08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Darkness on the Edge of Town´
´´(?)….a lot of pretty little girls out there (chuckles)….you guys, you ought to sit down, we´re gonna be up here for a real long time (?)….(tunes his guitar) I was never very good at this (keeps tuning) we got a new album out, it´s been out, I guess, about a month now….and this is for anybody (?) had to drive through the darkness on the edge of town….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´For You´
´´This is one (?)….I wrote this song, uh, when I was living in this third story apartment above a drugstore in Asbury Park and uh….(?) when we were first starting back in 1973, ´72, Phoenix was about the only place we could get a job (chuckles)….(?) ´Greetings from Asbury Park´….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Promised Land´
´´This is, uh…..last, last year I took a trip, we, uh….went out to Salt Lake City and bought this, uh….900-dollar ´63….Ford Galaxy and drove down to Reno….and uh…. just outside the airport, in the desert, we came across this old dirt-track called ´Rattlesnake Speedway´….and…it’s a song about, uh….I guess (?) to take, take your chance….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Prove It All Night´
´´We was just in L.A and uh….when you go to L.A….the record company, they always put up like….these big billboards, you know, big, big things like in the middle of a…. street and like I walked down the street and mine was like it was so ugly I couldn’t believe it, you know….it´s like….if you think my nose is big now, on the billboard it was about 20 feet long, Fourth of July night, you know, I said ´Clarence, man, we gotta, we gotta do some alterations on that billboard´…so we got about 20 cans of black spray paint (chuckles) and we went up….went up, got on top of the building and spraypainted across the whole thing ´Prove it all night´….wanted to do a mustache but I couldn’t reach my face….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´(?) I got a little sister, she´s 16 and she just got her license….and she takes me out in the car (?) they live out in the peninsula in California and she says ´Come on now, I´ll show you how to cruise El Camino, you know, and we get out there and we´re in the car (?) ten minutes and she said ´Ok, how many tickets you got ?´, I said ´Oh, I got, you know, I got some parking tickets´ and she says ´No, how many speeding tickets you got ?´ (?) ´Well, I got two and I´ve only been driving three months´ (chuckles) so this is for her ´cause she ain´t been driving long enough and this is for the guys that´ve been driving too long , ´Racing in the Street´….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Thunder Road´
´´When we were driving through the desert, we…..we came upon on this, it was this house this indian had, had built out of, sculpted (?) the stuff he´d scavenged off the desert and I remember out in front it had a sign, it said ´This is the land of peace, love, justice and no mercy´….and at the bottom of the sign, it pointed down this little dirt road that said ´Thunder Road´….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Paradise by the C´
´´(?)….are you ready for round 2 ? (cheers) then let´s gonna wait a minute longer, in this corner, 260 pounds, the Big Man, Clarence Clemons…..´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Fire´
´´This was a song that was recorded on Robert Gordon´s second album and uh….it´s called ´Fire´….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Growin´Up´
´´This is for the…..Celebrity Theater veterans (chuckles)….and for anybody….having a hard time still growing up (?)(chuckles)….a funny thing happened to me on the way to the show tonight (chuckles) I stood stonelike at midnight….
(….) There I was….sitting in the kitchen with my old man on the other side of the table, sitting in the dark….my old man used to always sit in the dark…..man, he used to get pissed off if anybody turned any lights on….(?) sit in the dark and take two hours in the bathroom, right (chuckles) and he used to get mad if you knocked on the door (chuckles) I was sitting across the table and he´s saying…..´Bruce, it´s time to get serious with your life….this guitar thing, this is ok for a hobby but you need something to fall back on´….(?) and, you know, he wanted me to be a lawyer….which, I guess, I could´ve used later on in my career (chuckles)….he used to say ´Bruce, the lawyers, they own the world now´….but I didn´t think they did and I still don´t….(?)(chuckles) every show there´s always some guy with a girl (?)(chuckles) anyway, I was sitting there and then my mother comes in and she´s more sensitive, she thinks (?) ´You should be an author, you should write books and stuff´, you know, I said ´No, I wanna play the guitar´, you know, but they, they couldn´t understand, (?) my mother came from like, uh, my mother´s straight Italian and my father´s straight Irish and like….I got stuck in the middle but, so the big thing was like ´Go, go see the priest and have a conference with him and, you know, find out what you wanna do with yourself´ (?) I go knock on the door, go ´Father Ray, I´m, I´m Mr.Springsteen´s son´, you know, and like, so we´re walking around (?) the rectory and I said ´Father, my father wants me to be a lawyer and my mother wants me to be an author but I got this guitar´ so he says ´Well, this is too big a deal for me to tell you what to do myself, you´re gonna have to, you´re gonna have to go and talk to God´, you know, and ….who I didn´t know too well at the time, and he says ´Tell Him about the lawyer and about the author but don´t tell Him nothing about that, that guitar ´cause He don´t like that´…(?) ´(?) how am I gonna find God (?)