With An Especially Emotional Jungleland, Clarence Clemons Bids Adieu

An especially spirited 1978 performance in Passaic; these were the shows that made Bruce such a legend. The Big Man rips a particularly majestic solo starting at around 4:05.

This is pretty much the lithe and kinetic young Bruce I first saw in 1972 or 3 in a small venue in Houston called Liberty Hall — gone now, alas — that held perhaps 400-500 people. Same band as here except the keyboardist, all on a stage so small Bruce had little room to roam. So, born to run, Bruce in his excitement that night ran literally in circles in the middle of the small stage. You see some of that ebullient motion in this vid as well. My best friend, David Gee, and I had gone to the concert on the strength of the photo on a poster advertising the show — Bruce looking skyward, bending a note on his Tele — and neither David nor I nor anyone else there could quite believe what we were seeing. The hall could barely contain Bruce, much less the crowd, which he drove into a frenzy. When they did Rosalita I thought the place would burn down. Clarence, standing tall, held the whole place down.

Stick around for Bruce’s delivery of the last verse and cry.

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