15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Summertime Blues’:
”Hello.....gimme some lights...are you ready to kick them summertime blues
? (cheers).....gimme some echo....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Spirit in the Night’:
”Summertime.....are you ready ? (cheers)....are you willing ? (cheers)....are
you able? (cheers)...”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
(Bruce manages to ”kill” a microphone stand and stuff) ‘‘(?).....that
was my two weeks’basic training there (chuckles)....oh goddamn it, everything’s
messed up now.....see, I fucked everything up here (chuckles)....this is professional
showbusiness (?), alright (giggles)....apartment houses are my speciality (chuckles)
.....that’s a joke (chuckles)....we’re gonna be playing all night
so you guys oughta sit down, take it easy (cheers) (?).....here’s a song
I’d like to do....for Damien ....and uh....anybody who knows what it’s
like to drive through the darkness on the edge of town...”
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Factory’:
”Thank you....thank you....this next song was uh.....I always grew up,
I grew up in a small town about, called Freehold, New Jersey (cheers)....and
uh....I didn’t really move to Asbury Park till I was about 18....after
uh....my folks left me but I sorta grew up...I guess as most, most kids do,
on the wrong side of their father, I guess, you know (chuckles)....and uh.....he
was 45 years old when he packed up everything in the car.... and took my mom
and my little sister to California where he didn’t have no job, he didn’t
have nothing, I thought ....took a lotta guts so I wrote this song for him.....I
always remember him, I always remember him 6 a.m.....every morning ....he’d
be popping the hood of some junk car in the backyard, laying on the cold ground
trying to get it started....and I’d be sleeping that bed scared to death
(chuckles)...”
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘The Promised Land’:
”They got movies out there, is this true ?....they got a big screen out
there ? (cheers).... what do I look like ? ‘You look funny as hell’,
right ? (cheers).....(Bruce goofs around for the cameras) Can you see all that
stuff ?....(acts like he’s picking his nose)....(?) there’s 60 foot
pictures of somebody picking his nose, it’s like (chuckles)...what’s
next, right ? (chuckles)....this is called Promised Land....
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Prove It All Night’:
(music starts) I was in New York City....I got into this cab while we were making
Darkness on the Edge of Town.....and a lot of cabbies that are in the city ,
they got.... they got a running monologue that don’t stop whether somebody’s
in there or whether they’re not.....I only knew this guy was about 45
years old and he was....he was just raving about how....all day long you gotta
prove it to your boss driving around in a cab and all night you gotta go home
and prove it to your wife.....on the weekends you gotta prove it to your kids
(chuckles).....(?)....it seems like the dope’s on you, it never lets up,
you know.....anyway....I wrote this song.....sometimes you gotta prove it all
night....”
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’:
”This is for uh.....this is for Matty, my good friend....in Westwood,
New Jersey...and uh...this is for my little sister, she’s sweet 16, she
just got her license so (chuckles).... she’s probably tearing up the road
right now with my pop in pursuit, you know....
here’s Racing in the Street....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Sandy’:
”Any of you folks from Jersey tonight ? (cheers)....alright...alright....I’m
gonna be at home....tomorrow....for the first time....in about....I don’t
know, about a year, I guess, I haven’t been there (?).....and uh....is
it still there ? (chuckles)(cheers)....thought they might’ve arrested
it or something (chuckles)....this is for all you folks, this ‘Fourth
of July Asbury Park’....
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Sherry Darling’:
”Alright, this number we got coming up.....this number is an audience
participation number , right (cheers)....now, during the early 60’s ,
there was this kinda rock and roll that’s not too well known, it was called
Fraternity Rock....and that was ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen, ‘Farmer
John’ by the Premiers....ah, a song called ‘Double Shot of My Baby’s
Love’ by the Swinging Medallions which had the immortal lyrics : ‘It
wasn’t the wine that I had too much of, it was the double shot of my baby’s
love’ (chuckles)....I’ve sorta kept that up there with , uh, ‘To
be or not to be’, you know (chuckles)...so this song is a song called
‘Sherry Darling’, I wrote it two summers ago...and uh....it’s
like the thing on the Fraternity Rock records that the whole.... the main feature
was that the audience was twice as loud as the band, you see, so .....(?) and
throwing up in your girlfriends’purses is allowed during this next number,
ok.... here we go, little party noises, we need party noises (cheers)...”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to‘Sweet Little Sixteen’:
(audience : ‘Bruce !’) ”Hey , it wasn’t that bad , was
it ?....oh, ‘Bruce, Bruce’, oh, I see (chuckles).....we’re
gonna do another one (?)....
(....) And be sweet 16 and back in Asbury Park again....”
15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Growin’Up’:
”I remember....it was after long series of tests ....in the basement....of
my brother-in-law’s mobile home.....that we discovered....when I was 13
years old....that I....was a teenage werewolf......and this was ok for a while.....(?)
13, full moon....but the novelty soon wore off...and as the years went by, my
mother and the sisters....at the school decided that I needed psychiatric attention.....so
they sent me down to the doctor.....
and I laid on the couch and the doc got out his book, said ‘Son....when
did you first.... start acting like this ?’....I said ‘Well, Doc....let
me think back....oh, I remember very well.....it was around 1965....I was down
‘long the boardwalk...I looked up one night ....there was a full moon.....the
sky full of stars.....all of a sudden this hair started growing all over my
face, my fingers got longer, my pants got tighter, a gold guitar stuck out of
my left side.....(?)...and I remember, Doc...before that I remember ‘,
I said ‘I felt like....I was nothing....and after that night....I knew.....that
I was nothing with a whole lotta hair (chuckles)(cheers)....
(....) This went on all through high school....and it was then that my parents...and
the local police decided that I was more than nothing with a whole lotta hair....I
was definitely... a big pain in the ass (cheers)....so they decided to hunt
me down....and they knew that time I was haunting the arcades of Asbury Park
(cheers)...and one night, they cornered me up on top of the ferris wheel....I
jumped down onto the roof of the Palace Amusements (cheers)....jumped down out
on the Kingsley Avenue (cheers)....hit Asbury Avenue and started making a beeline.....to
Route 35 Circle (cheers)....and by this time I had Asbury Park police force
after me....I had the state cops....finally I got on the New Jersey Turnpike
(cheers)....I was hustling down the road...and they called out...like....they
called out the National Guard...I think they called out, they called out....the
army too....and navy, the marines....and any cub scout they could find (cheers)....I
had ‘em all on my trail, they were getting on me, they were getting on
me and all of a sudden....up around Exit 109....a black Sedan pulled over....and
I looked through the window onto the frontseat....and laying on the floor.....was
a saxophone.... I remember he rolled down the window....he said ‘Hey,
kid.....what did you do ?’.... I said ‘I’m a werewolf, man.....teenage
variety’....he says ‘Well, I don’t know what that is but I
like your style ....and if you need a ride....hop in’ (cheers)....so I
hopped in.... I said ‘Man, put this thing to the floor’....Clarence
jammed to the floor and man, we must’ve.....we must’ve.....we must’ve
been doing 55 (cheers)....tearing it up.....and all I heard from behind me.....was
the chief of Asbury Park police force....sticking his head out the window of
car number 1....with a megaphone saying ‘Stop that man with a gold guitar
!’....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, middle of ‘Rosalita’:
”Let’s have a warm round of applause....for...the only member of
the band....with a high school diploma, Professor Roy Bittan (cheers)....on
the guitar....poet of the soul, master of rock and roll.....a man who brought
you such hits as ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Home’...’Sweeter
Than Honey’....’This Time It’s For Real’....Miami Steve
Van Zandt (cheers)....oh, not to mention ‘Saturday Night Fever’
and ‘Grease’....on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W.Tallent (cheers)...oh
yeah, on the drums, the Mighty Max (cheers).....on the organ, Dan Federici (Bruce
plays the organ with Danny).....and last but not least....do I have to say his
name ?....do I have to say his name ?.....king of the world... emperor of the
North Pole....the Big Man, the macho man himself, Clarence Clemons....
(....) This is his last chance, baby, tell him I’m almost grown....’cause
I got my pretty picture ...on the cover of Rolling Stone....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Born to Run’:
”I’d like to thank everybody for coming down here tonight (?) (cheers).....I
want you to know it’s not taken for granted, it’s appreciated, I’d
like to thank everybody....for the support that they showed, for hanging tough
for the band for the past two, three years when we were having a hard time,
I wanna thank you very much.....it really means a lot....this is for you....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Quarter to Three’:
”Can you stand one more ? (cheers)....then I guess I can too.....
(.....) That’s all there is....alright, no more (Bruce falls down , tries
to get up, falls down again, Clarence pours water on his head, he gets up) You
think this is all I gotta do all night ? (cheers)....you think I do this for
fun ? (cheers).....are you crazy ? (cheers).... you think I’m crazy ?
(cheers).....
(.....) I’m just a prisoner....of rock and roll.....bye bye Washington,
I’m airborne.....”
15.08.78 Largo, MD, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´Just me and you, baby….just me and you, girl….I remember
you….little girl, I remember you….standing on the corner….of
Richmond Avenue….with your hair rolled up high and that crazy look in
your eye for every boy that was passing you by ….now, Big Man….hey,
Big Man….hey….remember what they called her ?….what we used
to call her….what was the name ?….I remember….all the guys
on my block, they called you Flamingo ´cause your hair shines like the
sun and your eyes lit up the skies….and I'd drive all night….back
then I'd drive all night….I'd drive all night…. just to buy you
some shoes and to taste, to taste your tender charms….to have you hold
me in your arms….for just one kiss and a look from your sad eyes…..baby,
you were always crying all night long, little girl, you were always crying all
night long, little girl, you were always crying all night long, little girl,
you were always crying all night long, and me, I was your fool, I thought I
could stop, stop some of that crying but I didn´t know….now, I didn´t
know….that baby'd been lying…. Baby, you'd been lying….baby,
you'd been lying….well, I found out…..and now you're back….
and I found out and baby, I'm back too and I've been out and I've been seeing
some things….about me….about you….and I found out….you've
got to stop….girl, you've got to stop….oh, we've got to stop….oh,
you've got to stop….oh, you've got to stop ….girl, you've got to
stop, oh, you've got to stop, girl, you've got to stop, girl, you've got to
stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP….´´
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi