Story 1977-02-28 St. Louis, MO
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28.02.77 St.Louis, Mo, intro to ´It´s My Life´
´´It was summertime….and uh….me and this guy used to….get his old man´s car and uh….I was about 17 and take off down the beach, about twenty miles away, I used to live inland in this small town….on the weekends, we´d, we´d take the car, we´d head down, down to the beachfront and….they wouldn´t let us into bars but we used to park, used to park outside on the street and sit, sit on the hood of the car and get the bouncers to leave the doors open and we´d sit there listening to bands….coming down from the city, that would play along the coast….and we´d spent most of the night just sitting outside….talking, sitting on the hood of the car, listening to the music coming from inside….and around four o´clock in the morning we´d head back home….and I´d get out of the car at my house and I´d stand there in the driveway….and the old man used to shut off all the lights in the house around 9 o´clock at night and my mother used to sit in the frontroom with just the TV, watch TV….I´d just stand there in the driveway when I came home and he´d lock up the frontdoor so we used to have to come in ´round the side….I could see through the screen door, I could see the light of his cigarette, just sitting there at night….and the later it got, the worse it got because the more he´d been sitting there thinking and drinking beer….and I’d slick my hair back real tight…. and I´d slip up on the porch and try to make it up to my room….and he´d wait till I got through the kitchen and….through the frontroom….or till I hit the stairs….or had my mother tell me to go back to the kitchen ´cause he wanted me to sit down, he wanted to talk to me…. and I´d go back there and I´d sit there in the dark….. squinting, trying to see him, see what he was doing (?)….and he´d tell me things….I remember I could always hear his voice and he´d always be waiting there no matter how long I´d been out or when I came home…..but I could never see his face, sitting there in the dark….and he’d start talking about….just how things was going, what I was doing….but pretty soon he’d be asking me what I thought I was doing with myself ….where I was getting my money from…. and how my whole life was turning into one big waste….he said it was just gonna be a waste….and we’d end up screaming at each other…..my mother’d end up running in from the frontroom pulling him off, trying to keep us from fighting with each other….I’d always end up, five in the morning, running back out the door, running back out to the street, telling him that he was gonna have to learn to live with it….because from now on, it was my life and I was gonna do what I wanted to do ….”

28.02.77 St.Louis, Mo, intro to ´Thunder Road´ (following ´It´s My Life´)
´´That song was written by this guy, (?) New York City called called D´Errico…a great, great song from the early 60´s….”

28.02.77 St.Louis, Mo, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´Just me and you, baby…..just me and you, girl….we were gonna steal away….we were gonna steal away….we could steal away….we were gonna steal away….well, I remember…. well, I remember….on the weekends….we´d hitchhike outside of town, this cat….(?) this old abandoned car in the middle of this field….was about 200 feet off the tracks….outside….and I remember running back….oh, I remember running back….way down by the tracks….oh, we´d go riding in back….baby´d take me riding in back….oh, darling, take me riding in back….in the backseat of that old Cadillac….oh, in the backseat of that old Cadillac….(?)….I remember that night sitting down there and we could see about a mile down the track these kids, these kids, they set fire to this, this abandoned farmhouse that was down there….and they had these machines down there and they had this fire down there….and we could see the water shooting ´bout a 100 feet in the air, we´d see the flames burning across the field….and I remember you promised…..we were sitting there watching….and I remember you promised you was never gonna go, go anyplace without me….I remember you swore it….. you´d never go anyplace without me…..and I remember sitting in the back of that, sitting in the back of that old car watching how, watching the flames pick up, watching ´em catch and watching ´em rush, watching ´em rushing towards us, watching ´em rushing towards us, watching ´em rushing towards us, in the back of that car watching ´em rushing towards us, watching ´em rushing towards us, you took off down the tracks and headed on….then I was standing on the corner….then I was standing on the corner….and the rain was falling….and then the rain came tumbling down, and I was waiting and I was remembering how you promised and I was waiting for you and I was remembering how you promised, and I was waiting for you and I was remembering how you promised….and the buses were coming in and the cats are pulling out….that´s when I knew….that´s when I knew what it was really like and I knew what the truth was….I just stood there all by myself in the rain, getting soaking wet, just wishing
that God would send some angels and blow this whole town right into the sea….I was just wishing that God would send some angels and blow this whole town right into the sea….I was just wishing that God would send some angels and blow this whole town right into the sea….just blow us all away, just blow it all away, just blow it all away, just blow it all away, just blow us all away, just blow it all away, just blow it all away, just blow it all away because….wished he´d just blow it all away because….because….because….YOU LIED !…. YOU LIED!….YOU LIED !….”

28.02.77 St.Louis, Mo, intro to ´Rosalita´
´´(?)….that´s alright….just follow the easy-to-follow instructions, first you take the first finger of your left hand and you put it on the first string on the first fret, take the first finger of your left hand and put it on the second string of the first fret, you put the third finger on your third hand, ooh (?) you put that on the second fret of the first string, you take the fourth finger on your fourth hand, put it on your left leg, you wish, close your eyes (goes into the guitar intro)….
(….) We got a long list of illuminaries tonight, beginning (?) on this side, on the piano, a man with all the degrees and all the keys, (?) E=MC2, the only member of the group with a full, unprotested high school diploma, a warm round of applause please for Professor Roy Bittan ….profess yourself (Roy plays) next, on the guitar, auteur, composer, artiste, man-about-town, international figure, you all know him, you all love him, he brought you such great hits as ´I Don´t Wanna Go Home´, ´Sweeter than Honey´, hailing from Asbury Park, New Jersey ….on the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt (band plays ´The Theme from ´The Godfather´) on the bass guitar, coming to you now, his mother was a Tallent, father was a Tallent, sister was a Tallent, great grandfather was a great, great Tallent, Mr.Garry W. Tallent….on the drums, the man with the big beat all the way from the size of his feet, put ´em together for him, folks, the Mighty Max….(?)….next, now you see him, now you don´t, from Flemington, New Jersey….on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici (Dan plays)(?) surprise you a little bit….last but not least, the king of the goddamn world….master of the motherfucking universe….star of stage and screen, Mr.Hollywood, lord of time and space….the Big Man Clarence Clemons on the saxophone….”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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