Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??
Final U.S. show of the tour. Barbara Carr is onstage for "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" and Jon Landau plays guitar during the encores. "Adam Raised A Cain" includes "I'm A Man" in the outro for the first time, as well as the "break that chain" bit. "Cover Me" includes "Gimme Shelter" in the outro and "Part Man, Part Monkey" includes "Love Is Strange" in the outro. "Light Of Day" includes variant lyrics throughout and "Born To Be Wild" in the midsection. "Born To Run" is solo acoustic. "Lonely Teardrops" is the set closer again. Although Ed Townsend's "For Your Love" was played in a horn-fueled arrangement during the soundcheck, it did not get played during the show. As Bruce comments before the soundcheck performance, however, a few "paying customers" are present in the arena to hear "For Your Love" played.
- On Stage
- Setlist
- Performances
- Appearances
- Cancelled
- Gallery
- Media
- Recording
- Storyteller
- Eyewitness
- News/Memorabilia
Soundcheck
Pre-Show Show
|
No Handwritten or Printed Setlist available. |
incl. Rehearsals.
- 2023-04-01 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2022-10-01 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2019-11-04 Hulu Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2018-11-05 Hulu Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2018-07-18 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2017-09-15 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2016-11-01 Theater At Madison Square Garden (The), New York City, NY
- 2016-03-28 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2016-01-27 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2015-11-10 Theater At Madison Square Garden (The), New York City, NY
- 2015-07-31 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2014-11-05 Theater At Madison Square Garden (The), New York City, NY
- 2013-11-06 Theater At Madison Square Garden (The), New York City, NY
- 2012-12-12 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2012-04-09 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2012-04-06 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2011-12-01 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2009-11-08 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2009-11-07 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2009-10-30 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2009-10-29 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2009-05-03 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2007-10-18 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2007-10-17 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2006-06-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2003-02-23 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2002-08-12 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-07-01 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-29 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-27 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-26 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-23 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-20 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-17 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-15 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 2000-06-12 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1997-02-26 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1993-06-26 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-08-24 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-05-23 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-05-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-05-19 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-05-18 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1988-05-16 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1987-12-13 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1983-08-02 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1980-12-19 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1980-12-18 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1980-11-28 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1980-11-27 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1979-09-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1979-09-21 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1978-08-23 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1978-08-22 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1978-08-21 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1973-06-15 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
- 1973-06-14 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
incl. Interviews and Recording-sessions.
© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.
Official concert recording available for purchase in multiple formats, including CD and high definition audio, from Springsteen's official live download site at nugs.net/bruce (previously live.brucespringsteen.net).
- Running Time: 3:27:49
Note: "For Your Love" from the soundcheck is included as a bonus track.
Audience tape also circulates.
Intro to “All That Heaven Will Allow”
´´Starting to feel like summer out there today…(?) thunderstorm…..and lightning in New York City…how about rain ? that´s nice….I like this time of the year, I like….we get days like this, they kind of sneak up on you and make you feel, makes you feel like summer….and when you get those days when it´s like real clear…and the air´s real crisp and thin….and people start coming out and start walking everyplace….makes you feel, uh….like something´s changing, makes you feel like doing something….oh, and the girls leave all their winter clothes home….oh yeah….take the top down and (?) a little bit, take that first ride, you know ….yeah…see all them mommies out there with their little babies in the stroller….that´s when I like to take a walk in the park ….see if any of my old friends are still hanging around….hey man, yo ! (chuckles) how you doing ? alright….good to see you…. (?) some of this weather, huh ? yeah, it´s nice…..what´ve you been doing ? what you, I ain´t seen you in a long time…. you don´t call me up, you should call me up, I should call you up (chuckles) what do you got ? oh ! oh yeah ! got the Big Man´s latest project, the little Big Man….he´s got his own shades, his own saxophone, he knows how to play it too, he´s three years old, he´s got his own apartment…..drives his own car already….got his own suit, you know, and his sunglasses (chuckles) and almost, almost as handsome as his dad….yeah, he looks good….he looks, oh (?) man, I remember, I remember I was with you the night you met your wife, you know….see, I went, I went through all of Clarence´s girlfriends with him, you know, I´d hear all about it and I was like his love counsellor or something, you know….(chuckles ) you know, he´d always come knocking on my room saying ´Bruce, you know, I just met the girl I´m gonna marry, I´m in love´, you know, ´I´m sure, I´m sure this time, I´m sure´….and so one night we were out at this party and this girl comes walking in….the first thing, I know when Clarence is serious ´cause the first thing he does is he runs right into the bathroom….
