
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Johnny 99´
´´They closed up the plant, it was about, I guess, was about five
years ago...took about 2,000 of us out on the street looking for a job....and
uh....I went looking for about six months....and we run out of our savings...and
I went down to the bank that was about to foreclose on the mortgage of the house....and
uh....he tried to tell me that he knew how I felt....I said ´Well, you
walk around that desk and you sit in this chair and you walk in those shoes
for a while ....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Reason to Believe´
´´This is a song about blind faith....and uh, its tragic results....´cause
everybody´s waited for somebody or something that wasn´t never ever
coming back....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Nebraska´
´´Thank you, this is....this is about, uh.....about, it´s
a song about isolation....which, uh..... seems how (?)....all the new technology
is meant to bring people closer....it also seems to make things, make things
less real for some reason.....people end up losing the connection that they
got with, sometimes with their families or their friends or their jobs or the
government....and then uh (?)....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´
´´Thank you....this is uh....I guess there´s all sorts of
isolation....I remember I was living....I was home in New Jersey when a friend
of mine (cheers)....it´s nothing to get excited about (chuckles)....I
remember I was home when a friend of mine called me and told me....that, uh,
Elvis Presley died....and I remember thinking how it was, it was hard to understand
that somebody, somebody who taken away so many people´s loneliness and
given so many people....I guess, what felt like a place somewhere in the world,
could end up....so lonely, with no place of his own so....a dream, uh.....your
best dreams can kill you....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Glory Days´
´´Now, this is a song....this is a song about ancient history....now,
I´m not talking about the Mesopotamians ....or the Trojans or, uh....or
the Italians....talking about personal stuff....
the kind of stuff that, when I die, you´re gonna read in the National
Enquirer....or if I have a fight with my girlfriend, you´re gonna read
it while I´m still alive....in one of them tell-all books, you know, that
they always write....all the sordid details....but I´m gonna beat ´em
to the punch ´cause I´m gonna confess right now....now, when I was
a kid....there was three things I was interested in....my father was a real
good poolplayer so I kept practising to try and beat him someday....I was interested
in that....I was interested in the guitar....and then the third thing was....you
know, you know, that one, that one....but anyway one Christmas, my mother took
me down to Sears and she bought a pooltable for 69.95 and we tied it to the
roof of the car and like you know I was holding on to it and we were driving
home and we didn´t have no place downstairs to put it so I put it up in
my bedroom.....so like I used to bring my girlfriends over and I´d tell
my father, I´d say: ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in my room and
play pool for a little while´....and ....but he used to like, he used
to sit in the kitchen which was right underneath my bedroom so if he didn´t
hear the poolballs knocking around, if he didn´t hear the guitar playing,
he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling ....so, but I kind
had it all figured out like, like I had the bed set up and then I´d pull
the pooltable like real over close to the bed so like every once in a while
I would just like kind of lean up and knock the balls around little bit....anyway....I
matured, you know, and.....went on to other things and gave up pool ....and
of the other two, I guess the guitar is the only one I really became proficient
at....but the third thing....I´m still looking for some volunteers who
wanna practise.....you gotta practise, practise, practise all the time....it
never gets boring, I can´t figure it out (chuckles)....but anyway....in
the end we all grow up, I think (chuckles) ....all things must pass and it ain´t
nothing but, but glory days....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´My Hometown´
´´Thank you, thanks....this is a song, I guess I wrote about three,
three years ago....I was kind of living away from home and uh, I was thinking
about the town I grew up in....and uh, I guess everybody that grows up kind
of has a love-hate-relationship with the place that they were born...I guess
there´s a lot of good things and a lot of bad things that happen to you
there (chuckles)....but, uh, I know when I, when I got older and I moved away
for a while, was on the road a lot and....for a long time I guess I felt like
I was afraid of belonging to something and belonging somewhere....so this song,
it´s kind of a song about responsobility to the place that you live....and
uh, tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks
that are trying to live up to that responsobility, they´re from the North
Dallas Foodbank....and, uh, the North Texas Foodbank, excuse me....and uh, what
they do is they feed people, right now in the United States every year 20, 20
percent of the food that gets produced gets wasted, gets thrown away and we
got people that ain´t getting enough to eat, that are hungry, that been
hit by hard times or unemployment or they´re old and they need a hand
or they´re young and they need a hand....and I know, uh, I know that down
here in Texas you got a real independent spirit (chuckles) but uh....I assume
that, I guess what comes along with that is a, is a generous spirit too so they
can....there´s people out there that are hurting, they can use your hand
so when you go out there, check out the North Texas Foodbank.....they´re
trying to make the place that you live a more decent and a better place to live....and
after all this....this is your hometown.....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´
´´Alright now, take it easy there, boys....now, this is a song.....about
the conflict .....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires
of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy .... now, where did this conflict begin
?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....well,
now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in southern
Babylonia....but the latest theological studies have found 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....now, understand....in the Garden of Eden
, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....I mean you didn´t
have no little houses and beds and a little pillow you could tuck your head
into at night, you didn´t have no Pop-Tarts that you could put in your
toaster and then go watch Johnny Carson in front of the TV.....you couldn’t
go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....they didn´t
have no designer jeans and none of that stuff....no, in the Garden of Eden,
in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin....there was no sex.....man lived in
a state of innocence ....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of
guilt that I constantly live in ....but just before the tour I decided to make
a spiritual journey trying to find myself, make a spiritual journey to the location
of the Garden of Eden....well, I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that
location was 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, 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’....I said ´But Dan, that´s not,
that´s not the reason I came, I wanna know where, where, where did all
this temptation begin, where did this conflict begin, why my body pulls me one
way, my soul pulls me the other´ 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 has 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 fine ....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time
that a man had ever kissed a woman ....and she had these long, thin legs....and
when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman,
son.....then they lay down in the green grass.....and when Adam.... well, it
was the first time....but there was something else in that Garden of Eden, old
Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into
a betrayal and sent them running down into the darkness....but right here tonight
on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, if you´ve got the nerve
to ride, I´ve got their getaway car...if you think you can handle it,
son, I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac...´´
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´Well, when....when we first started going out, like we were laughing
all the time and having fun all the time, she always liked to go out riding....you
know how you get, you get all caught up in each other....and after a while it
seemed the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy
anymore....and I was spending a lot of my time.....trying to find something
....that was gonna make her happy again....and she got to where she started
hiding my keys when it´d get late ´cause she didn´t like me
going out at night....and it got hard to make her understand....that when I
took the car out and when I won....that it was the only time, the only time
ever that I felt good about myself....and that to have just one thing....one
thing in your whole life....that you do that makes you feel proud of yourself....I
don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....is it ?
(....) Well, that was....that was the night that we left....we still don´t
know where we´re gonna go yet....but I guess that´ll come in time....but
right now, sometimes it seems like....seems like time´s getting so short....seems
like it´s running so short on you....but you just gotta.... you just gotta
keep going....keep searching....keep going....”
25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Born to Run´
´´Thank you, I´d like to, like to just take a second and thank
you for coming down to the show tonight, we appreciate it....wanna thank you
guys that, uh....I know were waiting a little awhile in line for those tickets
and I want you to know that (chuckles) we know you´re out there (chuckles)....and
uh, I´d like to thank you for your support of, of the North, North Texas
Foodbank....there´s people out there that´re, are still hurting
and they need some help ....and the idea when this whole thing, I think, began
was that we´re all some kind of family and so remember nobody wins unless
everybody wins.....”
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi