ABSTRACT The Big Man had a big impact on Born to Run and on fifty years of rock’n’roll saxophone. How did this happen in a guitar-centric rock world, and why does it still reverberate over fifty years later? A multi-method combination of quantitative analysis, historical analysis, and personal interviews help explain how the songs, the style, and the symbolism helped Clarence Clemons’s saxophone contribute to the success of Born to Run. Findings suggest that Clemons’s work not only preceded a revitalized interest in rock saxophone, but it also established a new stylistic and cultural outlook that redefined the saxophone’s role in American popular music. In short, Born to Run influenced a half-century of songs and saxophonists.
Brian Wansink (Sun,) studied this question.