Singer Bruce Springsteen has released the eulogy he delivered at tenor sax player Clarence Clemons' June 21st funeral, calling his life with the big man "a wild and unpredictable ride."
"'C' lived a life where he did what he wanted to do and he let the chips, human and otherwise, fall where they may," he said during services June 21 at the at the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach, Florida, where Springsteen also performed an acoustic version of "10th Avenue Freeze-Out."
Also read: Clarence Clemons Mourned on Twitter – David Cook, Jake Tapper, Michael Moore
Clemons -- an iconic member of Springsteen’s band for the past 40 years, suffered a massive stroke on June 12, followed by two brain surgeries.
Accompanied by Jackson Browne and members of the E Street Band, Springsteen ended the ceremony with a performance of "You're a Friend of Mine,"
"Big Man, thank you for your kindness, your strength, your dedication, your work, your story," Springsteen concluded. "Thanks for the miracle… and for letting a little white boy slip through the side door of the Temple of Soul."
Following is a slightly revised text version of the singer's eulogy:
I’ve been sitting here listening to everyone talk about Clarence and staring at that photo of the two of us right there. It’s a picture of Scooter and The Big Man, people who we were sometimes. As you can see in this particular photo, Clarence is admiring his muscles and I’m pretending to be nonchalant while leaning upon him. I leaned on Clarence a lot; I made a career out of it in some ways.
Those of us who shared Clarence’s life, shared with him his love and his confusion. Though "C" mellowed with age, he was always a wild and unpredictable ride. Today I see his sons Nicky, Chuck, Christopher and Jarod sitting here and I see in them the reflection of a lot of C’s qualities. I see his light, his darkness, his sweetness, his roughness, his gentleness, his anger, his brilliance, his handsomeness, and his goodness. But, as you boys know your pop was a not a day at the beach. "C" lived a life where he did what he wanted to do and he let the chips, human and otherwise, fall where they may. Like a lot of us your pop was capable of great magic and also of making quite an amazing mess. This was just the nature of your daddy and my beautiful friend. Clarence’s unconditional love, which was very real, came with a lot of conditions. Your pop was a major project and always a work in progress. "C" never approached anything linearly, life never proceeded in a straight line. He never went A… B…. C…. D. It was always A… J…. C…. Z… Q… I….! That was the way Clarence lived and made his way through the world.
