Intro to “Long Time Comin´”
´´Thank you….thanks….yes….yes….alright….I´m gonna do this for the moms and the pops out there….I´m gonna ask all you proficient whistlers out there to hold the whistling till, uh, the end of the song, it´s, it´s a talent, I wasn´t much of a whistler myself as a kid and as matter of a fact my, my sister learned to whistle before I did and uh….I haven´t gotten over it quite yet ….I get crazy when I hear it….anyway (chuckles) alright, good luck with your babies….´´
Intro to “Highway 29”
´´The, uh, the actual words to, uh, that last verse should´ve been ´I ain´t gonna fuck it up too bad this time´….it would´ve been a little, I couldn´t put ´em all in but it should´ve been ´too bad,´ that should´ve been there (chuckles)….alright, let me see, speaking of fucking up, alright, this is something from ´The Ghost of Tom Joad´….´´
Intro to “For You”
´´One of the greatest love songs ever written was written by a guy named Geno Washington, a soul singer from, I believe, Detroit, who wrote a song called ´I´m a Coward When It Comes to Love´….and uh….it was the directness of the title that sort of got to the heart of the whole thing, you know, I forget how it went, uh…I ain´t afraid of no lions, I ain´t afraid of no grizzly bear, you know, uh, I ain´t afraid of old King Kong, uh, something about Samson losing his hairand uh, there ain´t one thing in this whole wide world that I am frightened of except I´m a coward when it comes to love, I´m a coward when it comes to love, I´m a coward when it comes to love….you get the idea so (chuckles) because how, how this ties into the song is is as a child growing up, my, my father told me that all love songs were, uh, government propaganda….and uh, that they were written, I guess, at the behest of the government, I would suppose, in order to get people married and get your nose to the grindstone and pay taxes and this was his explanation of all the love songs on the radio….uh, so I didn´t write any love songs for about 25 years (chuckles) but uh (chuckles) and then when I did, they were, they were kind of spooky, you know (chuckles) but, uh, I did, on my early records I did write some hidden love songs, this was probably one of my first and one of the best ones and, uh, it´s not that hidden but, uh, uh, uh, I´ll give it a shot, here we go…. it´s no ´Coward When It Comes to Love´ but it´s alright (chuckles)….´´
Intro to “Two Faces”
´´Yeah, then….a little more piano….about, you know, 15 years later I wrote another one…..´´
Intro to “Brilliant Disguise”
´´Thank you….alright….a request from somebody….´´
Intro to “Wreck on the Highway”
´´(people are yelling for ´Thunder Road,´ ´Spirit in the Night´)….Aw, shut up….´´
Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´Thank you….yes, I was brought up Catholic….yes, and uh….I don´t partake any more really, it´s, uh, the whole thing with the new Pope and all - couldn´t get that excited about it ….it´s kind of like, uh, watching a high-end trade for a team you don´t play for any more…. it´s sort of interesting but I don´t know, who cares?….but once, you know, you´ve been successfully brainwashed, once you´ve been through Catholic school….and, uh, uh….so it´s kind of like that Al Pacino in the terrible ´Godfather III´….uh, you know, ´I keep trying to get out, they keep pulling me back,´ you know, ´they,´ uh, ´they´ being, uh, my relatives, actually (chuckles) the New Jersey mafia but….anyway, I wrote this song, I was writing a lot about parents and children and I was trying to imagine just Jesus, kids, you know, your kids have their own destiny and you, my friend, you are along for the ride from here until it´s over and uh….so I was imagining Jesus as, just as someone´s son and, uh….this is called ´Jesus Was an Only Son´….
(….) at His mother´s feet….the first thing that strikes you when you have your kids is how there´s suddenly this thing in your gut that you realise that there´s nothing you wouldn´t do to keep them safe and that that is a life sentence from here on end (chuckles)….
(….) will pierce your dreams this night….now if you figure our choices are given meaning by the things that we sacrifice for ´em, it´s the things we give up….I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking….that there was this sweet little bar down in Galilee….that He could´ve managed….and Mary Magdalene could tend bar….there´s something about those bartenders (chuckles)….and, uh, they could´ve had a bunch of kids, got to see the sun fall on their face and the air fill their lungs….and got to see the next day….and got to see the next day….and the next day….and the next day….and the next day….and the next day….´´
Intro to “The Hitter”
´´Alright, well….´stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive´….it´s not easy to do (chuckles) it´s, uh…. no, it´s not easy to do, I think, uh…yeah, we all carry the seeds of our own destruction along with the….seeds that wanna make us sit and watch television for 24 hours at a time (chuckles) that is the seeds of our destruction right there (chuckles) but uh….I don´t know, I don´t know if that´s the way God planned but that´s the way He lets it be so, uh….this is called ´The Hitter´….´´
Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
´´Thank you….this is a song I wrote as a sequel to ´Across the Border,´ I´m gonna do this tonight for my friend that I met today, said this was his favorite song (chuckles) and, uh…. just a song that, uh, tells a similar story, every year hundreds of people die trying to cross the southern border into the United States to get in and make a living, uh….the song was written back to front, it starts with the body in the river to the man walking across the desert to standing on the banks of the Matamoros, Mata-, Matamoros is a town across from Brownsville, Texas, this is called ´Matamoros Banks´….´´
Intro to “Wild Billy´s Circus Story”
´´Alright, alright there, (?) girl, alright, it´s the girl´s birthday, I´m gonna do this song for her …what´s your name, darling?….Dana….alright, that your partner with you?….is your partner with you, the one that wanted me to sign his shirt? (the woman says something)(laughs) I don´t know, my shirt-signing days are coming to a close (chuckles) not really (laughs) alright, so, uh….here we go….´´
Intro to “The Promised Land”
´´Alright, just wanna send one out here for the folks from the Toronto Daily Bread Foodbank, old friends of ours here in Toronto….they´re on the frontlines doing, uh, doing a good work, they work to feed the struggling citizens here in the Toronto area and hopefully to eliminate the need for foodbanks, please assist the Toronto Daily Bread, you´ll see ´em on your way out, give ´em your support, thank you…..´´
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
