Goodbye to 'The Big Man'

Oddly, and rather ashamedly, I only heard the news of the death of Clarence Clemons yesterday. How I managed to avoid this in such a media saturated world is beyond me. Needless to say, it came as a massive shock, something I'm still reeling from this morning.

There's nothing I can say that would add to the many obituaries already posted, other than to mention the transformative effect the E-Street Band's music had on me as a teenager growing up in a little Lincolnshire town once voted the most boring town in England. On the glorious evening when I first heard the Springsteen mix-tape a school mate had recorded for me I was transported to sultry New York evenings and sun drenched New Jersey boardwalks. It woke me up to a wider world and gave me purpose. I started to write my own songs and those, over many years, became stories and eventually novels...

And so I played the 'Born to Run' album in the car this morning. My four year old son and two year old daughter were soon swaying and clapping along to the music, my daughter making a serious rock musician face which was joyous really and provided some perspective. Clarence has gone but the music will remain and it will fourish wherever people hear it.