Art & Creativity Quote by Clarence Clemons

Clemons draws a clean line between competence and communion. “I do read music” is the little credential you have to flash in rooms that worship technique: yes, he knows the rules, the language, the gatekeeping basics. But the sentence doesn’t linger there. It pivots fast into “but I prefer,” framing literacy as secondary to a deeper authority. The subtext is almost a dare: don’t confuse fluency with feeling, and don’t mistake precision for truth.

Coming from the Big Man of the E Street Band, the line lands as more than a cliché about “playing with soul.” Clemons was famous for solos that felt like plot twists - raw, melodic, narrative, sometimes bordering on sermon. In that context, “from the heart” isn’t anti-intellectual; it’s anti-reductive. He’s defending the messy human part of performance that can’t be fully notated: timing that bends around a crowd’s breath, a note held because the room isn’t ready to let go, the improvisational courage to be slightly imperfect if it means being emotionally exact.

The intent also pushes back on a quiet hierarchy in music culture. Reading music often gets coded as “serious,” while ear-playing or improvisation gets treated as instinctive, even amateur. Clemons flips the prestige: the heart isn’t a lack, it’s the point. It’s a statement of values from a musician whose whole brand was largeness - sound, presence, empathy - insisting that the best performances aren’t merely executed, they’re inhabited.