Intro to “Factory”
“Hello again, good evening (crowd cheers) happy Labor Day, happy Labor Day (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “My City of Ruins”
“It’s hot one tonight (crowd cheers) Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly, Philly, good evening! (crowd cheers) we’re gonna make you sweat tonight (crowd cheers) we’re gonna make you work on Labor Day (crowd cheers) yes, yes…yes, yes…this is a song that was originally about the re-birth of my adopted hometown, struggling to get back on its feet – turn me up a little, Monte…but, uh, since I’ve written it, it’s become about many, many …many different things and, uh…one of the things it’s become about is ghosts, ghosts, ghosts…I don’t know if you saw the little clip of the Spectrum coming down (crowd cheers) that’s what’s waiting for all of us…but as you, as you live life, you gather ghosts all around you and not just people, it’s old buildings, old guitars, old cars, old neighborhoods…I grew up, uh, with my, living with my grandparents and, uh, I guess I was around 12 or something and… the Church bought the house and knocked it down and turned it into a parking lot – another, uh, another good thing for me to hate Catholicism for but, uh (crowd cheers)(chuckles) but, uh, but you’re stuck, man, once you’re in, you’re in, you can’t get out (chuckles) but, uh…for years I couldn’t go back to that space, I couldn’t go and look at that empty space where the house stood ‘cause not only had I lived in that house but that house had lived in me, it seeped into my blood and to my bones…and then I realized I would never really get rid of it, I would carry it with me as just one of my ghosts, one of my ghosts…and, uh…these are things that are deeper than memory, they seep into the creation of our own lives… they become our experience…and when you’re a kid, you know, ghosts are scary, scary, but as you get older, you realize no, they’re just, they walk alongside you and they remind you daily of the value of life, of the preciousness of time (crowd cheers) of the necessity of love…so tonight…we got a lot of ghosts with up on, with us up on stage and, uh, I’m gonna do this for your ghosts too (crowd cheers) Max!…”
Middle of “My City of Ruins”
“(Horn players take turns soloing)…Yes, yes, yes, that’s Clark Gayton, Barry Danielian, Curt Ramm, Ed Manion and Jake Clemons of the E Street horns (crowd cheers) take me higher…take me higher…that’s Everett Bradley on percussion, Curtis King, Cindy Mizelle and Michelle Moore of the E Street choir (crowd cheers) yes, yes…come on, Max!…roll call…I like to do a roll call every evening now because…I wanna know who’s in the house tonight (crowd cheers) I said I wanna know who’s in the house tonight now (crowd cheers) I need to feel it in my bones, I need to know who’s in the house tonight (crowd cheers) come on, Philly, come on, Philly, come on, Philly, I need to know who’s in the house tonight now (crowd cheers) that’s right, Professor Roy Bittan’s in the house (Roy plays) yes, yes (Roy keeps playing) Sister Soozie Tyrell’s in the house (crowd cheers)(Soozie plays violin) Brother Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers)(Charlie plays accordion) Mr. Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) (Nils plays) oh, I’m searching for my baby, I’m looking for my girl now, searching for my baby, oh yeah…is there a red headed woman in the house? (crowd cheers) is that many red headed women in the house?…stay away from me, baby…Miss Patti Scialfa, she’s out touring with our daughter, we got a two-touring family now – let me hear it for my love, Miss Patti! (crowd cheers)
she’s in the house (chuckles)…Little Steven by way of Lilyhammer is in the house tonight (crowd cheers)(Steve plays) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers)(Max plays) and Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers)(Garry plays) oh yeah now…alright…alright now… alright…alright now…alright…are we missing anybody? (crowd cheers) are we missing anybody now? (crowd cheers) are you missing anybody? (crowd cheers) are we missing anybody now? (crowd cheers) well, if you’re here and we’re here, then they’re here (crowd cheers) I said if you’re here and we’re here, oh, then they’re here now…how do I know? I know because I can hear ‘em in your voices, come on! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Spirit in the Night”
“Now the E Street Band have traveled all around the world… thousands and thousands and thousands of miles…because we’re in search of the answer to just one question…we’ve been to Spain, we’ve been to Italy…we’ve been to the Czech state…we’ve been up and down the fucking New Jersey Turnpike (crowd cheers) it was raining like a motherfucker (crowd cheers) and we’ve come here to Philly tonight for the answer to just one question and all I wanna know is…can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) if you can feel the spirit, I want you to answer me with a mighty “Yeah, yeah” – can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”)…we’ve come here tonight to bring you the good news, to bring you the bad news, to bring you the news that’s gonna make you wanna holler (band: “Yeah, yeah”) make you wanna holler (band: “Yeah, yeah”) make you wanna holler (band: “Yeah, yeah”)…”
Intro to “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?”
