December 9, 1984 (Revisiting the Past) Part 2 Bruuuuuuce Comes to Town!

I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.

December 9, 1984. Bruce Springsteen comes to town on his Born in the U.S.A. Tour to perform at M.T.S.U.'s Murphy Center. I did not go to this concert. I mainly liked metal and punk, but I always listened to a little bit of everything, but I was sick of the Boss and his Born in the U.S.A. record at this time. It seemed like you couldn't escape those booming Max Weinberg drums and Bruce's larynx shredding vocals. I would later come around to enjoying some of the album, but that would be years later. However, I did have friends that loved Bruce who went to the show. I remember the halls of Riverdale being awash in Bruce concert t-shirts on Monday. 

Here's what my friend D.D. Blank shared about the night:

                                                   Another Song About A Car 

The old cliché about a Bruce Springsteen live show was that between songs he would weave long stories of domestic life and relationships that seemed to be heading toward something profound and then he would say “so…here’s a song about a car.”

 

In the fall of 1984 I hadn’t been to many rock and roll shows.  I had only been driving for about a year and a half and I didn’t have much money, but Bruno and I were infatuated with music and when the Springsteen show was announced, I knew that I had to try to get a ticket.  It was even better that he was playing in Murfreesboro.  We didn’t have to drive to Nashville.  Bruno said he would go to the box office the day the tickets were being sold and see what he could do for us, if I would give him the $16.  $16 was big money for a concert ticket in 1984.  No other artist/band charged that much, but we needed to go.

 

We all loved the latest album, “Born In The U.S.A.”, which I had received for my birthday in June.  I had heard all the stories in school about the live shows.  It would be like seeing a mythical creature.  “Springsteen is amazing. He plays for 3 hours.  You will never see another show like it., etc, etc…“  We didn’t just need to go.  We had to go. It was a moral imperative. 

 

Bruno found the X-Man waiting on line at Murphy Center and he said that he could get us tickets.  The X-Man has always been good to me and I have always appreciated his friendship.  This was just more evidence of his greatness.  We were going!

 

The day arrived and I can’t remember much leading up to the show that day.  However, I remember walking into the hall and the place was electric.  The electricity built through the night.  Our seats were in the lower bowl and we had a great view of the stage.  It was a mesmerizing show.  He played most of the songs I wanted to hear and more.  Looking over the set list, I only really missed out on Rosalita.  The big show stoppers from Born to Run were indeed show stoppers, like the title song and Thunder Road. Thinking today about “To…night…in…Jun…gle….land!” still gives me chills.  Being a December show, we even got “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, which KDF was playing as another single.  And yes, there were stories that ended with “now another song about a car” or at least that is how I choose to remember it. 

Here are the reviews of the show from local media. First up is the Daily News Journal's Jamie Sue Linder's who, apparently, did not have clue what the song "Born in the U.S.A." was really about. Robert K. Oerman's review is from The Tennessean. Just know that it was a great show. It's even been bootlegged, but I wasn't able to find any YouTube audio clips from that night.

Here is the setlist:

 1. Born in the U.S.A.

 2. Badlands

 3. Darlington County

 4. Atlantic City

 5. Johnny 99

 6. Reason to Believe

 7. Nebraska

 8. Johnny Bye-Bye (with Mystery Train outro)

 9. Out in the Street

10. Glory Days

11.The Promised Land

12. My Hometown

13. Prove It All Night

14. Thunder Road

Set 2

15. Cover Me

16. Dancing in the Dark

17. Hungry Heart

18. Cadillac Ranch

19. Because the Night

20. I'm on Fire

21. Pink Cadillac

22. Bobby Jean

23. Racing in the Street

Encores

24. Jungleland

25. Born to Run

26. Detroit Medley (including "Travelin' Band and Wabash Cannonball)

27. Twist and Shout

28. Do You Love Me?

29. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I do love this song nowadays.