Live 03 Jun 1974 version
[Spoken into:] This next song is uh... This song is something about uh... living in a small town like that, you know. Many people here from Jersey? You folks? From New York? Clarence, you got— this is uh... Garfield Heights? I don't know where that is... A lot of folks from Garfield.
Well, the moon hung like a shadow on a rung over Sleepy Town
The midnight shift was returning home with their pants down
And the kids were still playing the games
Getting busted dancing out in the rain
And I sat inside listening to the broadcast
Well, save my soul, sweet rock and roll, 'cause I'm sinkin' fast
And then the band played
Everybody
All night long
Alright
All night long
Oh
Oh
Well, now the legendary chaplain of the fighting 51st was getting ready to go
I said, "Padre, do you know a cheap virgin who likes to tango?"
He said, "You can try Rosa Lee
Around the corner and across the sea
Word is out, word is out that she is fast"
Well, blow me down now, Rosie, 'cause I'm sinkin' fast
Whoa, one time
Ohhh
Whoa, and them cats are sure getting fat down in the train yard
And the sandman brings them dreams to ship out in the boxcars
Well, the union says, "hold
Break out the dice and the gold"
It's lunchtime, oh baby, it's lunchtime at last
Whoa, stage Mama says, "George Raft's tonight on the late show"
She sits straddling a kitchen chair, yeah, really gung-ho
She shivers with chills
Wet with slot card thrills
Hypnotically lost in the past
And we all sigh with the sunrise
And we watch the credits pass
Yes, and then the morning cloak fell down like a hoax over Sleepy Town
Them garbage truck vigilantes were out shaking and smashing them cows around
Well, The inheritor he sipped his beer
And he poked cute fun at the queer
And threatened, threatened to kick his ass
But just in the bell rang, a horn blew
And I was outside pumping gas
What am I gonna do?
The above lyrics are for the live 03 Jun 1974 performance of TOKYO at The Agora in Cleveland, OH, during what is considered The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement.
This was a double-bill show, with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band headlining and Orphan opening. Most or possibly all of this 100-minute show was recorded by WMMS-FM in Cleveland, then edited down to fit into a 60-minute time schedule and broadcast for the first time on 05 Jun 1974 at 10:00 PM. The 60-minute broadcast is available among collectors in excellent sound quality sourced from the WMMS reel-to-reel masters. The remaining songs (approximately 40 minutes) are yet to circulate among collectors, that is if they ever survived the editing room.
The 03 Jun 1974 broadcast from The Agora 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.
Most of the above information about the 03 Jun 1974 show is taken from Brucebase.
List of available versions of TOKYO on this website:
TOKYO [Studio version]