{"id":50460,"date":"2025-08-06T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/50460\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:45:09","slug":"author-details-why-bruce-springsteen-included-clarence-clemons-on-the-born-to-run-cover-in-new-book-about-the-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/50460\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Details Why Bruce Springsteen Included Clarence Clemons on the \u201cBorn to Run\u201d Cover in New Book About the Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

In his new book, Tonight in Jungleland, Peter Ames Carlin says that Bruce Springsteen chose to have Clarence Clemons on the cover of Born to Run with him in part to stand against racism<\/p>\n

Carlin spoke to former E Street band member David Sancious, who remembered Springsteen and Clemons standing up to racists on the Jersey Shore<\/p>\n

Springsteen and Clemons remained good friends and collaborators until Clemons\u2019 death in 2011<\/p>\n

The cover of Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u2019s Born to Run is just as iconic as the songs it contains, and a new book is shedding insight into how it came together.<\/p>\n

Peter Ames Carlin writes in his book Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run<\/a> that Springsteen, now 75, decided to have his bandmate, legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons, pose with him on the cover in part as a statement against racism. Springsteen and Clemons \u2014 perhaps the most famous member of the E Street Band \u2014 remained close friends and collaborators until Clemons died in 2011<\/a> at age 69.<\/p>\n

Carlin spoke to David Sancious, who was a member of the E Street Band for the first three albums (and contributed on three later releases). Sancious remembered one afternoon in 1973 when he was enjoying himself at the beach on the Jersey Shore\u2019s Long Beach Island before a show. Sancious, now 71 but then a teenager, soon realized he was the only Black person, and faced racist harassment from fellow beachgoers. Then Springsteen showed up.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/p>\n

Richard Corkery\/NY Daily News Archive via Getty<\/p>\n

Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen performing<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready to knock those f—— right over the f—— head,\u201d Springsteen told Carlin, who noted that the young singer was neither particularly tall nor strong. \u201cIt was a really ugly scene. They tiptoed right up to the line, you know, being loud enough so we could hear them. It was one of the ugliest scenes I\u2019ve seen in my life. You know, just in-your-face racism. Right here on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Clemons \u2014 who Springsteen appropriately termed \u201cthe Big Man\u201d on the Born to Run track \u201cTenth Avenue Freeze-Out\u201d \u2014 walked over and silently got the racist harassers to go away. \u201cI had Bruce on the one side and Clarence Clemons on the other, ready to put a hurt on these fools if they wanted to escalate anything,\u201d Sancious told Carlin. \u201cI just knew there was nothing bad going to happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/people-app.onelink.me\/HNIa\/kz7l4cuf<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlin connects it to the ultimate cover of Born to Run, which was released in 1975 and became Springsteen\u2019s breakthrough. Photographer Eric Meola, whom Springsteen had met a few times, ended up shooting the image. Once he listened to some of the album, Meola, 79, was inspired to shoot the cover in black and white.<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/p>\n

Sony<\/p>\n

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen<\/p>\n

But it was Springsteen\u2019s idea to add Clemons to the photo. Carlin writes, \u201cAnd this sealed it: a Black man and a white man, wearing black (or dark) and white clothes, posed against a sheer white backdrop, captured on black-and-white film. Contrasting tones, brought together into one image. That, they both decided, would work.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the shoot, Springsteen and Clemons both brought their instruments and an array of clothes. Once the photos were printed, Springsteen and his manager chose the cover where Springsteen leaned on Clemons, smirking while the saxophonist played.<\/p>\n

Carlin writes, \u201cFor everything it said about who Bruce was \u2014 a dyed-in-the-leather rock \u2019n\u2019 roller, an Elvis fan, a lithe young man who could wear the hell out of a torn tank top \u2014 and how much he admired his African American bandmate, on whose shoulder he leaned, both literally and figuratively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beefy boys from down the shore, and all their white supremacist ilk, would hate it. Which was the point. Because here they were again. Scooter and the Big Man gearing up to tear their city in half,\u201d Carlin writes, harkening back to \u201cTenth Avenue Freeze-Out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run is available now, wherever books are sold.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW In his new book, Tonight in Jungleland, Peter Ames Carlin says that Bruce Springsteen chose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,20525,49,48,34454,34455,75,34456],"class_list":{"0":"post-50460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-bruce-springsteen","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-clarence-clemons","13":"tag-david-sancious","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-peter-ames-carlin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}