Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Good evening, Oakland! (crowd cheers) alright…we’re so glad to be here tonight (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Good evening, good evening! (crowd cheers) alright, “The River,” “The River”…”The River” was my coming-of-age record…all the records before “The River” were sort of outsider records, we were all part of a little, marginalized community on the streets of Asbury Park (crowd cheers) but on “The River” I was trying to figure my way inside, I’d taken notice of the things that bond people to their lives, their work, their commitments, their families, I wanted to imagine and I wanted to write about those things, I figured if I could write about ‘em, maybe I’d get a step closer to having them in my own life…so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a record that was big, a record that felt like life or an E Street Band show (crowd cheers) I wanted the record to contain fun and dancing and laughter and jokes, good comradeship, love, sex, faith, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to hold things maybe I’d edge a little closer to the answers and the home I was trying to find so tonight come with us back down to “The River” and see what we find (crowd cheers) …”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Party noises, Oakland! (crowd cheers) party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
“”Independence Day” (crowd cheers) “Independence Day” was the first song I wrote about fathers and sons…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’d thought…and all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make…and you’re still too young to see the blessings that come with compromise…so all you see is this world that seems so locked in…and I remember all I kept thinking was I wanted to get out and get out and get out…so I set this song, it was a simple setting, it was a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people that loved each other but were struggling to understand each other…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Do we have any lovers out there tonight? (crowd cheers) gotta be more than that, you know (crowd cheers) what about, uh, what about all that San Francisco is for lovers and (crowd cheers) Oakland is for lovers! (chuckles)(crowd cheers) do we have any lovers out there tonight? (crowd cheers) good, good, good ‘cause this is a love song…this is more of a…of a daydream of love…you know, you’re standing on the corner and somebody passes by and you’re never gonna meet…you imagine an entire life with that person…of course you always imagine the easiest, the easiest kind of love, kind without the consequences and without responsibilities
…the kind that doesn’t exist (chuckles) (crowd cheers) it’s an old crowd out there (chuckles) (crowd cheers) I can tell by how loud people laugh at that, they’re laughing through the pain (chuckles) …but, hey, this is a song of youth…it’s a song of imagining love in all of its glory and its tenderness and its tentativeness…it’s not the real thing but it’s alright…’cause you gotta 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… 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…oh my girl, my girl, my girl, my girl…my girl, my girl, my girl…
little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers) that’s right, I’m gonna catch up to her now…baby…wait a minute…”
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Oh, let’s go down to the Cadillac Ranch! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This is one of the first songs I wrote about men and women that kind of got down to the nitty-gritty of it…a song that asks the question that if you lose your love, do you lose yourself…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Let’s get ready to roadhouse! (crowd cheers)…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
““The River” was about time…time slipping away …and how once you enter the adult life…and you choose your partner and you choose your work, the clock starts ticking…and you walk alongside not just the people you’ve chosen to live your life with…but you walk alongside of your own mortality…and 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)…”
Intro to “Growin’ Up”
“Thank you, Oakland! (crowd cheers) yes, yes, thank you…thank you for coming out and being with us tonight (crowd cheers) we got some friends in the hall from the Alameda County Community Foodbank (crowd cheers) the Alameda County Community Foodbank has been serving the hungry in this area for over thirty years, they have an ambitious goal, they aim to ensure that by 2018 every hungry child, adult and senior in Alameda County will know where their next meal is coming for (crowd cheers) if you see them on the way out, they’re your neighbors on the frontline doing a good work - the Alameda County Community Foodbank, give them a hand (crowd cheers) alright, this was a request from somebody out there…”
Middle of “Growin’ Up”
“Give me a hand…in the checkered shirt…yeah, yeah…come on, kid …come on, kid…come on, kid…it’s a young guy’s song (chuckles) give me a hand, you ready?…alright…(sings with the fan who requested the song:) I took month-long vacations…
[According to Backstreets.com the fan was Steven Strauss, a Backstreets contributor.]
At the end of “Growin’ Up”
“Well done!…”
Intro to “Shout”
“Do you have anything left out there? (crowd cheers) if you’ve got something left, then let me hear you! (crowd cheers)…”
Middle of “Shout”
“Sister Soozie Tyrell on the fiddle and the guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) the mystical mystery of Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Mr. Garry W. Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) and last but not least…Little Steven Van Zandt on guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) I got a message…I got a message…I got a message…I got a message…I got a message…I gotta testify, I wanna testify, I gotta testify, I wanna testify, can I get me a witness? I need a witness, I need a witness, I need a witness, I need a witness, I need a witness, I need a witness, I need a witness…Oakland! (crowd cheers) Oakland! (crowd cheers) Oakland! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight, I want you to knock on all your neighbors’ doors, I want you tell your grandmamma and your grandpapa and all your neighbors that you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, lovemaking, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)(crowd cheers)…”
After “Shout”
“Thank you (crowd cheers) San Francisco, Oakland (crowd cheers) the E Street Band loves you (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
