Tom and The Boss 1985 and 2008

January 18, 1985, Greensboro North Carolina Coliseum

Bruce Springsteen during Dancing In The Dark from January 18, 1985 at the Greensboro Coliseum with an unknown girl.

“Now those memories come back to haunt me,

they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true
Or is it something worse that sends me
Down to the river”

On January 18, 1985, the lights went down in the Greensboro Coliseum and the thunderous sound of a B-chord erupted as the E Street Band played the first notes of Born in the USA. There stood Bruce Springsteen “The Boss” on stage in the spotlight in a denim jacket, blue jeans and bandana wrapped around his head. As the New Jersey-American began singing his song about a Vietnam Veteran, I did not know it, but I was about to experience just about the best concert of my life. As I recall, they played for 4 ½ hours with a break in the middle. It was not a good time in my life. Although I had just graduated from Virginia Tech, I was working third shift in the dye house at Quality Mills, which became Cross Creek Apparel. My mother worked for the company for 38 years, so Springsteen got to me on the level of unfulfilled promise of the desperate life. My grandmother, Elizabeth Prescott Hobbs had died a few weeks before in Augusta, Georgia, and this was a great loss for me. Often in my life it seemed that when I accomplished something such as graduating college I lost someone close to me. My grandfather Perry died a few days after I graduated high school. So, I guess the words, “I get up in the evening and I ain’t got nothing to say I come home in the morning I go to bed feeling the same way” summed it up for me at this time in my life. I was sitting at the concert with Denise Watson of Flat Rock, the “suburb” of Mount Airy, now a Brady of Reidsville with two beautiful daughters. We met through our mutual friends Jim and Marie Guynn. Denise grew up next door to Marie and Jim and I had known each other since we were infants. Jim introduced me to Springsteen listening to The River on a record; yes a piece of vinyl going round and round. I still love The River to this day. Denise and I had always said after we discovered we were both Springsteen fans that if he came close we would go. So, there on January 18, 1985, we sat in the Greensboro Coliseum. This was a night that I remember very well because I was going through a personal hell that still reverberates through my life. 

About a month earlier Bobbi Lynn Ramey McPeak gave birth to a daughter named Ashley Marie, who I suspected was my child although I did not know for sure and would not know until 2006, but that is another story. Well, there I sat listening to Springsteen in love with a woman who married another guy after she cut me off with no explanation and they were possibly raising our child. I do not recommend this as a way to enjoy a concert. So, Denise all excited about the concert did not know about this as she sat beside me. As the night went on I became very sad about the situation and Bobbi was on my mind. The possibility of having a child that I would never know, losing my grandmother, working in what was a dead end job and not knowing where my life would go did not add to my joy. Well, two songs that night caused me to hit rock bottom Bobby Jean and Downbound Train certain lyrics shown below being a case in point and Springsteen’s introductions to the songs.  

Several weeks ago I read Eric Wittenberg’s blog about seeing Springsteen on the Magic Tour. www.civilwarcavalry.com. I started looking around the internet for information about the 1985 concert and found it. Here is Springsteen’s set list from that night and some introductory comments about some of the songs. 

BORN IN THE USA

OUT IN THE STREET

DARLINGTON COUNTY

JOHNNY 99

ATLANTIC CITY

REASON TO BELIEVE
´´This is a song about blind faith….seems that the hardest thing to come by is something …. something you can hold on to, something you can believe in…there´s always somebody on the television trying to…sell you something to believe in….and some people, I guess….they get so hungry….that, uh….they believe in anything that comes along…”

SHUT OUT THE LIGHT
´´Oh, thanks, thank you….(?) ´round 1977, I was driving through….Phoenix, Arizona….and I stopped in this drugstore, I was looking for a book to read….and I went in and I found this, this book called ´Born on the Fourth of July´….by, by a Vietnam Veteran named Ron Kovic ….and it was an incredible book, it was something that, I guess….anyway, I traveled on to Los Angeles and I was staying in this motel….and I remember I was in the pool and I was swimming….there was a fella….in a wheelchair sitting by the side of the pool….and I got out and we kind of looked at each other and I had the book and he said ´I wrote that book´…. and when I first met Ron, I guess it was….even though I´d grown up during the 60´s and lived through that and had my friends go….and some of ´em not come back….it was the first time I started thinking about what Vietnam had meant….back in the history of our country…. now, this is a song, this about coming home, it´s a song called ´Shut Out the Light´….”
 

