As a Springsteen junkie (more than 100 shows under my belt starting with No Nukes in 1979) I buy lots of these books. Most I scan through and never get to reading all the way through. Even as one who would find what Springsteen eats for breakfast entertaining, I get bored. Not the case with Big Man! I read it in one day. It is truly enjoyable, funny and well written. Clarence's tales are so convincing, I found myself googling Englebert Humperdinck to see if he was still alive! As a black man, that on a given night may perform in front of 50,000 white people and on a good night maybe a dozen black people, he did not set out to prove anything. (Damon Wayons, a friend of Don Reo's comments at his first show that Bruce must be a Sopranos fan since he just spotted Stevie Van Zandt backstage!) Clarence is immensely talented, incredibly likable and really funny. And, he gets 50,000 white people pay money to see him! His stories come off as honest and straight forward. Clarence doesn't offer inside gossip on Bruce and the other band members; he doesn't have to; his stories are more than enough entertainment. There are really great photos that you don't want to miss, so don't opt for the Kindle version. As larger than life as Springsteen is, The Big Man never plays second fiddle. He doesn't do this with ego, but with talent, presence, likeability and a smile that can light up a stadium.
Don Reo's additions are really amusing. He is obviously a very successful man in his on right, and surely has met and hung out with many a celebrity, but offers his observations from a very humble perspective. He gets as excited by the private planes with the band, the backstage access, the inside scoop as any die hard fan would. In many cases he is the fly on the wall that we would all like to be. His perspective on Clarence is that of an old dear friend; by no means a ghost writer.
This book is a really good read, that even a less than obsessed fan could enjoy. I hope Clarence's new knees keep him pain free and performing for many years to come. Springsteen without the Big Man would never be the same! Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales
It says in the beginning of the book that this is not a standard memoir, which is certainly true. I can't really think of an appropriate comparison because I don't think I've ever read anything like it before. It's a peculiar and utterly unique mix of Clarence's memoir and half-truths (the "Legend" sections tell you up front, basically, that they are compilations of true things that happened but in different orders/settings and half truths that have been embellished for fun). On top of that, it's told in rotating first-person narratives so you have Clarence's voice telling you what happened and then sometimes you have the co-writer basically filling in the blanks. Honestly, it's a strange combination of factors.
That said, I couldn't put it down. The writing is excellent, the storytelling is a blast, it moves incredibly quickly, and you do learn a ton about Bruce and E Street (at least I did, but I'm not a complete Bruce nut...just a regular fan who could not tell you the last time he played any specific song live).
More than anything, this book seems to be about conveying a feeling, as in giving you the feeling that you are basically hanging out with Clarence while he tells you many things about his own past (childhood, wanting to be a football player, following music to Bruce, etc etc) to his hopes and dreams and fears. When you look at this way, you end up with a much better sense of Clarence as a person than you would have with "I was born in X. Then I did X. Then I did X." type of standard memoir. As Bruce says in the Foreword: "This book gets as close to the "truth" about Clarence Clemons as I can imagine. Mere facts will never plumb the mysteries of the Big Man."
I applaud Clarence for having the courage and desire to take a really different route in the book world, one that is far more creative, personal, unqiue, strange, and, for me at least, leaves me with a much longer-lasting impression of the man himself than I have gotten from other musician/celeb memoirs I can think of. I'm sure it would have been a lot easier for him to just tell a ghostwriter stuff about his life and do a standard thing. This feels nothing like that...it comes from the heart and clearly Clarence and Don have a relationship far deeper than a celeb and ghostwriter.
Like the Big Man, it's one of a kind. Bravo.
As an ardent Bruce fan, I so wanted to love this book. And, in fact, there are lots of interesting, behind the scenes anecdotes and tidbits about the E Street Band. What gets in the way is Clarence's incredible ego -- he's more successful, achieved more wealth, slept with more women, knows more celebrities than you ever will. And he's spritual too. Sonny Rollins and Pharoah Sanders (two vastly superior saxmen) could teach him a lesson in humility and sprituality.
And the "tall tales" really serve no purpose.
The book is an entertaining read, but I actually liked Clarence less after I read the book. Here's hoping Bruce's pending autobiography is a more substanial book.
Addendum: Today's NY Times has a scathing review of Big Man, calling it "a miserable book".
I've always been a big fan of Clarence, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Come on everyone who's buying the book are. I was excited to read Clarence's book. There is absolutely no question in reading this book that The Big Man is a very intelligent and witty guy. The book is really three books in one. The first book is written by Clarence about Clarence, his life and experiences. The second book is written by Clarence and is partially true and partially fiction. The third is written by the co-author, Clarence's good friend (groupie?) Don Rio. All three books are mixed together. This seems to work for a while and then it stops working quite abruptly.
Here are the problems as I see them: Problem number one is the part of the book that is written by the co-author. I didn't know who Don Rio was, but I sure do now. The thing is, this is a book about Clarence Clemons. Let Mr. Reo write his own book! It's not that I don't care about Mr. Reo, just not in this book. He also goes on and on about how wonderful Clarence is, oh yes, on and on. We already knew this or we probably wouldn't be reading the book. Mind you this is a full third of the book! I becomes quite painful and not just a little annoying. If you do purchase the book, a word of advise, skip the chapters that start with, "Don." The second problem is the "Tall Tales." They are amusing at first and then the name dropping really gets on your nerves and it's not just people in the music business, really odd references and they seem to get longer and longer and your mind starts to wander and zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The biggest problem with the book is the part that Clarence wrote about his experiences. It's too short. We don't really learn much about him at all. He tells us very little about his childhood. He tells us very little about his relationships or his children. And come on, most of us want to know about his history with Bruce and the E Street band. We get very little of this. I'm not even certain that he mentions everybody by name. Maybe I'm wrong, but there's precious little about the band. What he does tell us about all this stuff just made the situation worse because it was like the first bite of a cookie, but you get no more!
This guy could have written a brilliant autobiography. He really does have a way with words. I certainly don't think he needed help doing so by using a co-author. Or, if he wanted to, he could have written a work of fiction. Maybe he can put out another book called "Big Man, Take 2," and tell us all the things we had hoped to learn about him in this book. I'm really, really disappointed, but I still love the Big Man! See you 11/18!'
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