Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Good evening, Toronto! (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be here in your beautiful city tonight (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be transformed? (crowd cheers) let’s go…I was busted for feeling no pain…”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Thank you (crowd cheers) good evening, good evening (crowd cheers) we’re gonna take you down to The River (crowd cheers) I still need less monitor, Monte, if you can, maybe more mid-range or more highs, a little more volume…The River was a record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in…my early records were kind of outsider-records whether it was Greetings from Asbury Park or The Wild and the Innocent, I was part of a…I was sort of part of an outsider community or a marginal community on the streets of Asbury Park…everybody was, everybody was living off the grid and, uh…by the time I got to The River, I’d taken notice of the things that bond people to their lives, that’s work, commitments, families, I wanted to imagine and I wanted to write about those things and I figured that if I could, maybe I’d get a little step closer to realizing them in my own life…so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a record that felt like life or an E Street Band show, I wanted it to contain fun and dancing and laughter and jokes and sex and good comradeship and love, faith, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to contain all those things maybe I’d edge a little closer to the answers and the home that I was trying to find so tonight I want you to come along with us as we go down to The River (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Alright, Toronto, party noises! (crowd cheers) party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
“Fathers and sons, fathers and sons, fathers and sons… Independence Day was the first song I wrote about fathers and sons…it’s the kind of song you write when you’re young…and you’re
first startled by your parents’ humanity, you’re shocked to realize that they had their own dreams and their own desires…their own hopes that maybe didn’t pan out exactly the way they’d have liked…and all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make…and you’re still too young to take notice of the blessings that some of those compromises brought…and all you can see is world that they seem locked into and all you can feel is your desire to escape…well, I had a simple setting for this song, was just a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people struggling to understand one other…”
Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Here’s another song about leaving home…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Well, I wrote this song as a daydream…you know, you’re just standing, standing on the corner watching someone you’ll never meet walk on by and you imagine an entire life with this person… what your house would be like and what your kids would be like… you get a whole life going on in your head and it’s all just bliss, bliss, bliss, bliss, kiss after kiss…that’s the life without consequences…that’s the one that doesn’t exist…you young folks can turn and ask some of the older folks about that (chuckles)… but, hey…better times and better things are coming…and this is a song of youth…of imagining love in all of its glory and all of its tentativeness…it’s not the real thing…but you’ve got to start someplace…Well, sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face running round my head…yes, sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face…running round my head…here she comes walking down the street…here she comes walking down the street…she’s looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet…she’s so fine, she’s so sweet…and someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday she’s gonna stop instead of walking by…she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers)…ah, let’s see if we can catch up to her…”
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Going down to the Cadillac Ranch! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“Here’s the first song I wrote about men and women…and about… asked the question if you, if you lose your love, do you lose yourself?…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Let’s roadhouse! (crowd cheers)…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“Well, the subtext of The River was time…time entering your life… and then slipping away…how once you enter the adult life…the clock starts ticking and you realize you have a limited amount of time…to do your work, to raise your family…to try and do something good… (music ends)(crowd cheers) That’s The River! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “The Promised Land”
“Let’s take a ride…”
Intro to “Badlands”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) thank you, thank you (crowd cheers) we got some friends in the hall tonight, folks from Foodshare, Foodshare believes everyone deserves access to affordable fresh food, since 1985 Foodshare’s worked with communities and schools here in Toronto to deliver healthy food and food education to those in need, if you see Foodshare, give ‘em a hand on your way out, thank you (crowd cheers) this is for them!…”
Intro to “Rosalita”
“Are you ready to continue? (crowd: “Yeah!”) are you ready to continue? (crowd: “Yeah!”) are you ready to continue? (crowd: “Yeah!”) Steven!…Rosie, come out tonight!…”
Middle of “Shout”
“Soozie Tyrell on the fiddle violin and guitar (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Garry W. Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Miss Patti Scialfa on the guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) and last but not least…Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) that’s right…Toronto! (crowd cheers) Toronto! (crowd cheers) Toronto! (crowd cheers) Toronto! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight, I want you to get on your street, I want you to ring every doorbell on your street, I want you to get all your neighbors out of the houses in their pyjammies and I want you to tell them that you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, lovemaking, Viagra-taking, history-making, testifying, death-defying, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”
(…) Have you had enough? (crowd: “No!”) have you had enough? (crowd: “No!”) have you had enough? (crowd: “No!”) You make me wanna shout…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi |
