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Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??Premiere of Woody Guthrie's "Blowin' Down This Road", performed with Joe Ely. First time that a show on this tour has not finished with "My Best Was Never Good Enough". Bruce and Ely hooked up with Willie Nelson after his show in Austin. Bruce and Joe went to see Willie Nelson after his show at the Hang-Em-High Saloon on 6th Street. All three then played music in Willie's bus outside Hang-Em-High until 4am. That could be why Bruce sounded tired the next night. Willie and Bruce apparently got along famously. In fact, Willie asked Bruce to stay in Austin for another night so they could play a gig together. Bruce said he had a commitment in Dallas that night.
- Joe Ely (Guest)
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Audience tape.
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Intro to "Adam Raised a Cain"
´´Thanks, good evening, Austin….thank you very much…..uh…..uh….this is where I kind of usually, I give my little speech about, you know, trying to get the audience to be quiet….I don´t think it´s necessary (cheers) but just in case, uh (chuckles) I just wanna say it´s, uh, sort of singing and clapping along tonight will be viewed as a psychotic event by your, the people sitting around you (chuckles) and uh, it is a community event so if somebody around you´s making too much noise, please feel free to band together and very politely and constructively ask them to shut the fuck up, alright….alright, I´ll give my best to you…..´´
Intro to "Straight Time"
´´Thank you….oh, yeah….(someone: ´Welcome to Austin !´)(chuckles) oh, thank you, uh….. this, uh, this next song, this is a song about somebody, I guess, who´s trying to be new….and uh….that can be pretty hard to do, I think, after….you get to certain age and all your old habits, they get pretty (?) and uh, it´s about a fellow who gets out of prison and, uh….he´s trying to find his way back into his family and his way back into the world out there and he´s trying to be new, real hard, real hard…..this is called ´Straight Time´….´´
Intro to "Highway 29"
´´Oh, thanks, this is, uh…..this is a song, I guess, about self-knowledge….self-knowledge is a funny thing….the less of it you have, the more you think you have….strange (chuckles) when I was young, I was sure I had a lot of self-knowledge….and the older I got, the more I learned to accept myself as a total stranger, you know (chuckles) and uh….this is a song, I guess, about a little self-knowledge coming too late….and it´s also probably the only pop song which protagonist is a shoe salesman (chuckles) it´s a seething, dirty business (chuckles)….´´
Intro to "Murder Incorporated"
´´(?) this song is about how there´s a….whole group of our citizens whose….kind of hopes and dreams and lives been basically deemed expandable….and…..accepted as a price of doing business….just a bodycount….´´
Intro to "Sell It And They Will Come"
´´I must be in Texas, it´s hot !….this, uh, this next song I wrote, uh, wrote it on an airplane going from, uh…..from, uh, going from Toronto to Detroit and uh (someone yells)(?) (chuckles) is that for flight-travel or just for those particular cities ? (chuckles) but….alright, you know, uh, I guess I, I was sitting next to this, this fellow sat down next to me, you know how that is, you know, somebody sits down next to you, they wanna talk or something and uh, somebody always wants to know ´Hey, what´s it like ?´, I think you can imagine the rest (chuckles) you know, so I got this hat that I put over my face and generally what I do is I pretend that I´m sleeping and I just kind of sit there and sexual-fantasize the whole trip….it gets me from one city to another alright (?)(chuckles) but, uh, I guess, but this song is, was, was, let me, before I play it, I don´t like to toot my own horn but, but I´m about to play, well, I´ve written some good songs but, but this is just a fucking masterpiece, this next song (chuckles)….yeah, I feel pretty good about it….but I just wrote it, you know, it´s probably a piece of shit and I haven´t found out it yet (chuckles) uh, so, but anyway, uh, you know, I get out on the road and, and I fall asleep on the couch, you know, with the TV going and it´s my opinion, backed up by no scientific observation, but it´s just my opinion that while I´m asleep that, that subliminally I´m receiving messages off the television and, because when I wake up, I want things, uh, I´ve, I´ve never wanted before….I want it bad, I want it now (?) and uh ….uh, you know, so….anyway, let me just get right to it, alright…..´´
Intro to "Brothers Under the Bridges"
´´Oh yeah, they got that Evil Knievel-commercial down here ? yeah….they don´t have it in New Jersey, I think he´s still wanted in New Jersey….something about a baseball bat, I don´t know (chuckles) but, uh, maybe in ten years I´ll be there, ´Hey, remember me ? you thought I was dead….no, I just like to stay home a lot´ (chuckles) oh God….but uh….oh, (?) get some of those souvenirs tonight, the dough´s going to the Capital Area Foodbank….and also to, uh …..to House the Homeless and that´s the group that are involved in trying (cheers) yeah, they´re trying to repeal the ´No Camping´-ordinance you got that just went in effect today…. in, uh, in 1969, my folks, they left New Jersey and they, they headed west….to California to start a new life….I remember they took everything they had in the bank and they slept….they, they slept one night in a motel and they slept two nights in the car ´cause that´s what they had to do….and, uh, under this ordinance, they´d´ve been arrested or, uh, their car could´ve been impounded or most likely just told to get out of town very politely (chuckles)….so uh ….you know, there´s thousands of homeless here and there´s, if I´m correct, there´s only hundreds of beds so….I don´t know where they´re supposed to sleep, I guess, uh….I guess that the answer, of course, is ´somewhere else', it seems to be what…..what the ordinance is saying so….anyway, uh….this is a song about, uh…..about….it´s set in the San Gabriel Mountains in California and uh (someone claps) is that for mountain-climbing or the state ? ….(?) but uh….basically there was a group of homeless Vietnam Vets that, that lived up in the mountains and this is a story about one of them that has a grown daughter who, uh….. then comes looking for her daddy and, and what he has to say….this is called ´Brothers Under the Bridges´….´´
Intro to "Dry Lightning"
´´Thank you….thanks, this is, uh…..this next song is about men and women…..I didn´t write about men and women for about 30 years….I wonder why (chuckles) could I have been confused ? (chuckles) nah ! (chuckles) but uh….but, uh, actually I did pretty good, for 30 years I had one relationship, just one (some people clap) it was with a lot of different women, though (chuckles) the same relationship, just with a lot of different women (chuckles) and uh….you know, and then you do a funny thing, then you get married (someone: ´Ouch !´) sort of, yeah, ´Ouch´ somebody said (chuckles) to, to prove to yourself that, you know, you´ve, you´ve, you´ve been doing it fucking wrong for 30 years and then you get, you know, divorced, ouch, ouch, ouch (chuckles) and, and uh (chuckles) and uh, you know, wow….and then if you´re lucky, you get married again, right (no response from the crowd) a lot of support (?)(chuckles) everybody´s ´ You do ?´ (chuckles) and uh (chuckles) well, sometimes, for some of us, the first time (?) some of us take a little more practising, yeah (chuckles) alright, so, uh, anyway, this is a song about, uh…..missing, just missing it, some people just missing it….but I guess just missing it is still missing it…..this is called ´Dry Lightning´….´´
Intro to "Spare Parts"
´´Uh, this is a song about, uh….(?) somebody, you know, you´re a kid (?) I was in my teens in the 60´s….and uh, then you grew up with a sense of (?) change the world in some fashion ….uh, before it changed you…..and uh….you get a little older, I guess, the world can seem pretty intractable, you know (?) there´s always wars and poverty and…..and blood and hatred and uh (?) adulthood, you go through a period where, I guess, it´s kind of an uphill battle against cynicism….and then either you find your light and your hope someplace else or, uh ….I don´t know what, but, uh….I guess this is a song that´s sort of, uh, it´s about a woman that changes herself….and in a moment…..she makes a choice and changes herself and in doing so, she changes the part of the world that she touches….that ain´t so bad…..´´
Intro to "Youngstown"
´´Uh, here´s this continuing theme here, spare parts….the world´s full of spare parts….uh, just a, I guess about a week or so ago I was in Youngstown, Ohio and uh…..I guess this is, uh, this song is about, uh….you know, people that really, they built the country that we live in and were considered expendable….(?) I know how much my job has always meant to me, it´s always been….you know, filled me with the breath of life….and makes of getting up in the morning and, and going to bed at night…..it gives you a reason for all the in-between….so I, I don´t know what it would be like, you know, after practising a craft for 30 years or 40 years and somebody come along when you´re 50 years old and they´d say ´Well, you know, what you do, that´s….we don´t need that….that´s not useful now, the world´s changed….you gotta find something else to do….you gotta find some other way of feeding your family and coming home (?) your kids in the eye, you wife in the eye….uh…..I don´t know what I would or what I wouldn´t do….you know, to take care of the people that you love, you know, uh….you know, there are people that built, they built the houses that we live in, the bridges we cross, gave their sons to the wars that our country fought….´
Intro to "Sinaloa Cowboys"
´´This is, uh…..Kevin…..he´s my guru and uh….my yogi….my financial advisor….(?)….I gotta get this chair just right, if I don´t get this chair just right (?)(chuckles) yeah, there we go, that´s the kind of, that´s the kind of a man you´re dealing with (chuckles)(?)(chuckles)….oh ….oh, this next group of songs is set out along the border and uh….when I get a chance, which isn´t that much these days, once you have the kids, you know, but, uh, I have these three brothers that I travel with and we take these road trips and uh….we´d go for like ten days or, or a couple of weeks or something and uh….my wife actually calls it ´man dancing´ (chuckles) I guess that´s what it is (chuckles) but uh….but this one trip we took took us out through, uh, oh, I guess, it was southern California low desert into Arizona and it was a couple of years ago….and, you know, we stayed, we´d stay, we´d take only the county roads and state roads and we´d stay in all those little four-corner desert towns at night….and uh…. which is very exotic for a New Jersey boy, you gotta understand (chuckles) out here it´s ´Well, hey, that´s just more sand now !´ (chuckles) but uh (chuckles)….but anyway, it´s, uh ….so I´m staying in this town about 80 miles, I guess, east of the California-Arizona border (?) and uh….uh….you know, we were sitting outside this little motel and playing some cards and drinking a little bit about 11 o´clock at night, it was one of those sort of real warm desert nights that feels like the heat of the day is coming, coming back up off the ground and uh….
two Mexican men come in from the west, they were driving a truck, one was a young kid and he was kind of high, having a good time, and the other one was a guy about my age, I guess, and he´d come over and took a look at, took a look at our bikes and….started talking about he had a younger brother who´d died, I guess, a couple of months previous in a, in a
California motorcycle accident (?)….but uh, we talked for about an hour and there was something in his voice that always, always stayed with me, maybe it´s because, uh….you know, that family, that first line of family, it always feels like it is to protect, protect and take care of particularly the ones that come after you….and uh, it was about a year and a half later….and I was writing this song on the Central California drug trade, (?) Mexican drug gangs come up into the Central Valley and hire migrants (?) to work in the metamphetamine labs and they´re kind of, they´re usually the ones that get blown up or, or busted by the DEA ….and it was a song about these two brothers and while I was writing it, I heard….I´d keep hearing this fella´s voice in my head so this is for my mysterious friend, this is called…. ´Sinaloa Cowboys´ ….´´
Intro to "The Line"
´´Thanks….when I was a…..when I was, when I was a kid, you know, my, my Dad was a big Western freak….and uh…..it wasn´t usually a problem except on Sunday night when ´Bonanza´ and ´Ed Sullivan´ were on at exactly the same time…..serious lines were drawn….. you know, serious lines…..and uh. for years after that, I hated the sight of Lorne Greene (?) …..I´m over it now….and uh….then the strangest thing happened….as I got older, I became a Western freak (chuckles) couldn´t get away from it (chuckles)….you know, I guess a lot of people, uh, always sort of, uh….interested by the outlaw but me, I always, I always felt the sheriff was interesting, you know (someone laughs) that gets tremendous laughs only in Texas for some reason (chuckles) but, uh, but, uh, I used to like (?) Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine and Gary Cooper in High Noon….(?) trying to, you could see the ambivalence about trying to understand where the line (?)….I´ve, I´ve written a little bit about it over the years, this is a song that´s set at the San Diego border station, there´s young guys that come out of the army in southern California and end up working for the INS…..a confusing job, hard to know where that line is….´´
Intro to "Balboa Park"
(The intro is missing from the source tape)
Intro to "Across The Border"
(The intro is missing from the source tape)
Intro to "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street ?"
