Live 14 Apr 2008 version
| Bruce Springsteen: | Go! |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Wasn't I always a friend to you? |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Do you wanna be my friend? |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Do you wanna be my friend? |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Every once in a while honey let your love show |
| Every once in a while honey let yourself show | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Nobody gets hurt, no, no |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Nobody gets hurt |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Well, we came here as two, we laid down as one |
| I don't care if I'm not your only | |
| What I see in you, you see in me | |
| But if I be wrong, smoke my smoke, drink my wine | |
| Bury my snakeskin boots somewhere I'll never find | |
| Still be your lover baby | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | O-o, o-o o-o |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Wasn't I always a friend to you? |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Do you wanna be my friend? |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Do you wanna be my friend? |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Every once in a while, honey let yourself go |
| Every once in a while, honey let yourself show | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Nobody gets hurt, no, no |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Ooh ooh |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Nobody gets hurt |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Well, I could be an astronaut on the wrong side of the moon |
| Or wrapped up like a baby on a bus under you | |
| Wherever I go you go with me | |
| But if I do you wrong, take the master suite, I'll take the floor | |
| Sleep in late, get some rest, I'll get mine | |
| Still be your lover baby | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | O-o, o-o o-o |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Wasn't I always a friend to you? |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? | |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Every once in a while, honey let your love show |
| Every once in a while, honey let yourself, go! | |
| Alejandro Escovedo: | Nobody gets hurt, it's only love, love, love |
| O-o, o-o o-o | |
| Springsteen and Escovedo: | Wasn't I always a friend to you? |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? | |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? | |
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? |
ALWAYS A FRIEND is a 2008 song by Alejandro Escovedo. See the original Alejandro Escovedo version for more details.
The above lyrics are for the live 14 Apr 2008 performance of ALWAYS A FRIEND at Toyota Center in Houston, TX, during the Magic Tour. The song was performed as a duet with Alejandro Escovedo. This live 14 Apr 2008 version of ALWAYS A FRIEND was officially released on the Magic Tour Highlights digital EP in 2008.
In April 2008, it was announced that Alejandro Escovedo will be managed by Jon Landau (Bruce Springsteen's longtime manager) and Barbara Carr. During the 14 Apr 2008 Magic Tour show at Toyota Center in Houston, TX, Springsteen paid homage to Escovedo stating that he "has been making great music for a long, long time". Escovedo took the stage and performed ALWAYS A FRIEND, the lead single from his then-forthcoming album Real Animal, as a duet with Springsteen.
Escovedo told Backstreets magazine, "We were driving towards Houston, when I got a text message from [manager] Jan that said Bruce wants to do 'Always a Friend.' 'Are you in? Can you make sound-check in 45 minutes?' We were two hours out!" Despite missing out on sound-check, Alejandro and Bruce ran through the song twice acoustically before he called the entire E Street Band into the dressing room. "There's Soozie, and Little Steven, and Max, and Garry... I mean, they're giants," Escovedo continued, "Just giants. And so we ran through it once acoustically in the dressing room. And then I went out to see my first Bruce Springsteen show. I've seen a lot of music in my life: you know punk rock, The Stooges... everything. But this is one of the most powerful things, if not the most powerful thing I've ever seen."
About the experience, he commented that "Those four minutes on stage with Bruce were more important than the 33 years I've been playing music. It just changed my life. It was like being blessed by the Dali Lama. Suddenly all those years of working really hard and struggling, someone said, 'You're alright. You're good at what you do. You deserve to be up here.'"
On 15 Jul 2008, Columbia Records released Magic Tour Highlights, a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band download-only digital EP consisting of four live audio tracks and their accompanying videos. The performances were recorded in March and April 2008 during the Magic Tour, and feature guest musicians, as well as Danny Federici's last performance with the group. Bob Clearmountain mixed and Bob Ludwig mastered the songs. Frequent Springsteen collaborator and Grammy and Emmy Award winner Thom Zimny edited the videos.
The songs on the EP are not the Magic Tour's "highlights", but more of a sampling of some of the tour's best guest spots.
Magic Tour Highlights was not released commercially on a physical format, but some CD-R's were issued in the United States and Europe for promotional use.
The EP is available for download from all major digital downloads stores, including the iTunes Store and Amazon.com. The net proceeds from the sales of Magic Tour Highlights support The Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. These include the artists', the songwriters', and the music publishers' royalties, in addition to all Columbia Records' net profits. The iTunes Store donated their first year's net profits as well.
The Danny Federici Melanoma Fund was started shortly after Frederici's death, and is dedicated to the research and development treatments for melanoma through funding for clinical trials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The fund also aims to help raise awareness for the disease.
ALWAYS A FRIEND was performed once during the Magic Tour, on 14 Apr 2008 in Houston, TX, when Alejandro Escovedo joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage. That performance of the song was included three months later on the Magic Tour Highlights digital EP.
ALWAYS A FRIEND was performed on 23 Jul 2010 in Asbury Park, NJ, when Bruce Springsteen joined Alejandro Escovedo and The Sensitive Boys for a three-song encore during their gig The Stone Pony. The gig was in support of Escovedo's new album Street Songs Of Love.
ALWAYS A FRIEND was performed on off-tour 14 Mar 2012 at Austin Music Hall in Austin, TX, during a surprise appearance at the conclusion of the 30th annual Austin Music Awards, joining Alejandro Escovedo and The Sensitive Boys for a four-song set, along with Joe Ely (on all four songs) and Garland Jeffreys (on two of the four songs).
ALWAYS A FRIEND was performed during the eleventh (2011) annual Light Of Day benefit. The song was played with Alejandro Escovedo.
Thanks John Eick for the help.
List of available versions of ALWAYS A FRIEND on this website:
ALWAYS A FRIEND [Live 14 Apr 2008 version]
