In October 2004, some of the biggest names in music - Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Neil Young, John Fogerty, Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp and the Dave Matthews Band among them - came together for a unique undertaking, a tour designed to encourage American citizens in to register and vote in the upcoming presidential election.
The Vote For Change tour was deliberately routed across eight 'swing' states - Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - in the hope that new and first-time voters could have the opportunity to help decide whether incumbent Republican President George W. Bush or his Democratic Party opponent Senator Johny Kerry would be elected on November 2, 2004.
"What is the only institution more powerful than the United States government - one that can move things in a different direction?" Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder asked in Rolling Stone magazine. "It's the American people. It's the voters. That's what I feel most strongly about: encouraging people who don't normally vote to understand their responsibility."
Vedder was among a number of vocalists on the tour who urged voters to get behind Massachusetts Senator Kerry on election day, but ultimately George W. Bush was returned to the Oval Office, capturing 50.7% of the votes cast, and claiming 286 electoral votes compared to Kerry's 251 votes. It was subsequently reported that each of the swing states voted in a manner consistent with pre-election (and pre-tour) polls - four for Bush, and four for Kerry - so exactly how much impact the Vote For Change concerts had upon the outcome is difficult to ascertain.
However, if nothing else, the tour did throw up some historic onstage collaborations, not least when uniting Bruce Springsteen and Michael Stipe/R.E.M.
On October 2, at the end of R.E.M.'s set at the Gund Arena, in Cleveland, Ohio, Springsteen joined the Athens, Georgia quartet onstage to play two songs, Automatic For The People-era single Man On The Moon, and deep cut Bad Day, originally recorded for 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant, but unreleased until 2003, when it was released as the lead single from the band's second compilation collection In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003.
You can watch that performance below: Springsteen also performed the song with R.E.M. on October 3 at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, and two days later at the Xcel Energy Center, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Throughout the tour, members of R.E.M. also joined Bruce Springsteen onstage nightly, with Michael Stipe singing Because The Night, originally written by Springsteen and recorded by Patti Smith, and Peter Buck and Mike Mills sitting in on Born To Run.
"One of the thrills we had on this tour, was getting the chance to do a week of shows with R.E.M." Springsteen told the 16,000+ crowd attending the tour's penultimate night, at the MCI Center in the nation's capital, Washington, DC. "We had a great time. Michael, come out and sing one with me please."
Watch Stipe fronting the E Street Band for Because The Night below:
