The one musician Bruce Springsteen called his great musical love: “The missing part of me”
Every single step that Bruce Springsteen ever took wouldn’t have been possible without the E Street Band.
Even though he was able to tell fantastic stories on his own, the kind of worlds that he created every single time he made one of his own tunes made the E Street Band feel as important to his music as Crazy Horse was to Neil Young or The Heartbreakers were to Tom Petty. They were all one collective family half the time, but ‘The Boss’ felt that there were some musicians who went above and beyond whenever they played together.
Then again, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see how much ‘The Boss’ loved his bandmates. He’s even married to one of them these days, and even if Patti Scialfa wasn’t around during the days of Born to Run, Stevie Van Zandt and Roy Bittan practically know Springsteen better than he knows himself half the time they play behind him. They were all joined together, and all of their songs are about everyone working together to create the best rock and roll songs ever made.
Even when they have someone like Tom Morello guesting on one of their songs, the whole band sounds so full because of how well they bounce off each other. They could handle virtually anything that Springsteen threw at them, but if Van Zandt was his partner in crime and Max Weinberg was the heartbeat of the band every single time they played, Clarence Clemons was the heart of the band in many respects.
His saxophone lines on some of Springsteen’s songs are the stuff of legend, and even if he doesn’t shine on every single song, he was the one weaving every single piece of his classics together. ‘Jungleland’ wouldn’t have been half the song it is without Clemons’s fantastic solo in the middle of it, but Springsteen knew that there was something deeper between them than being bandmates together.
They practically had nothing in common when they hopped off the stage, but Clemons was the kind of outsider that Springsteen felt like he had known for years. There was some unspoken chemistry between them that made them feel like long-lost brothers, and Springsteen never took that bond for granted until the day that Clemons passed away after having a stroke.
Springsteen was right there by his bedside during those final days, and after he passed away, he said that Clemons was one of the greatest blood brothers that he ever had in the band, saying, “[It was] like ‘You’re some missing part of me. You’re some dream I’m having.’ You’re He was such a huge force while also being fragile. We were both insecure and felt kind of fragile, but when we were together, we were really powerful. We were different people. [His death] happened very quickly and it was devastating. There’s no replacing Clarence.”
And while Jake Clemons does a great job filling his uncle’s shoes whenever Springsteen plays today, there’s always going to be an asterisk next to whoever is behind those sax lines these days. Which probably explains why Springsteen brings out the sax only for special occasions on some of his later records, knowing that there’s always going to be a lingering ghost of Clemons on every song.
Sure, Springsteen may have eventually found love with one of his bandmates later on in life, but Clemons’s relationship with him was a lot more special. These were two kids who would have never had a thing to say to each other off the stage, but when they eventually worked together, they were telling a story of unity that no one else could have told with words.
