Live 02 Oct 1975 version
[Spoken intro:] This is something -- thank you all so much. This is something from, uh, The Wild & The Innocent album, and, uh, once again I want to thank everybody for, for, like, for going through this whole thing with us, and, this is our first time in Milwaukee... Now to find out what made it famous! Oh, damn, that's bad! (laughs) I want to thank you and this is something to you from Asbury Park and beyond the Palace with love.
One, two, three, four
Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight
Forcin' a light into all them stoned-out faces left stranded on this fourth of July
Down in town the Circuit's full with switchblade lovers, so fast, so shiny, and sharp
And them wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers along the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York girls
Oh, Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
The pier lights our carnival life forever
Love me tonight, 'cause I, I may never see you again
Hey, Sandy, girl
Well, now the greasers, they still tramp the streets or get busted for trying to sleep on the beach all night
Them boys in their spiked high heels, watch out, Sandy, their skins are so white
And me, I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades and bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk, where they all promise to unsnap their jeans
You know that tilt-a-whirl way down on the south beach drag
Oh, I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And that Joey kept me spinnin'
Didn't think I'd ever get off
Oh, Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
The pier lights our carnival life on the water
Running crazy 'neath the boardwalk with my old boss's daughter
Well, he ain't my boss no more, Sandy!
Sandy, the angels have lost their desire for us
You see, I spoke to 'em just last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire for us no more
Every summer when the weather gets hot, they ride that crazy road down from heaven, on their Harleys they come and they go
You see 'em dressed like stars in all the cheap little seashore bars
And parked with their babies out on the Kokomo
Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
This boardwalk life for me is through
You know, you ought to quit this scene too
Oh, Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
The pier lights our carnival life forever
Love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever
Hey, Sandy, girl
Oh, oh, oh
How 'bout it?
[Spoken outro:] Thank you.
The above lyrics are for the live 02 Oct 1975 performance of 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) at Uptown Theatre in Milwaukee, WI, during the Born To Run Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement.
This show is famous for its bomb scare. Just 45 minutes into the concert, a bomb threat was phoned in to the theatre, and the night's MC Bob Reitman (disc jockey for WQFM) was forced to take the stage and inform the crowd of the threat, asking them to return in three hours time. The police searched the theatre and found no bomb, so the band returned at midnight for another two hours on stage. The band spent its time during the delay in a nearby bar and it's evident as the show got back underway that Springsteen had a few drinks.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help. Some of the above info is taken from Brucebase.
List of available versions of 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) on this website:
4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) [Album version]