Story 1984-12-11 Lexington, KY
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11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Darlington County´´
´´Ready for a little ride? (crowd cheers)
(….) They got him for driving without a license, resisting arrest….failing to give a good account of himself and, uh, impersonating a human being….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Atlantic City´´
´´Hello, Lexington….is anybody impersonating a human being out there? (crowd cheers)….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´The River´´
´´Thanks….we´re gonna be playing for a long time tonight so you guys can sit down….this is a song about, uh….I remember when I was a kid, there´d be nights when I just wouldn´t wanna go home….my dad used to sit in the kitchen and lock up the frontdoor so we used to have to walk around the back, he´d see what time we were coming in….and uh….I guess, like, you always find someplace….someplace you can go….I remember when I was a kid, those places felt more like home to me than my own house did….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´
´´This is a song about dropping out the bottom….see if you can walk in these shoes for a while….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Reason to Believe´´
´´This is a song about blind faith….how it´s dangerous to believe everything that you´re told….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´´Johnny Bye Bye´´
´´Oh, thanks, this is, uh….this is a song, I guess I wrote, uh, about three or four years ago…. and it´s kind of about…..I guess (?) rock and roll couldn´t, couldn´t chase away the darkness but it could help you find your way through it a little bit and….I remember I was living on this farm when a friend of mine called me up and told me that, that Elvis Presley had died…. and how it was hard to understand how somebody who had taken away so many people´s loneliness and feeling like they were on their own out there could´ve ended up so lonely and so down on his own….but uh….a dream that comes true, even a good dream, is a dangerous thing, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Glory Days´´
´´Thank you, Big Man….how low can you sing?….this is a song about, like….many things (chuckles)….as a matter of fact, the entire history of western civilization….is all in this one song….I think (chuckles) I´m not sure (chuckles) this is a song that´s not only instructional, not only fun to dance to, I´d give it a 98 in, uh, uh (chuckles) this is a song about, like, when you go out on Friday, there´s always somebody that comes up to you in a bar or something always telling you like about….I always have somebody that comes up, ´Bruce, Bruce, how you doing? how´s the band? remember me? we went to high school together, remember the guy that dumped the pizza pie over your head? that was me´ ´Hey, how you doing? nice to see you again´ (chuckles)….everybody´s always telling me what a great time we had in high school….but the more I think about it, the more I realise….I hated high school….I didn´t like no high school….I detested high school….I´m still glad that I don´t have to do my homework at night….when fall comes around, I´m still glad that I don´t have to go back….I´m still waiting for somebody to tap me on the shoulder and say ´Alright, get back in there!´´…. anyway, in high school I was only interested in two things….one was the guitar….and the other one….ooh, you know, that one, that one!….it was much easier to practise the guitar….it was always in my room…..so consequently that´s the one I became proficient at….but the other one….I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise….I gotta get it down, it´s about time (chuckles) anyway, in the end all this stuff, all things must pass, in a wink of an eye, and you´re left with nothing but….glory days….
(….) I don´t feel that old (music continues)….don´t stop that clock….just slowing it down a little bit….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´
´´Yeah….oh….no matter, no matter what age you are, you gotta keep looking for that Promised Land….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´My Hometown´´
´´Thanks….this song, uh…..it´s a song I originally….when I wrote it, I guess I thought I was writing about the town that I grew up in and what happened to me….and, uh, I remember when I was a kid….I always had a real….kind of love-hate relationship with the place that I was raised, I guess that´s normal (chuckles) when I was in my teens it was mostly, mostly hate, I think (chuckles) it was kind of a real narrowminded town, small-minded….so I got to going to New York all the time and you could breathe a little freer out there….but uh….as I got older, I found myself going back there a lot, driving by my old houses, looking for my old friends….(?)….because whether I liked it or not, that was some place….that I belonged to ….and uh, sometimes it´s hard to admit that you belong to somewhere or to something ´cause when you do, that implies responsobility, whether it´s to your town or to your country and if you say that you´re an American, that means, that implies some responsobility to America…. and, uh, I guess, tonight out in the lobby, you´re gonna see some people who are trying to live up to the responsobility of their community….they´re people from the Crisis Food Center and from the Good Food Co-Op….now, both, both of these organizations are fighting hunger that you have right here in Lexington….and, uh….the Crisis Food Center is a foodbank and what that is is every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in America just gets wasted or thrown away and what a foodbank does is it gets that food to the people that need it, people, elderly people and underprivileged kids….people who´ve been hit hard by unemployment….people who, uh, the trickle-down theory of economics that just hasn´t trickled down to….and uh….they´re gonna be out there and they could use your support, whether you could give ´em a few bucks or whether you can spare some time, they need volunteers, they need, uh, the Crisis Food Center´s looking for a truck, they´re trying to get a freezer, the Good Food Co-Op is looking for a location closer to the center of Lexington so they can serve Lexington better, even better than they do now….and so….all I´m saying is if you got a lot or if you got a little, try and give a little back ´cause this is your hometown….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, after ´´Thunder Road´´
´´Thanks….thank you, we´re gonna, we´re gonna take a short break, don´t tire yourselves out because we´re just getting heated up here a little bit….if you can, when you go out into the lobby, remember the Crisis Food Center and the Good Food Co-Op that are here in your town trying to make your town a better place to live, they can use your support a little bit, thank you, and we shall return because we have not begun to rock!….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, after ´´Dancing in the Dark´´
´´Every day is like Christmas!….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, after ´´Hungry Heart´´
´´If you´re hungry inside, shout it out! (crowd cheers)….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Cadillac Ranch´´
´´Here´s a story of a man and his Cadillac…´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´
´´Take it easy now, band…..now bring it down a little bit….well, now, this is a song….about the conflict….between worldly things and spiritual health….between desires of the flesh…. and spiritual ecstasy….well, 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….but, now, understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living….you couldn´t go home and crawl up in your little bed at night, you couldn´t go home and put your Pop-Tarts in the toaster and then jump in the sack and watch Johnny Carson….you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one, no Sir!….in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin….there was no sex…..man lived in a state of innocence….well, now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in….but before the tour started, 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 so I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that spot is now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot….I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, with 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´….then I said ´But, Dan, that´s really not the reason I came, you see, I´ve come to find out what´s the meaning behind this temptation I feel all the time, behind all this conflict between my body and my soul´….and he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy, because right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things: there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve and she looked so fine….and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman….and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch….and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman….and then they lay down in the green field….and, when Adam….well, let´s just say it was the first time….but there was something else in that Garden of Eden that day, Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them rumbling right down into the darkness….but right here tonight on this backlot for 9995 and no money down, if you´ve got bad credit, don´t worry ´cause it´s good here, I´ve got their getaway car….if you´ve got the nerve to ride….I´ve got the keys….to the first….pink….Cadillac…´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Bobby Jean´´
´´This next song is for, uh, Debbie Robinson, Dean (?) and Andrew Hasi, they couldn´t be here tonight but, uh….it´s always hard to lose good friends and our prayers are with them….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Racing in the Street´´
´´I remember when I first met her, it was, it was off this little strip down by the river….and you know how it is when you first meet somebody, like, you´re going out and laughing all the time, having the good times….she always liked to go out riding….but then something seemed to happen and the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy any more…..and I was spending a lot of my time just trying to….find out something that would make her happy again….and she got to where she didn´t wanna talk, just wanted to stay in…. she´d hide my keys so I couldn´t go out at night….and I don´t know what it is, maybe…. people just expect too much of each othe….you meet somebody and you think that they´re gonna take away, like, all your loneliness….but in the end nobody can take away your loneliness….you can just hope that you can find somebody that you can share it with….that ain´t so bad….
(….) Well, that….that was the night that we left….we still don´t know where we´re going yet ….but I guess that´ll come in time….but sometimes it seemed like time….gets running so short on you….like it´s running out on you, you don´t know when….there´s not much you can do except keep going….and keep searching….and keep going….and keep going….keep going….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Jungleland´´
´´Thanks….this is for anybody from Cincinnati out there (crowd cheers)….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, intro to ´´Born to Run´´
´´I´d like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show here in Lexington, thank you very much….(?)…I know a lot of you guys wait out in line for a long time to get tickets and I want you to know that we appreciate that (?)….I´d like to thank you for your support of the Crisis Food Center and the, uh, Good Food Co-Op….thank you, they´re out there….they´re out there trying to, (?) people trying to do something….and in the end a lot of the power of rock and roll is just the power of friendship and community and remember: nobody wins unless everybody wins….´´

11.12.84 Lexington, KY, middle of ´´Detroit Medley´´
´´Oh yeah….now in the traveling we got Roy Bittan on the piano….Miss Patti Scialfa on the vocals….Garry W.Tallent on the bass guitar….the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums…. Dan, Phantom Dan Federici on the organ….Mr.Nils Lofgren on the guitar….and last but not least….master of all things….emperor of the known universe and Kentucky (?), the Big Man Clarence Clemons….oh, let me check my schedule now….says ´Oakland, California….Los Angeles….Denver, Colorado….Phoenix, Arizona….Dallas, Texas….Birmingham, Alabama ….Baton Rouge, Louisiana….New Orleans….Cincinnati, Ohio (crowd cheers)….until we´re moving on….to Lexington, Kentucky (crowd cheers really loud)….(the band goes into ´My Old Kentucky Home´)….´´

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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