Bruce Springsteen onstage at the Cleveland Agora, August 9th, 1978
Image courtesy of Uncle Waldo’s Coffeehouse Concerts
August 9th, 1978:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were onstage at the Cleveland Agora for a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of local powerhouse rock and roll station WMMS.
Today is the 30th anniversary of that legendary concert and live broadcast, and former WMMS program director John Gorman remembers the night:
The air was literally electric – muggy and rainy outside, with summer lightning crackling, and fans jamming the Agora entrance almost two hours before showtime. Because it was a general admission show, some had slept on the sidewalk the night before in hopes of landing a front row spot for the show.
More from Gorman:
Kid Leo did the on-stage introduction, “I have the duty and the pleasure of welcoming, ladies and gentlemen, the main event. Round for round, pound for pound, there ain’t no finer band around – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!”
Bruce Springsteen – Summertime Blues (Live at the Cleveland Agora)
Check out the rest of Gorman’s extensive 30th anniversary tribute post right here.
It was a happy day when I got my hands on my first bootleg copy of the Agora show. It wasn’t a great sounding copy, but pre-internet downloading, and prior to higher quality copies of the show that would surface later, it was as good as it was going to get at that time.
Nearly everyone that lives in Cleveland that knows ANYTHING about Bruce Springsteen, will tell you about that “great Cleveland version” of “Growing Up,” the one that has the line about Kid Leo “praying for more watts.”
Bruce Springsteen – Growing Up (Live at the Cleveland Agora)
And all of these years later, fans are still dissecting the individual moments, and individuals immortalized in the historic broadcast:
I would like to thank you for bringing that concert back into my life. And as I was listening, as I do every time I listen, I still wonder who Jay Cox from Cincinnati is, and why is Bruce dedicating “Darkness on the Edge of Town” to him?
If you missed it when I posted it originally, you can still grab a tasty download of the show right here.
Relevant Links:
Purchase The Buzzard by John Gorman with Tom Feran from Amazon
John Gorman’s Buzzard Book Blog
Springsteen and Southside live at the Agora 1978 (Gorman)
Thirty Years Ago – The WMMS 10th Anniversary Concert with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Live at The Cleveland Agora! (Gorman)
The story of the “Cleveland Boys.”
Bruce’s gigs in around Cleveland are legendary. For an interesting perspective take a look at pages 24-25 in the fan based book “For You”.
When I was in Columbus working one day earlier this year, I was driving in my rental car and listened to the Cleveland Agora “Growin’ Up” version on Sirius Radio’s Bruce Springsteen channel. I was so excited I called one of the owners of the company I work for, who is a huge Springsteen fan (he footed the bill for our excursion to see Bruce in Charlotte, NC this year. What a guy. But I digress.) I left him a VM because he wasn’t around. He sent me an e-mail a few days later and we talked about the Cleveland Agora show a bit. He waxed nostalgic about his two cassette tape bootleg of the show, which he had lost at some point. He said he would pay big bucks for a good copy of the show.
Well, that was all the prodding I needed. I figured the man was paying me, and he wouldn’t mind if I diverted from my written job description to do some Googling. I found a web site that listed “Just in time for Summer” as having a good version of the 1978 Cleveland Agora show, so I googled “Just in Time for Summer” and found Addicted to Vinyl. And boom! I was a hero. The sound quality was as good as if I was sitting on the stage with the band. Amazing.
And no, Company Owner didn’t begrudge me the 30 minutes I spent looking. He called me minutes after I sent him the link and said “where did you find this?” I said “I spent 30 minutes I should have been working for you looking for it.” He replied, “I’ve wanted a copy of this for years!”
Ann the hero, courtesy of Addicted to Vinyl.
The link to growing up is no longer good..is there anyway that it can be re-linked. I remember listening to it and with the way Bruce could tell a story ….if you closed your eyes you could see the story unfold right in front of you. The only other radio personality that has been able to do that for me is Joe Tait who does the Cleveland Cavilers basketball games. PLEASE re-link it..its one of those thing I would love to hear again before I ……well no longer can
Craig,
You can actually download the entire show via this link below:
http://snipurl.com/u4q96
Enjoy!!
Matt
Craig,
You can actually download the entire show via this link below:
http://snipurl.com/u4q96
Enjoy!!
Matt
Interesting stuff. Too bad she passed, great to hear those old stories!
does anybody remember where it talked about kid leo dying and going to heaven. and something about leaving the window down get the car painted and leaving the window down and painting the brother for free