Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (Springsteen on Broadway)

Now one plus one equals two, that happens every day, that is not magic. That's the grind. That's when you get up, one. Go to work, one. Go to bed, two. Two, geniuses, two. But when one plus one equals three, that's when your life changes, and you see everything new, and these are days when you are visited by visions, when the world around you brings down the spirit and you feel blessed to be alive. It is the essential equation of love. There is no love without one plus one equaling three. It's the essential equation of art. It's the essential equation of rock 'n' roll. It's the reason the universe will never be fully comprehensible. It's the reason Louie Louie will never be fully comprehensible. And it's the reason true rock 'n' roll, and true rock 'n' roll bands, will never die [Verse 1: Bruce Springsteen] Teardrops on the city Bad Scooter searchin' for his groove Whole world walking pretty and you can't find the room to move Everybody better move over, that's all I'm runnin' on the bad side With my back to the wall Tenth Avenue freeze-out Tenth Avenue freeze-out [Verse 2: Bruce Springsteen] I'm stranded in the jungle tryna take in all the heat they're givin' Yeah, the night is dark but the sidewalk's bright and lined with the light of the living From a tenement window a transistor blasts Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast I walked into a Tenth Avenue freeze-out Tenth Avenue freeze-out [Bridge: Bruce Springsteen] And I'm all alone, I'm all alone And I can't go home I can't find my way back home now [Spoken Interlude: Bruce Springsteen & Crowd] Now Gary, Danny, Little Steven, Mighty Max, Professor Roy, Nils Lofgren, Patty Scialfa, that is my one plus one equals three. Excellent, grasshopper! But nobody captured my audience's imagination or their hearts like Clarence. Clarence was, Clarence was a figure out of a rock 'n' roll storybook, and together, we told a story that was bigger than any of the ones I had written in my songs. It was a story where not only does Scooter and the Big Man bust the city in half, but we remade the city. We remade the city shaping into the kind of place where our friendship and our love for one another wouldn't have been such an exceptional thing. First night I saw Clarence he came walkin' out of the shadows towards the band stand, nodded to me, got up, stood to my right, for the very first time. He picked up his saxophone, and when he played - when he played, he whispered that story in my ear. And then we whispered it into your ear, and we carried it together for a long, a long good time. The Big Man was big. Everything about him. His personality, his size, his laugh, the sound of his saxophone. When I first heard it I thought it was the biggest sound I ever heard. And it was. His heart, his problems - they were big. But he was elemental in my life. And losing him was like losing the rain. If I were a mystic, if I were a mystic, I guess Clarence and mine's friendship would lead me to believe that we, we stood together in other older times, ya know and uh, in other lives, along other rivers, in other ancient cities, in other fields, workin' side by side, with the sun settin', doin' our modest version of God's work. I'll see you in the next life Big Man [Verse 3: Bruce Springsteen] When they made that change uptown And the Big Man joined the band From the coastline to the city All the little pretties raise their hands I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half With a Tenth Avenue freeze-out Tenth Avenue freeze-out [Outro: Bruce Springsteen and Crowd] Ladies and gentlemen let's hear it for the biggest man you ever saw Clarence "Big Man" Clemons And the legendary E Street Band That's it Oh yeah, it's alright Yeah!