Glory Days
18 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in 80's Music Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Clarence Clemons
It was videos like this that got Bruce Springsteen his rep as a voice-of-the-salt-of-the-earth common man. The Americana of baseball and dive bars is and long has been a cheap, easy ploy to press the nostalgia button. On the other hand, the sweaty common man with his rolled-up sleeves has an appeal all his own that hasn’t diminished in the least since Bruce first adopted the image. The increasing irony of a song so brashly glorifying nostalgia and better days gone by is the baby-faced youth of all the players. Springsteen was in his thirties and in his prime, artistically and commercially. For a guy sitting on top of the world it might seem like an odd viewpoint to take, but Springsteen has made his name on writing about what goes on the opposite of ‘on top’. What would Springsteen know about pining for lost glory? I don’t know what Springsteen knows about it, but Clarence Clemons knew plenty – he only turned to music after injury thwarted his NFL career. He probably spent a night or two dreaming about sports glory he missed out on. Just for that we know the song is no pastiche. As for the video, I’m not sure if anyone was supposed to take it seriously in 1985, but we sure can’t take it seriously now. All of the faces are so familiar now from other venues that it’s kind of surreal. The guy from Conan, the guy from that Gaga video, and the guy from the Sopranos together on one stage. The three of them can almost outshine the main attraction. And everyone is so young, so dorky. We know that this is a band whose members would go on to even greater glory in their own right, that Bruce Springsteen is an icon, and it’s totally incongruous to see them ham their way through a video that’s supposedly all about how their best times are behind them.
And speaking of Bruce Springsteen, I hear he’s got a new album about to come out, and new single just dropped. I hear rumors about a great big summer tour brewing, too. I’ve always thought that Bruce would be a hell of a show to see, but I seriously don’t know if I would even want to see him without the Big Man riding shotgun. Clarence Clemons was half the show, and how on earth can anyone dare play those songs without him? Unless he decides not to play any of his old hits at all, Springsteen is up a creek. I mean, imagine some other dude playing sax. It wouldn’t be right.
Jan 19, 2012 @ 06:19:42
Bruce is unable to stop playing. He could then just as well stop living. So he will make a plan to continue without Clarence. He is not one for backing out of a problem, even one as great and emotional as this.