‘The Boss’ is back.
And he’s back on our front page as well.
And, as you might expect, there’s a story behind the story of how the sofa Bruce Springsteen used to bunk on wound up in Swarthmore.
Back in January, when Springsteen announced the ‘Wrecking Ball’ tour, I wrote a blog item wondering how he was going to replace one of the signature sounds of the E Street Band. That, of course, would be the wailing sax of ‘The Big Man,’ Clarence Clemons. Clarence died from complications after suffering a stroke. He joins bandmate Danny Federici, who succumbed a few years ago to melanoma.
I immediately went to the Backstreets.net website to see if there was any mention of a sax player for the tour. Nothing. So I put it out there to readers, asking how they thought Bruce would replace what was basically irreplaceable, if you could even have an E Street Band without a sax player.
As it turns out, one of the responses I got was from a Springsteen-file from Swarthmore. Not only that, but Amie Richan had some personal connections to Bruce and members of the band.
We exchanged a few emails. A few days later Springsteen announced the full band that will do this tour, including a full horn section featuring Clemons’ nephew on sax.
It turns out you can have an E Street Band without Clarence.
Last weekend I got another email from Amie, wondering if by any chance I was going to either of this week’s shows at the Wells Fargo Center. I told her my concert days are pretty much in the rear-view mirror.
But knowing of her connections to Bruce, I asked her if she’d like to write something in advance of the shows.
That story appears on today’s front page.
Anyone who is familiar with the rich, deep local lore surrounding Bruce has heard the story of how in the early days when he was in town, he would sleep on the sofa of one of his local benefactors, legendary FM DJ Ed Sciaky. Sadly, we’ve lost Ed as well.
But we have not lost that sofa. It is alive and well in Swarthmore. Amie Richan wrote her piece about Bruce while sitting on it. I’m surprised they didn’t ask to have it included in that show at the Constitution Center.
Well done, Amie.
Don’t look for me at the show. But I’ll be there in spirit.
A Spirit in the Night, you might say.
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