Here’s an excerpt from Bruce Springsteen’s eulogy for Clarence Clemons:
Standing next to Clarence was like standing next to the baddest ass on the planet. You were proud, you were strong, you were excited and laughing with what might happen, with what together, you might be able to do. You felt like no matter what the day or the night brought, nothing was going to touch you. Clarence could be fragile but he also emanated power and safety, and in some funny way we became each other’s protectors; I think perhaps I protected “C” from a world where it still wasn’t so easy to be big and black. Racism was ever present and over the years together, we saw it. Clarence’s celebrity and size did not make him immune. I think perhaps “C” protected me from a world where it wasn’t always so easy to be an insecure, weird and skinny white boy either. But, standing together we were badass, on any given night, on our turf, some of the baddest asses on the planet. We were united, we were strong, we were righteous, we were unmovable, we were funny, we were corny as hell and as serious as death itself. And we were coming to your town to shake you and to wake you up. Together, we told an older, richer story about the possibilities of friendship that transcended those I’d written in my songs and in my music. Clarence carried it in his heart. It was a story where the Scooter and the Big Man not only busted the city in half, but we kicked ass and remade the city, shaping it into the kind of place where our friendship would not be such an anomaly. And that… that’s what I’m gonna miss. The chance to renew that vow and double down on that story on a nightly basis, because that is something, that is the thing that we did together… the two of us. Clarence was big, and he made me feel, and think, and love, and dream big. How big was the Big Man? Too fucking big to die. And that’s just the facts. You can put it on his grave stone, you can tattoo it over your heart. Accept it… it’s the New World.
I love that skinny, white, insecure kid from Freehold, New Jersey. I’m going to miss Clarence, too. The two of them brought out the best in each other. People forget, back when Bruce and Clarence first got together, it has highly unusual to have a mixed-race band and it impacted where they could get gigs. Bruce didn’t care. He made his friendship with Clarence an example for the whole industry, the country, and the world. And they were badass.
“Bare foot girl sittin’ on the hood of a Dodge, drinkin’ warm beer in the soft summer rain…”
A great Bruce line. Man, I knew that girl. Don’t we all? I think the beer was a Schaeffer.
Yeah. The Big Man was bad ass. The Boss is bad ass. Yeah, it’s hype and fun. But strip it away and lay them bare and they are still bad ass.
I also like the end. Particularly the part about the poets that don’t write.
I think that is a very authentic and autobiographically bit of prose about his teen angst. I think that describes a lot about why and how Bruce is what he is.
The thing though I have liked even more about his lyrics is the imagery he can create.
From the same song:
“The midnight gangs assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
They’ll meet `neath that giant exxon sign that brings this fair city light”
I know that sign. Its on Rt 9 near Englishtown and I’ve seen the hot rods there on a Friday night… Unless it is one of countless Exxon signs all over the country.
From another song:
“The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that’s me and I want you only
Don’t turn me home again
I just can’t face myself alone again
Don’t run back inside, darling you know just what I’m here for
So you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore
Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night
You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright
Oh and that’s alright with me”
I know that girl too. I can see her face. I think a lot of us can.
But this is about the Big Man. I think in a lot of ways the Big Man was someone that that skinny scared kid used to know he was alright. That is was really OK to be who he was, make the music he did, sing for and about a lot of us are also scared but full of big dreams and thoughts.
Big Man had his back like a big brother or maybe like Budda and said everything is going to be OK.
Hey, when you’re talking angst, you got start with Something in the Night. Holy shit is that a good song. The howling is unbelievably haunting. Absolutely “tears into the guts of something in the night.”
You’re born with nothing, and better off that way.
And the conclusion:
Much like the poets, eh?
I think those cars wound up here:
“There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they’re gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
It’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to win”
As long as we’re on cars, there’s the end of Racing in the Street:
“Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up
And go racin’ in the street”
These guys takin’ all the action they can meet, covering all of northeast state are the same guys under that giant Exxon sign on highway 9 in their hemi drones trying to look so hard while the wind from the down window blows back their hair.
So many images 🙂
Throughout that whole era, you keep seeing him go down to the river, even though he knows the river is dry.
And, yet, the music isn’t hopeless even if the lyrics often are.
It’s hard to explain the total effect and while it’s life-affirming for you and me and so many other people.
I guess it’s the idea that struggling people are not alone and they have dignity.
He’s like the guardian angel of crushed hope.
Dignity yes.
Because even if your dreams get crushed, there you are — still there.
Got to do something. Even if it is just to pick yourself up and go to work each day. And you can still choose to do it with grace and dignity… in sixty-nine Chevy with a 396, Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor… with your kid on your lap steering while you drove through town. 🙂
I was lucky enough to personally introduce my 16 year old daughter to Bruce, in Buffalo 2006. Back parking lot of HSBC Arena.
That year, we went to several ‘Devils and Dust’ shows. We got the chance to examine Springsteen closely, and also from a distance as well.
He was extremely gracious to his fans.
I came away thinking that Bruce is just such a normal guy: Normal clothes, cheap sunglasses, gritty, easy-going, and cheerful.
I’d always heard he was short. Not so, Bruce was normal height. I’d say maybe 5’10”.
We’ll never forget that day.
Never met any of the other band members. But I’ll miss Clarence. Terrific presence. Great showman.
~ No more ‘Jungleland’ ~
That stinks.
yeah, I wonder what the E Street Band plans to do.
I only saw Bruce one time, at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis in 1988. It was an awesome show. I hadn’t intended to go. But a buddy of mine had scored tickets for him and his wife, but she got sick and couldn’t go. So it was a last minute call from him that got me there. The show was fantastic, and long; as his always tended to be.
My friend died unexpectedly in 1996, but we often talked about that road trip. It was a hell of a good time.