Bobby 'Blue' Bland ( The ) - Farther up the road

First performance: 04/09/1977

Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song 2 times and once as a snippet:
 
 
 
Covered together with with Gary Clark Jr., Jimmie Vaughan, and Nils Lofgren.
Night two of 'Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us', a two-night, multi-act celebration of America's 250th anniversary presented by the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music. Springsteen opens the show with renditions of "Jailhouse Rock" and "Burning Love" and later duets with Sheryl Crow for "I Shall Be Released" before closing the show with three all-star performances and a solo acoustic "Land Of Hope And Dreams". Bruce sings a brief snippet of "My Girl" before "Raise Your Hand". Other performers are Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Van Zandt, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Darlene Love, David Sancious and Will Calhoun, Jimmie Vaughan, Mavis Staples, Jackson Browne, Nils Lofgren, and Public Enemy. The Disciples Of Soul serve as the house band; Robert Santelli emcees.
 
Setlist:
 
 
 
 
 
In 1977 in the Stone Pony. Springsteen guests with guitarist Billy Hector’s short-lived band The Shots - they’d inherited the role of the Stone Pony house band from The Asbury Jukes. Hector would later form The Fairlanes, another band that Bruce would make some shore area guest appearances with. 
Bruce’s cover with The Shots owes more to Clapton’s arrangement than Bland’s original. 
 
  • Snippet
2021-03-01 Stone Hill Farm, Colts Neck, NJ
 
Former President Barack Obama talks again with his friend Bruce Springsteen on an eight-episode podcast series, Renegades: Born In The U.S.A., exclusively for Spotify. On this date, the third episode is made available: "Amazing Grace: American Music". They talk about popular music, the most American of art forms. The episode opens with a brief joint performance of "Farther Up The Road"; later, Bruce plays brief snippets of "Honky Tonk" and "Twist And Shout" and President Obama tells the story behind one of his most famous speeches.
 

Songinfo

"Farther Up the Road" or "Further On up the Road" is a blues song first recorded in 1957 by Bobby "Blue" Bland. It is an early influential Texas shuffle and features guitar playing that represents the transition from the 1940s blues style to the 1960s blues-rock style. The song became Bland's first record chart success and one of his best-known tunes. "Farther Up the Road" has been performed and recorded by numerous blues and other artists, including Eric Clapton who has made it part of his repertoire.
 
 
 

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

Farther on up the road, someone gonna hurt you like you hurt me
Farther on up the road, someone gonna hurt you like you hurt me
Farther on up the road, baby you just wait and see

You got to reap just what you sow, that old saying is true
You got to reap just what you sow, that old saying is true
Like you mistreat someone, someone's gonna mistreat you

Now you're laughing pretty baby, someday you're gonna be crying
Now you're laughing pretty baby, some someday you're gonna be crying
Farther on up the road, you'll find out I wasn't lying

Yeah baby, farther on up the road, baby, hmmm, you'll find out I wasn't lying

Farther on up the road, when you're all alone and blue
Farther on up the road, when you're all alone and blue
You're gonna ask me to take you back baby, but I'll have somebody new

Hmmm baby, farther on up the road
Hmmm baby, farther on up the road
Hmmm you'll get yours