JUNGLELAND

Live 05 Jun 1981 version

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[Spoken intro:] Thanks. This... I'd like to, I'd like to take a second, I'd like to thank, thank all you guys for coming down to the shows that we've done here in London. And I'd like to apologize for having to cancel out on you in the early tour and I hope it didn't inconvenience you too much. This is uh... I'd like to thank yous for over, over the, over the years when we haven't, we haven't been over here. I want to─ thanks for supporting the band so much, thank you.

The rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants, together they take a stab at romance and disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
Well the kids 'round here look just like shadows, always silent, holding hands
From the churches to the jails tonight all is silent in the world
As we take our stand, say it now!
Down in Jungleland

Well the midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
We're gonna meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light
Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike, and there's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Well local cops, Cherry Top, rip this holy night

The street's alive as secret debts are paid, contacts made, they vanish unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted explode into rock and roll bands
They faced off against each other out in the street, go!
Down in Jungle ...land

[Guitar solo]

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records the deejay plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners desperate as the night moves on
In just one look and a whisper, they're gone

[Saxophone solo]

Beneath the city two hearts beat, soul engines running through a night so tender
In a bedroom locked, in whispers of soft refusal and then surrender
In the tunnels uptown, the Rat's own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the night
Nobody's watching when their ambulance pulls away, when the girl shuts out her bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in real death waltz between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And man the poets down here don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
In the quick of the night they reach for their moment and try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded, not even dead, tonight in Jungleland

Hoo-woah
Hoo-woah
Woah-woah
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa-woah

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Info

The above lyrics are for the live 05 Jun 1981 performance of JUNGLELAND at Wembley Arena in London, England, during The River Tour. The song was played in its full-band album arrangement. The parts in bold are sung by the crowd.

The 05 Jun 1981 Show

In 1981, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band toured Europe for the first time in six years. In 1975 they had played two shows in London at the 3,000-seat Hammersmith Odeon and single shows at theaters in Amsterdam and Stockholm. The much anticipated 1981 European leg of The River Tour was scheduled to begin with 12 shows in England and Scotland between 17 March and 04 April. Three shows were announced before Christmas 1980 and more dates were added weekly throughout January 1981, making a total of 12 shows in the UK.

On 12 March, only five days before the first show, Springsteen called his manager Jon Landau late at night telling him that he was sick and needed rest. He was exhausted following the first 1981 North American leg that wrapped up just a week earlier. Landau immediately informed UK promoter Harvey Goldsmith who issued the next morning a statement that Landau gave him. It read: "Bruce is simply exhausted and suffering from the assorted ailments that can crop up during a grueling tour. While his health is not in serious danger, doing his first full tour of the UK without adequate rest would run the risk of later cancellations. Bruce regrets any inconvenience to his UK fans."

The 12 UK shows were rescheduled for the last three weeks of May and the first week in June. The five shows at the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena in London were rescheduled from 19 March, 20 March, 02 April, 03 April, and 04 April 1981 to 29 May, 30 May, 01 June, 02 June, and 04 June 1981 respectively. Due to high demand, four shows were added to the UK dates, including a sixth show at Wembley Arena on 05 Jun 1981 that was announced in early April.

A Mobile One recording truck was spotted outside Wembley Arena on 05 Jun 1981. UK Bruce Springsteen fanzine Point Blank reported that "a 4-track EP recorded live at Wembley is due for release in the autumn," but the plan was eventually scrapped.

In August 2018 the complete 05 Jun 1981 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The show was recorded with the Mobile One recording truck by Andy Rose, assisted by Tim Wybrow. It was mixed by Jon Altschiller from 24-track, 2-inch, 30 IPS tape source, with additional engineering by Danielle Warman. It was mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, ME. The last 95 seconds of DETROIT MEDLEY were missing on the multi-track masters, so a fan recording was used to fill the rest of the song.

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.

Available Versions

List of available versions of JUNGLELAND on this website:

JUNGLELAND [Album version]
JUNGLELAND [Live 21 Sep 1979 version]
JUNGLELAND [Live 22 Sep 1979 version]
JUNGLELAND [Live 05 Jun 1981 version]
JUNGLELAND [Live 28 Jul 2012 version]

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Page last updated: 09 Sep 2018