Intro to “Out in the Street”
“Hello, Netherlands! (crowd cheers) Italy, France, Romania* (crowd cheers)…”
[* Referring to the countries that the Netherlands had beat so far in the Football European Cup.]
Intro to “Spirit in the Night”
“Hello, Netherlands! (crowd cheers)(speaks in Dutch)…it’s good to see you, everything is orange in Netherlands now: bicycles, people, houses, cars – all has gone orange (chuckles)…”
Intro to “The River”
“Alright, let me, one second here…get a couple of these signs up… alright, we might be able to get that one for you – send that one here, send that here, honey, yes, that’s good…alright, let me see that…give me that one, yeah…alright…I don’t know, maybe, we’ll have to see (chuckles) alright for now…oh (chuckles) the man wants “Summertime Blues” (laughs) that’s a good call…we have to see if we remember that one…we’ll start with this, this is for Alex on his birthday (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Livin’ in the Future”
“It’s hot in the Netherlands tonight…ooh! alright now…this is a song called “Livin’ in the Future”…but it’s about what’s happening now… how back home, along with all the things that we’re proud of about where we come from, we’ve had to add to the American picture things like rendition and illegal wiretapping and the rolling-back of fundamental civil liberties, these are all things that when I was a little boy, your parents always told you happened someplace else but never here at home…so this is a song about…people sleeping through changes they thought they’d never see…so, Max, help me tell the story now, wait a minute…now…”
Intro to “Mary’s Place”
“Are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) are you ready for some sweet soul music? (crowd cheers) one, two, one, two, three, four (the intro music starts)…are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) then I wanna hear you (crowd cheers) I said I wanna hear you (crowd cheers) I wanna hear you (crowd cheers) I wanna hear you (crowd cheers) got a question for you…[the “are you ready?”-call-and-response-routine]…”
Intro to “I’m on Fire”
“Alright, we’re gonna do a few of these, that’s for you, sweetheart…”
Intro to “Backstreets”
“Alright, this is for my man right there, how old are you?…how old are you?…how old is he?…he’s ten?…ok, this song was written, uh …25 years before you were born (chuckles) it’s a good one, though, you picked a good one…”
Intro to “Girls in the Summer Clothes”
“Woo, thank you (crowd cheers) alright, a dedication, this is for, uh …we played, the last time we played here, somebody got sick, don’t know who the fuck that was* (chuckles)(?)(chuckles) and we had to move the show to the next night so there was a gentleman who came to the show but his wife was about to have a baby so he came the next night and in the middle of the show he had to go because she was having the baby so the baby was born three hours after the show, I think they named him Bruce, no, I don’t think that they did (laughter from the crowd) I made that part up, that didn’t happen (chuckles) but, but, uh, Springsteen, that, that’s a Dutch name, I have relatives here somewhere (crowd cheers) some of you folks are my relatives, I don’t know where…my grandfather, my father’s father and my great-grandma, they were all Dutch so uh (crowd cheers) anyway, this is for Robert and Caro from KarIn, alright…oh!…and for all the Dutch girls too (crowd cheers) all the Dutch girls (crowd cheers) all the Dutch girls (crowd cheers) come on, I’m an old man, give me a big thrill (crowd cheers)…(music starts) for all the girls in their summer clothes…”
[* The show in Amsterdam on November 30, 2007 was postponed by one day due to Bruce having the flu.]
Intro to “Summertime Blues”
“We’ve got a little guy out here with all kinds of signs, he’s got all kinds of requests…we haven’t played this one since we were seventeen…I hope it works (off-mike: “Summertime Blues”)…we don’t know if we know the words, I’ll sing one verse (?) alright, we got a man out there in a hat and an orange t-shirt wants to hear “Summertime Blues” (crowd cheers) we got figure this one out, one second (some minor rehearsing going on) oh, oh, oh! we only know about half of this song, we’re gonna play some…(laughter) yeah, I know that part (chuckles) I don’t know if after that…right there, beat, Max, just beat…(music starts)…this is for you, my man…”
Intro to “Stand on It”
“What else we gonna do now? (chuckles)(Steve starts the rhythm of “Gloria”) no, we’ll do this for you, alright…I promised this girl, she comes to all the shows, I promised her we’d do this tonight… are we ready, boys? (crowd cheers) is the audience ready? (crowd cheers) is the band ready?…”
Towards the end of “Stand on It”
“Hold that thing, boys…we’re gonna go to ‘D’ now…are you ready, band?…is the audience ready? (crowd cheers) is the audience ready? (crowd cheers) is the audience ready? (crowd cheers) is the audience ready? (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “American Land”
“Thank you, Nederland (crowd cheers) thank you for coming out to our show (crowd cheers) everybody out there (crowd cheers) everybody up there (crowd cheers) everybody out back (crowd cheers)…
(…) Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Steve Van Zandt(crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you’ve ever seen: Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) Nederland! (crowd cheers) Nederland! (crowd cheers) Nederland! (crowd cheers) Nederland! (crowd cheers) Nederland! (crowd cheers) you´ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-shocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary (crowd: “E Street Band”)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
