"Bruce Springsteen, like Sly Stone but for so much longer, dared to present America in the 1970s and beyond through the faces of a band that actually looked like America: people of color, ethnic, rough around the edges, and always ready to bust the chops of self-righteousness with a great sense of humor. Kissing the Boss on the lips or embracing him in a giant bear hug at a peak moment in almost every show, Clemons was, in Springsteen's words, 'King of the World, Master of the Universe, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall refineries in a single bound; it's a bird, it's a plane, it's the Big Man.'"
—Springsteen scholar and Awl pal Stephen Hazan Arnoff wrote a nice memorial piece about the great E-Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who you probably heard died Saturday after suffering a stroke last week. This version of "Spirit In the Night," from 1973, gives a good indication of how central his playing was to Springsteen's sound. "With Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music," said Springsteen in a statement. "His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."
Monday, June 20, 2011
5
I'll be under my desk sobbing uncontrollably for the rest of the day.
I'm not even that long-term of a Springsteen fan, relatively speaking, as I was a kid when BITUSA came out. And I can't say that I revered the Big Man quite as much as many fans did. And yet. I am totally gutted by this. Springsteen will go on to play many wonderful shows. I've seen him with and without the band, and he never lets you down. But to think we'll never see Bruce and Clarence play together again. It's awful. I'm too sad about it. I simply cannot imagine someone else playing Jungleland or 10th Avenue Freeze-Out. We will never hear those songs again! Imagine that.
One of my favorite memories was of the band playing "Kitty's Back" a few years ago. It had been on my list of songs I was desperate to experience live, and it didn't disappoint. Now, without Danny, and without Clarence, what is it? A memory, that's all. Ugh, going to cry now.
My only Springsteen show was the very last night of the 2000 E Street Reunion tour. The show, and the tour, ended with a version of "Blood Brothers" you can find on youtube (7/1/00) which is kind of amazing, and the play there...
...I dunno. I was born almost 10 years after "Greetings From..." but the early Springsteen, from Greetings to Born to Run - for a Jersey teenager with a muscle car, drinking warm beer in diner parking lots, trying to start a band, trying to cop a feel, trying to get the fuck out of Jersey - christ, it just meant everything. You knew it was corny, you knew it was dated...but nothing in the terabyte of music I can keep on my desk can match the power of listening to Candy's Room on my dad's LPs in the basement of my parents house a few nights after making it to second base for the first time.
Clarence was a big part of that. I was a big dude with a little charisma but never the spotlight some of my friends had, and so it easy to identify with the Big Man. Jesus, this one hits hard.
When I was around ten my mum and her sisters would play "The River" and "Born to Run" incessantly, dancing and drinking, til the wee hours up at our cottage. I remember hating it. Then we stopped going to the cottage and moved away and I grew up and I eventually began to appreciate what they knew all along. This is sad news.