´, I go over Clarence´s house, knocked on the door, I said ´Clarence….I gotta go talk to God´ and he says ´No sweat, I know where he is´ (chuckles)….so we get in the car and we start driving way outside of town (?) a backroad, three o´clock in the morning, I said ´Are you sure you know where you´re heading ?´ he says ´Yeah (?) brought somebody by the other day´ (?) so we go out and out in the middle of the woods was this little house…..and we heard all this music blasting out, you know, and we come to the door and Clarence knocks on the door (?) you know, ´Clarence sent me´, you know (chuckles) I get in and there´s God…..and He´s sitting, He´s sitting at the drumset and on the bass drum it says ´G-O-D´….so….(?) I was gonna be alright, you know….so He says ´Listen´, I told Him my problem, ´My father wants me to be a lawyer, my mother wants me to be an author´, he says ´Listen, don´t sweat it, you see, what they don´t understand (?) that there was, there was an Eleventh Commandment but nobody ever found out what it was ´cause when Moses got up on top of the mountain, he got so goddamn scared after ten of ´em, he said ´This is enough´ (?)….and he ran down before he got number 11 and you should´ve seen it, I had a big show going up there, unbelievable special effects, the burning bush, big drums that sounded like thunder (Max pounds the bass drum) (?) you see, don´t worry about what you wanna do because….what those guys didn´t know (?) after the Tenth Commandment, there was an eleventh one and all it said….all it said was….´Let it rock´….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´I remember you….baby, I remember you….standing on the corner….of Richmond Avenue….in that pretty dress of blue….and your hair piled up high…..oh, baby looked ….so fine….(?)….that I´d drive all night….baby, I´d drive all night….I swear I´d drive all night….just to buy you some shoes and to taste, to taste your tender charms….to have you hold me in your arms….to have you hold me in your arms…..oh, for just one kiss….baby, just one kiss…..baby, just one kiss and a look from your sad eyes…..your lonely, sad eyes….I was such a fool, I thought I could stop your crying…..I thought that I could stop your crying….baby, I didn´t know….that you´d been lying….little girl, you´d been lying….baby, you´d been lying….and now you´re back….and you´re still looking good….and now you´re back….you´re still looking fine….well, little girl, I´m back too….and I´ve been out and I´ve seen some things…..baby, I´m back too…..I´ve been out and I´ve seen some things….(?)….I just wanna know why….I just wanna know why….I wanna know why you lied….why you lied….why you lied….(?)….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Rosalita´
´´At the little cafe….that´s on the other side….of the border….and I want (?)….´cause I know she´s there….
(….) You guys are dangerous down there tonight…..on the keyboards, Professor Roy Bittan….on the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt….on the bass guitar, Mr.Garry W. Tallent….on the drums, the Mighty Max…..on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici….and last but not least….(?)….the king of the world….the master of disaster….the Big Man, Clarence Clemons….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, after "Rosalita"
"You guys ain't kidding…that girl almost pulled out my front tooth (chuckles)(crowd cheers) woo!….E Street Band (crowd cheers) The Big Man (crowd cheers) your goddamn selves (chuckles) (crowd cheers)…"
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Born to Run´
´´Thank you, I wanna thank everybody for coming down tonight…..let you know that this has always been, like, we´ve always looked forward to coming to Phoenix, youse´ve always been the greatest for us….(?)….when we first started playing, the other was in New Jersey, the other was in Phoenix and (chuckles) I wanna thank you all very much, I´d also like to thank you for the way that you supported the band over the past three years when we were (?) all these pretty little girls down here, please, please stay down there ´cause that girl, she had her tongue so far my mouth I couldn´t breathe (chuckles) so please stay, please don´t come up (?) you´re making me nervous (?)….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, middle of ´Raise Your Hand´
´´Are you with me ? (cheers) is there something you need ? (cheers) is there something you want ? (cheers) then just raise your hand….´´
08.07.78 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Quarter to Three´
´´If there´s a doctor in the house, stand by after this number….you guys try not to hurt yourselves down here, alright ? (?)….alright….it has got to be….at least….quarter to three….´´
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi