Clarence Clemons' new autobiography: Big Man

[actualAir]

Dear Tom,

I just spent a long time trying to think of something that would be more delightful than you reviewing, and possibly reading lengthy excerpts from, "BIG MAN: Real Life and Tall Tales" by Clarence Clemons and Don Reo. Then I spent some more time thinking. But no, nothing could be more delightful.

Seriously, does this not sound like the greatest thing ever?

Clemons, the horn player who has stood at Bruce Springsteen’s side for almost 40 years, takes an altogether different, even more baffling approach in “Big Man.” The book is co-written with the television producer Don Reo (who seems to vie with Springsteen for “best friend” status throughout the pages), and many of the stories are told in Reo’s voice, rather than the musician’s.

In addition, sections are interspersed labeled “Legends,” with the explanation that these are “stories that we have told over the years. . . . Most of them contain some fact and a lot of fiction.” Occasionally, everything stops and Reo gives some of his own recollections from his television work, at which point you really start to wonder just what it is you’re reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/books/review/Light-t.html?ref=books

[B_Buster]

Although I'm probably not going to read the entire book, I am interested in the Clarence Clemons/Thomas Pynchon meeting. I hope it has an index so I can read it in the bookstore.

[daveB from Oakland]

Interesting factoid, not sure it's verifiable ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_talkin'_to_me%3F

re: "You talkin' to me"?

In his 2009 memoir, saxophonist Clarence Clemons said De Niro explained the line's origins when Clemons coached De Niro to play the saxophone for the movie New York, New York.[3] Clemons says De Niro had seen Bruce Springsteen say it onstage at a concert as fans were screaming his name, and decided to make the line his own.[4]

[cavorting with nudists]

I remember Springsteen saying that line onstage during the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour in 1978 and it was clear he was doing a Travis Bickle impersonation.  That doesn't mean it's impossible that he was saying it earlier (Taxi Driver was released in '76 and Springsteen had been touring hard at least since '74) but I have a feeling the Big Man is scrambling the facts here.

[Chris L]

I think it's true.  DeNiro also admitted he and Pesci took the "you fuck my wife?" scene in Raging Bull from an onstage argument at a Weather Report concert.

[DJ Clem]

Although I'm probably not going to read the entire book, I am interested in the Clarence Clemons/Thomas Pynchon meeting. I hope it has an index so I can read it in the bookstore.

I'm perusing my library's copy. I would quote a passage from "The Legend Of Clarence and Thomas (A Screaming Comes Across The Bar)", but it's written in a literary style commonly known as "boring as batshit."