Intro to “Meet Me in the City”
“Hello, Hartford (crowd cheers)…”
Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Good evening, Hartford! (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be here in your beautiful state of Connecticut 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)…”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Evening (crowd cheers) good evening, good evening! (crowd cheers) we’re gonna take you down to “The River” now (crowd cheers) “The River” was my…coming-of-age record…was the… records before “The River” I was a part of an outsider community on the streets of Asbury Park (crowd cheers) “Greetings from Asbury Park”…“The Wild and the Innocent,” on “The River” I was trying to find my, trying to find my way inside…by the time I got to that album, I’d noticed the things that bond people together in their lives, their work, commitments, families, I wanted to imagine and I wanted to write about those things…and I figured if I could write about ‘em, I’d get a little closer to having them in my own life so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a record that was big and felt like life or an E Street Band show (chuckles)(crowd cheers) I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, good comradeship, love, faith, sex, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops and I figured that if I could make, make a record big enough to contain all those things maybe I’d edge a little closer to the answers to the home I was trying to find so tonight I want you to come with me on that journey (crowd cheers) and see what we find 30 years on as we go down to “The River” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Party noises, Hartford! (crowd cheers) party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
“Independence Day (crowd cheers) Independence Day, Independence Day… that 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 and their own hopes that maybe didn’t pan out exactly as they might have wished…and you’re young and all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make…and you’re too young to see the blessings that compromise brings into your life…so all you can see is a world that keeps tightening and tightening around them and all you can think about is escaping…what seems like this little world they’re locked down into…so I had a simple setting for my song, it was just a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people…who love each other but are struggling to understand one another…that’s “Independence Day” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Here’s another song about leaving home…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Here’s a song about…that one girl you see walking by…that stays in your head and stays in your head and stays in your head…years later you find yourself laying in bed and…thinking about that face ….well, this song was written as a daydream…it’s an act of the imagination…you’re standing on the corner, you’re watching someone walk by…you imagine this whole life with them…where you gonna live and what your kids are gonna be like…and everything is just blissful…nothing but…a long, many long, long years of first kisses…now, who remembers that first kiss out there? (crowd cheers) that’s not as many as I thought (chuckles) you forgot your first kiss? I remember all my first kisses (chuckles) (crowd cheers) damn…but anyway, you dream of that life, that blissful life without consequences…the one that doesn’t exist…few of you young folks can ask the old folks around you and they’ll tell you about that one…but this is a song of youth, of imagining love in all of its glory and its tentativeness and all of its early sweetness… that’s why these maracas are here (chuckles)(shakes the maracas) see what I mean?…that’s just it…it’s not the real thing what I’m talking about but you gotta start someplace…Sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face running round my head… yeah, sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I picture her face…I picture her face…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 now instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers) let’s catch up to her…hey, wait a minute!…”
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“This is a funeral song, come on down to the Cadillac Ranch! (crowd cheers)(?)…alright, Hartford…everybody, scream! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This was one of the first songs I wrote about men and women that, uh, gets down to the nitty-gritty of it…asks the question if you lose your love, do you lose yourself…this is “Stolen Car” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Let’s roadhouse! (crowd cheers)…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“Well, the subtext of “The River” was time…and how when you pick your partner…and you choose your life…the clock starts ticking…you make peace with your own mortality and time starts slipping away …and as you get older, you realize you have a limited amount of time to do your work, to raise your family…and to try and do something good…(music stops)(crowd cheers) That’s “The River!” (crowd cheers) thank you! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “No Surrender”
“You’ve suffered alongside of me, you get it made (chuckles) (crowd cheers) alright, we’ll start off the next part of our show with a request (crowd cheers)…this lady back here, I don’t know what the sign said but here it goes – there you go, alright (crowd cheers) alright, this is for you…”
Intro to “Loose Ends”
“Here’s a song that was originally on the, uh, was on the first, first “River”-album we ended in, it was called “The Ties That Bind,” this is a song that finished that album called “Loose Ends!” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Born to Run”
“Thank you!…thank you! (crowd cheers) thank you, Hartford (crowd cheers) we got some friends in the house tonight, folks from FoodShare, FoodShare is a regional foodbank for the Greater Hartford area, they’ve started a movement to solve hunger here in your community by increasing the amount of food that’s available to the hungry and by helping those who have fallen on hard times to get back on their feet, that’s FoodShare, if you see them in the building, give them a hand, they’re folks out on the frontline doing God’s work, thank you (crowd cheers) this is for them and for you …”
Over the musical coda of “Bobby Jean”
“Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) Hartford…Hartford… Hartford…you’ve just seen…the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, lovemaking, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…come on, Jake (Jake plays the sax solo)…”
[For some reason Bruce forgets to name Jake Clemons in the band introductions.]
Intro to “Shout”
“It’s time to go home! (crowd cheers) it’s time to go home! (crowd cheers) well, if you want us to stay, you better make a little bit more noise than that! (crowd cheers)…”
Middle of “Shout”
“Hartford, thanks for coming out and being with us tonight (crowd cheers) we appreciate your years of support of our music…and all I can think to say is…where am I? (chuckles)…I can’t hear the one …got it…all I can say is a little bit louder now…”
After “Shout”
“Thank you, we love you! (crowd cheers) the E Street Band loves you! (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
