Story 2016 02 21 KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, KY
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Intro to “Meet Me in the City”
“Evening, Louisville! (crowd cheers)…(?)…”

Middle of ”Meet Me in the City”
“Louisville! (crowd cheers) 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) let’s go, come on, Max…I was busted for feeling no pain…”

Intro to ”The Ties That Bind”
”Good evening, good evening! (crowd cheers) hello, hello!…yeah, alright, The River (crowd cheers) The River was my coming-of-age record, it was…a record where I was trying to find my way inside, my first series of records were kind of outsider-records, we were all part of a marginalized community on the streets of Asbury Park (crowd cheers) by the time I got to The River I’d taken notice of the things that bond people together in their lives – their work, their commitments, their families – I wanted to imagine, I wanted to write about those things and I figured that if I could imagine them, I’d get a little step closer to realizing them in my own life so that’s what I did, I wanted to make a big record, a record that felt like life or an E Street Band show…I wanted a record that contained fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, good comradeship, love, faith, sex, lonely nights and, of course, teardrops (crowd cheers) I figured that if I could make a record, uh, big enough to contain all those things maybe I’d edge a little closer to the answers I was looking for and the home I was trying to find so tonight I want you to all join us and come back as we go down to The River (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Party noises, Louisville! (crowd cheers) party noises! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Independence Day”
“Independence Day (crowd cheers) Independence Day was the first
song 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 find out that they had their own dreams and their own desires and their own hopes that maybe didn’t pan out so perfectly for them…’cause all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make…and you’re still too young to understand the blessings that come with those compromises (crowd cheers) so all you can feel is and all you see is the side of a world that looks like it’s locked down and closing in and when you’re young, that’s very frightening and all you can think you wanna do is get out, get out, get out, get out…I had a very simple setting for this song, the song was just a conversation between two people who loved each other but were struggling to understand each other late one evening around the kitchen table…”

Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Here’s another song about leaving home…”

Beginning of “Hungry Heart”
“(after the crowd sings the first verse and chorus)…Oh, excellent, A+, A+…”

Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“Yes, yes…do we have any lovers in the room tonight? (crowd cheers) that’s good…this is a song for lovers…but I wrote this song just as, as a daydream…a sort of…daydream about love…you’re standing on the corner watching someone walk by…somebody that you’re never gonna meet…but you imagine this whole life with them: where you’re gonna live, what your kids’ll be like, first kiss (some cheers from the crowd) ah, some folks remember their first kiss out there (chuckles)(crowd cheers) they remember it in the back (chuckles) that’s where all the first kisses happen(chuckles) of course you always imagine the easiest kind of love, you know, the kind without the consequences (chuckles) but, hey, it’s a song of youth, of love and all of its imagined glory and its tentatives…yes, yes…it’s not the real thing but you gotta start someplace… sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see that face…running round my head… sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see that face…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 so sweet…someday I’m gonna make her mine…I know I will…someday I’m gonna make her mine…yeah, 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, 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… little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers)…let’s catch up to her…”

Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“This is a funeral song…let’s go down to the Cadillac Ranch…”

Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This is one of the first songs I…wrote about men and women that kind of got down to the nitty-gritty of it…this is Stolen Car…”

Intro to “Ramrod”
“Alright (crowd cheers) let’s roadhouse!…”

Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
”Well, The River was about time…time slipping away…and how once you enter that adult life, you pick your partner and you pick your work, the clock starts ticking and you walk alongside your own mortality and you realize you have a limited amount of time to do your work…to raise your family…and try and do something good… (music ends) That’s The River (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to ”Born in the U.S.A”
”Thank you! (crowd cheers) we’re not done yet, no, no, no (chuckles)…alright, we do have some friends in the hall tonight from the Dare to Care Food Bank (crowd cheers) Dare to Care Food Bank has been serving those in need here in your community for over forty years, they work to feed the hungry and end the cycle of need here in Kentucky area…Dare to Care Food Bank, if you see those folks on the way out, they’re your neighbors, they’re on the frontline doing good work, give them a help, helping hand if you can (crowd cheers) we don’t play this one too much…but we’re gonna do it for these two guys back here, you guys been with me all night long so (crowd cheers) and you had the sign, you had the sign, I don’t see the sign but I know it was there (chuckles) alright, this is for you guys…ready, Professor? (chuckles)…”

Middle of “Shout”
“Sister Soozie Tyrell on the guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) 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) Miss Patti Scialfa on guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) and on guitar…Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) that’s right…that’s right…that’s right…keep me going…keep me going…don’t let it stop…don’t let it stop…don’t let it stop…don’t let it stop…don’t let it stop…don’t let it stop…just for a minute (band stops playing) Louisville! (crowd cheers) Louisville! (crowd cheers) Louisville! (crowd cheers) Louisville! (crowd cheers) you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, lovemaking, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…

Intro to “Bobby Jean”
It’s too late in Louisville (crowd: “No!”) It’s too late in Louisville (crowd: “No!”) It’s too late in Louisville (crowd: “No!”) Are you sure? (crowd: “Yeah!”) Are you sure? (crowd: “Yeah!”) Are you sure? (crowd: “Yeah!”)…”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi
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