1986-10-13 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA

Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Neil and Pegi Young's first Bridge School Benefit concert. Proceeds benefit the Bridge School, which assists children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs. Acoustic show accompanied by Nils Lofgren and Danny Federici. A stunning, inspired performance from Bruce. "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" is sung a capella. "Seeds" is played in a unique arrangement borrowing the melody of "Rockaway The Days". A short "Lady Of Spain" is performed by Danny Federici as an intro to Mansion On The Hill. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young join on "Hungry Heart", and "Teach Your Children" features all of the evening's performers: Young, along with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash; Lofgren (who includes Springsteen's "Man At The Top" in his set); Don Henley, along with J.D. Souther; Tom Petty; and comedian Robin Williams.

Bridge School Benefit

With Neil Young

Neil Young

Nils Lofgren (Guest)
Bruce Springsteen (Guest)

Show

Intro to "Born in the U.S.A"
´´This is a….song about…..uh….the, uh, fix this….yeah….about the snake that….came around and began to eat its tail….yeah, gimme a little….the other monitor there…..”

Intro to "Seeds"
´´Oh God….Big Man, where are you (chuckles) when I need you ?….yeah….come on Danny ….(?)….here´s a song that we were doing on the tour a little while and uh….on the first part of the tour we got down into Texas, down around Houston…..where, uh…..(?) the dropping oil prices, there was a lot of people out of work, people that´d come down from Pittsburg where the steel mills had closed down, they´d gone down south looking for jobs and couldn´t find them down there….people from Gary, Indiana….and you´d see people in, sleeping in their cars and sleeping in tents pitched out on the highway….this is, uh, this is called ´Seeds´….”

Intro to "Darlington County"
´´Well…this is a song, it´s kind of a….I guess, it´s a road song….and….sometimes I´d be coming home late out of New York City, heading south….back in the early, not too long ago….and like when I drive, like I´m one of those people like I always leave my wallet home and I leave my license home all the time so…I´d get pulled over and I used to get a lot of tickets for like, you know, no I.D, no license and I also like to drive where that needle is, is, is right on ´E´, like I know the exact amount that my car has, I don´t even think about getting gas till it´s right around ´E´, you know….´cause you make it home faster like that, you see (chuckles)….you stop at the next place, you know….(?) driving south, I get pulled over….by a state trooper one night and he comes up to the car and asks for my license and registration and I didn´t have any original excuses, you know, like ´I left it in my other pants´or ´I left it at home´, I said ´Well, gee, I forgot it, Sir´….and he goes back to the car and ….he´s working on the radio, I give him my name….and he comes back about ten minutes later and he looks at me and he says ´Are you….are you….are you that rock and roll singer?´….I said ´Yeah´, I said ´Yeah, that´s me´, you know, he says ´Are you the guy that made that, that, uh, Born To Run-song ?´, ´Yeah, yeah´, I´m going ´That´s me, that´s me´….he says ´Yeah, I got, I got some of your records home´, I´m going ´Oh, great, great´, ´Yeah, yes, Sir, yes, Sir, that´s, that´s my record´, you know….he says ´Well, Son, you´re in a lot of trouble´ (chuckles)….”

Intro to "Mansion on the Hill"
´´This is uh….here´s a song of when I was a kid….when I was small, I always remember my father, when it´d get late at night, he….I´d be sitting and watching television and he´d come in and he´d say ´You wanna take a ride ?´, I´d say ´Yeah´… and we´d get in the car…..and there was this house that was on the out….outskirts of town that he would always ride out to….(?) I always remember him doing that….and we´d get out there and he´d park and he´d sit….and uh….at the time it seemed, I remember it was a place that seemed….so distant and so unreachable….and uh…. anyway….this is, uh….”

Intro to "Fire"
´´Yeah, uh, ah….hmm, rock and roll….I don´t know, I can´t get too excited (chuckles)…. (start the song but Nils´ guitar is out of tune) uh, Danny, a little bit more, we´ll be right with you (Danny plays a bit of ´Satin Doll´) aah, how sweet it is (chuckles)….
(….) No, no, this is, I gotta stay calm, this is acoustic….”

Intro to "Follow That Dream"
´´Oh, I´d like to, uh….do this song and….dedicate to Neil and Pegi….and uh….and to you folks….for your, uh….for your support and kindness that are gonna help, help those kids out ….this is for you guys….”

Intro to "Hungry Heart"
´´Where are those old timers ? (chuckles)….come on guys….(broocing) what if my name was Ralph, what´d happen then ? (chuckles)….wouldn´t work as good (chuckles)….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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The Snake That Came Around and Began To Eat Its Tail

Less than a month before the release of his physically and sonically mega box set Live/1975-85, Bruce went completely the opposite direction, stripping down to play his first all-acoustic set since 1972 at what would become Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit Concert.

During a guest DJ session on E Street Radio, Nils Lofgren recounted getting a call from Bruce to join him for the Bridge (Lofgren was also on the bill as a solo artist). Along with Danny Federici, the trio worked up and rehearsed the set in a New York City studio in early October 1986. But as Nils tells it, in an anecdote that conveys deep admiration for the confidence and prowess of his bandleader, on show day at Shoreline, Bruce called a major setlist audible. It wouldn’t be enough to merely play acoustic; Springsteen would go one step further and open the show a capella.

Here was the biggest rock star in the world, last seen 12 months earlier wrapping his staggeringly successful Born in the U.S.A. tour in front of 85,000 fans at the LA Coliseum, taking the stage and singing “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” accompanied only by his snapping fingers. Nils described Bruce’s audacious performance as Elvis-like in its physicality, and grainy bootleg video of the show confirms that. What an entrance.

The Bridge ’86 is a special show. The short but oh-so-sweet set reconnected Springsteen with acoustic performance and can be viewed in hindsight as helping spur a decade or more of solo appearances like the Christic concerts and acoustic recordings like The Ghost of Tom Joad that followed.

The line-up for the inaugural Bridge benefit included Bruce, Nils, Don Henley, Robin Williams (who briefly referenced his famous “Elmer Fudd does Bruce Springsteen” bit during his stand-up set that night), Tom Petty, and host Neil Young (who had his own special guests in Crosby, Stills & Nash). Not unlike the M.U.S.E./No Nukes shows, another benefit where some of these same artists shared a bill, “Broocing” throughout the concert made it clear who most of the audience had come to see.

Following “You Can Look,” Bruce delivers an astounding rebuttal to the jingoistic appropriation that surrounded the title track of his last album. “This is a song about the snake that came around and began to eat its tail,” Bruce says introducing his first public airing of the original solo acoustic arrangement of “Born in the U.S.A.” Any misconstruing of or ambiguity as to the song’s meaning is vanquished over the next five minutes in a spellbinding performance. Until the Bridge, one could only speculate as to what “Born in the U.S.A.” would have sounded like on Nebraska. Now we know.

Nils and Danny then take the stage, and we get an exquisitely rare outing for this E Street Trio. What magic they weave. “Seeds” arrives as a companion to “Born in the U.S.A.” Angry and defiant in 1985, the 1986 model of “Seeds” is instead weary and knowing, sounding like a tune from a bygone era. “Darlington County” is next, preceded by a mini-edition of the story that introduced “Open All Night” in 1984 of Bruce getting pulled over on the turnpike. Nils provides charming harmony vocals throughout the show, none better than what he offers here, as “Darlington” takes its time driving down from New York City.

Strumming and singing brightly, Lofgren shines again on “Mansion on the Hill,” as does Federici. Danny first vamps a little “Lady of Spain,” as Bruce gets his guitar ready, then adds rich accordion swells that paint the song an emotionally tinged hue.

“Fire” will be familiar to those who own Video Anthology on VHS or DVD, where the Bridge version was showcased. Before it starts, Danny is again tapped to fill time due to minor technical difficulties, and he drops a dose of Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” Uncannily, Federici used the song in much the same manner in the earliest E Street days circa 1973-74. Though “Fire” is rightly remembered as a Clarence Clemons showcase, the acoustic version, carried by Bruce’s deep vocal, is pure delight, peaking when Lofgren and Springsteen raise their voices way up to sing, “your words they liiiiiie.”

“Dancing in the Dark” rides a particularly passionate lead vocal along with some fine accordion work from Federici in the final third that pushes the Shoreline audience towards rapture. “Glory Days” always had a bit of a campfire singalong vibe underneath it, and that comes through in this charming take that has the swooning audience joining in.

Serving as something of an encore, “Follow That Dream” lends poignancy to the evening as Springsteen dedicates the song to Neil and Pegi Young. In its River tour incarnation (as heard on the London ’81 archive release) “Follow That Dream” is stark and solemn. In 1986, it transforms into an uplifting song of hope, performed less as a mediation and more as an instruction.

For the final song of the set, “Hungry Heart,” the trio is expanded with backing vocals and guitar from special guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, and Young, putting a spirited ending on just under an hour of acoustic enchantment.

Bridge School ’86 is a significant moment in the rebirth Springsteen as an acoustic artist. Since that show, Bruce has done two fully acoustic tours and a Broadway run that carried on in the spirit of ’86. Perhaps someday, Bridge School ’86 could still inspire an E Street Trio tour as well.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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The Snake That Came Around and Began To Eat Its Tail