Friday is Boss’s Day: Paris, 1985
In 1985, Houston’s KKBQ radio was giving away the last of three trips to go see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Paris.When they played the song “Born To Run,” the 93rd caller won the trip.
When I woke up that day I had a feeling I was going to France. I told my girlfriend I was going to win the trip. Of course she thought I was crazy. Around 3 p.m., “Born to Run” hit the airwaves. I frantically dialed. Busy, busy, busy, busy, then the phone rang and rang and rang. The man who eventually answered was John Lander, of the Q Morning Zoo. He says “You are the 93rd caller. You are going to Paris to see Bruce Springsteen.” Needless to say, it was a good moment.
When we got to Paris, we had to go to the hotel where the band was staying to pick up the tickets. When we walked into the hotel Roy Bittan was getting on the elevator. So I did what I always do when I see a famous person: I pointed and said “Hey!” He looked at me like I was an idiot, but gave us his autograph and took us up to the suite where we met co-manager Barbara Carr and got the tickets. No Bruce sightings. He was newly married at the time, so he was probably busy.
My concert was an outdoor show June 29 in Parque de la Corneuce, a big park. It was actually supposed to be in a stadium (the same stadium where they played the final soccer game in the Sylvester Stallone movie Victory) however, they were afraid of terrorist activity and people getting crushed.
It was cool to see Bruce rocking in front of foreign fans. Born in the USA was still near the top of the charts a year after its release, and the band was extremely tight. He whipped the crowd into a frenzy with “Out in the Street,” “Glory Days,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Rosalita,” “Because the Night,” “Ramrod,” a rousing “Twist and Shout,” and “Trapped,” which was a released a few months earlier on the deadly We Are the World LP. He even brought out the rarely-played b-side “Shut out the Light.”
We were sitting about 100 yards away in the Columbia Records VIP section, which amounted to temporary bleachers in a roped off area. None of us cared. The tickets were free, the airfare was free, the hotel was free and I was able to see the best rock and roll band in the land at the top of their game in a place I never thought I would visit. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Here is the setlist from the show: Born in the USA/Badlands/Out in the Street/Johnny 99/Atlantic City/Shut Out the Light/The River/Working on the Highway/Trapped/Darlington County/Glory Days/The Promised Land/My Hometown/Thunder Road/Cover Me/Dancing in the Dark/Hungry Heart/Cadillac Ranch/Downbound Train/I’m On Fire/Because the Night/Rosalita/Can’t Help Falling in Love/Born to Run/Bobby Jean/Ramrod/Twist and Shout/Rocking All Over the World
MP3: Out in the Street (Paris, June, 29, 1985)
YouTube: I’m on Fire (Paris, June, 29, 1985)