JOHNNY BYE BYE
´´(?)…and it was late at night, I guess we´d done the show, we played at some little auditorium…and we were going back to the hotel, me and Steve, my guitar player, were sitting around….we decided we wanted to get something to eat so we called up a taxi cab and a taxi came down and got us and we said we wanted to eat some place outside of town, this fella said ´Well, I know this place, it´s right out by Elvis´ house´…so I said, uh, ´You know where Elvis lives ?´, he says ´Yeah, yeah´, ´Well, take us out there right now´….so, so he drives us out to Elvis´….and it´s about, it´s about 3.30 now, I get out of the cab and I´m standing there in front of those gates with the guitar players on the front, right….and I look in and I can see through the gates and I see like in the second floor there´s a, there´s a light on so I guess I figure like Elvis must be up reading or something (chuckles) and now….and I remember, for some reason, I started to climb up over the wall and the taxi cab driver says ´No, man, they got big dogs over there and they´ll eat you alive if you get over there´, I jump over the wall and I start running up the, up the drive towards the frontdoor which, I guess, now I think was kind of a stupid thing to do because, like, I hated it when people do it at my house, you know (chuckles)….but anyway….I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth (chuckles) and up the drive would I run so (chuckles)….so I get to the front door and like I'm about to knock and these guards come out of the woods and, you know, they're kind of just, they drift over by me and they say ´What do you want ?´, I say ´Well, gee, is Elvis home ?´ (chuckles)….and they say, they say ´Oh no, he's, he´s in Lake Tahoe, he´s not here right now´, I say ´Well, see, yeah, I´m a guitar player too and like I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek´ and they say ´Oh yeah, sure you were, sure, oh, oh you´re that guy, oh yeah, sure, great, great´ (chuckles)….then they took me down and put me back out on to the street so (chuckles)….but, anyway, I don´t know what I would´ve said to him if I had ever met him ….I don´t know what I would´ve said….I don´t know, guess I´d´ve told him I love him (chuckles)….anyway, this is uh….it was, uh….it was, I remember when a friend of mine called me up and told me, told me that he´d died….and I guess it felt like, for everybody it felt like some little part of ´em died at the same time….it was hard to understand how somebody who came in and whose music took away so many people´s loneliness….could´ve ended up kind of as lonely as he did….seems like he got cheated, that´s not right….this is, uh, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´….”
 

PROVE IT ALL NIGHT
 

GLORY DAYS
´´This is a song about….like, old times….this is for Lynn and Eddie, old time friends of Max´s….but, like, old times, the older you get, the more of them you got….and like you know you´re in trouble when you see like everything you wore when you were 15 is exactly what you should be wearing when you´re 35….it comes back ! (chuckles)….oh, shit….but anyway ….Clarence had a birthday recently….now, let´s just say that he has more old times than me ….but as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty….it´s a wonderful thing (chuckles)…alright….are you ready, Big Man ?….not too old now ? (?) still rocking here, alright….
(….) Oh, keep on rocking, people….you´re looking good….don´t ever be stopping now…. don´t let me down….´cause I hear that big clock ticking away…every minute of my life every day…it says ´Big Man….you´re 38….you´re 39….you´re 40…..41….42….you´re 43….you´re, you´re, you´re, you´re…..an adult !….”
 

THE PROMISED LAND
´´Oh, you know last week….was the 15th just a little while ago, it was Martin Luther King´s birthday….and, and, uh….this is a song for him, somebody who came in….and….did so much for his people and for our country as a whole….and by….I guess he, he did the ultimate sacrifice and in doing so….gave dignity (?) to every man….”
 

