Intro to “Long Time Comin´”
“Thanks….thank you (?) uh….merci (chuckles) alright, uh, pour, uh, pour les mamas et les papas, bon courage avec vos enfants (chuckles) here´s ´Long Time Comin´….”
Intro to “Silver Palomino”
“(speaks French)….what I was trying to say (chuckles) I better say it in English too (chuckles) was, uh (cheers)(chuckles)….just so you can cross-check them later on (chuckles) this is a song about, uh….young boy loses his mom and, and he feels her spirit in the horse that comes out of the mountains at night, this is called ´Silver Palomino´….”
Intro to “The River”
“Thanks, when I was young, my, uh, my, uh, my first records, there were very few love songs, my father told me that they were government propaganda that was meant to get you married and have babies and pay taxes and put your nose to the grindstone so, uh, that put me off writing love songs for about 30 years or so….but, uh, what I did was, my mother was very romantic, she was Italian and, uh, uh (cheers) oh, alright, paisanos, right? (chuckles) but, uh, and so she, uh, she would have the 1950´s love songs on the radio in the morning so I was torn and what I did was I, I hid my love songs in other songs….”
Intro to “Real World”
“Thank you….here´s a song, was on Human Touch and, uh, we didn´t get a great arrangement of it so I´m gonna try and….get it right….”
Intro to “Part Man Part Monkey”
“(tells the usual European tour variation of the evolution-debate, but in French) Do you have an answer in France?….”
Intro to “Point Blank”
“Thank you, this is a, uh….(?) yeah (someone yells “Point Blank!”) ah, alright, for my friend…..uh, yeah, ok, ´Point Blank´….”
Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
“Thank you, merci beaucoup….I was, uh, I was brought up a good Catholic boy…. what happened? (chuckles) I have a bunch of pagan babies at home now (chuckles) but, uh, after you go through that, you know, Jesus is your homebody for the rest of your life, so, uh, I wrote this song…..you know, when things become iconic, they both get risen and they get, uh….oh, how would I say it?….they get bigger and they get smaller, this was, uh….I was interested in Jesus, Jesus as Mary´s son, having kids of my own and, uh, trying to understand that your children have their own destiny, uh, this is called ´Jesus Was an Only Son´….
(….) at his mother´s feet….now, the first thing you realise as a parent….is there is nothing….in heaven or on earth that you wouldn´t do to keep your children safe and from harm….it comes as a sudden shock and it´s a life sentence….Mother prays….
(….) shall pierce your dreams this night….and the thing that gives….our choices their meaning are the sacrifices we make….the parts of life that we give up when we choose something over something else….but I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking….that Galilee was pretty beautiful this time of year and that there was probably a little bar down there he could manage and Mary Magdalene could tend bar and, uh….he could save the preaching for the weekends….they could have a bunch of kids and they could get to see the sun fall on their face….and feel the air in your lungs ….and see the next day….and see the next day….and see the next day….and see the next day…..in the garden at Gethesemane….´´
Intro to “The Hitter”
“Thank you….thank you, alright, let me see, alright, usually after this song, the stage gets mobbed (chuckles) but I´m gonna ask you to wait another song, one more, so I can get out of here (chuckles) and uh….I, and also I wanna warn the folks up front so they….don´t find their lives swept away, so let´s try that tonight….(?) this is a, uh, this is a song that´s called ´The Hitter,´ this is, uh, you, uh…..we all carry the seeds of our own destruction, it´s, it´s kind of, uh, God´s joke, I suppose, or maybe that was the price for, uh….taking a bite of that apple, I´m not sure (chuckles) I don´t know if that´s the way God planned it but that´s the way He let it be (chuckles) this is called ´The Hitter´….”
Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
“I´m glad that worked out (chuckles) oh Lord, I have the strangest stagerush in rock and roll history (chuckles)(?) alright, alright, there, there, there are Southern Europeans coming (chuckles)….uh, alright, I gotta tell a story so, uh, what was that word again? uh (?) s´il-vous plait (chuckles)….this is a song I wrote as the, uh….as the sequel to ´Across the Border,´ it tells the same story ´bout a, uh…..(?) save the flash for one more song, alright? (chuckles) save it for one more, then you can shoot all you want…..a man makes a journey across the desert, trying to get into the, uh….uh,
across the southern border of the United States and every year hundreds of people die in the mountains and the rivers and in the backs of vans, just trying to get across to get, uh….send some money back home….now, this is for them, this is called ´Matamoros Banks,´ it tells the story told backwards, goes from the body at the bottom of the river to, uh….a man making the trip across the desert to standing on the banks of the Matamoros, which is the town across from Brownsville, Texas….”
Intro to “Better Days”
“(?)….ah, yeah, I wanna bring out a very, very, very, very good friend of mine….my American friend in Paris, Elliot Murphy, come on, Elliot….”
Intro to “The Promised Land”
“Thank you….I want to thank everyone for coming to the show tonight….uh, say, uh, vous etes un publique fantastique….yes….merci beaucoup, La France, Paris….you were, uh….fantastic audience, I just, I, I enjoy, I just (chuckles) when I, uh, I love to play like this, coming out and when I get this big space that you allow me to come out and, and to play in and to come into, it means a lot to my heart and I just wanna say thank you very much, this is for you…..”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
