Story 2016-01-19 United Center, Chicago, IL
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Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Chicago! (crowd cheers) my kind of town (crowd cheers) alright… we’re so glad to be in your beautiful city tonight (crowd cheers) what I wanna know is are you to be transformed? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be transformed? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Thank you, thank you (crowd cheers) good evening! (crowd cheers) are you ready to go to “The River?” (crowd cheers) alright… “The River” was a…was a record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in in a broader community…by the time I got to “The River” I’d taken notice of the things, things that bond people to their lives, work, commitments, families, love, I wanted to imagine and write about those things, I figured if I could write about ‘em, maybe I’d get one step closer to having them in my own life…so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a big record, a big record that felt like life…like life or an E Street Band show…I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, politics, sex, good comradeship, love, faith, lonely nights and, of course, tears…and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to contain those things maybe I’d edge a little closer to the answers and the home I was trying to find so tonight I want you to, uh, come along with us as we go down to “The River” (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Some party noises! (crowd cheers) party noises! (crowd cheers) a Chicago party! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Independence Day”
““Independence Day” was, uh…the first song I wrote about fathers and sons, it’s, uh…it’s the kind of song you write when you’re young and you’re first startled by your parents’ humanity…you’re shocked to realize that they had their own dreams and their own desires… because all you can see was the adult compromises they’ve had to make…and when you’re young, you, uh…haven’t had to do that yet …I know the, I remember the idea of it frightened me…the idea how they seem locked into a certain world…and all you could feel was the desire to, to escape that world when you…when I was a teenager or a young man…so I had a simple setting for the song, the song was really just a conversation…between two people futilely trying to understand one other around the kitchen table late night…”

Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Alright, we got another leaving home song…”

Intro to “Crush on You”
“My masterpiece!…”

Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Well, I wrote this song…as a daydream…a sweet little daydream, the kind where you’re standing on the corner in the middle of the summer, watching someone who you’ll never meet walk by…and you imagine a whole life with that person…in 30 seconds (chuckles) of course you imagine the easiest kind of love, the one without consequences…that’s why it’s a song of youth…and of youthful imagining…and of love and all its foolish glory…and all of its early tentativeness…and all of its perfectness…before reality steps in (chuckles) so this song’s not the real thing…but I had to start someplace…Well, sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face running round my head…sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face running round my head…here she comes walking down the street…here she comes walking down the street …she’s looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet…she’s so fine, she’s looking so sweet…and someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday she’s gonna stop instead of walking by…she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking by…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…”

Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Has anybody got my Cadillac? (crowd cheers) has anybody got my Cadillac? (crowd cheers) I want it back…”

Intro to “Fade Away”
“Alright, Steve Van Zandt’s favorite song…”

Intro to “Stolen Car”
“Here’s one of the first songs I wrote about men and women…asked the question if you lose your connection, do you lose yourself…”

Intro to “Ramrod”
“Roadhouse! (crowd cheers)…”

Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“So “The River”…I…other thing I wrote about was time…I was sitting with a friend of mine last night, said time comes to us all …and “The River” was about the ticking of that time and how we each have a finite amount of it to do our jobs…to raise our family… to do something good…(music stops)(crowd cheers) that’s “The River!” (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Night”
“Alright, here we go, we got some more left (chuckles)…”

Intro to “No Surrender”
“(Two false starts) Oh, I forgot how this goes (chuckles)(3rd false start) well, wait, I remember it now (chuckles)…”

At the end of “Take It Easy”
“Glenn Frey (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Born to Run”
“Are you ready?…we’ve got some friends in the house tonight, every day there’s people in Chicago who wake up not knowing if they’ll have enough food to eat, we’ve got the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the house tonight (crowd cheers) through their network of food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters they make sure no one here has to go hungry, if you see them on your way out, please give a hand to your neighbors, the Greater Chicago Food Depository (crowd cheers) alright, let’s go…”

Intro to “Rosalita”
“Do you have anything left? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) Steven!…”

Middle of “Shout”
“On the violin and the background vocals and the guitar, Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) the incredible Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Mr. Garry W. Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) the beautiful Miss Patti Scialfa on vocals and guitar (crowd cheers) and last but not least, Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) alright…alright…alright…alright…alright…alright right here… Chicago! (crowd cheers) Chicago! (crowd cheers) Chicago! (crowd cheers) Chicago! (crowd cheers) I don’t hear you! (crowd cheers) I don’t hear you! (crowd cheers) I don’t hear you! (crowd cheers)
you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…
(…) Thank you, Chicago, for a great night (crowd cheers) we’ll be seeing you…”

After “Shout”
“Thank you, Chicago, for a great night (crowd cheers) everybody in the back, we love you (crowd cheers) thank you, thanks for a great night (crowd cheers) we’ll be seeing you (crowd cheers)…”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.
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