Bruce Springsteen shares the last song he played for Clarence Clemons
For nearly 40 years, Clarence Clemons was the centrepiece for The E Street Band, the legendary collection of musicians that backed up Bruce Springsteen on his albums and tours. Affectionately known as “The Big Man”, Clemons’ saxophone playing became an integral part of Springsteen’s signature sound and became the highlight of classic tracks like ‘Born to Run’, ‘Jungleland’, and ‘Dancing in the Dark’.
In the summer of 2011, Clemons suffered a massive stroke at his home and died less than a week later. In the time between his stroke and his death, Springsteen visited Clemons in the hospital. Springsteen was informed of the blea prognosis and decided to sing Clemons a song that they had worked on together.
“I had a feeling he could hear me because he could squeeze your hand. When I first went to see him [after his stroke], there was some response to your voice and to you being in the room, it felt like,” Springsteen said in a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show. “I knew that he was going to die, and so I just brought the guitar in and I strummed a song called ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams.’ … It’s about passing over to the other side. It’s about life and death.”
“His brother was there. I think Jake, his nephew, was there,” Springsteen added. “And there were a few other people. But it was just a little tiny space… It’s a hymn … it was a song we were playing at the end of the night [on tour] and it was one of the last songs that Clarence and I worked on a sax solo together on.”
‘Land Of Hopes And Dreams’ was originally performed on the 1999 reunion tour between Springsteen and the E Street Band. It originally appeared on the 2001 live album Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City and later saw releases through other live performances before finally being recorded on Springsteen’s 2012 album Wrecking Ball.
Check out ‘The Land Of Hopes And Dreams’ down below.
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