and he checks himself out in the mirror and he puts on like patchuli oil or something, something that he used to wear (chuckles) and uh….and then he comes out and, you know, he goes to the bar and he´s trying to be real nonchalant, you know….be real suave….and I listen to him talking, you know, and I (chuckles) I can tell he has on what I call his love-face….that´s the face that like, that´s when he´s being like a whole lot nicer than he really is in real life….´Oh, yes, honey, anything you want, baby….whatever you wanna do´ (chuckles) (?) she was nice, you got married on top of that vulcano and I was your best man, you know ….he didn´t wanna do the usual thing, he wanted to get married in Hawaii, he got married on top of this big vulcano….early in the morning and we was almost late, that´s because the guy´s name that married Clarence was Clarence, you know, I don´t know….remember how you felt when she came walking in that room and you´d see her coming down ? back in Jersey, it feels kind of like this (Miami Horns start singing)….oh yeah….man, I remember we used to stay out till like four a.m all the time ?….oh man, we used to stay out all night, go ´round jamming everyplace….wanna do that again ? wanna do that tonight ? (?) ….and bring your horn, bring your horn, alright, see you later…..”
Intro to “Spare Parts”
´´How you doing out there tonight ? (cheers)….yeah….how´s everybody in the backseats now ? (cheers) you alright back there ? (cheers)….that´s good….was this, uh…..fella and this girl ….they met in a little shot-and-beer bar down along the coast….and uh….oh, it was in the summertime….and he was a house painter, he was…..I guess he was in his early 20´s….and he was just kind of, you know, making his money and spending it on the weekend….just enjoying himself, looking for some fun….and she was a little bit older….and she´d been around a little bit and I guess she was looking to settle down, looking for somebody that she could love and somebody who´d love her…. and they met in this little bar and they, they got along real good, he was real sweet-tempered, kind of gentle, telling, you know, stupid jokes all the time, keeping her in a good mood….and uh….winter came along and they, they moved into a little garage apartment about two blocks in off the beach….had a few rooms and a neat porch….you know….it was nice, it was nice….and uh, she got pregnant, he saved his money for the first time and they made plans to be married, he went down and saved his dough, bought her a ring, came home and surprised her with it….and she went and picked out a dress and told her mama and her papa….and then I guess something happened….maybe he was a little on the young side….but as it got closer and as they got closer, he got, he got afraid and he took off on her….but she never really let him go, she kept him in her mind and she kept him in her heart and he saw his face in the day and she left his things where they were….and when she got in bed at night, she thought of him….and the only problem was that he wasn´t ever ever coming back….and so the world took that old dream and it broke her heart with it over and over again every day because there comes a time when you gotta take that past, no matter how much you love it, and you gotta put it away…and so this is a song about a woman struggling to understand the value of her own independent existence….and the value of the life of her baby, her child….trying to take those things in her past that hold her down, put them away and to find something new and beautiful and strong and meaningful in her life now….”
Intro to “You Can Look”
´´It starts when you´re a little bitty baby….crawling across that floor….heading for something you like….that telephone, that television set….reaching out, your mom says ´Now, don´t touch that thing….you can look at it but don´t touch that thing´….and then you ride into the department store….see that little display case with all them toys inside, you´re walking up to it and the saleslady says ´Son, don´t touch that….you stand back like a nice boy and look at it´…I remember going out on my date with my girlfriend when I was in high school….and she said ´Please, don´t touch that thing….you can look at it but you can´t touch it´….”
Intro to “I´m a Coward”
´´Is there anybody alive out there tonight ? (cheers) is there anybody that can feel the living, breathing spirit in their hearts out there tonight ? (cheers)….that´s good….because I wanna know….do we have any rough, any tough, any ready-to.rumble New York City men out there tonight ? (cheers) I wanna see your hands, boys….do we have any macho New Jersey men out there tonight ? (cheers) let me see you North Jersey boys, come on….big tough guys…. well, I've known some tough guys that would swim rivers and climb mountains….then wrestle with the beasts of the jungle….but there was something that they was afraid of…. there was something that scared them to death….and I´m gonna tell you what thing it was…. what I´m talking about L-U-V, I'm talking about love….love scared them to death….when they felt love in their hearts, they ran away like little babies back to their mommies….am I talking about you ?….is this your story ?….now, do we have any brave, courageous New York City women out there tonight ? (cheers) do we have any sweet, liberated, sexy Jersey girls out there tonight ? (cheers) come on, let me hear you, girls….because I'm talking to you too….I´ve known women…..that when they got next to love….they ran back home, when they felt love in their hearts, when they felt it finally get down in their souls, they got frightened, they got scared and they ran away….from that thing that they loved….but I´m not down here pointing any fingers tonight….because I´ve got a confession of my own that I´ve got to make ….and I wanna say is I have sinned !….and I don´t need no Jimmy Swaggert to forgive me, baby…..he can kiss my ass….and that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell can kiss my ass twice, baby….because I´m a brave man….yes I am, yes I am…. but what I´ve got to confess to is…. that I'm a coward when it comes to love…."
