Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Boston! (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 transformed? (crowd cheers) let’s go! …”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Good evening, good evening! (crowd cheers) alright, “The River” (crowd cheers) “The River” was my coming-of-age record…it was a record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in…previous to that I, with “Greetings from Asbury Park” and “The Wild and the Innocent” I was sort of (crowd cheers) we were all sort of members of this outside community on the streets of Asbury Park (crowd cheers) but by the time I got to “The River,” I was taking notice of things that bond people together, that bond people to their lives, work, commitments, their families so I wanted to imagine and I wanted to write about those things, I figured if I could write about ‘em, maybe I’d get one step closer to realizing them in my own life so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a big record that felt like life or an E Street Band show, I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, sex, good comradeship, love, tragedy, faith, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to contain those things maybe I’d get a little closer to the answers and the home I was trying to find so let’s go on that adventure tonight, I want, I want you all (crowd cheers) to go along with us as we go down to “The River”…”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Alright, party noises! (crowd cheers) I need some party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
“”Independence Day” (crowd cheers) “Independence Day” was the first song where 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 and their own hopes…that maybe didn’t pan out so perfectly for them…and all you can see are the adult compromises and you’re still too young to understand the blessings that come with those compromises…so all you see is a world closing in that they seem locked into…and I remember as, as a young man, that was very frightening for me…and all I had was a desire to escape their world…so I had a simple setting for this song, it was just a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people struggling to understand one another…”
Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Here’s another song about leaving home…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Do we have any lovers in the house tonight? (crowd cheers) anybody here with their fiancé? (some cheers) someone? alright… well, I wrote this song as a daydream…where you’re just standing on the corner, watching someone you’ll never meet walk on by… and you’re imagining an entire life with this person…because there was something about her hair or something about the way she walked or…so you’re imagining the house you live in and the kids you’d have…and it’s all just bliss, bliss, bliss, bliss…of course that’s the life, that’s the life, the one without the consequences…that’s the one that doesn’t exist…you young kids can ask the old people next to you…they may have a little insight on that…but hey, this is a song of youth (crowd cheers) a song of imagining love in all its glory and all of its tentativeness and all of its sweetness…it’s not the real thing but you gotta start someplace…Sometimes at night when I lie in bed…and I still see that face running round my head…sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see that 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…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 by…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…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…(crowd cheers) alright, let’s, let’s catch up to her…”
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“This is a funeral song, let’s go to the Cadillac Ranch! (crowd cheers) come on, Max! (Max starts the intro) come on! (?) let me hear you scream! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This is one of the first songs I wrote about men and women…asked the question if you lose your love, do you lose yourself…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Alright, there’s a roadhouse up ahead! (crowd cheers)…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“Well, the subtext of “The River” was time…time slipping away and how once you enter your 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 stops) (crowd cheers) That’s “The River!” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Roulette”
“Thank you, uh, this was the first song that we cut for “The River,” never made it on to the record but it should have, it was a good one…”
Intro to “Badlands”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) we got some friends in the hall tonight, folks from the Greater Boston Foodbank and from the Food Project …two organizations that are fighting against hunger in the Boston area, the Food Project brings together youth and adults from diverse backgrounds and they work together to make healthy local food available to struggling citizens here in the Boston area (crowd cheers) the Food Project was Lenore Travis’ passion…so if you see them in the hall tonight, please, uh, help out the Greater Boston Foodbank and the Food Project (crowd cheers) thank you (crowd cheers) alright, let’s go…”
[Lenore Travis was the late wife of George Travis, Bruce’s longtime road manager.]
Intro to “Rosalita”
“Alright, have you had enough? (crowd: “No!”) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) come on, Steve…”
Intro to “Shout”
“Oh, where was I?…oh yeah…You make me wanna shout…”
Middle of “Shout”
“Sister Soozie Tyrell on the vocals, guitar and fiddle (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) the incredible Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) Mr. 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 born in Boston, Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) alright…alright…alright…alright…Boston! (crowd cheers) Boston! (crowd cheers) Boston! (crowd cheers) Boston! (crowd cheers) Boston! (crowd cheers) Boston! (crowd cheers) when you leave the show tonight, I want you to go straight home, I want to go and ring every doorbell on the street, I want you to get all your neighbors out into the street in their pyjammies, I want you stand in front of them and say 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!”)…
(…) Peter Wolf, help us out…”
After “Shout”
“Thanks, we’ll be seeing you! (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
