From Cleveland: 9-8-78
´´I wrote this song in 1971, I think….Roy….it was….it was….I remember I was 12 years old ….(?)….and I was going to this Catholic school and I got sent home for pissing in my desk (cheers) obviously, a popular pastime, right (chuckles) and the Sisters told my mother that I needed psychiatric attention (chuckles) and so my mother….the only people that were more scared of the nuns than the kids was the parents, you know, yeah, I remember my old man and my old lady, they were terrified of them Sisters so downtown they take me to this doc …..and, uh….I´m sitting down there on the couch and he says ´Son, how did you get this way ?´ I thought about it and I said ´Doc, I’m glad you asked because….up to now I’ve kept it a secret but the fact was…..I was a teenage werewolf ´….I said ´Doc, I was out in the street, I remember it was midnight, I looked up….there was a full moon, I felt this hair growing all over my face….I felt my fingers get longer and my nails pop out and a guitar pop out of my left side….my pants got tighter and my hair got longer, a man with a cigar come up and stung me on the ass….and (chuckles) and all of sudden….in one moment I looked up and there was this light….and for just one second… I stood stone like at midnight…
(….) And I remember….it was years later….I grew up, I came home from high school one day….the old man was sitting at the kitchen table with the old lady….and they´re looking pretty serious, they said ´Son, sit down, please”…..so I knew I was in trouble ´cause they called me ´Son´….the other stuff they used to call me I can’t say over the radio (chuckles) but, uh (chuckles) so, anyway, I sit down….and my mother, she does the talking, she’s the Italian, right…..she says ´It´s time, we decided, me and your father, we decided you gotta stop fooling around with yourself´….how´d they know what I was doing in my room at night ?….they said ´You gotta get serious, it´s like (chuckles) it´s, uh….it´s time that you put that guitar down, that thing´s ok for a hobby but you´re never gonna get anyplace with that´…. and my father said ´You should be a lawyer because lawyers, they own the world´ and my mother, she said ´You should be an author, you should write books´ so….they said ´But we decided this is too big a decision, what you gotta do you gotta go over to the rectory, you gotta talk to Father Ray about your vocation, we set up an appointment, you gotta go over there in an hour´….´cause that’s the thing they used to do in those days….so I go over to the rectory, oh, before I went over there, my father says ´Now, when you go talk to the priest, you tell him you wanna be a lawyer, you tell him you wanna be an author but don’t you tell him nothing about that goddamn guitar….I said ´Ok, ok ´, I go over to the priest’s house, I ring on the doorbell, ´Father Ray, this is Mr. Springsteen’s son, I´ve come to talk to you about my vocation´ so he comes out and we start walking around the church and, uh, they all, the priests in those days, they all had like illusions of The Bells of St. Mary´s, they´d seen that movie too many times or something, they´re all doing Patrick O’Brien, is that his name ? Pat O’Brien imitations and like….we talked for a while and he says ´Listen, I decided ….that this decision is too big for me to make; what you gotta do you gotta go direct to God, you gotta talk to God about this….now, you tell Him you wanna be a lawyer, you tell Him you wanna be an author….but don’t tell Him nothing about (a woman yells) what ? an interior decorator ? (chuckles) that’s you ? (chuckles) but don’t you tell Him nothing about that goddamn guitar´….I said ´Ok, ok´ so I figured I gotta go see God and all I have to go see Him in was my mother’s Rambler, was all beat up, all smashed up, paint scraped off the side so I drive over to Clarence’s house…..I say ´Clarence….I got the word, I gotta go see God tonight´, he says ´Well, you can´t go in that car…..´So what do you mean I can’t go in this, it’s the only car I got´, he says ´That thing is, thing´s ugly as hell, it’s like, you think He’s gonna see you in that car ?….there’s gonna be guys up there with Montecarlos, Lincolns, Continentals, you think He’s gonna notice you ?´….I said ´Ok, ok´ so I went down to Earl Shy….at the time it was 39.95, I went by the other day, I seen that Earl since upped it ten bucks (chuckles) but anyway, he does the car, midnight blue, I leave the windows down, he does the interior for free….if I had my brother in the back seat, he had done him free of charge too, it´s like (chuckles)….anyway, me and Clarence we drive out to see God, Clarence says he knows where He is…. so we get out there and I don’t see nothing but this dark hill next to this cemetery….I say ´Clarence, uh….are you sure He´s up there ?´ (Clarence says something) ´You sure it ain´t (chuckles) you sure it ain´t, you sure it ain´t the other guy ? this is the right place ?´….and while I´m up there what ? ask him about ? the tape player that somebody stole out of your room´….so I had these two big questions I had to ask, about Clarence’s tape player and what I´m gonna do with my life….so up the hill I go and it’s dark and it’s scary, all these noises coming out of the woods (cheers) and when I got to the top I realised that the place was packed, there was people all over the place….I’m walking around ….I bump into Kid Leo !…. go ´Kid, what are you doing ?´, he says ´Praying for more watts …..I gotta blast this baby all the way to New Jersey´….crazy man up there….so I find myself a quiet place, I kneel down, I say ´God, my father wants me to be a lawyer, my mother wants me to be an author but I got this guitar, you see ?´….and all of a sudden….I heard this thunder (Max pounds the drums) seen this lightning coming out of the sky….it was real quiet for a while….and then I heard just three words…..´LET IT ROCK !´….”