Intro to “Part Man Part Monkey”
´´Well, now, there seems to be a dispute about whether we descended from Adam and Eve…. the Garden of Eden….of whether we, uh…..well, let me tell you a story I read in the papers ….”
Intro to “Born to Run”
´´Here´s a song I wrote about 15 years ago….I was just 24, I was living in Long Branch….oh, man, I felt, I felt pretty ready, I guess….it was in the afternoon and it took me a long time to write this song….I always say that this song is kind of like my birthday song, you know ….I spent quite a few months thinking about what I wanted to say….and how I wanted to say it and the stuff that I asked myself in this song 15 years ago, the questions….they´re the questions that I´ve been chasing down the answers to ever since….and uh….when I wrote it, I guess I thought I, I took this guy and this girl and I put ´em in a car….and uh….I guess they thought that they wanted to run and keep on running….that was a nice, that was a nice romantic idea (?) but as I got older I realised that you run out of road too fast….and after putting all those people in all those cars, I realised that I´d put myself in with ´em….and that if I didn´t find someplace for them to go, I wasn´t gonna know where I was going….and so I sang this through the years, it kind of opened up, I said ´Well….maybe they´re out there looking, looking for some connection´….(?) which I always think, I guess I think that´s mainly what I´m doing here tonight, it´s what you guys are down here for….(?) but in the end, people crashing into each other….and looking into each other´s eyes is what….is what it comes down to, I guess….so anyway, that guy and that girl, they drove and they drove and they drove and they were looking for something that they´d call ´home´….and as I got older, I realised that home was not over the next hill, that it wasn´t in the town that I was born in and it wasn´t up the street but that it was buried deep down inside of me….and if I was brave enough and courageous enough and….if I wasn´t scared, I might be able to find it, find a little piece of it, hold on to it a little bit….so I´d like to do this for you tonight wishing you all love, home and happiness….and uh, here´s to your guts….”
Intro to “Have Love Will Travel”
´´(?)….is there anybody out there tonight that needs a little love in their hearts ? (cheers) is there anybody out there that needs a little personal attention ? (cheers) is there anybody out there not getting enough respect at home ? (cheers)….alright….(?) I´ve come three thousand miles, I´m a man with a mission….and I want you to know….I want you to know….that my motto is….´Have Love Will Travel´….”
Intro to “Sweet Soul Music”
´´It ain´t over, it ain´t over….it ain´t over till the band stops playing and you can go home, baby…(?)….this ain´t no show, kid, this is your life…..and I got a question I wanna ask you …..”
Intro to “Raise Your Hand”
´´(?) you ain´t got it, man….you ain´t got it, you can´t handle it, man….it´s late and Monday night, you gotta get up and go to work tomorrow…you gotta get up and go to school tomorrow….are you talking to me ? (cheers) I just worked my ass off for three hours, you better talk louder than that, baby ! (cheers) are you ready for a little religious liberation ? (cheers) are you ready for a little spiritual affirmation ? (cheers) are you ready for a little sexual consummation ? (cheers) well, then just raise your hand, people….”
Intro to “Lonely Teardrops”
´´Thanks so much, I wanna thank everybody for coming down to these shows we did here in New York City, it´s great to be back at the Garden….I wanna thank all you folks from Jersey ….the crowds down here every night have been fantastic, we´ve got one more to send you home with….I´d like to take a second and thank the crew that´s worked with me on this tour of the States (?)…I´d like to do this for them, tell ´em thank you very much….thank you so much, I´d like to thank Jon and Barbara and so many other people and I´d like to thank the boys and the girls in the band….”
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
Sorry, no Eyewitness-report available.
© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.
