US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 5-30-1983 - Day 3, Part 1: Little Steven (Steven Van Zandt)

The first act of Day Three (Rock Day) of the 1983 US Festival was Little Steven, a.k.a., Steven Van Zandt. Technically, the act's name was "Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul," but I'm using the shorter name here.

Before I talk about the artist, I want to mention the theme of Day Three, which the promoters billed as "Rock Day." In my opinion, that name was a bit off, because Day One was "New Wave Day," and this day contained some new wave acts, like Berlin and Missing Persons. Most of the acts from the day were played on new wave radio stations at the time, like U2, the Pretenders, and David Bowie. Only a couple, like Joe Walsh, were clearly "rock" acts. So this almost could have been "New Wave Day, Part 2."

Anyway, Little Steven is best known today for being a member of Bruce Springsteen's back-up band, the E-Street Band. He first joined Southside Johnny and the Ashbury Dukes, and wrote most of their songs in the 1970s. But in 1975 he also joined Springsteen's E-Street Band, and slowly phased out his involvement with the Ashbury Dukes. In 1982, he released his first solo album, "Men without Women." At the time of this festival, he was mainly promoting that album. All three songs here are from it. But he also still was a member of the E-Street Band.

In 1984, he put out a second solo album and quit the E-Street Band to focus fully on his solo career. But that career petered out by the start of the 1990s, when he was unable to get a new record contract. He rejoined the E-Street Band when it reformed in 1995, and he's been a member of it ever since.

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Steven Van Zandt - Wikipedia

Unfortunately, I only have three songs from this set. I'm sure there was more, since it seems all the sets in the festival were at least half an hour long, but I couldn't find a complete set list. The reason I have these songs is because they were included as part of a Westwood One radio network special that played some selected songs from the festival.

This album is 14 minutes long.

001 Lying in a Bed of Fire (Little Steven)
002 talk (Little Steven)
003 Under the Gun (Little Steven)
004 Angel Eyes (Little Steven)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17205591/VA-1983USFstvlDay0301LttleStven_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/U6nkJqo1

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

UPDATE: On October 6, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program because the original was very grainy.