Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

First performance: 26/02/2014


Coverinfo

Bruce played the song 3 times:
 
All 3 during the high hopes tour in 2014 because The Gibbs emigrated to Australia and settled near Brisbane in the late 1950s . In Uncasville, the song was played via sign requests. The song was played in a totally revamped rock arrangement and featured Australian string section Cooper + Koo formally dressed behind Max Weinberg's drum kit and providing a '70s disco touch. .The song started with Bruce Springsteen on acoustic guitar accompanied only by Curt Ramm on trumpet. He sang the first verse and then was joined by Cindy Mizelle, Curtis King, and Michelle Moore on the chorus before the string section played a few notes and then the full band kicked in.
 
 

 
 
 
 

Songinfo

"Stayin' Alive" is a disco song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released on 13 December 1977 as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

The following day Barry Gibb tweeted: 
"Dear Bruce @springsteen, just been blown away by your Stayin Alive. You brought it back to life. Thank you!"
 
 
Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stone, March 11, 2014   
I told Steve "Tomorrow night, 'Staying Alive,' " and he goes, "You got me on that one. I don’t know how we’re gonna do it." And Tom Morello said, "I don’t want to have any other ideas. Because I want to see how you’re gonna pull that one off." Steve’s going, "I can’t imagine it." I go okay, I’m not going to be able to sing it where they sang it, so I have to think about Marvin Gaye on What’s Going On and Trouble Man and I’m thinking of blaxploitation pictures. I thought, if I bring this thing down to my key and I play it like a blues, this is inner-city blues; it could slip right on to What’s Going On. I had to find my voice in it. I got the lyrics up on the computer and just started to sing it. When it sounded believable to me I knew we’d be fine. It was like, "Okay, I can be this person in this song." 

Lyrics

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born
And now it's all right, I don't care, and you may look the other way
We can try to understand the New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive
Oh, when you walk

Well now I get low and I get high and if I can't get either, I really try
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes, I'm a dancing man and I just can't lose
You know it's all right, it's ok, I'll live to see another day
We can try to understand the New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive
Oh-oh

Life going nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah
Life going nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born
Now it's all right, it's ok, and you may look the other way
We can try to understand the New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive
Yeah

Life going nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah
Life going nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

Life going nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah
Ahh, ahh
Life going nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

Life going nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh
Life going nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

Life going nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh
Life going nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive
[Fades out]