Bruce Springsteen Has a Grown-Up Way With a Song |
AS SOMEONE WHO HAS FOLlowed the career of Bruce Springsteen with interest and ambition - oh, to heck with sober critical moderation: with loving enthusiasm - for some 15 years, I took great satisfaction in his ''Tunnel of Love'' indoor-arena tour that ended recently with five shows at Madison Square Garden. For me, it amounted to a fascinating deepening of his concerns, from anthemic rocker to angry social commentator to, now, a grown-up if troubled composer whose songs can stand comparison with the finest art songs of the past.
I attest to my enthusiasm because a number of people, clinging to their memories or pumped up with delirious expectations, pronounced themselves disappointed with the show. The reasons for their disappointment seem to be at least two, apart from the fact that a hot ticket like this tends to find its way into the pockets of older, more settled people who themselves can't muster the rock-and-roll delirium of their youth.
One reason is technical. Despite the huge size of unroofed, outdoor stadiums, their open-to-the-sky configuration poses fewer acoustical problems than an echo-ridden barn like the Garden. And because of the vast distances involved, artists like Mr. Springsteen use giant television monitors that provide a closer sense of involvement than the monitor-free - and still vast - spaces of a basketball arena.
The second and more important reason for any disappointment, I think, was the very nature of the show Mr. Springsteen set about to provide (which in turn probably determined his choice of the more ''intimate'' arena circuit). Like the ''Tunnel of Love'' album, these four-hour shows stressed sober, introspective material.
The theme was grown-up love and its vicissitudes. Many of the songs were overtly gloomy, ponderous dirges in the best Springsteen manner. Many of the ebullient rockers his fans have come to love and expect - the kind that provoked stadium-full sing-alongs on the last tour - were missing. And those rockers that were included tended to double back and comment on the underlying theme. There were uptempo numbers for the encores, of course, but some people felt they clashed with the body of the show, so sharply focused had it been. In any case, they came too late to alter the tenor of the evening.
Two songs epitomized the evening. Well into the proceedings, Mr. Springsteen offered a starkly revisionist version of his youthful anthem (and title of his breakthrough album of 1975), ''Born to Run.'' He prefaced it with remarks to the effect that maybe what his youthful protagonists were really running toward was a mature, responsible self-awareness. The song itself was delivered as a ruminative lament, slow and serious, each word enunciated with solemn precision.
Mr. Springsteen had performed this song with solo piano accompaniment in his youth, as an alternative to its more familiar, full-band, hell-for-leather version. But this was so sharp a rethinking that it recalled Bob Dylan's snarled, monochromatic reductions of his own big hits. There was an enormous difference - Mr. Dylan seemed to be scorning his past, while Mr. Springsteen was earnestly trying to accommodate it, to make it one with his present.
Both versions were failures - the phrase ''strap your hands across my engines,'' intoned as if part of the Pledge of Allegiance, seemed particularly silly. But at least Mr. Springsteen's revision was conscientiously considered, and it had a kind of sad poetic power in his very failure to make his pained adulthood seem like an extension from, or improvement on, his rebellious youth. It made one realize what a difficult time he himself seems to be having, growing into the full responsibilities and satisfactions of adult love. The other key song in the show was ''Brilliant Disguise,'' the first single on the ''Tunnel of Love'' album and the quintessential moment of that album and this show. It came like the still, quiet but deeply troubled center of the whole evening, and it has lingered in my own mind for weeks.
The song is brilliant in more than its title. It's a slowish song (pop hits are generally uptempo) with animation provided by the accompaniment. It's a simple strophic song, yet it has an out-of-phase, shifting underpinning that enlivens the simplicity - indeed it constitutes the ''hook'' that makes the music memorable.
But it's the words that lift the song into the realm of the truly distinctive, a bluntly pained reflection on the perhaps inevitable duplicity of love. The singer wonders if what he perceives in his beloved is real, and yet by the end he's turned things around and questions his own reality - or simple honesty - in the eyes of the beloved. The song is a case study in the ability of artists to address adult themes in the musical and formal language of youth-oriented pop. But it also reaffirms the capacity of popular music itself - vernacular spirit commodified to the max by the full muscle of American capitalism - to achieve traditional artistic stature.
I once ruffled several sets of feathers by suggesting that Joni Mitchell's ''Hejira'' album represented a legitimate extension of Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf and the entire line of the European art song. I still believe that to be true, and that Mr. Springsteen's songs can join the canon, as well.
