SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT

Live 07 Jul 1978 version

Whoa!

Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley trading hands
'Long came Wild Billy with his friend G-Man, duded up for Saturday night
Billy slammed on his coaster brakes
Anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake?
It's about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight
Well, I got a bottle of rose, let's try it
We'll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe, I'll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They're built like light
Ooh, and they dance like spirits in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Well, baby don't know what they do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Hey!
Stand up and let it shoot right through you

Well, Wild Billy was a crazy cat and he shook some dust from out of his coonskin cap
Cried, "Trust some of this, it'll show you where you're at, at least it'll help you really feel it"
By the time we made it up to Greasy Lake I had my head out the window; Janey's fingers in the cake
I think I really dug her; I was too loose to fake
Said, "I'm hurt," she said, "Honey, let me heal it"
We danced all night to a soul fairy band
She kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can
Felt just right, just as sweet as a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Well, baby don't know what it do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Stand up and let it shoot right through you
Let's go!
Big Man! Excuse me!

Well the night grew bright, the stars threw light on Billy and Davy
Dancing in the moonlight
We were down near the water in a stone mud fight
Killer Joe passed out on the lawn

Well, Hazy Davy got really hurt, he crawled into the lake in just his socks and a shirt
Me and Crazy Janey were making love in the dirt, singing our birthday songs
And Janey said, "Hey little brother, don't you think it's time that we go?"
We closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row, felt just right
Bam!
We moved like spirits in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Well, baby don't know what it do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Stand up and let it shoot right through you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)

Baby, that's right
Like a spirit in the night
Like a spirit in the night
Like a spirit in the night
Ah!

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 07 Jul 1978 performance of SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA, during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour. The song was played in its traditional full-band arrangement.

This live 07 Jul 1978 version of SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT was released on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986.

The 07 Jul 1978 Show

On 07 Jul 1978, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a special concert at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA. The full show was originally broadcast live on the now-defunct local radio station KMET-FM, and later became one of the main source concerts for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes eight recordings from this show. One more recording didn't make it onto the box set but was released as a b-side. Prior to its official release in 2018, this show circulated in its complete form on bootlegs (and unauthorized releases) sourced from tapes recorded off the airways.

Ticket stub for the 07 Jul 1978 show at The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, CA
(Taken from Brucebase)

It was Jon Landau who suggested to Paul Rappaport, Columbia Records' west coast promotion manager at the time, the idea of a live broadcast on KMET-FM to widely promote Springsteen in Los Angeles. Rappaport had only a few days to organize a concert. The Roxy Theatre, which had a seating capacity of only 500, was selected and the band already booked to play the venue on that date has to be bought out. Ma Bell laid special high-fidelity phone lines at the venue to send audio to the radio station and a remote-recording truck was procured to handle the mix and record the concert on multi-track tapes for future use.

Reel-to-reel tape from which the official release was transferred

Rumors that a special show is happening on Friday 07 Jul 1978 at The Roxy Theatre started circulating just 48 hours prior to the show, and this was later confirmed in the 06 Jul 1978 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Tickets went on sale at noon on Thursday and the venue's limited capacity made getting tickets extremely difficult. With such short notice, tickets were simply stamped onto standard Roxy Theatre stubs (see above scan). It has been reported that the record company had bought half of the tickets, but Springsteen requested that they return half of them to various Los Angeles radio stations who would distribute them to fans.

In July 2018 the complete 07 Jul 1978 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). It was recorded live with the Wally Heider Mobile truck by Jimmy Iovine and his crew consisting of Pete Carlson, Biff Dawes, Dennis Mays, Phil MacConnell, and Paul Sandweiss. The audio was freshly mixed by Jon Altschiller from 24-track 2-inch 15 IPS master tapes, assisted by Danielle Warman. It was mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, ME.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy July 7, 1978

The 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

3xCD - Rox Vox (RV3CD1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

4xLP - Rox Vox (RV4LP1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy Night 1978

3xCD - Leftfield Media (LFM3CD534) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 1

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV386LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 1 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 2

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV387LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 2 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy 1978

Digital album - Lilith Records (no catalog number) - UK, 2016

This is a download-only digital album. It contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Complete 1978 Radio Broadcasts

15xCD - Sound Stage (SSCDBOX10) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 09 Aug 1978 broadcast from The Agora, the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre, the 19 Sep 1978 broadcast from Capitol Theatre, the 30 Sep 1978 broadcast from Fox Theatre, and the 15 Dec 1978 broadcast from Winterland Ballroom.

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.

The Live/1975-85 Box Set

With the Born In The U.S.A. album and tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band reached the highest level of rock stardom. Columbia Records was expecting a follow up studio album and tour that would, like it's predecessor, achieve a huge commercial success. Instead, Springsteen released Live/1975-85, an over-three-hours-and-a-half-long live compilation album consisting of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Live/1975-85

The set was produced by Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Bruce Springsteen, and hit the stores on 10 Nov 1986. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs. Live/1975-85 is the first album to be credited to "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" instead of "Bruce Springsteen" only.

The highly-anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line on Monday morning before opening and one New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies. Live/1975-85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13 times platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live.

Other Official Releases

Th live 07 Jul 1978 version of SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT also appears on a few other official releases.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Born To Run Live

CD EP - CBS (BRUCE C2) - UK, 1987

UK-only release. SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT is an extra track not included on the 12-inch issue of this EP.

01- BORN TO RUN [Live 19 Aug 1985 version]
02- SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
03- SEEDS [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
04- JOHNNY 99 [Live 19 Aug 1985 version]

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Born To Run Live

2x7" EP - CBS (BRUCE B2) - UK, 1987

UK-only box set containing two 7" singles, Born To Run Live and "Spirit In The Night / Because The Night", the latter being exclusive to this box set. All four tracks are taken from the Live/1975-85 box set.

A1- BORN TO RUN [Live 19 Aug 1985 version]
B1- JOHNNY 99 [Live 19 Aug 1985 version]
C1- SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
D1- BECAUSE THE NIGHT [Live 28 Dec 1980 version]

Bruce Springsteen -- "Seeds / Spirit In the Night"

10" acetate - CBS Mastering Studios (no catalog number) - UK, 1987

Two-sided acetate issued in the UK by CBS Mastering Studios around 1987. This track coupling never saw an official release.

A1- SEEDS [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
B1- SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- PBS Exclusive

CD - Columbia (82876 75932 2) - USA, 2005

US-only promotional CD sampler exclusively available to donors supporting the "Public Broadcasting Service" (PBS) programming with a $60 "pledge", and contains 7 live tracks compiled off the Live/1975-85 box set, the Live In New York City album, and the Live In Barcelona DVD.

PBS Exclusive (2005 sampler) track list

01- SHE'S THE ONE [Live 16 Oct 2002 version]
02- BORN TO RUN [Live 16 Oct 2002 version]
03- THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Oct 1975 (early show) version]
04- TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT [Live 29 Jun 2000 / 01 Jul 2000 version]
05- SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
06- BACKSTREETS [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
07- JUNGLELAND [Live 29 Jun 2000 version]

Credits / References

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Scan for the 10-inch acetate is taken from the Lost In The Flood website.

Available Versions

List of available versions of SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT on this website:

Page last updated: 08 May 2011