INDEPENDENCE DAY

Live 08 Dec 1978 version

[Spoken intro:] It's combat conditions. We'll do that, alright, we'll play that one. Woah. Damn. This is uh, this is a song, I guess uh, I wrote during the "Darkness" album. This is called "Independence Day".

Well Papa go to bed now, it's getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I'll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary's Gate
We wouldn't change this thing even if we could somehow

'Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There's a darkness in this town that's got us too
They can't touch me now and you can't touch me now
They ain't gonna do to me what I watched them do to you

Say goodbye, it's Independence Day
All boys must run away come Independence Day
Well say goodbye, it's Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Papa I don't know what it always was with us
We chose the words and yeah we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

So say goodbye, it's Independence Day
All boys must run away come Independence Day
Won't you just say goodbye, it's Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted, clear down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town, leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk this dark and dusty highway all alone

So Papa go to bed now, it's getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
Because there's different people coming down here now and they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away

So say goodbye, it's Independence Day
Now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But can't you just say goodbye, it's Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away

Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hmm whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 08 Dec 1978 performance of INDEPENDENCE DAY at The Summit in Houston, TX, during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour. The song was played in its traditional full-band arrangement. Some crowd noise prior to the song, including the spoken parts in red above, is edited out on the officially released recording.

The 08 Dec 1978 Show

Towards the end of the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a show at The Summit in Houston, TX, on 08 Dec 1978.

Ticket stub for the 08 Dec 1978 show at The Summit, Houston, TX

This was reportedly the only show of the tour that was filmed in its entirety, and this could be the very reason it was chosen for official release as part of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story box set in 2010 (see the section below for more details).

In September 2017 the complete 08 Dec 1978 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). This was the first stand-alone audio release of the show. It benefits the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund to aid those affected by the recent devastation in Texas and Florida caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Bruce Springsteen, the E Street band, Sony Music, and nugs.net pledged to donate all their proceeds to the hurricane relief effort.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Summit, Houston, TX December 8, 1978

The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story

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.

Bruce Springsteen -- The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story (box set cover art)

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.

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.

Appearance in Movies

Bruce Springsteen's live 08 Dec 1978 version of INDEPENDENCE DAY appears in one movie.

Blinded By The Light

It was used in the 2019 film Blinded By The Light, directed by Gurinder Chadha and starring Viveik Kalra. The song was not included in the film's soundtrack album.

See I'LL STAND BY YOU (the "Blinded By The Light" section) for more details.

Available Versions

List of available versions of INDEPENDENCE DAY on this website:

Page last updated: 19 Sep 2019