“Have Love, Will Travel” started out as a 1959 “Louie Louie” sound-alike, probably because both songs were written and recorded by Richard Berry.
But while Berry’s playful take on the television show Have Gun, Will Travel was a modest hit on the west coast of the U.S., the song didn’t truly explode until The Sonics covered it in 1965. Their cover became the definitive version of the song as well as one of the seminal garage rock recordings.
The Sonics’ version is certainly the one that influenced Bruce, because when he introduced it as an encore on the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, he based his version on the Sonics’ arrangement and chord progression.
If you’re a touring rock star promoting a love-themed album, adding “Have Love, Will Travel” to your set list has to be pretty darn near irresistible. And yet, Bruce didn’t actually introduce it until two months into the tour. But when he did, he was 100% ham from the outset.
Let’s watch that very first performance, and we’ll Bruce milking the song for all it’s got:
Bruce performed “Have Love, Will Travel” pretty regularly for the rest of the tour’s North American leg. When Bruce and the band took the show to Europe, however, their sets started to morph from album-centric to more of a greatest hits show.
After a few weeks, Bruce dropped the garage rock classic from his set list, and he hasn’t played it since.
Have Love, Will Travel
First performed: April 23, 1988 (Los Angeles, CA)
Last performed: June 29, 1988 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
(c) December 20, 2019