E Street's Clarence Clemons: "This Is the Best the Band's Ever Been"

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Last week, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons stopped by our offices and answered questions directly from our Twitter followers. (Ironically, Clemons dropped by while we were in the midst of trying to get tickets for Springsteen's Madison Square Garden show!) This time around, we got "The Big Man" to talk about his new book Big Man, life on the road ("Every night is a new night, I love these long tours"), the band's ever-changing set lists and how a car running over his foot won't make him miss soundcheck.

Clemons also recounts that legendary rainy day in Asbury Park, New Jersey, when he first encountered a young Springsteen and asked if he could play along with him. "Halfway through that first song, I knew, right then, I envisioned me sitting here with you right now," Clemons tells RS. For more from the Big Man, check out our video above.

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

More Song Stories entries »

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