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Live 05 Feb 1975 version
Hmm hmm oh oh
Ooh ooh oh oh
Oh oh
Oh oh
Whoa oh oh
Whoa oh oh ah ah yeah
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Whoa oh ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Billy, he's down by the railroad tracks
Sitting low in the back seat of his Cadillac
Diamond Jackie, she's so intact
And she falls like an angel beneath him
Jackie's heels are stacked
Billy's got cleats on his boots
They're gonna boogaloo down Broadway
And come back home with the loot
It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute
It's a mad dog's promenade
So walk tall
Or don't walk at all
Fish lady, oh, my fish lady baits them tenement walls
She don't take the corner boys, because they got no money, they got no cars, and they're so easy
Ah, take my hand, girl, I'm easy, waltz with me down Broadway, baby
Take my hand, little woman, move with me down Broadway
I'm a young man, I talk it real loud and, hey, babe, I walk it real proud with you, I'll be proud with you, I'll be proud with you, oh, I'll be proud with you, baby, I'll be so proud with you, baby, I'll be proud with you, baby, I'll be proud with you, baby, I'll be proud with you, baby, I'll be proud with you, baby
So come on and hook it up, hook up to the night train
Hook up to this dark train
But I know that she won't take the train, she won't take the train
She won't take the train, (no, she won't take the train)
She won't take the train, (no, she won't take the train)
She's afraid them tracks are gonna blow her down
When she turns around, he'll be gone
Baby, so long
Sometimes you gotta walk on, walk on, walk on
Walk on, ooh, baby, ooh, whoa
Vibes man, hey, jazz man in the alley, play me your serenade
Any deeper blue, you'd be blowing that horn in your grave
Save your notes: don't spend 'em on the darling blues boys
Save your notes: don't go getting wasted with them darling yearling star boys
Straight for the church note, ring it, vibes man sting a trash can
Listen, listen to your junkman
Ah, listen to your junkman
Hey, just listen to your junkman
'Cause he's singing, (singing)
Singing, (singing)
He's got your money in his pocket, all dressed up, walking down the alley, he's standing there in the cold, he's singing
He's singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, yeah
Whoa, oh, whoa, all right, ah, ah, ah, la, la, la, la, la
Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, whoa, no, whoa, oh, whoa, oh, la, la, la, la, la, la
Oh, the streets at night, there ain't a sound
Take me in my arms
Oh, the streets at night, there ain't a sound
No, the streets at night, there ain't a sound
No, take me in my arm
And it's hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight and are you looking in the lost and found
You just gone crazy, running, running crazy in the streets
Well baby I know a place, I know a place where maybe we can go
Nobody knows it
And it's hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight, are you looking in the lost and found
Or just some crazy run through the streets
Baby I know a place where we can go where it's warm and dry, ah, it's still safe there, nobody ever goes there, nobody ever goes there, nobody ever goes there, you can hear the kids crying all night long, nobody knows it, nobody knows it, and I's got this, uh, I just got this new stereo, and, uh, I painted my place
I mean, hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight, looking in the lost and found
Ah... so stand in the rain in the street
And that joker's standing on the corner selling dreams that can't come true
And, oh, I laughed at you, baby, I, oh, but at night, I bought 'em, too
Oh, at night I bought 'em, too
At night I bought 'em, too
And, uh, down and down and down
Down and down and down and down we go
I mean, hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight
Oh, 'round and 'round, down and down and down and down we go
The TV, the TV's on with the sound turned off
TV's on, and, uh, TV's on and the sound turned off, uh, Johnny Carson on, he's, and down and down and down we go
Down, down, down
Let me tell you
And down and down, on the right side, down and down we go
Hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight
Down, down, down, down we go
You said you'd never go
Honey, outside the cops sitting on the corner, drinking coffee in the squad car, while inside, down and down and down we go
Honey, outside the girls walking down the street with their friends, people taking out girlfriends, oh, I miss that, girl
Want to go out tonight, and inside, down and down and down and down we go
While inside 'round and 'round and 'round we go, down, down, hey
Oh, down and, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Baby, baby, we could slip away
We could slip away
Oh, we could steal away
We could slip away
Ah, come, I, I got, they got my money out of the bank, and, um...
Baby, we could slip away
Baby, we could slip away
Hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight, want to steal away
Now, baby, we could steal away
Baby, we could steal away
Don't tell your mom and don't tell your pop
We could slip away
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
(Baby, we could slip away)
I got my car parked outside on the street
(Baby, we could slip away)
Pack your bags, baby, whoa
(Baby, we could slip away)
We'll shake this city life
We could say, quit your job, and, uh, baby, I can make a guitar
(Baby, we could slip away)
Ah, baby
Stop!
(Baby, we could slip away)
Stop!
(Baby, we could slip away)
Stop!
(Baby, we could slip away)
Come on!
(Baby, we could slip away)
Stop!
(Baby, we could slip away)
Stop, come, stop, slip away!
We could slip away, oh, whoa, whoa
Whoa, oh, oh
Slip away
Ah, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
Whoa!
Slip away!
Ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, ah, la, la, oh, all right, oh, all right, all right, na, na, oh, all right
Oh, ah, oh, all right, whoa, oh, all right
Who's gonna miss us
The above lyrics are for the live 05 Feb 1975 performance of NEW YORK CITY SERENADE at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA, during what is considered The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour. The song featured Roy Bittan on piano, Max Weinberg on drums, and Suki Lahav on violin, and was played in a majestic extended full-band arrangement with the "slip away" coda and a full-band, violin-led introduction.
The Main Point was a small coffeehouse venue on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, PA. It was formed in 1964 by Jeanette and William Campbell and four other couples as a small folk-based coffeehouse venue inspired by the Philadelphia Folk Festival. The venue was famous for its small intimate atmosphere, homemade food and home baked goods, and inexpensive ticket prices. Over the years, various styles of music were presented; the venue hosted many famous performers in its heydeys, including Bruce Springsteen who performed there on no less than 25 dates between 1973 and 1975. He started as an opening act during a 4-night residency in January 1973 and returned in April as a headliner.
Soon after The Main Point's opening, Bill Scarborough became co-owner and booking director from 1964-1975. When Philadelphia's Sunday Bulletin asked him in September 1973 how he made booking decisions, Scarborough cited several factors but admitted that occasionally his own musical tastes influenced him. "I think that the booking of a singer named Bruce Springsteen is the best example I can give you of personal taste and hunch entering into my final choice. Here was a new act out of nowhere, who happened to sign with a major label, and put out an album that reminded me of the best of Dylan. I decided to book him as a headliner, even though he was barely known. We did alright with him, but not as well as we'd hoped. I still feel, though, that he's going to be a big star."
The venue was popular among both musicians and listeners. Clarence Clemons commented in a special Main Point 10th anniversary publication, "The whole band had the flu. Bruce had 103 degree temperature. If it was any other place but the Main Point, any concert or club in the country, we would have cancelled."
The Main Point constantly ran into financial problems related to its intimate size. Ironically, it was its size that made it so popular. Musicians gave benefit concerts for the coffeehouse to help it out of its financial straits. Some of these concerts were broadcast over the local progressive rock radio station WMMR-FM, and many well known bootleg recordings have been made from these performances. Bruce Springsteen's 05 Feb 1975 benefit concert stands out as a particularly legendary event. The Main Point finally closed its doors in 1981.
At the request of Philadelphia's WMMR-FM disc jockey Ed Sciaky, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed a 05 Feb 1975 concert at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA. This was a benefit show held for the financially struggling club, with Bruce and the band being the sole act on the bill. The show was MC'd by Sciaky and was broadcast by WMMR-FM on the same night. The station solicited for donations to be made by phone during the broadcast.
Shortly before he passed away in January 2004, Sciaky told Backstreets magazine (issue #82, Spring 2005) that the now-famous broadcast almost never happened. After a promise from Bruce Springsteen and Mike Appel to do a broadcast of the 02 Feb 1975 Main Point benefit, Springsteen decided the day of the show that he didn't want it to air. He was playing some new songs, which would soon appear on his upcoming Born To Run album, and many of them were still unfinished. Sciaky had to call Springsteen, despite Appel's objections, trying to convince him to at least do a shortened broadcast. In the end, Springsteen decided to do the whole show on the radio.
The show was not broadcast live-as-it-happened. "We didn't have a phone line from The Main Point, so they had to tape the show in hour-long segments and then drive them to the station and put them on the air," Sciaky explained to Backstreets. "And after the final reel had played, Bruce's lighting guy, Marc Brickman took all of the tapes. So we never got a good copy of the show. But it was a classic show, and it's collected to this day, and I'm glad."
This famous Main point concert was taped off the airwaves and immediately started circulating among a number of fans. In the late seventies, an edited from of the broadcast became available on vinyl bootlegs. This changed in the digital era, when pioneering Italian label and Springsteen specialists Great Dane Records released the show in 1990 on the 2-disc CD bootleg The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle.
The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle utilized the commonly circulated recording of the broadcast, but a couple of years after its release, a 10-inch reel-to-reel tape containing the first 90 minutes of the pre-FM recording of The Main Point show made its way into collectors' hands. On this recording, the sound quality is far superior to the much more compressed off-air recording. The last 70-plus minutes of the performance, or what's presumably on a second reel, were never found from the pre-FM source. The discovery of the pre-FM reel-to-reel tape spurred a host of new bootleg releases, including the first "Masters Plus" reissue by Great Dane Records itself, which paired the new 90-minute pre-FM recording with the original FM-sourced remainder of the show.
The 05 Feb 1975 broadcast from The Main Point was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) and Wessley McGrath for the lyrics help.
List of available versions of NEW YORK CITY SERENADE on this website:
NEW YORK CITY SERENADE [Album version]
