INTO THE FIRE

Live 22 Sep 2012 version

[Spoken intro:] This is for Rich Nappi, and Mary Anne.

The sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me, then you disappeared into the dust
Up the stairs, into the fire
Yeah up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

You gave your love to see, in fields of red and autumn brown
You gave your love to me, lay your young body down
Yeah up the stairs, into the fire
Yeah up the stairs, into the fire
I need you near, but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

It was dark, too dark to see, you held me in the light you gave
You lay your hand on me and walked into the darkness of your smoky grave
Up the stairs, into the fire
Yeah up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss but love and duty called you someplace higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 22 Sep 2012 performance of INTO THE FIRE at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, during the Wrecking Ball Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement and this was its only performance on this tour.

Springsteen dedicated INTO THE FIRE to Rich Nappi and his widow Marry Anne. Nappi was a huge Springsteen fan and a decorated veteran of the New York City Fire Department. He died on 16 Apr 2012 while battling a warehouse fire in Brooklyn. Friends organized a memorial tailgate before the 22 Sep 2012 concert and commemorative t-shirts reached Springsteen's road crew ─ some wore them that night.

The 22 Sep 2012 Show

During the Wrecking Ball Tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed three concerts at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, on 19, 21, and 22 Sep 2012. 159,000 tickets were made available for the concert series and 152,290 were sold (95%). Vini Lopez was the special guest at the first show and Gary U.S. Bonds was the special guest at the second and third shows.

The third (and final) show was delayed for two hours due to a strong thunderstorm that swept through East Rutherford just before show time. The show finally got underway around 10:30 pm and stretched to nearly three-and-a-half hours. At midnight, fans sang "Happy Birthday" to Springsteen to celebrate his 63rd birthday. At the end of the show, Springsteen was presented with a guitar-shaped birthday cake onstage delivered by his mom Adele, his oldest sister Virginia, his mother-in-law Pat Scialfa (whom he introduced by singing a line from Allen Toussaint's MOTHER-IN-LAW), his brother-in-law Michael Scialfa, and Steven Van Zandt's wife Maureen.

Ticket stub for the 22 Sep 2012 show at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

Handwritten setlist for the 22 Sep 2012 show at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

In June 2019 the complete 22 Sep 2012 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The show was recorded by John Cooper and mixed by Jon Altschiller with additional engineering by Danielle Warman. It was mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering in Portland, ME.

Bruce Springsteen -- East Rutherford, NJ 09.22.12

Official Live Downloads

Prior to the High Hopes Tour, Bruce Springsteen's management announced a new service allowing fans to download concert recordings approximately 48 hours after each show. The initial plan required fans to purchase a special USB wristband, which could then be used to download a single High Hopes Tour show of the purchaser's choice and also functions as a regular reusable USB flash drive. The wristband, which could be purchased online or at the concert venue, was priced at $40. Following some negative response from fans over the high cost for the wristband, Springsteen's management subsequently announced a separate cheaper option for purchasing shows directly, without the need for the wristband. The shows were available for purchase and download via Live Nation, Bruce Springsteen's concert promoter, priced at $9.99 for MP3 and $14.99 for FLAC. Audio recordings for 31 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, and 03 May 2014) were released as such and they were available until 30 Jun 2014.

On 17 Nov 2014, Live.BruceSpringsteen.net was launched. It's a new addition to the official website, serving as an online store offering high-quality live concert recordings as well as high-resolution digital releases of Springsteen's album catalog. The download store is powered by Nugs.net in cooperation with Columbia Records. Audio recordings for 30 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, 03 May 2014, and 18 May 2014) were re-released on the new download store in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Nugs.net adopted the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format on 24 May 2017. From then on, all Bruce Springsteen live concert recordings, including the previously released ones, became also available in MQA.

Audio recordings for all 75 The River Tour 2016 dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Audio recordings for all 14 Summer '17 Tour dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Archival releases were periodically released on the same site, as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series. These shows were also made available in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless FLAC or ALAC, 24-bit FLAC or ALAC or MQA, DSD, and audio CD-R. So far 90 shows (or sets of shows) were released from the ongoing series.

References

Some of the above info about Rich Nappi is taken from Backstreets.com.

Available Versions

List of available versions of INTO THE FIRE on this website:

Page last updated: 10 Jun 2019