew (something Bruce acknowledges at the end of this show), as the NY Giants played a preseason NFL game there the night before, making for a quick turnaround from football to on-field concert. As I’m sure at least one of you is wondering: the Giants beat the Green Bay Packers that night by the extraordinarily rare score of 10-2.

Bruce and the band went on to perform at the stadium Sunday and Monday, took Tuesday off, and returned for shows Wednesday and finally this performance on Thursday. All four nights were professionally recorded, with songs from August 19 and 21 later featured on Live/1975-85. This release marks the debut of the August 22 recording. After a brief trip to Toronto for two shows north of the border, the Giants Stadium homestand wrapped with gigs on August 31 and September 1. The remote recording truck did not return for the last two concerts.

Needless to say, each of these Giants Stadium shows was an incredibly tough ticket. Sure, Bruce and the E Street Band were playing a much bigger venue than nearby Brendan Byrne Arena, where they did ten nights the previous summer, but the fanbase had also increased exponentially. The narrative of New Jersey’s local hero returning home as the biggest rock star on the planet was plastered across newspapers, radio, and television.

As such, the mood of the Giants Stadium stand is decidedly celebratory. The people came for a party, they came for Born in the U.S.A., and Springsteen didn’t disappoint. At the 8/22/85 show, he performed ten of the album’s 12 songs, plus the nearly-as-popular b-side, “Pink Cadillac.” Fratello di sangue Stevie Van Zandt re-joined his bandmates for a rollicking encore that only slowed down for the Garden State’s other unofficial anthem, Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl.” Yet even as he met the fans’ mandate, Springsteen found ways to weave moments of musical beauty into the merriment.

The first set opens big as it had to, with “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Badlands,” and “Out in the Street” giving the people exactly what they came for. Credit Bruce for retaining the mini-Nebraska set established in shows the prior year, even in this enormous setting. August 22 features “Johnny 99” and a crackling “Atlantic City,” the latter marked by a great Springsteen vocal (“Debts that no honest MAN COULD PAY”) and fine guitar work from Nils Lofgren. The kindred “Seeds” fits perfectly with the Nebraska songs, and all three are delivered at stadium scale complementing their acoustic roots.

The contrasting performance of “The River” that follows is more intimate and a standout in the set, riding superb piano work from Roy Bittan. “I’m Goin’ Down” and “Working on the Highway” came into their own in 1985, and these are exemplary versions, perhaps as good as either ever got, with “I’m Goin’ Down” in particular fully developed including some wonderful guitar at the end that you’ll likely find unfamiliar.

“Trapped” sets a new mood and takes the audience on a dynamic ride up, down, and up again—you can feel the entire stadium rise for the song’s exalted crescendos. The remainder of the first set goes down easy, with a fun call-and-response preceding “Glory Days” (the best of which is “Guba, Guba, Guba, Guba”) and an enthusiastic “The Promised Land,” highlighted by backing vocals from Patti Scialfa and an invitation to “Come On!” and join in during the song’s bridge.

That sets the stage for Springsteen’s request for support of local charitable organizations leading appropriately into “My Hometown.” The first set wraps joyfully with “Thunder Road,” and the roar that greets its arrival tells you the good people of New Jersey are having the night they wanted. The chorus to “Thunder Road” seems to acknowledge that, especially when Bruce and Patti’s voices go up extra high as they sing, “Sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road.”

A straightforward but satisfying second set follows the standard 1985 stadium show template, with leaner, more muscular arrangements of songs like “Cover Me” and “Dancing in the Dark” compared to their arena editions. The same can be said for “Downbound Train,” and Bruce adds some appealing vocal tweaks, especially the way he holds the words “downbound train” at the end of the second chorus.

The second-set standout is “Pink Cadillac.” You might remember the long intro with Bruce talking about Adam and Eve, temptation, and the Garden of Eden in New Jersey. He has never spun this fable better. The band holds their own too, laying down a funky synth groove to start, eventually building “Pink Cadillac” into a sinewy, roadhouse banger, with sleazy saxophone from Clarence Clemons and Roy Bittan giving the Killer a run for his money on piano.

Before the final fun begins, there’s a sentimental moment where Bruce dedicates a short, solo acoustic version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” to his first manager and professional supporter, Tex Vinyard. He also reminds the audience—in words as timely today as ever—that “the promise of what our country was supposed to be about….[is] eroding every day for many of our fellow Americans.” Before an outstanding “Born to Run,” Springsteen utters the memorable phrase that sums up the key to that promise so perfectly: “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.”

Cementing the status of 8/22/85 as a special night, Springsteen invites Stevie Van Zandt to join the band for the remainder of the encore. Having heard the pair perform “Two Hearts” night after night on the Reunion tour, we can underestimate how meaningful Stevie’s appearance and that song would be to the assembled masses in 1985. Another River song, “Ramrod” keeps things jocular, with Van Zandt relishing his vocal contributions, including a couple of solo lines in the final verse.

No Jersey Shore bar band worth their salt would fail to pull out “Twist and Shout” for this occasion. It is rock ‘n’ roll’s ultimate singalong, and within it, Springsteen indulges in a charming bit of adulation baiting with “Do You Love Me?” Finally, “Jersey Girl” serves as the perfect summer-night coda for the Garden State.

That would be more than enough for most, but the expanded band isn’t done quite yet. Bruce goes back to the River one last time to a song he wrote expressly for a summer party, “Sherry Darling,” driving home the band-fan relationship as he sings, “I got you and you got me.”

Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Giants Stadium shows were New Jersey’s answer to the Canyon of Heroes, ticker-tape parades in concert form. In this case, the world-conquering, returning heroes were performing their mighty deeds even as the confetti flew, celebrating with their home-state audience by doing the thing they do best. As Springsteen would sing decades later in “Wrecking Ball,” this is where Giants came to play. Yes they did.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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I Got You And You Got Me