When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were last at the Verizon Center, Clarence Clemons had just released his book “Big Man — Real Life and Tall Tales.” Clemons told The Washington Examiner how the death of the band’s roadie and Springsteen’s cousin, 36-year-old Lenny Sullivan, had set the band back emotionally.
“We are holding it together,” said Clemons at the time. “We are entertainers and we do this not just for ourselves but for our fans.”
And now Clemons is gone. Although the band has released its much-heralded album “Wrecking Ball,” and launched this tour, one wonders how well the members are “holding it together” since the Big Man’s death on June 18, 2011, following a stroke.
| Onstage |
| Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band |
| Where: Verizon Center, 601 F St. NW |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: $68 to $98; 202-397-SEAT; ticketmaster.com |
“Losing Clarence was like losing the rain. He was so elemental in my life for so long,” Springsteen told “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart during an interview for Rolling Stone magazine. “It was like losing some part of your psychic construction.”
Those that consider that hyperbole perhaps don’t realize the two shared almost a psychic connection. That was evident almost as soon as they played together and can be heard on the songs on which Clemons first played saxophone, on the 1973 album “Greetings from Asbury Park.”
But perhaps even more important is the shared respect the two men had for fans, which translated into their “take no prisoners” concerts even when playing some of their decades-old music such as the entire “Born to Run” album as they did in 2009.
“When I see performers who feel like they’ve lost their mojo, sometimes it’s just that they’re not paying hard enough attention,” said Springsteen. “Your willingness to think hard about things and stay interested in the world around you is essential as you go on.”
Expect to hear plenty of mojo during this upcoming show, of course, whether Springsteen and the band are playing a classic song or some of the “Wrecking Ball” tunes, that Springsteen said all started as folk music mixed with Celtic influences.
“A lot of it was cut with acoustic guitar, singing and sample,” he said of the band that reflects economic disparity. “I could go anywhere, do anything, use anything. It was all very wide-open.”
Of course both he and Springsteen found more when he joined E Street Band. And something tells us that despite his absence, Clemons would be pleased that the show is going on.
“We have been together so long and it just gets better and better,” he said during his last interview with The Examiner. “I don’t see it ending anytime soon.”
