Today (September 23) Bruce Springsteen turns 71! The Boss has spent 5 decades slinging out some of the best American rock music the world has to offer, and today we're celebrating his life and career with a concert we dug up from the setlist archives.
The set took place on Springsteen's birthday in 1975 when he turned 26-years-old. It comes from his famous Born to Run Tour with the E-Street Band and occurred in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the Hill Auditorium.
The 19-song setlist was made up of some of the hottest licks off of Born to Run, opening up with a solo piano and harmonica version of "Thunder Road" before exploding into "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."
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The Boss made sure to make the night an unforgettable one by adding special Easter eggs into the set. "Spirit in the Night" got a "Stagger Lee" intro, energy was kept high with numbers like "The E Street Shuffle / Havin' a Party" - a special mash up he only did from 1974-1975, and plenty of covers to go around.
During the main set he covered "Pretty Flamingo" by Manfred Mann and "Baby It's You" by The Shirelles. Three more covers were unveiled during the 5-song encore, which The Boss whipped out after a theatric set ender of "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)."
The encore fired off with the first known live performance of "Detroit Medley," which he's since played over 400 times, the last being November 2019 (since the date of this article.)
As mentioned, the last bit of the set included a triple whammy of covers by the likes of Gary "U.S." Bonds, Chuck Berry and concert finale "Twist and Shout" by The Top Notes.
Check out the entire setlist below:
Happy Birthday Boss! Keep an eye (and ear) out for his new album with the E-Street Band, coming out in exactly a month on October 23rd!
