1978-07-04 KMET Studio, Los Angeles, CA

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Bruce, Jon Landau and Dave Marsh turn up together at the studios of KMET – resulting in a lengthy, live on-air Springsteen show hosted by DJ Mary Turner. Springsteen-Landau arrived bearing audio treats – the show is highlighted by the debut public airing of two live recordings ("Prove It All Night" and "Paradise By The "C"") fresh from the gig in Berkeley (July 1). Many topics are discussed, from what Asbury Park is like on the 4th, how the change in drinking age to age 18 saved him and the band in the local bars, The Bruce Springsteen Band doing "You Mean So Much To Me", Ronnie Spector, how the album version of "Something In The Night" came from their first session when they recorded thirteen songs, the asylum gig when he was 16 and the patient who introduced the band for almost 20 minutes, the Sing Sing prison gig (December 7, 1972) where they had no vocal mics and they had to play all instrumentals but were dying until "a black cat" got up on stage and played a little soprano sax and then everyone went nuts, Appel trying to get Bruce to sing at the '73 Super Bowl, Bruce tells a story about his dad taking him to Tijuana & getting their picture taken on a Zebra - but it was really a painted donkey, "Because The Night", Patti Smith & how that happened, Bruce talks about Asbury Park characters and that he made names up, fireworks over the ocean - which leads to playing the album track, "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", and Turner asks about the song, "Independence Day" - somehow she had heard about it already. After playing "Racing In The Street", Bruce admits he got it wrong when the song opens and he sings: "I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396 / Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor." He had recently been approached by Richie Schultz, a Grand National car driver, and was told that "Fuelie heads will not fit on a 396!" They will fit a 283. Bruce says, "This depresses me!". Bruce muses on changing it to "a 283" at shows but then says something like, "My job is to write the songs. I don't have to fix them" and then laughs. Bruce then tells that he sold his '57 Chevy with the flames and got a '60 convertible midnight blue Corvette. They finish up with his thoughts about the time it took to do Darkness & the lawsuit. Bruce says they recorded about thirty songs for the album. Mary Turner then gets in her final question: "Did you really find the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car?" The interview ends with the live debut of "Paradise By The "C"" from the July 1 Berkeley show. Bruce was clearly taken by Mary, even going so far as to ask her out on a date and dedicating "The Promised Land" to her the next night at the Forum on July 5: "this is for, uh…this is for Mary down at KMET, see, you guys, you guys can't see what she looks like, she's real pretty and I asked her for a date last night, I don't know if she's gonna go out with me or not, this is for her."

Several hours after this interview Bruce, Clarence, Garry and a couple of members of their tour entourage sneak up on the roof of a building on Sunset Strip and spray paint the huge billboard advertisement promoting the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album.


KMET-FM Interview



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