Cover Me: Get Out of Denver

It sounds like a Chuck Berry song and reads like a Bruce Springsteen song.

With lyrics about Cadillacs roaring through Nebraska, running from state troopers and driving all night, “Get Out of Denver” sounds like it foretells more of Springsteen’s catalog than Bob Seger’s.

Seger released “Get Out of Denver” in 1974, way back when the E Street Band (which hadn’t even been named yet) wove Berry’s classics into their sets on a nightly basis. It was never even remotely a hit. It barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100, and the album it led off didn’t even make the Billboard Top 200.

But Bob Seger’s “Get Out of Denver” has remarkable staying power nevertheless, and today both the song and Seger’s 1974 Seven album are recognized as classics. As the first song on the album, “Get Out of Denver” has the distinction of being the first song many fans ever heard by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band (Seger had six previous albums, but Seven was the debut of his now iconic band.)

Strangely, though, despite Bruce’s friendship with and appreciation for Seger (the two performed together in 1980), Bruce didn’t start covering “Get Out of Denver” until the new century–first at a pair of benefit shows for his kids’ school in 2002 (for which there are no circulating recordings), later at a pair of shows (a decade apart) in the titular city.

Here’s the first of those on-location performances, the show-opener when Bruce’s Rising Tour stopped in Denver on September 25, 2003.

Almost a decade later, Bruce opened another Denver show with “Get Out of Denver”–this time on the Wrecking Ball Tour.

“Get Out of Denver” makes for a great opener, and with its “Little Queenie“-ish riff and chorus, it would make for a great encore, too. Let’s hope Bruce brings this one out more often.

Get Out of Denver
First performed: April 13, 2002 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: November 19, 2012 (Denver, CO)