That is not to say that pop is only serious when it is classical, or that classical music is only vital if it is based on vernacular idioms, or that central European classical criteria for all things technical and spiritual should be employed in discussing the best modern Anglo-American pop songs.
The point is that the song form - serious words set to music that is deeply felt yet accessible, at least to some - has been and remains one of the most profound of all Western musical statements. The ''Tunnel of Love'' tour was, among many other things, a telling forum for Mr. Springsteen at his most searching and serious. It deprecates no one, past or present, to recognize his contribution to the art-song tradition.
By John Rockwell via The New York Times. |
I'm Gonna Fight My Way Through All This Goddamn Darkness |
Thirty years after it rolled across America and Europe, we continue to view the Tunnel of Love Express Tour as a career inflection point, a period marked by heart-heavy shifts in Springsteen’s life even as the concerts were taking place. Professionally, key relationships were evolving, too, as it is well established that the decision to tour with the E Street Band in support of what was really a solo album was not a foregone conclusion.
Even as Bruce and the band took to the road in February ’88, conscious decisions were made to alter established E Street archetypes. Band members switched their usual spots on stage, swapping sides to presumably shake things up. There was a subtle yet telling change to the billing, too, as the long-standing “Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” moniker was altered to “Bruce Springsteen featuring the E Street Band.” The core setlist for the tour served as another point of departure from the familiar (more on that to come).
Why making those moves seemed so meaningful at the time we can only infer, but Springsteen’s desire to do things differently was undeniable.
Today, the personal and professional changes surrounding Springsteen at the time (and what was to follow on both fronts) are inextricably tied to the Tunnel era and remain something of a filter through which we view the tour. Less considered is what powerful fuel both provided to 1988 performances.
Whatever switching stage positions or altering the billing effected, make no mistake: this was a full E Street Band outing, and the E Street Band has never played with more self-assurance than they do on the Tunnel of Love tour. The addition of the horn section only boosted the horsepower of their already mighty engine.
While one cannot presume to know what Springsteen was going through that year, an armchair psychologist might suggest that however traumatic and draining such a period of emotional upheaval may be, it can also trigger a profound recognition of what it means to feel alive. As you listen to Madison Square Garden 1988, there is a strong sense of a performer truly living in the moment. Pair that with a band playing at its peak and an ambitious setlist, and you have the stuff of the extraordinary.
How in the moment? Listen to Springsteen’s vocals on the final verse and chorus of “Boom Boom,” which careen between shrieking falsetto and full-throated bluesman. His scintillating guitar solo starting at 5:02 of “Born in the U.S.A.” and carrying on for well over a minute soars with the clarion ring of pure emotional catharsis. On the Darkness and River tours, Bruce laid it all on the line every night to convert the masses. At MSG ‘88, the motivation feels far more personal. Just maybe, performing itself is what provides a path through what he calls later in the show, “the goddamn darkness.”
And then there’s that incredible setlist. The Tunnel tour is notable for featuring so many non-album tracks and cover songs. MSG boasts five Springsteen originals not featured on a studio album: “Be True” (the River b-side, also released on Tracks), “Seeds” (a Born in the U.S.A. outtake, officially released in a live version on Live/1975-85), “Part Man, Part Monkey” (a Tunnel outtake, re-recorded during Human Touch and released as a b-side in 1992 and onTracks in 1998), “Light of Day” (covered by Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox in Paul Schrader’s film of the same name, but never released in studio form by Bruce himself) and “I’m a Coward.” Some may consider “I’m a Coward” a cover, and while it was clearly inspired by Geno Washington’s “Geno Is A Coward” (penned by Ronald Davis), Springsteen’s song bears little musical resemblance to the original and shares only a couple of lyrics (perhaps making it more akin to “Johnny Bye-Bye”). There are no known studio recordings of the song; “I’m a Coward” only exists in its Tunnel tour performances.
All five songs are in the baseline Tunnel setlist, which by Springsteen standards was relatively rigid, especially for the first couple of months of the tour. Things started to loosen up around the time of the five-night LA stand (from which the April 23, 1988 performance was previously released as part of the live download series). As the tour worked its way north up the coast and across the country on its last leg, a few new additions (notably “Have Love, Will Travel” and “Boom Boom”) stuck.
The setlist for the final U.S. show at Madison Square Garden strikes an enthralling balance between core Tunnel tour material, recent adds, and a couple of specials just for the Big Apple. In contrast to opening night of the tour in Worcester in February, there are 13 variations between the two shows.
