Roxy, LA 07-Jul-1978

07-Jul-1978 Los Angeles,CA The Roxy, USA

Ehi! Ehi! Gimme some lights up here! Hoy you're doing? First, I like to say a few things things. First I like to say I want to thank you for coming down. I want to thank L.A. for treat us this way. It's been fantastic last few days in town, and I, I know there was a lot of people that waited a long time on line outside, there was a lot that didn't get in for one reason or another, I want to apologize, I want to say I'm very sorry, if I could I would like to invite all the town so I just like the folks that didn't get in hard time out on the street I like to say I'm sorry, it's my fault and I wouldn't try to transform no private party 'cos I don't play no parties anymore, except my own! So gimme the slap back on this microphone, One...., we'll do some rock'n'roll for you!

RAVE ON

BADLANDS

All right. I've seen my picture in a paper yesterday, it was one of the first pages. It was a funny picture, I looked like I was catching flies, you know, with my mouth wide open. Who's taken this kind of shots..... Anyway
(drum, piano)
Wait a minute, when I do this, let me do it again
(drum)
When I do that this is what's supposed to happen...

SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT

Thank you, ehi, all you guys, sit down you make me nervous. Find your seat, or something, ......yes, sit down ....... will raise you up on your feet. This is a song ....this is called Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

Tanks. You guys keep on resting. Eh?, All right, all right all right? We'll play that. We haven't played that song too much. The others we hadn't ever played! We'll play Candy's room

CANDY'S ROOM

All right! Ladies and gentleman, princess cards she sends me!

FOR YOU

This next song is a new song, the newest tonight. This is this a song I wrote I guess it was .... didn't make it, didn't make it on Darkness I wrote it right after I finished to write the album. And this is a song about, it's called Point Blank, it's a song about being trapped. Two friends of mine work two jobs a day, and others who don't work two jobs a day trying to take their house away. It's a song about being trapped and could not get out

POINT BLANK

Thanks! Gimme a break! Thanks, and get out the connection desk 1.... I got nothing coming out this thing, Bailey 1....2, 1...2 nothing more 1....2 Hey, that's that's good now. We drove to Utah, me and Steve and a couple of friend of us, this song is called Promised Land

THE PROMISED LAND

PROVE IT ALL NIGHT

Big Man! The E Street Band!
This is a song... this is funny 'cos, when I get out, I got out with my girlfriend you know, I take her around in my car, and we drive around anytime the car place down and she says "ehi you're the guy, you write the songs about the cars all the time, you guy you fix the car", I mean like, you know, I got at the hood, this is like "Alice lost in Wonderland", you know so "Ehi, where this go?" I don't know about that stuff, but I think I understand the spiritual and religious significance of 396. So I write these song anyways, anytime. This is for everybody around listening to this in the car, this is Racing in the Street

RACING IN THE STREET

I was riding, I was riding through the Arizona desert, we bought this 900$ old '65 Galaxy and we're driving around for three days down to Reno, and we found this house path, and this endian he'd built that house, I guess it was pretty, it was pretty like, lonely he built that house just out of the stuff, it scavaged it from the desert, he put this picture of Geromino by the side of the highway, and I ...we took off down that dirt road toward the house, I remember it's already at the beginning we had this sign that said, it said in blood red paint, it said "This is a land of peace, love, justice, and no mercy" and the sign said, it pointed out the dirt road said Thunder Road

THUNDER ROAD

Thank, we' re gonna take, we're gonna take a 15 minutes break an we'll be right back. We'll be back in 15 minutes.

How are you guys out there in the front seats now? All right...Well I wanna how's you out there? Well bootleggers out there in radioland, roll your tapes

PARADISE BY THE 'C'

All right, This is for all the girls here, it's called Fire

FIRE

Must change my guitat, Ok, as you like, Here is one for the boys, it's Adam Raised a Cain

ADAM RAISED A CAIN

This for the girls, too

MONA - SHE'S THE ONE

This is for a fellow who sent me a note backstage. Said he's here with his son who's six years old. Are you here anyplace? The cat that sent the note? Is that you? It was a fine note, and this was his son's first rock show or something? Rock concert? I forgot his name – it was Jason or something. And this is for him, and everybody else that's still growing up…
There I was... Gotta get my buttons straight… There, I got it.
There I was one night, just a normal guy. And then, there I was the next night. God damn, I was still just a normal guy…

GROWIN'UP (first part)

I think… I ain't sure, but I think my mother and my father and my sister, they're here again tonight. Hey, are you guys out there? They're over there?
For six years, they've been following me around California, trying to get me to come back home. Hey Ma, give it up, huh? Give me a break! They stood…
<audience voice: where are they?>
I don't know. They're over there somewhere… But…
<audience voice: get them to take a bow>
You know, they're still trying to get me to go back to college. Every time I come into the house, 'you know, it's not too late, you can still go back to college' they tell me. I say, 'all right, all right, Ma…'
But it's funny 'cause when I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other one was my guitar. And my father, he used to sit in the kitchen. And we had this grate, like the heat's supposed to come through, except it wasn't hooked up to any, like, heating ducts. It was just open, straight down to the kitchen. And there was a gas stove right underneath it. And when I used to start playing, he used to turn on the gas jets and try to smoke me out of my room. I didn't <inaudible> out on the roof or something.
He used to always refer to this guitar… you know, never 'Fender guitar,' 'Gibson guitar,' it was always the 'God Damned guitar.' Every time he stuck his head in my door, that’s all I'd hear. 'Turn down that god damned guitar.'
He used to try to get me to be a lawyer. And it was funny because I was in a motorcycle accident when I was 17. And this cat just, you know, just ran head on into me and then just got out and yelled at me for ruining his Cadillac. And we had, like, a suit, a legal suit. And my father took me down to this lawyer in town. His name was Billy Boyle and he later became mayor, which uhh… And anyway, we went down there, he had looked at me and he said, 'ooh man, I got to defend this?' I looked just about exactly the same way I look right now and, uhh… And I can remember, we were going to court, right? The day of the suit. Like, I got in a wreck, I just got hit. Um, my leg's messed up. And I remember my lawyer telling me, 'If I was the judge, I'd find you guilty.' You know? I don't know for what. For be… just for being there, I guess.
But anyway, my father'd always say, 'you know, you should be a lawyer. You know, you get… get a little something for yourself.' You know? And my mother, you know, she used to say, 'no, no, no. No, he should be – he should be an author. He should write books. You know, you should… That's a good life, you can get a little something for yourself.'
Well, what they didn't understand was… was that I wanted everything.
<audience voice: you got it!>
And so, you guys, one of you wanted a lawyer, and the other one wanted an author. Well, tonight, you are both just going to have to settle for rock ‘n roll…

GROWIN'UP (last verse)

IT'S HARD TO BE SAINT IN THE CITY

BACKSTREETS

.............. Gimme some echo, gimme some slap back on this thing, One, one... well

HEARTBREAK HOTEL

Expecially for you. Wherever she is, on the street, inside, outside, wherever you may be, Rosy, come out tonght...

ROSALITA

On the piano, professor Roy Bittan! On the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt. On the bass guitar mister Garry W. Tallent! On the drums, The mighty Mighty Max! On the organ, now you see him, now you don't, "phantom" Danny Federici, and last but not at least,

ROSALITA (reprise)