1996-09-24 James W. Miller Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Premiere of a new song, "In Michigan", written especially for the show. Third "Highway Patrolman" of the tour.

Bruce Springsteen

Intro to "In Michigan"
´´(?)….well….you kind of messed up my whole thing here and I´ll tell you why, you see, I usually have some trepidation about singing that last song….the reason is….about three-quarters of the way through up comes the word ´Michigan´….now, no matter what you´re singing at that point, people cheer….doesn´t matter what the song´s about or, or, you know, what kind of mayhem or cruelty is going on, when they hear the name of the state they let out a fucking loud cheer (chuckles) to be honest with you, I was expecting a bigger cheer than that so (cheers) I didn´t say I wanted one, I said I was expecting one (chuckles) so….because I´m sitting backstage with nothing to do before I come out here…..these are the thoughts that are running over in my mind….´Jesus, a kid wanted to hear ´Highway Patrolman´ but when I sing ´Highway Patrolman´, the word ´Michigan´ is gonna come up….and when the word ´Michigan´ comes up, SOMEBODY, I don´t know who, alright (chuckles) is gonna shout, either filled with local pride or just because, for some reason, that´s the strange thing that people do when they hear the name of their homestate….but the thing is you don´t do it at home, you don´t sit in front of the tv and everytime you hear the word ´Michigan´, jump out of the couch and go ´Woo !´….I don´t do it when I hear the words ´The great state of New Jersey´….but….but then I got to thinking….as I must….because I´m sitting back there with nothing to do for two hours before I come out, I´m thinking ´Wait a minute, instead of being worried that ´Michigan´ is gonna…inspire applause, what I should be doing is I should be thinking that´s where the money is, the money is in writing songs with people´s hometowns (?)….now….it really doesn´t matter what you say in the song at all as long as their hometown comes up regularly….and so, because I´m sitting back there for two hours with nothing to do before I come out here and in about the last ten minutes before I hit the stage I said ´I´m gonna write one of these suckers right now´….and I do have to tell you it´s one of the greatest songs I´ve ever written….gonna make ´em forget all about that ´Born in the U.S.A´-bullshit, this is the one….I need some light because I got the words on the floor here…..
(….) Not to get you over-excited but the last word to this song will be ´Ohio´ tomorrow night ….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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