4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) was released on his second album, 1973’s THE WILD, THE INNOCENT, AND THE E STREET SHUFFLE. I quite like the song. Got some extra special significance after Danny Federici passed away. Am listening to the Magic Tour Highlights version released exclusively on iTunes right now. It’s taken from what would be Danny’s last show of his life. I’m not even a minute in and the performance is so full of emotion already. The first time it was played on the Reunion Tour was the second to last night of a 15-night stand in New Jersey (that was a lot of numbers in one sentence – hope you’re still with me). It was the closing number. I read some fan reviews of that night and the hardcore fans said it was hilarious to see people leaving when Land of Hope and Dreams started – with them assuming the show was over. And then, they bust out Sandy. And the impatient people missed it. Goes to show you never know what the Boss has up his sleeve.

There are 2 different versions of the last verse. On the album version, he sings about a waitress he was seeing. In the live version released on LIVE 1975-85, he sings about angels riding down from heaven on Harleys. Personally, I prefer the Harley verse, but I always tend to steer toward how the artist does it live over their studio performance. Reportedly, Springsteen bounces back-and-forth between the waitress verse and the Harley verse, but seems to do the former more often. The Magic Tour Highlights version has the waitress verse. A soundboard bootleg I have from the Devils and Dust tour also has the waitress verse.

This song was played on their first show after Danny Federici’s passing. Roy Bittan plays the accordion, which was Danny’s role in the song. Bruce says to Roy before the song “You better get this one right – somebody’s watching.”

Here’s a live performance of the song, performed by me on July 7th, 2000.



And here’s my YouTube performance of it, from July 4, 2008.