MY HOMETOWN
´´This is uh….I remember…oh, when I was a kid growing up….I grew up in this small town and uh….a lot smaller than Greensboro (chuckles) and uh….I remember when I was 16, man, I hated that town….it seemed so narrow minded and small-minded….I used to get on the bus, take Lincoln Transit to New York City….I remember, like, I used to feel so great when I got out at Port Authority, you know, it was like ´Oh, man, nobody, nobody owns me up here´, you know (chuckles) and I’d go down into East Village…where it was a lot easier to ….to breathe….feel a little better, at the time….I remember when I finally got out of there, I said ´Man, I ain´t ever coming back, ain´t ever coming back´…but uh, as I got older, I guess I used to come home off the road and….I´d get in my car and I´d drive back down through town….and I´d go see some of my old friends, see what their lives were like….see what they were doing….and I realized that I would always, always….you know, carry a part of that town with me no matter where I went…..or what I did….but uh, when I was a kid, I guess, I was afraid of, one of the things that I was afraid was I was afraid of belonging, belonging to something because if you admit that you belong to something that means you´ve got some responsibility…like if you stand and you say ´Well, I’m an American´ that means you got some responsibility to America, the country that you live in….now, in this country….you know we got plenty of things to be proud of and plenty of things to be ashamed of….and unless you look at it both….unless you look at the bad stuff, there’s no way it ever gets better …but tonight when you go out into the, into the lobby, you’re gonna see some folks trying to hold up their end…..of their responsibility to their community, they’re called….let me get this straight now (chuckles)….Foodbank of Northwest North Carolina….and what a foodbank is every year about 20 percent of all the food that gets produced in the United States, it just gets wasted and thrown away and meanwhile in every city there´s people going hungry, there´s old folks whose social security checks don´t get´em through the month, there´s people who the trickle-down-theory of economics ain´t trickling on down to, there´s….you know, kids that are undernourished….and what a foodbank does is it gets that food and it gets it to the agencies that serve the people out there….and uh….they need some support, they can use your help and they´re right here in your town….if you can give a buck or two dollars or if you can spare some time for´em or just check out what they´re doing when you go out into the lobby during intermission, I know they´d appreciate it and I´d appreciate it…. there´s uh….you know, sometimes….sometimes people going hungry seems like it´s something that just happens a long ways away and it´s hard to believe that it happens in a country….so rich as ours and it´s something that we should be ashamed of….but, uh, anyway, they´re out there trying to make your hometown a better and a more decent place for everybody to live so check ´em out….”

BADLANDS
 

THUNDER ROAD
 

COVER ME
 

DANCING IN THE DARK
 

HUNGRY HEART
 

CADILLAC RANCH
 

DOWNBOUND TRAIN
I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going mister in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard
Now I work down at the carwash
Where all it ever does is rain
Don’t you feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train
She just said “Joe I gotta go
We had it once we ain’t got it any more”
She packed her bags left me behind
She bought a ticket on the Central Line
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining
I feel her kiss in the misty rain
And I feel like I’m a rider on a downbound train

Last night I heard your voice
You were crying, crying, you were so alone
You said your love had never died
You were waiting for me at home
Put on my jacket, I ran through the woods
I ran till I thought my chest would explode
There in the clearing, beyond the highway
In the moonlight, our wedding house shone
I rushed through the yard, I burst through the front door
My head pounding hard, up the stairs I climbed
The room was dark, our bed was empty
Then I heard that long whistle whine
And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and criedNow I swing a sledge hammer on a railroad gang
Knocking down them cross ties, working in the rain
Now don’t it feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train
 

I’M ON FIRE
 

PINK CADILLAC
´´Take it easy now….well, now, this is a song about the conflict…..between worldly things and spiritual health….between desires of the flesh….and spiritual ecstasy…they say you can´t have both….now, where did this conflict begin ?…..well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden….now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia….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….but, now, understand, understand this….in the Garden of Eden , there were none of the accoutrements of modern living….there wasn´t no microwave ovens there….they didn´t have no little Pop-Tarts you could put in the toaster and go home and jump in bed to watch Johnny Carson….you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one….no Sir !….in the Garden of Eden there was no sin…there was no sex….that´s right….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 ….before the tour started, I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries…(?)…I found out that that spot 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’….then I said ´But Dan, Dan, that´s really not the reason why I came…you see, I wanna know the answer to some of this conflict that I feel, what´s the meaning of temptation….why does my soul pull me one way and my body pull me the other way all the time….he said ´Well, son, that´s easy ….because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wondrous 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 so fine ….and when Adam kissed her, well, son, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman ….and she had legs that were long and soft….and when Adam touched her, well, son, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman…and then they went out into the green fields….and they lay down…. and when Adam….well, let´s just say it was the first time….but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below…but right here tonight on our backlot for 99.95 and no money down and don´t worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, I´ve got their getaway car….if you´ve got the nerve to ride….I´ve got the keys….to the first….pink….Cadillac….”
 

BOBBY JEAN
Well I came by your house the other day, your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you we’ve known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I would have known I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye bobby jean
Now you hung with me when all the others turned away turned up their noise
We liked the same music we liked the same bands we liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things wed ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye bobby jean
Now we went walking in the rain talking about the pain from the world we hid
Now there ain’t nobody nowhere nohow gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you’ll be out there on that road somewhere
In some bus or train traveling along
In some motel room there’ll be a radio playing
And you’ll hear me sing this song
Well if you do you’ll know I’m thinking of you and all the miles in between
And I’m just calling one last time not to change your mind
But just to say I miss you baby, good luck goodbye, bobby jean
 

