Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir

E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos actor tells all.

The night Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen met Clarence Clemons; Springsteen being pursued by a randy Janis Joplin; Little Richard marrying Van Zandt and fiancée Maureen while guest Percy Sledge sings When A Man Loves A Woman – Unrequited Infatuations packs in some beautifully written set-pieces, but it is also funny, deeply ruminative and frank. A serial ideas man driven by intense passions both musical and political, the author knows “true bliss is a perfect drum fill”, reveals that his bandana was influenced by Zorro, and explains why he was wrong about Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark. He’s similarly great on his time playing Silvio Dante in The Sopranos (writer David Chase initially had him down to play Tony Soprano), and as Frank Tagliano in the Norway-set mobster-in-hiding romp Lilyhammer, which somehow leads to him teaching music masterclasses at Oslo University. By the end you feel you’ve perused 10 fascinating lives, not one.