Live 08 Jul 1978 version
Spread out now, Rosie, doctor come cut loose her mama's reins
You know playing blind man's bluff is a little baby's game
You pick up Little Dynamite, I'm gonna pick up Little Gun
Together we're gonna go out tonight, make that highway run
You don't have to call me lieutenant, Rosie, I don't want to be your son
The only lover I'm ever gonna need's your soft sweet little girl's tongue
You're the one!
Dynamite's in the belfry, baby, playing with the bats
Little Gun's downtown in front of Woolworth's, trying out his attitude on all the cats
Papa's on the corner, waiting for the bus
Mama's home in the window, waiting up there for us
She'll be there in that chair when they wrestle her upstairs, you know we ain't gonna come
I ain't here on business, only here for fun
So, hey!
Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your lover, ain't no liar
Rosie, you're my stone desire
All right!
Jack the Rabbit, Weak Knees Willie, you know they're gonna be there
Gonna be Sloppy Sue, Big Bones Billy, they're coming up for air
Gonna play some pool, skip some school, act real cool
Stay out all night, it's gonna feel all right
Rosie, come out tonight, come out tonight
Windows are for cheaters, chimneys for the poor
Closets are for hangers, winners use the door!
Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your lover, ain't no liar
Rosie, you're my stone desire
You guys are dangerous down here tonight!
Hey!
One, two, three, four!
[Spoken:] On the keyboards, Professor Roy Bittan! On the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt! On the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W. Tallent! On the drums, The Mighty Max! On the organ, Phantom Dan Federici! And last but not least, vrrggh! The King of the World! The Master of Disaster! The Big Man, Clarence Clemons!
Bring it up!
I know your mama, she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band
I know your pop don't dig me, he never did understand
Papa lowered the boom, locked you in your room
Coming to lend a hand
Riding to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man
Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny, la, la, la
Now you're sad, mama's mad
Papa says he knows (that I don't have any money)
(Papa says he knows that I don't have any money)
Say!
(Your papa says he knows that I don't have any money)
This is his last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
The record company, Rosie, gave me a big advance!
My tires were slashed, I almost crashed, the Lord had mercy
My machine, she's a dud, out stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
Hold on tight, stay up all night, Rosie, I'm coming on strong
By the time we meet the morning light, I will hold you in my arms
I know a pretty little place in Southern California down San Diego way
A little café, they play guitars all night and day
You can hear 'em in the back room strumming
Hold tight, baby, don't you know I'm coming
Everybody say—Phoenix!
Ohhhhh!
Whoa!
Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your lover, ain't no liar
Rosie, you're my stone desire
(Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!)
Hey!
[Spoken outro:] You guys ain't kidding! That girl almost put out my front tooth! Whoa! The E Street Band! The Big Man! Your goddamn selves!
The above lyrics are for the live 07 Jul 1978 performance of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, AZ, during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement and featured band introductions in the midsection.
Part of this show was filmed in 35mm by director Arnold Levine. Videos of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT), PROVE IT ALL NIGHT, and BADLANDS were originally released promotionally. ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT), which was the most widely distributed among the three, was later released commercially in an edited form (with the above parts in red edited out) on Springsteen's Video Anthology / 1978-88 home video in 1989 (read below) and in an unedited form on The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story box set in 2010 (read below). The live 08 Jul 1978 version of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) was included (in the edited form) on the Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- compilation album.
The edited video of the live 08 Jul 1978 performance of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) from Video Anthology / 1978-88 was posted on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel on 02 Oct 2009.
The unedited video of the live 08 Jul 1978 performance of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) from The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story was posted on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel on 21 Dec 2018.
In an October 2020 interview for Apple Music, Bruce Springsteen told Zane Lowe: "We didn't allow ourselves to be shot very often when we were young. I was superstitious about it as far as I─ the magician not wanting to see too closely how he does his magic trick. So I'm so glad for the footage that exists now as I've gotten older and I really wish I'd allowed ─ and we film a lot now ─ but I really wish I'd allowed us to film much more when I was younger." The subject came up when Lowe told Springsteen that in preparation for the interview he had been watching old footage of Springsteen and described a video in which women were running onstage and grabbing Springsteen and kissing him. Springsteen was very familiar with that particular piece of footage, which was ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) from Phoenix, AZ. "It was the end of the night and there was just that fabulous chaotic moment where the stage is besieged, and it's a great little piece of rock and roll footage."
The promotional video for ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) (the live 08 Jul 1978 performance in Phoenix, AZ) first appeared in the United States on the Heroes of Rock and Roll documentary, directed by Malcolm Leo and narrated by Jeff Bridges. The documentary debuted on ABC-TV on 09 Feb 1979 in prime time, and was exposed to a large audience and received many favorable reviews. The documentary was re-broadcast again by ABC-TV later in 1979 and was also shown on TV networks overseas.
Despite having two successful albums under his belt at the time, there was no Springsteen video available to the numerous TV network music video shows that were emerging in countries around the world. This was the early dawn of the music video era, so CBS made the live ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) video clip available to these types of TV shows in key Springsteen markets as a promo-only video ─ a viable commercial market for music videos was still several years away.