RACING IN THE STREET
´´It was right around, it was right around the end of the summer…fall was just coming on that time when….feels kind of scary, you don’t know what you’re gonna do….and I had this old convertible Camaro that I was driving around all the time….and I got it for 500 dollars (chuckles) …and, uh….there was this strip down off the river, I guess it was like the junkyard where people from town would bring down….the stuff they didn´t want no more and leave it off out there to rust away…we used to meet down there on Fridays and Saturdays sometimes ….and uh, that was the first place that I´d seen her and we started going out….and you know how it is when you´re first going out, like everything….everything is great, you know, it´s fun all the time and you´re laughing all the time and we’d go riding….didn’t matter what we did ….but then it seemed like the time passed and fall came and winter…and the things that, that made her happy once just didn’t seem to make her happy any more….and I was spending most of my time … trying to figure out something that’d make it the way that it was….make her happy again….but she got to where she didn’t talk much and just wanted to stay in all the time, didn’t wanna go out riding….and at night she’d hide my keys so that I couldn’t, I couldn’t go out and ride in the car….and it got, uh….it got hard to make her understand and I know that once….one time she knew….that when I took the car out….and when I won….that it was the only time that I got to feeling, like, good about myself….and that to have just one thing, one thing in your whole life….don’t matter what it is, that you do…that you can do good, that makes you feel proud of yourself, that’s not too much for anybody to ask….
(….) That was the night that we left….we still don’t know where we’re going yet ….but I guess that’ll come in time….but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you….like you never know when it’s gonna run out on you….and so much gets lost and just left behind…..I guess there’s not much you can do….but to keep going and to keep on searching….and to keep going and to keep on going and to keep on going and to keep going, keep on going….”
 

CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
 

BORN TO RUN
 

DETROIT MEDLEY / TWIST AND SHOUT - DO YOU LOVE ME
 

RAMROD
 

The set list and song intros were compiled by: Johanna Pirttijärvi http://www.brucebase.org.uk/gig1985.htm 

April 28, 2008, Greensboro North Carolina Coliseum 

The concert began with a video tribute to Danny Federici to the studio version of Blood Brothers with the coliseum completely dark except for the spotlight on the empty organ.
 

We played king of the mountain out on the end
The world come chargin’ up the hill, and we were women and men
Now there’s so much that time, time and memory fade away
We got our own roads to ride and chances we gotta take
We stood side by side each one fightin’ for the other
We said until we died we’d always be blood brothersNow the hardness of this world slowly grinds your dreams away
Makin’ a fool’s joke out of the promises we make
And what once seemed black and white turns to so many shades of gray
We lose ourselves in work to do and bills to pay
And it’s a ride, ride, ride, and there ain’t much cover
With no one runnin’ by your side my blood brother

On through the houses of the dead past those fallen in their tracks
Always movin’ ahead and never lookin’ back
Now I don’t know how I feel, I don’t know how I feel tonight
If I’ve fallen ‘neath the wheel, if I’ve lost or I’ve gained sight
I don’t even know why, I don’t know why I made this call
Or if any of this matters anymore after allBut the stars are burnin’ bright like some mystery uncovered
I’ll keep movin’ through the dark with you in my heart
My blood brother

“Danny Federici, for 40 years the E Street Band’s organist and keyboard player, died this afternoon, April 17, 2008 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three year battle with melanoma.The Federici family and the E Street family request that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund.”

Springsteen’s handwritten setlist

Roulette { lyrics } Tour Premiere
Don’t Look Back { lyrics } Tour Premiere
Radio Nowhere { lyrics }
 

The sound on Bruce’s mic was not very good and understanding him clearly was tough at the beginning of the concert. It got better as the show progressed or maybe I just knew the words better.

Out In The Street { lyrics }
The Promised Land { lyrics }
Magic { lyrics }
Gypsy Biker { lyrics }
 

It dawned on me at about this point in the concert that “Little Steven” Van Zandt was not there in 1985, so this was the first time I saw the actor from The Sopranos playing guitar. He and Springsteen obviously enjoy each other’s company. They traded lead guitar licks and I as I was watching through binoculars, Springsteen punched Van Zandts arm implying Hey Steve let me have a go at that. They went back and forth doing this just like teenagers in a garage band.

It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City { lyrics }
 

Springsteen told some stories about the late organ player in the E Street Band, Danny Fedrici. One about how he liked gadgets and was always inventing and building things. One night Bruce said he saw Danny taking the up/down buttons out of the elevator in the hotel they were staying at.  Told him that he wanted to supe up his organ.
 
Trapped { lyrics }
Because The Night { lyrics }
 

This might have been the high point of the concert due to the energy and the greatness of this song covered by Patty Smith in 1987. Springsteen did it as a full blown rocker and Nils Lofgren giving a guitar solo for the ages that would have made Edward Van Halen on the 1980s proud.

