2005-07-24 Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Show includes several anecdotes about "Cousin" Frank Bruno. Encores include an "oldie" double of "Blinded By The Light" and "Wild Billy's Circus Story". "Highway Patrolman" played for People of Faith Against the Death Penalty. Piano songs are "Two Faces", "The River", "Real World", "Racing In The Street", and "Jesus Was An Only Son". "Reason To Believe" is with the bullet mic. "Into The Fire" and "Dream Baby Dream" are on pump organ. "When You're Alone" and "Nothing Man" are on electric piano.

Bruce Springsteen

Intro to “Long Time Comin´”
´´Thank you….it´s nice to be in Charlotte….I had a bunch of relatives here….but they came back home….but they were here for a long time….you know, a long time….they had a bakery downtown….well, uh, let me see….yes, yes, my cousin Frank, Frank actually was a guy, he was a little bit older than me and, uh, he, uh, played the accordion and I thought that was simply the coolest instrument I´d ever seen (chuckles) and, uh, it´s such an impressive box, you know (chuckles) and then around the early 60s when the folk boom hit, he changed it to the guitar and, like, that was it for me, you know, the thing I remember most he, he wore a white t-shirt, he had black jeans and he had black socks and white sneakers….and that was, that was the outfit I aspired to, I haven´t got there yet but I´m working on it (chuckles)….I can´t buy the sneakers, I don´t look right in sneakers (chuckles) so, uh, but anyway, he raised a whole bunch of kids here and they all turned out alright so it must be alright here (chuckles) but uh….I´ll do this song for him tonight, this is a song for moms - oh, whistling and the hooting is a fabulous form of self-expression ´cept not during the middle of a fucking song, alright (chuckles) I like to think, I like to think those as audience´s tightest points, you know (chuckles) but anyway, this is for the moms and pops, this is, uh, ´Long Time Comin´´ …..´´

Intro to “When You´re Alone”
´´Thank you, in, uh…..in the interest of full disclosure, I, I suppose I have to tell you the audience every night that that last verse should actually say ´I ain´t gonna fuck it up too bad this time´ (chuckles) I couldn´t fit all those words in there and when I did, it lost some of its punch but, uh, it should actually end ´I ain´t gonna fuck it up too bad´ (chuckles) anyway, this is a song I´ve played once before, gonna try it again….´´

Intro to “Part Man Part Monkey”
´´I just came back from Europe where I tried to explain to them that there´s a big debate going in the United States about whether the man come first or the monkey come first….I tried to explain that in English so that was an extra problem….but I said ´Yeah, back home there´s a big fight over whether the man come first or the monkey come first´….now, the basic thing is the monkey doesn´t vote….that´s true….they believe not only that the monkey came first but they think that they know where the monkey is….uh, so I was kind of singing this song with a rather smugly superior tone to my brothers and sisters evangelical over the past six months or so but, you know, being brought up Catholic, we kind of decided that we didn´t have a dog in that particular fight for some reason….but then the new Pope comes in ….and he´s sitting, lying awake in the big room wherever the Pope sleeps….wondering about, I suppose, ´What do I do now?´….and somewhere he decided: ´I wonder if the man come first or the monkey come first?´….so we´re down in the shit with everybody else right now (chuckles) alright, it´s great to be back home (chuckles)….
(….) We´ve come a long way, baby….and we´re going back…..´´

Intro to “All I´m Thinkin´ About”
´´Alright, I´m gonna do a song dedicated to your fine state….it is mentioned in the song so needless to say whenever you mention a place, people applaud, you know, it´s just, I don´t know, I don´t know, it´s some sort of in-bred human, you know, human condition, people can´t stop themselves, that´s all there is to it so….so, uh, I wrote, I, I, I used the name of the state rather leisurely, not knowing a whole hell of a lot about the place (chuckles) but, but it rhymed with ´wine´ (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “Highway Patrolman”
´´Alright, I got some folks in the hall tonight I´ve worked with kind of here before, they´re called the People of Faith Against the Death Penalty and uh….whatever your particular feeling on the issue is it´s worth checking out the facts and seeing where you stand on it and they can use your support and help if you, if you feel so inclined, there´s no doubt that the death penalty obviously does not apply equally across the boards and this is an organization, they´ve been working for more than a decade to help eveybody whose lives are, are touched by the issue, the victims, the offenders and the whole community so, uh, you can check them out, they got a petition, they could use your support or you can just get some information on it, this is for the People of Faith Against the Death Penalty….´´

Intro to “Nothing Man”
´´Oh, thank you, my friends….alright, this is a special piano, it can´t be out onstage too long ….that´s why it keeps coming off and back on (chuckles) I got this on eBay….and, uh, and, uh, it works pretty good, alright (chuckles) alright….oh yeah….alright….´´

Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´Thank you, thank you very much….uh….´mine,´ ´Caroline,´ ´Caroline´ is good, there´s a a lot of things that rhyme with it, ´Jersey,´ that´s hard….´Guernsey´ - what? ´Guernsey,´ that´s all that rhymes, that´s tough, you know (chuckles) alright, this was, uh, I was, uh, raised in the Catholic school and the whole nine yards and, uh….it´s kind of like, uh, that Al Pacino-line in ´Godfather III,´ you know, ´I´m out but they keep pulling me back´ (?) I go to, uh, uh ….I still go to church on, for various sort of ritualistic occasion and, uh, my aunts, uh, they still, they try to get me to take Communion, which I´m not supposed to do because I´m supposed to say the Act of Contrition and make a confession first, I´ve done my confessing and I´m no longer contrite so (chuckles) so, uh….so that does it, but they still wanna, wanna get me up and go anyway and, uh, then I use the second, my second argument, my fallback argument is that I´m excommunicated because I´ve been divorced and, uh, in theory, I guess that loss, that rule still holds (?) you get divorced and that´s it, you´re excommunicated, so I say ´I´m excommunicated, I can´t go,´ you know….and uh, that doesn´t work, they still keep trying to get me up for Communion and, uh, and actually sometimes I go and uh (chuckles) (?) but, uh, this was a song, I was, a lot of religious imagery in my music and this was something, I was….thinking about, imagining Jesus just as somebody´s son, as, uh….just someone´s boy and knowing how you think about your children and how you care about your children, uh….and I kind of wrote a song from that perspective so this is called ´Jesus Was an Only Son´…..
(….) at His mother´s feet….now the first thing that…..you feel when your kids arrive is a strange feeling in your stomach that says there´s nothing, nothing in the world you wouldn´t do to keep them safe….and that is a life sentence….
(….) will pierce your dreams this night….now I always figured…..what gives our choices meaning are the things we sacrifice for ´em….you choose something and you turn away from something else…..so I always thought that Jesus had to be thinking about the things….that He would lose….He had to be thinking that there´s this sweet little bar down in Galilee and He could manage the place…..Mary Magdalene could tend bar….they could have a bunch of kids and get to see the sun fall on their faces….and get to watch the air fill their lungs….and get to see the next day….and the next day….and the next day….and the next day….and the next day ….´´

Intro to “If I Should Fall Behind”
´´I´ll do this tonight for Liz, this is in memory of her daughter Casey….´´

Intro to “The Hitter”
´´(Bruce´s cousin Frankie apparently brings Bruce his guitar or something)….Thanks a lot….thank you very much…..well…..and that was actually my cousin Frankie (chuckles) who, uh, showed me my first chords on the guitar and, uh, I worked one summer, uh, the only honest work I ever did in my life and uh (chuckles) and, uh, I painted, I painted this woman´s house and mowed, mowed the lawns and I saved up 20 bucks, I was making 50 cents an hour and, uh, I went down to the Western Autostore, was a store, it sold autoparts and guitars (chuckles) mostly autoparts (chuckles) they had three or four or five guitars and I picked up this 18-dollar guitar, it was a brutal to play but I took it over to Frankie´s house and he showed me how to follow the little dots, you know, so, uh….he keeps trying to borrow money from me but I don´t loan him any money (chuckles) no, I made that part up (chuckles) anyway, here we are, we, uh, this is a song, I guess we carry the seeds of our good things, make things grow, and seeds of our own destruction in one merry little package and that is God´s desire (chuckles) and uh….I don´t know if that´s the way He planned it but that´s the way He let it be, this is ´The Hitter´….´´

Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
´´Thank you….thank you very much….thank you very much….wrote this song, uh…..uh, this was a sequel to a song called ´Across the Border,´ it kind of tells a similar story, each year hundreds of people die trying to cross our southern borders, they die in, uh, in the deserts, crossing the deserts, of dehydration, they die in the rivers and, uh, backs of vans, uh….all to get here and do the toughest jobs that we have….uh….so I guess what we need down along the border instead of vigilantes is we need a humane immigration policy….this is, uh, called ´Matamoros Banks,´ I wrote this song backwards, it starts with the body at the bottom of the river, a man walking across the desert till he stands on the banks of the Rio Bravo, across from Brownsville, Texas….´´

Intro to “Blinded by the Light”
´´Thank you, my friends….alright, this is the song that explains why I never did any drugs…. but I´m actually looking forward to doing some….I´ve waited a long time and it´s gonna be great (chuckles)…..´´

Intro to “Wild Billy´s Circus Story”
´´Oh yeah….yeah, damn, I should´ve quit right there (?)….that was it, I didn´t have anything else to say after that (chuckles)….I used up all the words….alright….alright, I´ll try this one ….(?)….´´

Intro to “The Promised Land”
´´Yeah, thank you….thanks a lot….just, uh….want to do a little shout-out to some friends here, the Second Harvest Foodbank of Metrolina….that´s right, they´re in the hall tonight and they strive for education and advocacy and partnership with grassroots organization to eliminate hunger….(?) they distribute food to the struggling citizens here in Carolina and Charlotte, please, uh, on the way out, check them out and they deserve your support, they´re folks out there on the frontlines doing God´s good work….this is for them and, uh, thanks for a lovely evening, I had a good time (chuckles)….this is for you….´´

Intro to “Dream Baby Dream”
´´Thank you, Charlotte….I thank you…..my cousins thank you….one more for Charlotte…..´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}