Outside the streets on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what’s fantasy and the poets down here
Don’t write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland – Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band
Clarence Clemons died at the age of 69. They say music shapes us, at the very least (for me anyway) it triggers memories constantly. Good and bad. I can tell you where I was the first time I heard Thunder Road or Rosalita or Darkness On the Edge of Town. Those memories have dried like cement in my brain, never to leave.
Down here you see Bruce a lot lately. He walks the boardwalk and hangs in the cafes. Always on his motorcycle. Regular guy.
I grew up on Springsteen and Clarence, I live twenty minutes from The Stone Pony in Asbury Park where the band cut its teeth back in the day and about seven minutes from East Street, where Bruce took the name East Street Band. I saw The Boss and Clarence over seventy times and will miss never hearing The Big Man play that tenor sax again.
Thanks for the ride Big Man…and those memories.