Darkness On The Edge Of Town { lyrics }
She’s The One { lyrics }
Livin’ In The Future { lyrics }
Mary’s Place { lyrics } Tour Premiere
 

The concert reminded of a tent revival during the song with Reverend Springsteen leading his flock.

Waitin’ On A Sunny Day { lyrics }
 

I think Springsteen did this song because a girl, whom Denise told me later she knew “Katie Catherine” in the crowd held up a sign saying Sunny Day. He carried it over to the drum kit and then held it up to the band before he started counting off. Talk about a tight band, they never missed a beat going right into the upbeat rocker. At the end of the song Springsteen signed the sign and returned it to the girl.

Devil’s Arcade { lyrics }
The Rising { lyrics }
Last To Die { lyrics }
Long Walk Home { lyrics }
Badlands { lyrics }
 

At the end of the regular section everyone, but Clarence Clemmons left the stage. Clemmons went over and sat in the golden throne chair on the far right of the stage. Throughout the show Clemmons played his solos with force, but it was obvious that he walked gingerly back to his part of the stage. His health did not appear to be great, but the show must go on.

Backstreets { lyrics }
Bobby Jean { lyrics }

Well if you read my previous blog you know the story of this song for me personally, but as the concert went on I noticed he had done no songs from Born In The USA, which dominated the 1985 concert I saw in Greensboro. This song a tribute to “Little Steve” Van Zandt, who left the band just before the Born In The USA tour replace by Nils Lofgren.

Born To Run { lyrics }

With all the lights on and almost everyone singing along with Springsteen, this is the song you have to say you heard him sing.

Ramrod { lyrics }
 

Springsteen and Van Zandt had a lot of fun together on this song. Doing the “What time is it Steve?” routine back and forth.

American Land { lyrics}

He ended the show with this raucous folk song from We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions released in 2006 with the lyrics appearing in sing along fashion on the gigantic screens around the stage.    

“Notes: The second of two Carolina shows, and here in Junior Johnson territory you probably would have gotten even money on “Cadillac Ranch” to open. Leave it to Bruce to go for the longshot odds instead: a killer opening duo of “Roulette” into “Don’t Look Back.” Both were tour premieres, both studio outtakes from the ’70s that later turned up on Tracks, and, like “Reason to Believe” in Atlanta, both left me saying, “Okay, that’s how you start a show.” Charging out of the gate, they set the tone for a high-energy performance, the best of this Southern swing so far. (And as any good Southerner knows, that doesn’t include Florida.) The hushed “Magic” returned to the set after a hiatus, with Sister Soozie Tyrell’s wonderful vocal duet. But then it was back to the intensity of the show’s beginnings, with a mean “Gypsy Biker.” In Charlotte Bruce cut this one a little short, but here it stretched out nicely with a great Bruce/Steve guitar duel. Next up was “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” sent out “for our old pal,” Danny Federici. “He had nine lives, and he used up about five of mine,” Springsteen laughed, also recalling Danny’s habit of liberating stuff from here and there. A hilarious story about finding Danny in the hotel elevator with a screwdriver: “A towel’s not good enough for him — he’s gotta take the elevator buttons!” “Saint in the City” was a blast, ending with a monster guitar/drums creschendo courtesy of Bruce and Max. “See if we know this one,” Bruce said after “Livin’ in the Future” — always a good sign. While the first strains of “Mary’s Place” might have raised a few groans from those of us who tired of the protracted version from the Rising and Vote for Change tours, it proved to be a whole lot of fun. Tight, crowd way into it, nice and horn-heavy (mostly synth horns, to be clear, but more than good enough), it actually felt like a breath of fresh air tonight. “Badlands”: you better believe Clarence was right on top of his solo tonight. And after his “Roulette” rolls to start the show, Max bookended the main set with more of the how-does-he-do-it drumming madness that’s now a “Badlands” highlight — as if the song needed something else to pump your fist over. Leading off the encore, a beautiful “Backstreets” always warms my heart, especially right down the road from the Backstreets HQ. “Ramrod” had the crowd positively roaring before Stevie declared “Boss time,” but the coolest part of that one was Clarence lending Bruce his hat, Springsteen wearing it well and strutting across the stage while the Big Man wailed. Props to the Granite Falls Middle School contingent behind the stage and their enormous banner judiciously displayed: “We’ve busted out of class!” And on a school night, even. You got a good one, kids.” From www.backstreets.com“  

Denise, Pam and I twenty-three years after our first concert with The Boss.