11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Reason to Believe´
´´Now, this is a song about, about blind faith….and its tragic results….about people believing in ghosts….because everybody´s waited for somebody who wasn´t ever coming back….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Mansion on the Hill´
´´Thanks….this is uh….when I was a kid growing up, there was this big house that stood out on the edge of town….and uh….sometimes late at night my father´d always be sitting in the kitchen in the dark and he´d ask me if I wanted to go for a ride….and we´d get in the car, he´d always drive out past this big house and he´d pull over by the side of the road and he´d just kind of sit there looking up at it, smoking a cigarette….it meant something to him, I don´t know what….me and my sister, in the day, we used to run up to the gates, they had like this old guard who used to come out and chase you off…. ”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´
´´Here´s another song about mansions (?) mansions in the sky….I think everybody…. everybody has events that they mark their lives by….I remember that, uh….I remember I was 13 when, uh, I remember I was in gym class the day that John Kennedy was, was shot….I remember we were out playing soccer or some, some game and this kid came running across the field telling us that the President had been assinated….and I remember where I was the day I heard that Elvis Presley died….I was sitting in my house….it was hard to understand….but I guess, uh, sometimes a dream that comes true can be a dangerous thing….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Glory Days´
´´Alright….now, this song…..about ancient history….I´m not talking about the kind of stuff you learn at school….I don´t mean the Mesopotamians or the, uh, or the, the, the, who else was back there ?….the Babylonians or the Trojans or the Italians….I´m talking personal stuff….the kind of stuff that when I die, you´re gonna read in the National Enquirer….maybe while I´m still living….´cause when I was a kid, I was interested in three things….one was the guitar….other one, I liked to play pool, ´cause my dad did and his dad….and the other one…..that´s the fun one (chuckles)….(?)(chuckles) and anyway, I had it all figured out like one Christmas time we went to Sears and my mother bought me like a pooltable for 69.95, it was kind of the ones with the wooden bed and, and it just fit in my bedroom….and so like when I would bring my girlfriends home, I would tell my father: ´Dad, we´re gonna go upstairs and play pool´….but like, my father, he used to sit right down in the kitchen and my bedroom was right above the kitchen so if he didn´t hear the guitar or if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around, he had a broom and he´d start banging on the ceiling….but I kind of had it figured out, I used to pull the pooltable real over close to the bed and I´d reach up once in a while and knock the balls around…. anyway….that works pretty good, but I gave up pool….I remained interested in the guitar ….it´s just the only one of those three things I´ve become proficient at….but the third one ….I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise…..I got a lot of work to do, it´s a lonely life….anyway….in the end, Big Man, all things must pass ….these old stories ain´t nothing but glory days….ready, boys ?….alright, let me tell my story….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´The Promised Land´
´´Here´s for Mark….and his partner….this is ´The Promised Land´….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Shut Out the Light´
´´Thank you, thanks….this is uh….about seven years ago I was….I was driving through Phoenix, Arizona….and uh, I stopped in this drugstore and I found this book called Born on the Fourth of July….by a Vietnam Veteran named Ron Kovic….it was his story….and this is a song about coming home….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´My Hometown´
´´Thanks, this is uh….this is a song I….I guess when I wrote it, I thought I was trying to write about what it felt like in, in the town I grew up in when I was a kid….but uh…. everybody always kind of has a love-hate relationship with the place that they live, I think, I know I did, I couldn´t wait to, I always couldn´t wait to get on the bus and go to New York or get out of there (?)….but, but in the end, as you get older, it seems like you gotta face the fact that we all belong somewhere and belong to something, so this is kind of a song about responsobility to the place that you live whether it´s your city or your state or your country….and uh….tonight when you go out into the lobby you´re gonna see some folks from the Colorado Food Clearing House and what they do is they feed people, people that´ve been hit either by unemployment or they just can´t make it….America is a rich country and everybody deserves a chance, at least to live….they feed 75,000 people a month just locally here and they can use your support, whatever you can do for ´em, go out and check ´em out….Colorado Food Clearing House….and uh, see if you can help ´em out ´cause after all, this, this is your hometown….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´
´´Now….now, this is a song…..about the conflict….between worldly things and spiritual health….between desires of the flesh…..and spiritual ecstasy….now, where did this conflict begin ?….well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden…. now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia…. but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike….that´s why they call it the Garden State….now, understand….in the Garden of Eden , there were none of the accoutrements of modern living….you didn´t have a Laudromat you could run down and wash your clothes at, you couldn´t watch TV at night, you couldn´t go home and put the little Pop-Tarts in the toaster and then watch Johnny Carson and crawl up in bed…..you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger when you wanted one…..in the Garden of Eden there was no sin….there was no sex…..man lived in a state of innocence….now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in….but before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries, why my flesh, my body pulls me that way and my soul pulls me the other way….so I went and I found out that on that location now, it´s now occupied by a thing called Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot….so I walked in, the man looked at me, he said ´Son, you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck , TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’…I said ‘I’ll take two….but, but first Dan, what I wanna know is I wanna know the answer to some of this mysteries, why I feel that conflict inside me all the time´ and he said ´Well, son, that´s easy because right here, right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise man has ever seen….the Garden of Eden was filled with wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was Adam, there was Eve, she looked fine….and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time a man ever kissed a woman….and she had legs that were long and soft and pale….and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman….but there was something else in that Garden of Eden, Son, there was Satan and he came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal….but right here on that backlot….for 99.95 and no money down, I have for you…..the getaway car that they drove….as they ran from the Garden of Eden down into the darkness below….if you´ve got the nerve, Son, I´ve got the keys….to the first….pink Cadillac…´´
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´She´d be calling me ´Bobby, Bobby´, I´d be running around the house trying to, trying to find my keys because, uh…..she got to, she´d start hiding ´em ´cause she didn´t want me going out at night….and it got harder to make her understand…..that when I took the car out and when I won that it was the only time that I….I got to feeling good about myself…. and that to have just one thing, just one thing in your whole life….that makes you proud of yourself….that ain´t too much for anybody to ask…..
(….) Well, that was the night that we, that was the night that we left….and we don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time…..but sometimes it seems like, like we´re just kids still running around out here….trying to get home before it gets too dark ….but you gotta keep searching….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Born to Run´
´´I´d like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much….thank you for your support of Colorado Food Clearing House, they´re out there trying to make the place you live a better place to live….it´s possible, it can be done, but you gotta fight for it….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Twist and Shout / Do You Love Me ?´
´´You´re looking kind of tired out there now….I hope not because I´m just starting to get my second wind….”
11.11.84 Denver, CO, intro to ´Santa Claus Is Coming to Town´
´´Oh, this is the last one we know, it´s a little early but take it away….
(….) Ah, here he comes now….he´s flying down from the North Pole….he´s flying over New Jersey…oh, has everybody been good now ? (cheers) too early, you don´t have to be good yet, you can wait till around November 25th or something, that´s when I start being good ….till then I´m real bad (chuckles)….”
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi