Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Denver! (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be in the Mile High City tonight (crowd cheers) now what I want to know is…where are the marijuana gummy bears? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Good evening, everybody! (crowd cheers) thank you, thank you, thank you…alright, “The River” (crowd cheers) “The River” was my coming-of-age record…the records we made before “The River” were sort of…young man’s records, we were all part of a marginalized community on the streets of Asbury Park (crowd cheers) but by the time I got to “The River,” I’d taken notice of things that bond people to their lives, their work, their commitments, their families, I wanted to imagine, I wanted to write about those things, I figured if I could write about ‘em, I might get a little closer to having them in my own life…I wanted to make a big record, people always up to that point had said “Yeah, the records are good but they’re not like the shows” so we tried to make a record that felt as big as life or like an E Street Band show (crowd cheers) and we wanted it to contain fun and dancing and laughter and jokes, good comradeship, love, faith, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to hold all those things maybe I’d get a little closer to the answers and the home I was looking for so tonight let’s go back down to “The River” and see what we find…”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Let me hear you, Denver, give me some party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
“”Independence Day” (crowd cheers) “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 startled by your parents’ humanity, you’re shocked to find out that maybe they had their own dreams and their own desires and their own hopes that…might not have panned out exactly as they’d imagined…and you’re at an age when all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make and you’re still too young to understand and feel the blessings that come with compromise…so all you see is this small world that feels like it’s closing in, closing in, closing in…and all you can think of is getting away from it…well, I had a simple setting for this song, it was just a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people who were struggling to understand one another…but loved each other…”
Intro to “Crush on You”
“Denver! (crowd cheers) I got a crush on you! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Alright…are there any lovers in the house tonight? (crowd cheers) right there? alright (chuckles) oh, take a moment and kiss your baby right now…very nice (chuckles) that’s right, you know, all those mountain girls and (crowd cheers) let me hear the mountain girls out there! (crowd cheers) oh yeah, what about all you mountain men, huh? (crowd cheers) oh, very manly, very manly, very manly (chuckles) well, this is a love song…but it’s more of a daydream of love, it’s the kind of love you imagine before you bump into the real thing…by that I mean it’s the kind of love without responsibilities, without consequences (some cheers) it’s the kind that doesn’t exist, what are you cheering about down there? (chuckles) yeah!…that kind! (chuckles)…well, this is a song of youth and of imagining love, all of its glory and tenderness and early tentativeness – it’s not the real thing but it’s a good place to start…Well, sometimes at night I lie in bed…and I see your face running round my head…yes, sometimes at night, oh, I lie in bed…and I see your 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…oh, someday I’m gonna make her mine, yeah, I know that 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 instead of walking…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 my girl, my girl, my girl, my girl…my girl, my girl, my girl…my girl, my girl, my girl, my girl…my girl, my girl, my girl…(crowd cheers)…wait up, baby… coming at you…”
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Oh, bury me down at the Cadillac Ranch! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This is one of the first songs I wrote about men and women, it’s kind of the blueprint for the songs I’d be writing on “Tunnel of Love”…a song that asked the question that if you lose your love, do you lose your…do you lose yourself…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Let’s take it to the roadhouse (crowd cheers)…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“Well, at its bottom “The River” was about time…time slipping away …and how once you enter the adult life…and you choose your work and you choose your partner, how the clock starts ticking…and you walk alongside not just the people you’ve chosen to live your life with…but you walk alongside your own mortality…and you realize you have a limited amount of time…to do your work, to raise your family, to try and do something good…to try and do something good (crowd cheers)(music stops) (crowd cheers) That’s “The River!” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Darlington County”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) what do you got there, what do you got?…alright, here we go…”
Middle of “Backstreets”
“Till the end…forever friends…till the end…forever friends…until the end…until the end…until the end…until the end…”
Intro to “Born to Run”
“Thank you very much (?)(crowd cheers) thank you, thank you, we got some friends in the house tonight, folks from the Foodbank of the Rockies (crowd cheers) the Foodbank of the Rockies is the largest private hunger relief organization in the state of Colorado, they distribute food and essentials to hungry men, women and children across metro-Denver, northern Colorado, the Western Slope and Wyoming, it’s the Foodbank of the Rockies, they’re your neighbors out on the frontlines doing good work, if you see them out there, give them a hand! (crowd cheers) this is for them – come on, band!…”
Intro to “Rosalita”
“Come on, let’s hear it for them! (crowd cheers) come on, Steve, help me out…”
Middle of “Shout”
“Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Charles Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) on the saxophone, Jake Clemons (crowd cheers) 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 Little Steven Van Zandt on guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) yeah…yeah…all night…that’s right…I got a message, I wanna know, I got a message I want you to know, I got a message, want you to know, I got a message, want you to know…can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?…Denver! (crowd cheers) Denver! (crowd cheers) Denver! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight and tomorrow I want you tell everybody that you’ve seen, that you just witnessed the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, lovemaking, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…
(…) I can’t stop! (crowd cheers) I can’t stop! (crowd cheers) I can’t stop! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Bobby Jean”
“I can’t stop! (crowd cheers)
Towards the end of “Bobby Jean”
“Thank you, Denver, thanks for a great night! (crowd cheers) the E Street Band loves you! (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