“Woh, woh, woh!…I wrote, I think I wrote most of those songs on my first record, it was…I was living above an abandoned beauty salon in Asbury Park and I had a little piano in the back and I’d sit up there, we didn’t have any air-conditioning, I remember I’d sit up there nights just like tonight and all those songs…it made these songs from the first record feel like summer to me so…here we go, are you ready?…”
Intro to “Frankie”
“Alright, give me that sign…alright, I guess, this is “Frankie has never been to Philly” (crowd cheers) who has ever heard of this song, come on? (crowd cheers) alright, that’s a good sign…here’s a good summer song…(intro music starts)…alright, help me out, Charlie…”
Middle of “Frankie”
“Easy now…turn down some of these lights…turn down some of these lights…I remember my sister and I, yeah, we used to sit on our front porch at dusk…and we’d wait…we had our little jars with the holes stuck in ‘em (chuckles) and we’d wait to see the…there was a big field across the street from our house…and we’d wait in the summer for the first fireflies…take out your phones and show me some fireflies…come on, light ‘em up…light ‘em up…light ‘em up…that’s good, light ‘em up…up top, light ‘em up…light ‘em up… light ‘em up…oh, there we go…anyway…oh…light ‘em up…light ‘em up…light ‘em up…way up top…light ‘em up…happy end of summer…Walk softly tonight, little stranger…”
Intro to “The River”
“Alright…here we go, boys…that’s a good Labor Day song…there we are…”
Intro to “We Are Alive”
“Woo, that’s so much better…it’s like walking in swimming pool all night…gonna send this one out to the folks from Philabundance, Philabundance is our friends in the hall tonight (crowd cheers) there’s more than 900,000 people in Delaware Valley at risk from chronic hunger and malnutrition, Philabundance provides a full plate of food and services to the hunger in nine counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey…don’t have to tell you with the hard times out there, more folks are depending on these grassroots organization to feed their kids, to get through the week…please help your neighbors, Philabundance (crowd cheers) this was a (coughs) the last song I wrote for “Wrecking Ball”…I was trying to come up with something that would sum up our record…the things that characters had been through…and, uh, I sat and I sat and I had nothing and I had nothing and I had nothing…so I thought I’d look back to voices who’d lived through these kinds of times and worse before…in the 1800’s and the 1930’s, the 1970’s…the voices of the past are always informing the voices of the living if we listen hard enough…so in keeping with our theme tonight, the last song I wrote for the album was a ghost story…when I was about eight years old, my mom’d take us out to cemetery in twilight and my sister and I, we’d run all over the, run all over the graves and climb on the gravestones and laugh at the funny names till it got towards dark and we swore we could hear something…we’d be running back to my mom and call her…so put yourself in that cemetery tonight… and you’re going from grave to grave…that you’re at your rope’s end…and you can’t see no tomorrow…and you’re walking from grave to grave and you’re listening…and you’re listening…and you’re listening…and you’re listening…”
Intro to “American Land”
“Thank you, Philly! (crowd cheers) thank you, Philly, for two incredible nights…”
Middle of “American Land”
“Philly! (crowd cheers) Philly! (crowd cheers) Philly! (crowd cheers) you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, lovemaking, curfew-hating, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”
After “American Land”
“Thank you, thank you so much for coming out and seeing us, thanks for your love and support over all the years, we love you, Philadelphia, we’ll be seeing you (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
