Videos of the day: Bruce Springsteen – Prove It All Night  4 great versions

The live version of “Prove It All Night” from Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. 19-9-1978 … is my fav Bruce song (along with “Thunder Road” from “live/  1975-85” box). But I need to show 4 versions in this post.

Before any formal facts.. lets start with a great versions from Barcelona – 2002
(from the DVD – Live In Barcelona)

 

From Wikipedia:

Prove It All Night is the penultimate song on Bruce Springsteen’s fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and the first single released from it.

In keeping with a storied tradition of rock songs, these lyrics very effectively equate love with the surrendering of a women’s virtue. The protagonist promises to prove his love all night, a vow that can be seen as either opportunistic or youthfully optimistic, depending on one’s point of view. Thus it can be experienced as either humorous or sincere, like so many great love songs. Lyrically the song is similar to other Springsteen numbers such as “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and “Thunder Road”. The entire song contains a sense of optimism that the two individuals’ quest for love will someday be realized but, at the same time, it seems that the world is closing in on them in that the characters’ chances of falling in love are growing more limited as time passes.The song begins with a piano intro played by Roy Bittan. The rhythm guitar work is quite faint, though effectively setting the groove and feel of the song. Following the second stanza is a sax solo which precedes a somewhat intricate-sounding guitar solo by Springsteen. The solo,played quite fast,effectively voices the protagonist’s mounting desire to elope.

Lyrics:

I’ve been working real hard, trying to get my hands clean
We’ll drive that dusty road from Monroe to Angeline
To buy you a gold ring and a pretty dress of blue
Baby just one kiss will get these things for you
A kiss to seal our fate tonight
A kiss to prove it all night

Prove it all night
Girl there’s nothing else that we can do
So prove it all night, prove it all night
And girl I’ll prove it all night for you

Everybody’s got a hunger, a hunger they can’t resist
There’s so much that you want, you deserve much more than this
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn’t that be nice
But this ain’t no dream we’re living out through tonight
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price

Prove it all night, prove it all night
Prove it all night, girl, and call the bluff
prove it all night, prove it all night and girl
I prove it all night for your love

Baby, tie your hair back in a long white bow
Meet me in the fields behind the dynamo
You hear the voices telling you not to go
They made their choices and they’ll never know
What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie
What it’s like to live and die

To prove it all night, prove it all night
Girl there’s nothing else that we can do
So prove it all night, prove it all night
And girl I’ll prove it all night for you
I’ll prove it all night, I’ll prove it all night
I’ll prove it all night, I’ll prove it all night
I’ll prove it all night, I’ll prove it all night
I’ll prove it all night, I’ll prove it all night

 

The next version is even better… actually much better (if possible).

The “Live In New York City” version is the perfect live version (and thus superior to the released studio version.. in my view) of the song.. in it’s “original” form. Bruce’s guitar playing is nothing but stunning…

Here is a version from 1978, so it is great of course, it was his best tour after all:

“I was in New York City. I got into this cab while we were making Darkness on the Edge of Town and a lot of cabbies that are in the city , they got,  they got a running monologue that don’t stop whether somebody’s in there or whether they’re not. I only knew this guy was about 45 years old and he was, he was just raving about how all day long you gotta prove it to your boss driving around in a cab and all night you gotta go home and prove it to your wife, on the weekends you gotta prove it to your kids , it seems like the dope’s on you, it never lets up, you know…anyway I wrote this song sometimes you gotta prove it all night!”
– Bruce Springsteen (introduces the song)

Bruce Springsteen – Prove It All Night(Largo, 1978):

But of course… there is even a better version.

When I first heard this next version I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…

His 78-tour has to be one of the best “rock-tours” ever (Dylan 66 & 75/76 slightly better). On The 78-Darkness tour we were blessed with many great concerts.. my fav is (as suggested) “Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. – Sep-19”

The version we are going to hear is much longer..  it has a howling guitar-over-piano (long) intro and a frenetic organ-and-guitar-over- drums outro… it is just mindblowing!

If you have not heard it before… you are about to feel very lucky!

“The question is…do you really think you can prove it all night ? (cheers). We´ll see, we´ll see (laughs)…”
– Bruce Springsteen

That’s Rock’n Roll… at its purest.

-Egil