´´Alright, this is for all you old-timers out there…..I´m in Armadillo (?)….(starts strumming but the guitar´s out of tune)(chuckles)(?)….(chuckles)(tunes his guitar) oh, what do I do now ?….´´
Intro to "This Hard Land"
´´They stagerushed (?)….my God, security (chuckles) relax (chuckles)….oh, alright, here´s a song about, uh….the good things, let´s see, love, hope, faith, brotherhood, sisterhood….a possibility of some kind of community out there….every Western I ever saw, friendship…. kind of what I´m talking about…..´´
Intro to "Galveston Bay"
´´Thanks…..I wanna tell you thanks for being a great crowd, you were fabulous….I have, uh ….I was saying how, you know, we, uh….(?) the first time we came to Texas, we came on a train from New Jersey….ooh (chuckles) I remember that (chuckles) and we came sort of thinking….´They´re gonna kill us´ (chuckles) and uh, right away we, you know, we, I´ve been greeted so warmly down here since the first time I came that, uh….just wanna say thanks for the longtime support…..and uh….and I think, you know, tonight I guess this is just music that means a lot to me and, and, uh….I wanna thank you for your collaboration and, and your help in, in just giving me the room to do it, just to do this stuff here tonight, it means a lot to me and it´s a great gift, thank you….towards, uh, towards the end of the, the end of the Tom Joad-record and I was, I had one more song I was thinking about writing and I knew that….I was looking to find some light in, in, in the record but…..I had written ´Across the Border´ but I knew that I wanted a song that had, I guess, sort of a…..like a real life miracle, you know (?) the hard kind of like, kind of like that, uh…..that´s not about, you know, movements or, or, or some ideal dream of some world, you know….that is maybe yet to come but something that´s real kind of like that can happen any day any place…..and uh, I guess this is another song sort of about somebody who changes themmself and in doing so changes the part of the world that they touch….and uh…..it´s based on an incident that happen right here in the Gulf Coast in the mid-80´s…..this is called, uh, ´Galveston Bay´…..´´
Intro to "My Best Was Never Good Enough"
´´Thank you….oh, there I was…..sitting at my kitchen table….trying to figure out how to revolutionise the recording industry….and uh….I said ´I´ve got it !….a song that´s, that´s nothing, nothing but cliches (laughs a low sinister fake laugh)´ and, uh, that´s how, that´s my normal speaking voice when I´m not onstage (chuckles) ´It´ll sell millions, I tell you !´ (chuckles)….´´
Intro to "Blowing Down This Old Dusty Road"
´´Before I leave, I just wanna say it´s great to come to Austin because I´m a great admirer of a lot of the great Texas singer-songwriters who come out of this part of the country and I feel ….I feel a real, a real kinship towards ´em and (?) kind of like a, a, an extended brother, I guess, New Jersey style (chuckles) so tonight I´ve got one of my very favorites who´ll come out and do a tune, come on out, Joe…..´´
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
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