Jake Clemons on his Beatles conversion and the family legacy that started it all

E Street Band member and multi-instrumentalist Jake Clemons joined host Kenneth Womack to discuss going from being reluctant to accept Beatles music to becoming a full-fledged fan on Everything Fab Four a podcast co-produced by me and Womack a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon and distributed by Salon Clemons will also be joining us for a performance with his band I m thrilled it s going to be an awesome night at the inaugural Everything Fab Four Fest this Saturday November th in Asbury Park NJ The event will celebrate the th anniversary of The Beatles seminal Rubber Soul album Related Little Steven Van Zandt on his live Beatles tribute Macca to Mecca and playing with Paul McCartney As the nephew of the late great Clarence The Big Man Clemons Jake says he grew up around an incredible amount of phenomenal musicians As he recounted Womack with a laugh I m not necessarily considered super talented in my family His father was a band director for the Marine Corps who was strict about only listening to marching band or gospel music and who used to quiz Clemons about which instruments were used on various songs We had Clarence and Bruce Springsteen s records on the shelf but we weren t allowed to listen to them But that indeed gave me a wholly clean slate when I became a musician For his part the younger Clemons started playing saxophone the summer before he entered sixth grade and was playing professionally on the local circuit by age Clarence s role in that was pretty thought-provoking He was my uncle and everybody played music on that side of the family so it didn t seem weird to me that he was on the radio I took it as commonplace But when I saw him play live with the E Street Band for the first time it shook my world The sax was the best instrument on the stage I d had it in my mind to be a biologist until then and it altogether changed my trajectory LISTEN Follow and listen to Everything Fab Four on Spotify Apple Podcasts RadioPublic Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts In addition to that eye-opening experience Jake was introduced to other rock music through his older brothers and friends My peers parents had introduced them to The Beatles and I had none of that I knew they were a cool popular band but my initial response was to reject it Eventually I came around we all have to surrender to the truth at particular point Though he says he doesn t have a favorite album Clemons admits I have this idea in my head of doing instrumental covers of Beatles songs from Rubber Soul and Revolver and calling it Rubber Revolver ' a nod to two of the band s the greater part influential and experimental efforts and one of which will be celebrated at Everything Fab Four Fest this month It s an epic odyssey It s just amazing what they were able to do Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Program Everything Fab Four host Kenneth Womack is the author of a two-volume biography on Beatles producer George Martin and the bestselling books Solid State The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles and John Lennon The Last Days in the Life His latest book is the authorized biography of Beatles road manager Mal Evans Living the Beatles Legend out now Tickets for Everything Fab Four Fest are now available to purchase on Eventbrite For more information please visit the festival s website Read more about Everything Fab Four Rocky Horror at The fab three join Everything Fab Four E Street s Mighty Max on The Beatles earth-shattering influence Nellie McKay on growing up with The Beatles and the therapy of creativity The post Jake Clemons on his Beatles conversion and the family legacy that started it all appeared first on Salon com