{"id":25699,"date":"2021-03-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=25699"},"modified":"2021-03-01T05:15:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T13:15:49","slug":"cover-me-rotd-clarence-clemons-and-the-red-bank-rockers-summer-on-signal-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/01\/cover-me-rotd-clarence-clemons-and-the-red-bank-rockers-summer-on-signal-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Cover Me\/RotD: Clarence Clemons and The Red Bank Rockers: Summer on Signal Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s the biggest joke in the world that it&#8217;s billed as the Red Bank Rockers&#8211;since any educated ear could pick out the sound of the E Street Band.&#8221;\u00a0 &#8212; <em>Backstreets #9<\/em>, <em>Spring 1984<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We can forgive\u00a0<em>Backstreets\u00a0<\/em>for the error, because they certainly weren&#8217;t the only ones to swear that this 1983 instrumental track by Clarence Clemons and The Red Bank Rockers was really a Big Man-fronted E Street Band in disguise.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WJ99dt7Eis0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Even that lead guitar sounds like Bruce, but it&#8217;s not&#8211;it&#8217;s actually David Landau, Jon&#8217;s brother.<\/p>\n<p>But to the degree that it sounds exactly like an E Street Band track, credit that to the songwriter and producer (or maybe co-producer, the record is murky on this one): The Boss himself.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know exactly when Bruce wrote &#8220;Summer on Signal Hill,&#8221; but we know it was recorded in the summer of 1983, and Max Weinberg (who also covered it in 1991 with Killer Joe) cites E Street Band rehearsals (but not recordings) of it in 1982.<\/p>\n<p>Intriguingly, though, when the E Street Band rehearsed the song, it was known as &#8220;Now and Forever&#8221; &#8212; and it had lyrics. When Bruce donated the music to Clarence for an instrumental, he retitled it &#8220;Summer on Signal Hill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Signal Hill is most likely a reference to Telegraph Hill, the name of Bruce&#8217;s street (as well as a nearby park) where he lived from the Born to Run-era through 1981, which leads me to suspect that Bruce actually wrote the song even earlier than 1982.)<\/p>\n<p>The retitling appears to have been a late decision, however, because when the song was originally issued as the B-side to &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/cover-me-a-womans-got-the-power\/\">A Woman&#8217;s Got the Power<\/a>&#8221; in Australia, it was actually called &#8220;Now and Forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"25731\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/01\/cover-me-rotd-clarence-clemons-and-the-red-bank-rockers-summer-on-signal-hill\/nowandforever\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?fit=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"nowandforever\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?fit=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25731\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?resize=758%2C758&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"758\" height=\"758\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/nowandforever.jpg?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dave Marsh set the record straight in the very next issue of <em>Backstreets, <\/em>but for many fans, the is-it-or-isn&#8217;t-it debate continued.<\/p>\n<p>In 2002, <em>Backstreets\u00a0<\/em>finally got a chance to definitively settle the matter when Christopher Phillips had a chance to interview The Big Man himself. When asked who the studio musicians were on &#8220;Summer on Signal Hill,&#8221; Clarence flatly stated that they were his band, The Red Bank Rockers.<\/p>\n<p>Chris pressed once more: &#8220;It sounds for all the world like the E Street Band, and that&#8217;s sort of been an ongoing&#8211;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s because the song was written like that, written by Bruce,&#8221; Clarence replied. &#8220;It&#8217;s his signature sound. Other musicians may play, but his songs will sound like him, sound like the E Street Band. So you&#8217;ve got that real E Street Band sound in there. But that was my band.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So we can consider the matter settled. Now we can turn our attention to the more important mystery:<\/p>\n<p>Whatever happened to those lyrics?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summer on Signal Hill<br \/>\nRecorded:<\/strong> July 1983<br \/>\n<strong>Released:<\/strong> B-side single (1983, 1986)<br \/>\n<strong>Never performed<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lost original Springsteen song survives as a Red Bank Rockers instrumental&#8211;but whatever happened to the lyrics?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[455,3108,3107],"class_list":["post-25699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-me","category-roll-of-the-dice","tag-clarence-clemons-and-the-red-bank-rockers","tag-now-and-forever","tag-summer-on-signal-hill"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/signalhill.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-6Gv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":931,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/cover-me-a-womans-got-the-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":0},"title":"Cover Me: A Woman&#8217;s Got the Power","author":"Ken","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce salutes his mom with this song by local Philly band The A's.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/womanpower.jpg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32366,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/16\/matr-bruce-springsteen-clarence-clemons-and-danny-clinch-rockin-pneumonia-and-the-boogie-woogie-flu\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":1},"title":"MatR: Bruce Springsteen, Clarence Clemons, and Danny Clinch: Rockin&#8217; Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu","author":"Ken","date":"January 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Three times only: Bruce teamed up with The Red Bank Rockers and The Tangiers Blues Band on Huey Smith's barroom classic.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/huey.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/huey.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/huey.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/huey.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/huey.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2114,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/14\/roll-of-the-dice-cover-me-clarence-clemons-savin-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":2},"title":"Roll of the Dice\/Cover Me, Clarence Clemons: Savin&#8217; Up","author":"Ken","date":"May 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Double-entry today: \"Savin' Up\" is a Bruce Springsteen original composition, recorded by Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers, but performed live by Bruce on many occasions.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/savinup.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":56455,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/kingdom-of-days-april-16-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":3},"title":"April 16","author":"Ken","date":"April 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Quite the grab bag of highlights today: a guest appearance by Mike Ness, a gorgeous acoustic \"Point Blank,\" the premiere of \"Pilgrim in the Temple of Love,\" and a Bruce concert gets panned by two critics in the same paper.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20120416_booklet2.jpg?fit=1188%2C1188&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20120416_booklet2.jpg?fit=1188%2C1188&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20120416_booklet2.jpg?fit=1188%2C1188&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20120416_booklet2.jpg?fit=1188%2C1188&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20120416_booklet2.jpg?fit=1188%2C1188&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":63382,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/kingdom-of-days-december-17-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":4},"title":"Kingdom of Days: December 17","author":"Ken","date":"December 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce kicks off a multi-year tradition of Asbury Park Holiday shows. Plus: a Tonight Show appearance, last performances of several songs for years to come, and more.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20001217_front-e1540706800117.jpg?fit=600%2C505&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20001217_front-e1540706800117.jpg?fit=600%2C505&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20001217_front-e1540706800117.jpg?fit=600%2C505&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62662,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/03\/kingdom-of-days-december-3-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":25699,"position":5},"title":"Kingdom of Days: December 3","author":"Ken","date":"December 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today in Springsteen history: Bruce releases two new videos, a star-studded holiday show in Asbury Park features the return of some notable set list prodigals, and an epic 20-minute \"Kitty's Back.\" More highlights inside.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20011203_2_front-e1540475220338.jpg?fit=600%2C596&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20011203_2_front-e1540475220338.jpg?fit=600%2C596&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20011203_2_front-e1540475220338.jpg?fit=600%2C596&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25699"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25778,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25699\/revisions\/25778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}