1996-11-24 Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Start of an incredible three night stand with many rarely played tracks. The night begins with three straight songs from Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and features five tour premieres, including the only tour performance of "Independence Day" and three songs from The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and Danny Federici guest on various songs throughout the show. "Highway 29" is dropped for the first time on the tour.

Bruce Springsteen

Danny Federici (Guest)
Patti Scialfa (Guest)
Soozie Tyrell (Guest)

Intro to "Blinded By the Light"
´´Greetings from Asbury Park…..´´

Intro to "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street ?"
´´I almost made it, I was blinded…. (?)….´´

Intro to "Growin´ Up"
´´I´m still in tune (tunes his guitar) and I´m still in tune (tunes his guitar) wait, there´s twelve of them (chuckles)….´´

Intro to "Atlantic City"
´´Thanks, good evening….what the hell was I thinking about when I wrote all that stuff ? (chuckles) I don´t know….hello, it´s nice to be in Asbury Park….´´

Intro to "Independence Day"
´´Thank you, here´s one I haven´t played in a long time….no, no, no, it´s not that one, no (chuckles) it´s a different one I haven´t played in a long time (chuckles) alright (people yell) no, I ain´t gonna be playing that tonight, I, uh, I try, I tried actually to play that at home a few nights ago and I couldn´t figure out what it was about (chuckles) so (chuckles)….´´

Intro to "Straight Time"
´´Thank you, thanks….alright, this is, uh….life´s always, uh, seems like it´s a succession of…. of being born and dying and finding different ways to do things, I think if that, when that stops, you end up, uh….I don´t know, stuck in sort of a no man´s land, I guess, this is a song about a fellow….trying to….learn how to be different, learn how to be new, change the way he´s done things….he gets out of prison, trying to find his way back into the world, back into his family….but, uh, changing can be pretty hard, I think, uh, patricularly when all your old things feel so familiar, they feel like you….even if you´re killing yourself….so everybody´s done a little straight time….´´

Intro to "Mansion on the Hill"
´´Thank you, I´d like to bring out some lovely young ladies right now….ladies and gentlemen, are there any red headed women in the house ? (cheers)(Soozie and Patti come onto the stage) am I seeing double ?….´´

Intro to "Wild Billy´s Circus Story"
´´Thank you, ma´am´s….thank you, ma´am….that´s Soozie Tyrell, Patti Scialfa…..oh, stay there, stay there, wait ! (chuckles) oh….(?)….´´

Intro to "Red Headed Woman"
´´(chuckles) Phantom Dan Federici miraculously appearing in Asbury Park…..I didn´t even know he was in the building, he´s, uh, such, such is his magic (chuckles) sometimes you just turn around and he´s there (chuckles) thank you, Danny….I got to play this one that´s kind of (?) but, uh, I like to move from the topic of circuses onto another fabulous topic, cunnilingus, that´s right (chuckles) I´ve been promoting cunnilingus wherever I can across the United States (cheers) thank you, thank you….I can´t personally demonstrate right now but (chuckles) but I like to think myself as the Dr.Ruth of rock and roll, that´s right (chuckles) and, as you know, cunnilingus, and I hope I´m pronouncing that correctly, that´s a tricky word but if you can pronounce it, you can probably do it, that´s right, try it, everybody, cunnilingus, very good (chuckles) excellent, excellent, they´re probably, uh, practising cunnilingus throughout the great state of New Jersey as we speak…..I hope so, I hope so, I, uh, make it a happy state, a pretty happy state (chuckles) that´ll be, the happiest state in the nation….I think instead of the Garden State, they´re just gonna put ´We practise cunnilingus´ on our license plates (chuckles)….hey !….that´s a good idea, that´s a good idea, that´s a good idea, uh, alright, not much to say about it that I haven´t already said expect like, uh, balancing a plate on the end of your nose, it´s not as easy as it looks (chuckles) oh, and I do mean practising around this state because it takes a, it takes a long while to get it down just right (chuckles) oh, that´s right (?) here we go, aah, ooh (chuckles) oh, any children in the audience, as you know there may be, ´cunnilingus´ is Latin for ´keep your room very neat´ (chuckles)….´´

Intro to "Two Hearts"
´´Alright….(chuckles) come on out (Patti and Soozie come back onstage)(Bruce murmurs) (chuckles)(?) yeah, I know, I shouldn´t done that (?)(chuckles) watch my back ! (chuckles) (?)(chuckles)(some woman yells: ´You´re sleeping on the couch tonight´) Ooooh !…. (chuckles)….this is for you, baby (chuckles)….´´

Intro to "When You´re Alone"
´´Yeah….(chuckles)….(?) tell her (Patti) to get to work on them records (chuckles)….alright ….´´

Intro to "Shut Out the Light"
´´Thanks….I need a, yeah, alright, thank you….yeah….this song I wrote, uh….in the early 80´s, I guess, after, right after the Nebraska record and uh….I always remember….going up to the draft board out of Asbury Park here back in the late 60´s….and uh, I was lucky, I got out but, uh…so this, uh…it´s a song about a Vet coming home from Vietnam….´´

Intro to "Sinaloa Cowboys"
´´Thanks….that´s Kevin Buell….hometown man, lives out there in Wanamassa…..one of those enjoyablest New Jersey names to pronounce….like Hohokus….Wanamassa, we got a whole lot of them…..a fabulous Dave Van, Van Rohn song (one person claps) hey, a Dave Van Rohn fan (chuckles) I opened for Dave Van Rohn at Max´s Kansas City in, uh, in 1970 something, alright, and uh….(?)(chuckles) but uh, he, he had this song, he didn´t have it then but he´s written it since and he sent it to me on a tape, probably with the idea that I´d be the right man to cover it, I´m not gonna do it now ´cause I don´t know it….and uh (chuckles) I´m just gonna hype it (chuckles) but it´s a, it´s a song that just names all, it´s all New Jersey towns, it´s uh, if you had the Jerseyphile, it´s….an occasion to mark, I guess, I don´t know, nobody did it before (chuckles)….(?)….I´ll learn that song one of these days (some woman screams really loud) maybe not (chuckles) but I´ll send you that cd, alright (chuckles)…..I was, uh, about six and a half years ago I was, I took a trip through the Southwest with these friends of mine…..and I was staying in this little motel in Western Arizona and, uh…..I was, uh….you get, you get off that interstate and you get on those state and county roads and, you know, you, there´s nothing for 80, 90 miles, there´s just nothing out there and then you´ll hit these little four-corner towns and it´s always the same, there´s a grocery store, there´s a gas-station, there´s a motel and a bar, all the necessities for human life to flourish (chuckles) in the wasteland out there but, uh, so I was staying in one of these little motels and, and it was my favorite kind of, uh, motel where you can lay down the end of your bed and, and look out the door and, and see your car right out there right in front (chuckles) you know, it´s right there (?) you can just about touch it, you know, and I, I always sleep very sound in those (chuckles) motels….but, uh….we were sitting outside at night and, and…..(?) we were playing some cards and, and drinking a little bit, it was about 11.30 at night, it was 80, 80 degrees, low desert in the fall…..and these two Mexican men come in from the west and they took the room next to us, one was a young kid, he was kind of high, the other one was a fellow about my age…..he was a mature kind of fellow (chuckles) but uh, but uh (chuckles) and, uh, he come over and start looking at our motorcycles, we were on motorcycles, and he started talking about, uh, he´d had a younger brother that´d died in a Southern California motorcycle accident…..and he talked about his brother for about an hour and there´s certain things that for some reason always stayed with me, I always kept, kept his voice in the back of my head somewhere, I think maybe ´cause….and we were about to have our own kids and I think…. it´s hard to get past that fear that you feel (?) you know you love someone so much that you just wanna protect it all the time, you know, and the world´s really not set up like that, no matter….no matter what your situation….and that first line of family always feels it´s to take care of the ones that come after you, I think that when that breaks down, I don´t know how people put themselves back together or, or get the world to feel right again, just get it to feel right again…..so, uh…..I was writing a song on the Central California drug trade, Mexican gangs come up and hire migrant workers in the Central Valley….and, uh, to work in these drug labs where you make as much in a night or two as you would in a year of backbreaking work….and it was a song about two brothers who come up from Mexico and I always heard my friend´s voice in my head when I was writing it so I dedicate this to him every night wherever he may be….it´s called ´Sinaloa Cowboys´…..´´

Intro to "The Line"
´´(?)….this is a, uh, song set on San Diego….border, it´s uh….a lot of young guys get out of the army in….California end up going to work for the California border patrol and uh….it´s a confusing job….there was a ….a Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes said California was Mexico until about 1848 and uh, that border sort of, it can feel like a scar down there….it´s an issue that got so distorted during the last election and so, so abused, you know, ´10 percent violent criminals are all coming over and they´re gonna vote for Bill Clinton´ (chuckles) you know (chuckles) I like that image, though, like just, you know (chuckles) ´Get over to the voting booth´ (chuckles) gets pretty crazy (chuckles) but uh, but it….as silly as it was, it wasn´t funny, people coming across the border for a long time doing work that nobody else wants to do, making sure that food gets to our table….(?) working for wages that….nobody wants to work for at, at the behest of American businesses….and in return they get some medical care and their kids will have a shot at getting an education that they didn´t have….. but uh, anyway, this is a song about a young border patrolman trying to figure out where that line really is, you know….´´

Intro to "Racing in the Street"
´´Come on out, Sooz….this is, uh, Soozie Tyrell….a lovely, lovely (chuckles) fabulous singer-violinist….´´

Intro to "Across the Border"
´´Thank you, Soozie….thank you…..thanks….I was, uh, I grew up in a, in a house where there wasn´t a whole lot of….uh, talk about, you know, or what books you read or films you saw or, or art, everybody was busy keeping their heads above water, I guess, but, uh…..you know, it´s, it´s funny, it´s a shame in a way because those are the things that tie you into the beauty that´s in the world and, and the grace that´s in the world and uh…..and those things are useful, you know, but, I guess, the first thing I really remember was the radio being on all the time, you know, my mother was, when I was in grammar school, she was still a young girl and she liked that rock and roll music, you know (chuckles) and, uh, she had the radio on in the kitchen all the time in the morning when me and my sister´d be down there sucking up our cornflakes and listening, listening to all the hits, you know, and uh…..it was, uh, there was something I always thought I heard like a secret message, you know, I sat there and I had my little tie on and my green jacket…..and I had (?)(chuckles) and I heard all the little records coming out at 7.30, there was always a message, it said ´There´s a party going on…. you´re missing it, little boy´ (chuckles) you know….(?)(chuckles) and uh, so I said ´I gotta go find that, I gotta go find that party´, you know, and uh…..I guess I did to some degree but I found a lot of things with it too I wasn´t counting on (chuckles) but uh….uh….but it was the sound of all that happiness and joy and, and, and pain and the idea that there was a life to be lived outside of, you know, outside of what I knew, outside of what I´d experienced, there was things to be risked, you know, there was a…..and it sort of set me on my way for a long time and I found endless inspiration and, and stuff that people thought was junk, all those little 49 cent records, you know, and uh….(?) I was 26 and a friend of mine showed me John Ford´s Grapes of Wrath and I remember sitting there at the end of the film and I felt like I felt when I heard all those, those great records, you know, that, that…..that, uh, it, they were all things that helped you reckon with the world, reckon with the world as you were gonna have to do, everybody has to in some fashion, I remember sitting at the end of the film thinking ´Yeah, that´s what I wanna do, I want my work to be about something and to find its way into people´s lives and, and (?) and to address the things, the world around them and their family and their friends and the people they loved and, and that´s how I´ll find my use, you know, that´s how I´ll find my use´….and there´s, there´s fundamental questions in that film and in, in those records also, really in a funny way that´s what those records were asking about the way that we live and the choices we make every day, about the idea of is there such a thing as…..you know, is there such a thing as individual salvation or in the end is everybody´s fate connected in some place…..and, and though the world is such that, you know, evil men get rewarded and good men fall, that there´s some place inside of you where, where those things get measured and that at the end of the day that that matters, you know …..I don´t know if I´m (coughs) explaining this correctly but it was just the idea of….that sort of Tom Joad speaks at the end of the film, you know, is there such a thing as, as an individual soul or, or, is really, is there sort of one big soul….and…..there was a scene at the end of the picture that sort of captured that, captured that so clearly, he´s killed a security guard, Tom Joad´s killed a security guard that´s killed a friend of his…..and he´s gonna have to leave his family and leave his, his mother….after she lost so much already and they´ve come so far and they have nothing…..and, uh, she´s gonna lose her son now, there´s nothing that can be done about it….but, uh, before that scene there´s a dance…..and, uh, it´s a, it´s a small scene that´s shot very….very lovely, the way people are holding one another on the dancefloor and people´s faces…..and I always thought that was Ford holding out the possibility of beauty….in a harsh world, (?) showing the usefulness of beauty, uh….anyway, after that Tom slips into his mother´s cabin and….wakes her gently and says ´I gotta go now´ ….and they step out underneath these dark trees and she says ´Well, I knew this day would come but how am I gonna know if you´re well, how am I gonna know….if you´re alive, am I ever gonna see you again ?´….and he says ´Well, I don´t know, all I know is….I gotta go out and see what´s wrong and see if there´s anything I can do about it….to make it right and you´ll know I´m there…..´cause you´ll feel me….at night in the darkness that´s all around you when you´re sleeping, you´ll see me…..and you´ll see me, uh, you´ll hear me in men´s voices when they´re yelling ´cause they´re angry or in the way, you´ll hear me in the way kids are laughing when they´re coming in and there´s food on the table and…..and, uh….and that they´re, they´ve got a home and they´ll be alright….that´s, you´ll see me, Mama, that´s where I´ll be´….there was, uh, something in that film that was heroic…..you know, and, uh…..that always stayed with me….´cause in the end…..after the world reveals itself and deals its harshest blows to you, as it does to every one of us at some point or another….people fall back on love and faith and hope and ultimately on each other….because that´s all there is….´´

Intro to "This Hard Land"
´´Oh yeah….alright….I wanna say we´re here tonight for the Boys´ and the Girls´ Club of Monmouth County….an organization working here in Asbury and in Neptune helping kids get a start on life….you know….I wanna do this for them….glad to be back in Asbury Park, I´m glad to be here tonight (?) to, uh, give them some support so you can check out what they´re about, I´m sure they can use your help….alright….here´s for (?) and the staff and all the volunteers for the Boys´ and the Girls´ Club out there…..´´

Intro to "Rosalita"
´´Danny, come back (chuckles)…..Soozie !….uh, I´m about to go where, uh, I have not gone before in a long time (people yell) no, I´m not, not going there (chuckles)…..´´

Intro to "Sandy"
´´Thank you, thank you….oh, thanks, this was a blast tonight, I had a lot of fun (chuckles) ….really a lot of fun, it´s, uh….it´s so nice that this lovely theater is here, it´s great to have a place to play here in town in Asbury…it´s funny, when, uh….I guess I was about 18 and I first started to come out to, to Asbury Park in 1968 and uh….it was funny, you know, Asbury was always a little more open than most of the towns that, that sort of surrounded it, you know, I think for me and my friends, The E Street Band and, and many of the musicians that….many musicians who sort of, who gathered here, you know, it was kind of our little, our little taste of the city, you know, was a place where you could kind of come out and find yourself and, and play the music that you wanted to play in a club or two at least, you know, uh, even make a few bucks, you know, I think I met Davey Sancious, Clarence, Vini Lopez, Garry Tallent, Southside, Danny, I met all of ´em right here in this town, you know, and…. there was a tremendous gathering of musicians here at that time and uh….I think I wrote, wrote my first record there on Cookman and Main Street, on top of a beauty salon that used to be there (chuckles) uh….and, you know, we put our band together and uh….that took us around the world and, and I really found friendships here that lasted me my whole life, you know, it´s pretty amazing really….met my wife here in a bar (chuckles) and I got a chance to see my kids running around the theater tonight so that sort of brings it all ´round a full circle ….but uh….I guess all I´m saying is I´m glad to be able to come, come, come back to town and to be able to play here in this theater, it´s a, a treat for, a treat for me….and I´ll do this song I guess tonight, it´s sort of a funny song, I guess this song was written kind of as a goodbye song…..you know, many years ago and uh….I guess I was about to leave and I didn´t know what, where I was going exactly or what to expect….what was up ahead of me but uh….so it´s kind of a farewell song but it was kind of a love note too…it really was….so, uh…. Danny, come on out, help me out, man (chuckles)….second verse, alright ? (chuckles) …..´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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A Place Where You Could Find Yourself

Three decades on, one can underestimate the significance of the Ghost of Tom Joad tour. Fans had been talking about the prospect of a solo acoustic tour since Nebraska, a dream reinforced by the Bridge School appearance in 1986 and the sublime sets Springsteen turned in at the Christic Institute concerts in 1990. (The Bridge and Christic shows are available for download as part of the live archive series.) But it would be another five years for Bruce to go it alone for real, starting his first solo tour in December 1995 and continuing well into 1997.

Not only was he playing on sans band, but he was performing in theaters the size of which he hadn’t seen since the Darkness tour. The period is also notable for the debuts of several original songs (e.g. “It’s the Little Things That Count” and “There Will Never Be Any Other for Me But You”) in a set that grew more exploratory in assaying Bruce’s back catalog as the tour carried on.

Then came a series of remarkable hometown bookings. In November 1996, Bruce played his old high school, St. Rose of Lima, in Freehold, NJ (also available in the live download series). Later that month, a three-show stand at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, which was not only the namesake of his debut album, but the city whose clubs had served as a finishing school for the young musician and his future bandmates. Based on available information, Springsteen had not played Freehold in the E Street Band era, and he hadn’t done a proper concert in Asbury Park since sometime in 1973.

Given the so-called trilogy of recent projects looking back at his life (the book Born to Run, Springsteen on Broadway and Western Stars), one could suggest the November 1996 Shore shows were the first steps in literally revisiting his history.

Armed with that awareness, the first thing Bruce says as he takes the Paramount Theatre stage is, “Greetings, from Asbury Park.” We’re treated to three tracks from the album: a shambolic “Blinded By the Light,” plus lively takes of “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” and “Growin’ Up.”

“What the hell was I thinking about when I wrote all that stuff?” he asks with a hearty laugh as he wraps the trio. One likeable hallmark of the Joad tour is an unmistakable streak of humor, darker in tone and language, that seemed to intentionally contrast with a more earnest persona that had become the de facto depiction of our hero.

When someone shouts for “Mary Queen of Arkansas,” Bruce’s candor is priceless. “No. I ain’t gonna be playing that tonight. I tried to play that at home a few nights ago, and I couldn’t figure out what it’s about.”

The top of the show is appealingly loose but turns more meaningful with a distinctive reading of “Independence Day.” The song’s only tour performance is lightly Joad-ified and resolute, as the protagonist tells the tale with wistful distance and perspective. The 12-string “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is captivating as always, and “Johnny 99” is excellent — it, too, carries a tinge of reflection.

All four Shore shows featured supplemental musicians, and this night showcased the critical contributors: Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell. Phantom Dan sneaks on stage appropriately in a rare outing for “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” while Soozie and Patti bring one of those aforementioned deep cuts to life in an exquisite version of the criminally underplayed “When You’re Alone” from Tunnel of Love. The deceptively simple rumination on the loss of love remains as poignant as ever.

Staying in the hidden gems lane, all three contribute to one of Springsteen’s songwriting masterpieces, the “Born in the U.S.A.” b-side “Shut Out the Light.” Introduced as a song he wrote shortly after Nebraska, “Shut Out the Light” pulls another narrative thread on returning Vietnam veterans and the war they brought home with them. Bruce recalls the draft board in Asbury Park in the late ’60s and acknowledges his luck in getting out (a story told in greater detail in his autobiography) as he introduces a song about someone who wasn’t as lucky.

The homestretch of the set sticks to the established and powerful Joad-tour core, including “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and “Sinaloa Cowboys.” But Bruce makes one fascinating and to some degree unlikely inclusion, placing “Racing in the Street” between “The Line” and “Across the Border.” Not unlike the earlier performance of “Independence Day,” “Racing” carries subtle notes of retrospection and world weariness as it rides Soozie Tyrell’s melancholy violin. It’s not a long rendition like it would be in the hands of the E Street Band, but composed, potent, and unique to this tour.

Every live version of “Across the Border” and the story which precedes it truly capture the heart of Tom Joad. Bruce movingly recounts seeing John Ford’s movie Grapes of Wrath and the moments in the film that so deeply affected him, calling out specific scenes and camera framing with a director’s eye and quoting key lines of dialogue that form a sort of outline for the questions Bruce explores on the album and tour.

For the encore, the mood turns upbeat, starting with “Working on the Highway” and continuing with a fine “This Hard Land,” again featuring Danny Federici on accordion. Of course Danny returnsl two songs later as well for Bruce’s ultimate boardwalk homage, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” introduced with a sweet remembrance of the music scene and players that were there from the beginning. What comes in between is the tour debut of “Rosalita,” in a highly uncommon acoustic arrangement that makes up in liveliness what it lacks in musicality.

We end with the powerfully reimagined “The Promised Land.” While “Dream Baby Dream” was more of a pure mantra in the same set position on the Devils & Dust tour, “The Promised Land” a la Joad is a hymnal, too. Bruce’s acoustic guitar thump serves as the rhythm track propelling a reinterpretation that transports the song from exaltation to something more humanistic.

In the two nights that followed, Springsteen was joined by more guests and debuted a host of other rarities as the tone shifted ever more festive. But at his first show in Asbury Park in more than 30 years, recognition of a return to the place of origin is a compelling presence in nearly every song.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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A Place Where You Could Find Yourself