Watch Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band Play “If I Was The Priest” For The First Time In 51 Years

Rob DeMartin

Watch Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band Play “If I Was The Priest” For The First Time In 51 Years

Rob DeMartin

Bruce Springsteen estimates he wrote “If I Was The Priest” in 1970 or 1971, and he sometimes played it with the E Street Band at shows up until 1972. After that, the Boss sidelined the song for almost five decades until recording it for 2020’s Letter To You. And now, finally, it has returned to their setlist after 51 years.

As NJArts.net reports, Tuesday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, the E Street Band played “If I Was The Priest” for the first time since May 5, 1972 at the 300-capacity Gaslight au Go Go nightclub in New York. (From Cinco de Mayo to Valentine’s Day!) Before the performance, Springsteen told the crowd he wrote the song when he was 22 and “I still don’t have a clue what the fuck it’s about.” Watch them resurrect the song below.

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