Probably the first notable TV music show host to support and play Springsteen's ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) video was Molly Meldrum on his legendary Countdown TV show in Australia. Meldrum first broadcast the clip on Countdown in March 1979 and he used to play it frequently during the 1979-1982 period when no other clips from Springsteen were available. The same kind of thing happened in 1979 in the strongest Springsteen markets in Europe. MTV also showed the clip in the early eighties ─ it debuted on 16 May 1984 on MTV according to an article by Christopher Phillips in the Spring 1999 issue of Backstreets magazine.
To capitalize on the sudden emergence and popularity of the music video in Europe, CBS released the album version of the song as a single in 1979 in Holland. They also included it on two UK EPs, in 1981 and 1985. See the album version for detailed releases.
The music video occupies the #71 spot on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Top Music Videos" which was compiled in 1993.
Video Anthology / 1978-88 is a collection of 18 Bruce Springsteen music videos and concert performances, released on VHS on 31 Jan 1989. The home video was also released on LaserDisc.
Sonny reissued the video on DVD on 16 Jan 2001. Titled The Complete Video Anthology / 1978-2000, the new expanded release added a second disc with 15 additional music video, concert performances, and television appearances.
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story is a Bruce Springsteen box set released in 2010 on Columbia Records. It was originally expected to be released for the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album's 30th anniversary in 2008, but that didn't happen, possibly due to Springsteen's touring schedule. The box set was officially announced on 26 Aug 2010 and released to retail on 16 Nov 2010.
The 8.5"x11" box set contains three CDs, three Blu-Ray discs or three DVDs, and an 80-page spiral-bound notebook containing facsimiles from Springsteen's original notebooks from the recording sessions, which include alternate lyrics, song ideas, recording details, and personal notes, in addition to a new essay by Springsteen on the album and never-before-seen photographs. The box set won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package.
Disc 1 consists of a digitally remastered version of the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album. Disc 2 and 3 consist of The Promise, a collection of unreleased songs from the Darkness On The Edge Of Town recording sessions.
Disc 4 is The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, a documentary that was produced for the box set. It was directed by Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny. The ninety-minute film combines never-before-seen footage of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band shot between 1976 and 1978, including home rehearsals and studio sessions, with new interviews with Springsteen, E Street Band members, manager Jon Landau, former manager Mike Appel, and others closely involved in the making of the record.
The documentary premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 Sep 2010 and also aired on HBO on 07 Oct 2010. It was first exclusively available as part of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story box set, but was then released separately on 03 May 2011, in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats, with some bonus features.
Disc 5 consists of two parts: Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park 2009 and Thrill Hill Vault 1976 - 1978. The former is a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's live performance of the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album in its entirety, shot in HD on 13 Dec 2009 at Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ, without an audience.
Thrill Hill Vault 1976-1978 is a collection of archival footage from Springsteen's personal vault It consists of an about-an-hour's worth (it clocks at about 56 minutes) of home rehearsals footage from 1976, studio sessions footage from 1978, and live in concert footage from 1978. It was produced and edited by Emmy- and Grammy-winner Thom Zimny and the audio for the live 1978 footage and some of the 1978 studio footage was mixed by Bob Ludwig. Zimny re-edited the 1978 concert footage making use of previously unseen camera angles. The home rehearsals and studio session footage was originally produced and directed by Barry Rebo, while the live in concert footage was originally directed by Arnold Levine.
Disc 6 is Houston '78 Bootleg: House Cut, a video of the complete 08 Dec 1978 concert at The Summit in Houston, TX. The footage was taken from the in-house video screen at The Summit, which was one of the first arenas in the United States to have this system at the time. This gave the release its title "Houston '78 Bootleg: House Cut". Considering that it was taken from the mono soundboard, the sound is only available in PCM stereo and not in 5.1 surround. The video was produced by Emmy- and Grammy-winner Thom Zimny and the audio was mastered by Bob Ludwig. It clocks at around 176 minutes.
Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- is a Bruce Springsteen compilation album released by Sony Music Japan in 2023. The compilation, which was exclusively released in Japan, consists of previously released 35 audio tracks and 62 video tracks. The collection is part of a 26-title reissue campaign to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's debut album. The series, issued in three waves (25 Oct 2023, 22 Nov 2023, and 20 Dec 2023), includes 25 albums originally released between 1973 and 2014 plus a new compilation album that includes all of Springsteen's singles released in Japan from 1975 to 1999. All audio CD's were manufactured using Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format.
Disc 1: (audio CD)
Disc 2: (audio CD)
Disc 3: (DVD)
Disc 4: (DVD)
The unedited video of the live 08 Jul 1978 performance of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) was also included on The Old Grey Whistle Test DVD in 2001 and The Old Grey Whistle Test, Vol. 1 DVD in 2003. These DVDs compile interviews and performances from several artists who appeared on the BBC2 show The Old Grey Whistle Test during its 16-year run (1971-1987). Springsteen's episode first aired on 22 Dec 1984.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
Please contact me if you know about any official release containing the live 08 Jul 1978 version of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) that's not mentioned on this page. Any additions, comments, or corrections to this page are welcome. You can contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) on this website:
ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) [Album version]