To those five originals, MSG ‘88 adds seven cover songs: John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” Woody Guthrie’s “Vigilante Man,” Edwin Starr’s “War,” The Sonics’ “Have Love, Will Travel,” Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand,” and Jackie Wilson’s “Lonely Teardrops.” Throw in two full verses and the chorus to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” inside of “Light of Day,” and the count pushes to eight.
On top of that, Tunnel arrangements of “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” and “Born to Run” are completely reimagined. “You Can Look” is performed in a rockabilly style similar to its earliest incarnation during the River sessions, while “Born to Run” is played solo acoustic, an affecting arrangement that survived all the way to Bruce on Broadway.
All told, nearly half the Tunnel setlist sits outside the core canon while also boldly eschewing such staples as “Badlands,” “Thunder Road” and “The Promised Land.” In fact, the only song that was a Tunnel tour regular from the stalwart Darkness on the Edge of Town is the pulsing, horn-driven version of “Adam Raised a Cain.” 1988 setlists were truly out of the ordinary, no more so than this night.
Madison Square Garden 1988 also features the first bonus track in the download series with the inclusion of “For Your Love,” recorded during the 5/23 soundcheck. The song was a modest hit for Ed Townsend in 1958. Springsteen’s interpretation moves the tune from earnest R&B ballad territory to something closer to light reggae. While that might seem like a stretch, on the Jersey Shore club scene just a year earlier, Springsteen sat in three times with reggae act Jah Love, and a bit of that vibe comes through here (and for that matter, in “Part Man, Part Monkey”).
“For Your Love,” like so many of the cover songs surveyed during the Tunnel tour, appears to be born from the kinship between Springsteen and the horn section. Led by Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg, the five-piece Horns of Love brought a shared musical knowledge that made them utterly simpatico with Bruce’s fondness for lost pop treasures. Even as early tour setlists went mostly unchanged, tour soundchecks often featured wide-ranging covers, and eventually some of the songs they were playing for themselves found their way into the set proper.
The Horns of Love are essential to covers like the barnstorming “Boom Boom” and the Northwest garage-rock nugget “Have Love, Will Travel,” but equally so to the unique Tunnel arrangements of songs like “Cover Me” (powerfully tagged with a few lines from the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”), the pile-driving “Spare Parts,” and, most strikingly, the aforementioned “Adam Raised a Cain.” “Adam” had gone un-played since the Darkness tour before being vivified in its 1988 edition. As impressive as the song was every night of the tour, the tag of Muddy Waters’ “I’m a Man” here adds even more declarative grit.
The sonic signature of the Tunnel tour is distinct, too, and Jon Altschiller’s mix accurately pushes Bruce’s and Nils’ guitars forward in the overall wall of sound. But the heart and soul of this Express are the horn section and Clarence Clemons, who together add exceptional texture, punch, and irresistible melodic runs all night long. The Big Man is on his game, and his showcase work on “Be True” remains a tour highlight, reigniting one of Springsteen’s finest b-sides. His hype-man vocal responses during Bruce’s evangelical intro to “I’m a Coward” are another slice of pure joy in MSG ‘88.
Let’s also credit the E Street Band for their sympathetic backing on Tunnel of Love tracks, some of which stand along Springsteen’s best songwriting ever. They may have begun as solo creations, but the live versions of “Two Faces,” “Brilliant Disguise,” “One Step Up” and “Tougher Than the Rest” are splendid, and in some ways more fully realized than their studio counterparts. Kudos, too, for the band’s ability to switch gears seamlessly, tackling Guthrie’s bluesy “Vigilante Man” (featuring Nils Lofgren on pedal steel guitar), Steppenwolf’s hard-rocking “Born to Be Wild,” and Jackie Wilson’s soulful “Lonely Teardrops” with equal flair. Special shout-out to Roy Bittan as well for his captivating piano introduction to “Spare Parts.”
The show goes into celebration mode after “Born to Run,” and even Jon Landau gets in on the fun, joining the band on guitar for the rest of the uplifting encore. The concert ends with “Lonely Teardrops,” one of only three performances ever. It’s a song about yearning and a fitting end to a performance that is equal parts heart-wrenching and exhilarating, two attributes befitting a ride through the Tunnel of Love.
By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net. |
Links:
- Bruce Springsteen Has a Grown-Up Way With a Song (NewYorkTimes)
Disclaimer | © 1996 - 2024 | Brucebase