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Intro to “Meet Me in the City”
“Good evening! (crowd cheers)…”
Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Hello, snowbound New York! (crowd cheers) did you survive? (crowd cheers) glad to hear it…we’re so glad to be here in your beautiful city tonight (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be entertained? (crowd cheers) are you ready to be transformed? (crowd cheers) then let’s go…”
Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) good evening, good evening, good evening (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be here (crowd cheers) oh…gotta say sorry to your friends that we missed them on Sunday night but we’ll make that up to ‘em…this is, uh…kind of special night, “The River” was a record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in in the broader community, I’d made three or four sort of outsider records where I was either part of an outsider community or…”The River” was the first record where I was trying to find my way inside, I’d taken notice of the things that bond people to their lives, work, commitments, families and I wanted to imagine and write about those things and I figured that if I could write about ‘em, maybe I’d get a step closer to realizing them in my own life so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a big record (crowd cheers) that felt like life (crowd cheers) that felt like life or an E Street Band show, I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, good comradeship, love, sex, faith, lonely nights and teardrops (crowd cheers) and I figured that if I could make a record big enough to contain all those things, maybe I’d get a little closer to the answers and the home I was trying to find for myself so tonight I want you to come along with us as we, uh, go down to “The River” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Alright, New York, some party noises! (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Independence Day”
““Independence Day” was the, uh, was the first song that I wrote about fathers and sons, 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 that maybe didn’t pan out so perfectly…and all you can see are the adult compromises that they’ve had to make…and when you’re young you haven’t had to do that yet, I know the idea of it frightened me and all you could see was a world that they seemed locked into…I remember all I could feel was the desire to escape that world…so I had a simple setting for this song, it was just a late night conversation around the kitchen table between two people who were struggling to understand one another…”
Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Here’s another song about leaving home (chuckles)…”
Intro to “Crush on You”
“Stevie!…my masterpiece!…”
Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“I wrote this song as…as a daydream…you know, you’re standing on the corner, watching someone you’ll never meet walk by…and you’re imagining an entire life with this person…what it would be like…what your kids’d look like…where you gonna live…happiness, happiness, happiness (chuckles) of course…the life you’re imagining is the one without the consequences – you know that one (chuckles) it doesn’t exist (chuckles) but, hey, this is a song of youth…of imagining love…and all of its glory, the excitement…and its tentativeness…it’s not the real thing but I had to start someplace …(Max hits the drum and the band starts playing in a different way) we’re gonna try that again (chuckles) even sometimes the tightest band in the world fucks it up (crowd cheers) back to that earlier skit…like I was saying, it’s a song about love (chuckles) in all of its glory…happiness, happiness, happiness…are you ready?…oh, I fucked it up (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) I was ready to blame others (chuckles) but I fucked it up…because I’m supposed to be doing this…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 looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet…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…oh, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl… little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…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…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers) didn’t wanna leave that out…”
Intro to “The River”
“Wanna sing this tonight for my sister, she’s here (crowd cheers) and I wrote this song for her, it’s for my sister and her husband Mickey
Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Let’s go down to the Cadillac Ranch (crowd cheers) are you with me? (crowd cheers) then let me hear you scream (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This was, uh…one of the first songs I wrote about men and women …asked the question if you…if you lose connections, do you lose yourself…”
Intro to “Ramrod”
“Alright, let’s roadhouse! (crowd cheers)(music starts) come on!… shake your booty…get up out your chair…”
Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“The subtext of “The River” was…was time…time slipping away… and how once you enter that…adult world, the clock starts ticking and you realize that you got a limited amount of time…to do your work, to raise your family, to try and do something good…(music stops)(crowd cheers) that’s “The River!” (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “She’s the One”
“Alright, we’re gonna carry on for a while now (crowd cheers)…”
Intro to “Born to Run”
“Thank you, thank you (crowd cheers) we got…we got some friends in the house tonight from WhyHunger, Harry Chapin started WhyHunger here in New York City in 1975 with the goal of ending hunger, WhyHunger provides fresh, nutritious food to families, veterans, seniors in need, works to address the social issues that cause hunger in our community, if you see them out there tonight, support WhyHunger in their effort to end hunger all over the world (crowd cheers) they’re on the frontlines doing God’s work, alright (crowd cheers) gentlemen!…one, two…”
Intro to “Shout”
“New York City! (crowd cheers) New York City! (crowd cheers) New York City! (crowd cheers)…”
Middle of “Shout”
“A little softer…yeah…we’re stage-surfing up here tonight, you’ve got the whole room moving…we got Sister Soozie Tyrell on the fiddle, guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) New York! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight, I want you to go into your house, I want you to wake up your family, I want you to get ‘em out of their bed in the pyjamas, I want you to go next door, I want you to ring your neighbors’ bell, I want you to wake up the entire neighborhood and I want you to tell ‘em that you, that you have just seen, have just seen, have just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, testifying, death-defying, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”
After “Shout”
“Thank you, New York (crowd cheers) the mighty E Street Band! (crowd cheers) thank you! (crowd cheers) in the back! (crowd cheers) thanks for a great night, everybody, God bless (crowd cheers)…”
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |