2005-11-13 Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

No tour premieres, but a host of recently found gems - "Santa Ana", "Fade Away", and an encore of "Thundercrack". "Maria's Bed" makes a welcome return after a month off, while "Open All Night", "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart", "The Hitter", and "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" make their final appearances of the tour. Piano songs are "Santa Ana", "Lost In The Flood", "Drive All Night", "Jesus Was An Only Son", and "Thundercrack". "Born In The U.S.A." and "Johnny 99" are with the bullet mic. "Dream Baby Dream" is on pump organ. "Fade Away", "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart", and "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" are on electric piano. "I Wanna Marry You" is on ukulele. Bruce includes snippets of "Thunder Road", "Born To Run", and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" in the introduction to "Santa Ana".

Bruce Springsteen

Intro to “Long Time Comin´”
´´Thank you….alright….this is for all the moms and pops out there….´´

Intro to “Fade Away”
´´Thank you, thank you very much, good evening….as I must always point out in the, in the interests of, uh, interest of full disclosure that last line should´ve been ´I´m not gonna fuck it up too bad this time´….this song, this next song was a hit but only in one city and, uh, I think it was a single that they put out after ´The River,´ uh, which was not a hit either so, uh….but, uh, it didn´t do well anyplace but it did fabulously in Atlanta, Georgia….I´m not exactly sure what that says but, uh….maybe it makes sense, anyway, my big hit in Atlanta, Georgia…´´

Intro to “Santa Ana”
´´That´s right….thank you, love songs….there´s kind of only two kinds of love songs, really, there´s love ´we´re getting together´ songs and ´we´re infatuated,´ then there´s break-up songs….then, uh, I guess there´s ´fuck you´ songs but they´re usually in country music actually…and ´I´m gonna kill you´-songs….that´s usually in, uh, folk music and rap music…. so everybody takes their own approach to the whole thing but I, I kind of grew up, my mother grew up playing all the romantic songs on the radio and, uh, that´s what I heard every morning, in the 50´s was this whole generation of young men who were trying to sing like beautiful women and that was smart, that was very smart ´cause, you know, they´d, they´d sing like way, way up here, would be like, uh (sings the melody of ´Unchained Melody´ - without the words) I always thought that was, that was crafty because what they were, the seduction was ´I´m gonna come up and I´m gonna speak in your voice to you, uh, beautiful lady and I´m gonna be talking in your language, I´m coming up where you live and I´m a sensitive, understanding man and will you pull your pants down?´….that was, uh, that was that whole thing, you see, that is the subtext of all rock and roll music and, uh, I believe actually was the subtext of all classical music also but uh (chuckles) it is the great motivator for people to write music and, and you can tell because it works, it works well at the end of almost any, any rock song, it can be the last line also like, you know, ´It´s a town full of losers, we´re pulling out of here to win and will you pull your pants down?´…that works, ´Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run so will you pull your pants down?´….it works even like in the most kind of hardcore, sort of protest music, you know, that seems to be kind of aiming for something higher, it´s like ´It´s a hard rain gonna fall so you might as well pull your pants down´….so, uh, it is the motivation behind all, all great rock music is my, my humble opinion, one of the, one of the motivations, that´s why, I guess I didn´t write love songs for a long time, my father believed that they were all government, he was a post-pants down-guy (chuckles) he believed that you´re gonna get married, you´re gonna pay your taxes and work 9-to-5 and it was all government propaganda, uh, so I´ll leave it to the individual listener to decide but it explains why I wrote songs kind of like this next one, uh, of which I´m sure that line would fit in here somewhere but uh, uh, this is kind of, this is, I´ve only played this once before, this is kind of something, I don´t know, I suppose it was written for ´The Wild and the Innocent´ maybe but, uh….little on the obscure side, might be a love song but I´m not sure, you know….oh, let me see, I use….it´s this one, I think, well, I broke it, hold on, hold on, hold on a second, it´s almost there, yes, oh, hah, there goes Kevin´s job security (chuckles) alright, here we go….´´

Intro to “Janey Don´t You Lose Heart”
´´Thank you, boys….I´m gonna do this next song for the lovely Barbara Carr….Hue! Only old people would get that joke (chuckles) Jackie Gleason, that was Jackie, you know, Jackie Gleason, Atlantic City, no, Florida….this is a, uh, alright, I write two kinds of songs, I write songs filled with hope and then also songs of eternal damnation and I don´t like to pussyfoot around in the middle, I prefer (chuckles) so, uh (chuckles)…´´

Intro to “Drive All Night”
´´I just blew my nose in my drink….Ah, what the hell!…´´

Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´Thanks a lot, I grew up, uh, on a small street in a small town, uh, I´ve kind of been explaining this visually but….a few shows ago some kind person drew me a visual aid and, uh….I´d like to thank Miss Patti (?) a Canadian for, uh, putting this kind of time in on this piece….and, uh, I grew up on a little L-shaped street, this was my house where I lived with my grandma and grandpop and my parents and my sister and, uh, this, there was a field, which actually was kind of in here and then there was the Catholic church….as you can see, this is not drawn to scale precisely but, but, but the thing is that this is how big it felt so it´s emotionally correct….and there was nuns´ convent and the priest´s rectory and then if you ran up the street past my father´s car that doesn´t go in reverse, that´s right, there was, uh, my aunt´s house, my aunt Joan and she lived there, I had two cousins in this house, then there was my aunt Jane´s and my uncle Pat´s house, yes, they had, there were three grown man cousins in that house that always frightened me a little when I was small and, and Megan, this here, that´s your dad I´m talking about, she´s here tonight, and, uh, then up the street a few more houses was my greatgrandmother´s house and this was all the Irish side of the family right here….yes, and then across the street from that was, uh, ´Fort Zirilli´ and that was the Italian, the lone Italian outpost (chuckles) on that street and, uh, uh, uh, it was an interesting bunch of people, I don´t remember the folks from this side of the street ever crossing to this side….or the folks from this side ever crossing to that side for some reason, uh, the only thing I do remember was, uh, uh, I was kind of raised, particularly when I was young, by my father´s side of the family, all the Irish folks, and they were a bit on the superstitious side and, uh, uh, the main thing I remember was my, my grandmother would, when it would thunder and lightning, would run me up the street to my aunt Jane´s house and we would sit, all gather, all the aunts and the old ladies and me, unfortunately, would gather in the, in the livingroom and, uh, uh, uh, they would begin the event by telling lightning-horror stories (?) kind of psyching themselves up, you know, like there was the favorite one was the, you know, ´Mr Smith was walking his dog in a sudden storm, a lightning hit a tree, went down into the sewer pipes, traveled through the sewer pipes up to a crack and struck him in his ass and killed him´….so there was, uh, there were a lot of those kinds of stories shared and then when it started to lightning, they would pull the shades down assuming that lightning cannot pass through shade-material….yup, and, uh, then when it got really bad, there was quite a bit of moaning that went on and my aunt Jane would then resort to the, uh, ultimate, the ultimate measure, which was busting out the bottle of holy water and throwing it over all of us…you know, sprinkling it and, uh, uh, and it scarred me for life, what can I say, but, uh, they were a nice bunch of folks, they just happened to scar me for life but, uh…. yup, so that´s, you know….and then of course the church was in the middle and everything was caught up with the church and, and the Catholic religion, which of course all those images (?) religion filled with beautiful poetry and beautiful imagery and, uh, of course abject horror and terror, which, uh, uh, ended up filling up all of my own songs so, uh, uh, thinking back, I was writing a song about parents and children and, uh, all good Irish and Irish-Italian rock singers know that before Elvis, yes, there was Jesus and, uh….so, uh, I wrote a song sort of imagining what it would be like just have Jesus just as, as a child and, uh, uh….we are all chained to our children´s destinies and so….I tried to (?) what that would feel like and 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 that there isn´t anything you wouldn´t do to keep them safe and the second thing that strikes you is that you can´t…. (….) will pierce your dreams tonight….if you figure that….the choices we make in our life is giving their weight by the things we sacrifice for them, parts of life we choose and you give up some other part….I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking about the part of life He was giving up….that it was beautiful this time of the year down in the Galilee, that there was that little bar just across from the beach….and they needed a manager….and Mary Magdalene could tend bar and He could save the preaching for the weekends (?)….and they could´ve had a bunch of kids and got to watch the sun fall on their face….their lungs fill with air at night when they´re sleeping….and see the next day….and the day after that….and the day after that….and the day after that…´´

Intro to “This Hard Land”
´´Got my one Jesus-joke….I know you´ve heard this one before….´cause it´s old….but for the sake of entertainment (chuckles) An Italian guy and an Irish guy sitting in the bar, Irish guy says to the Italian guy: ´Italians are the stupidest people in the world, they, they just don´t know anything.´ Italian guy says ´Wo, wo, wo, hold on, my friend, I´m Italian, the bartender´s Italian, my mother´s.´ ´Oh yeah? Italians are so stupid I bet you, you don´t, you don´t, you don´t even know what Easter is.´ ´Oh, no?´ They put the money down on the bar, the glasses go over the money, the Italian guy gets up on the bar, he says: ´Easter is when Jesus, uh, rises from the dead, rolls away the stone.´ At the bar they´re excited, ´He´s got the money in his pocket.´ ´And if He sees His shadow…´´´

Intro to “The Hitter”
´´Thank you very much (?)….oh, ciao, grazie (chuckles) grazie….I´ve got, uh, some Italians here tonight and, uh, a lot of folks from overseas….I get a lot of, uh, I gotta give some of these characters credit because, uh (chuckles) they follow me all over the damn place, I, I, I like to call it, you know, they are, actually they are stalkers but, uh….but, uh, man, you know ….it´s, uh, for all my folks from overseas, overseas tonight that´ve come over….during this, during this tour, I appreciate it….this is a song, we´re kind of built so that we, uh, we build with one hand, seems like we burn with the other one and, uh, I guess, I don´t know if that´s the way God planned it but that, that seems to be the way He let it be, I suppose it comes from all that East of Eden thing (chuckles) but, uh, this is the burning side….´´

Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
´´I fell asleep and I….I woke up in the Trump penthouse suite right here in town….with, uh, two hookers and a ukulele (?)…that´s what Atlantic City does to you….I see you walking baby down the street, pushing that baby carriage at your feet…turn this bad boy up (chuckles) I see that lonely ribbon….´´

Intro to “Sandy”
´´Yeah, alright. This is for, uh, my good friend Mark Hagen, who, uh, was so helpful in putting together our Born to Run-package that is coming out soon….Mark, this is for you….´´

Intro to “Thundercrack”
´´Thanks….I wanna say….you have been a particularly lovely audience tonight, thank you very much….I appreciate that….it´s, uh, it´s a lot of fun to come out here and play like this but you really need a great audience and I just wanna thank you and do this for you so….´´

Intro to “Matamoras Banks”
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Intro to “The Promised Land”
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^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}