Bye Bye Johnny

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Chuck Berry, 1960. For Springsteen's adaptation see "Johnny Bye-Bye".

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Performances

Performed live 3 times (not including snippet performances). 2017-04-22 Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ 2017-04-21 Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ 1982-07-17 Big Man's West, Red Bank, NJ

Performances broken down by tour (not including rehearsals and snippet performances) Performed at 3 known other show(s), plus 0 public tour rehearsal(s).

On The Tracks

COME ON (LET'S GO TONIGHT) - V1	2:32	FFOD / HNWB
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V2		uncirculating
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V3a	1:45	LM-16 trk 10 / UH / GS
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V3b	1:45	LM-18 trk 13
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V3c	1:39	LM-18 trk 10
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V3d	1:51	1985 b-side / BACK
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V3e	1:49	TRACKS
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V4	2:55	LM-16 trk 11 / MT2 / ESR
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V5	2:58	LM-17 trk 12 / GS
JOHNNY BYE-BYE - V6	3:41	LM-17 trk 13 / GS

Note: In 1962, Chuck Berry wrote "Bye Bye Johnny", a sequel to "Johnny B. Goode", where a mother sent her musician son off to Hollywood to be a star: "She drew out all her money from the Southern Trust, and put her little boy aboard the Greyhound Bus." Bruce decided to use those lines in 1981 in the opening verse of a new song that used most of the lyrics from Darkness On The Edge Of Town outtake "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)", calling it "Johnny Bye-Bye".

The story begins between legs of the River Tour in March 1981 when Springsteen recorded an acoustic demo (V1) at his home, combining lyrics from "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" with some newly written lyrics over a new dark and foreboding arrangement. This recording can be found on bootlegs 'Fistfull Of Dollars' and 'How Nebraska Was Born' under the title "Bye Bye Johnny". The Elvis Presley references already contained within "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" made a perfect match with Berry's classic, keeping the lines about the death of Elvis and adding lines about Memphis.

Springsteen premiered his new song on May 13, 1981 in Manchester, UK with a short spoken introduction: "I think everybody remembers where they were when they heard that Elvis died, it is a hard thing to understand". The refrain "come on, come on, let's go tonight" remained in place at the end of the first and second verses, and "bye-bye Johnny, oh Johnny bye-bye" was now added at the close, solidifying the connection to Berry's original. Despite performing the song regularly on the River Tour, Bruce did not record it as part of the January 1982 Nebraska demos at Colts Neck; the legendary Nebraska version of "Johnny Bye-Bye" does not exist. The version on the tape he sent Landau was almost certainly a live July 1981 recording. When the Nebraska tape was backed up in June 1982 in its entirety, alternate takes and all, there was still no "Johnny Bye-Bye".

The first studio take of "Johnny Bye-Bye" was recorded on April 27, 1982, at Power Station, New York. This audio does not circulate, but is listed above as V2. In all likelihood, this is a solo take. Studio documentation shows that Springsteen returned to the song in the winter of 1983, with sessions on January 4, March 9, and March 24 at Bruce's Hollywood Hills converted studio at his home in Los Angeles, now arranged with a bouncy hillbilly blues rhythm and a re-written third verse. According to the Tracks liner notes, the official V3 was recorded in January, and five different mixes circulate. V3d, released February 6, 1985 as the b-side to "I'm On Fire", features new drum and keys overdubs from Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan respectively. The mix chosen for Tracks in 1998 removes Max and Roy and utilizes Springsteen's original drum machine backing, for reasons unknown. V3b and V3c have slight but noticeable variations in their mixes.

V4 and V5 were recorded on March 9 at Thrill Hill West and are different takes of a slower acoustic arrangement with a gentle synthesizer backing, slight lyrical differences and overdubbed with chirping crickets at the start and end. By far the definitive performance is V6, from March 24, 1983, which includes a poignant extra verse at the end not found on the other versions. "Johnny Bye-Bye" was included on the July 1983 sequence for Born In The U.S.A., but did not make the final cut. After the lawyers met, Bruce and Chuck became composing partners, the song now registered as Springsteen-Berry.

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^{Studio Sessions: Born In The U.S.A.}

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