Clarence Clemons January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011
We lost one of the best known sidemen in all of music yesterday when Clarence Clemons died from complications of a stroke yesterday. He suffered the stroke a week earlier and all indications was he would pull through, but almost a week later the bad news hit and now one of the biggest personalities in rock is gone.
If you have never seen Bruce Springsteen live you will never truly know the impact of Clarence. You can hear stories, you can watch video, but it isn't the same. Clarence was like a big burly sax carrying bodyguard for Bruce always right there with him to his right and always with a big smile on his face. You could always tell he loved being on stage and loved playing in that band.
I've seen the band 3 times. The first time was on the "Born In The USA" tour at the Pontiac Silverdome. The band was at the top of it's game, it was a well known commodity before this, but now they were on a different planet and playing in front of 70,000 people and made it feel like a club that was just over stuffed with friends. Since I had never seen the band I didn't know what to expect, you always heard about these great 3 hour marathon shows and I was thinking "3 hours? This could get boring in the middle, ugh..." But because of the band chemistry and the show that was put on it felt like a short show and Clarence was a huge part of it.
The 2nd time was at the Joe Louis Arena, this time on the "Tunnel Of Love" tour and it was another show where I wasn't sure what we would get. The album was a somber one about relationships falling apart and most of the E street band was not on the record. But the band didn't disappoint. They had several stage props including a bench where Bruce sat with Clarence and sang "Glory Days", but I will never forget the beginning of the show... They had a ticket booth at the front corner of the stage, each band member walked out and bought a ticket and took their place on stage, one by one they come out to applause (by now everyone in the band was recognizable) and then the big man came out and the roof damn near came off the place! He stood there and smiled at the crowd for a second and took it in, I think he was as happy to see us as we were to see him. Of course Bruce was last out, but Clarence had just as big a reception... He was that important.
The 3rd time was on "The Rising" tour at the Palace of Auburn Hills. It had been a long time since I'd seen Bruce live, a few solo tours that just didn't do it for me and a E Street reunion that I was too broke for, but I loved the album and didn't want to miss them again, so we went. It was an odd show because the album was about Bruce's reaction to 9/11 and he wanted some reflective moments which is not a party type thing, but when the E Streeters were out there it was fun and Clarence lead the way.
The last time I actually watched them was on TV at the Superbowl half time show. For me they were the 2nd best performance that the Superbowl has had (hard to beat Prince) and the amazing thing is that up to a week before the show I was hearing Clarence may not be there. He had just had knee surgery and was having a hard time walking, let alone standing, he was a big man after all, and I was telling people that were looking forward to it to not get too upset because it wouldn't be the same without him. Yesterday I read an account from a sports writer who was there. He saw Clarence and some handlers struggling to get him on stage and then once he got up there... BOOM! The big man! If you watch that performance you would never know he was in great pain.
If you have never seen Bruce Springsteen live you will never truly know the impact of Clarence. You can hear stories, you can watch video, but it isn't the same. Clarence was like a big burly sax carrying bodyguard for Bruce always right there with him to his right and always with a big smile on his face. You could always tell he loved being on stage and loved playing in that band.
I've seen the band 3 times. The first time was on the "Born In The USA" tour at the Pontiac Silverdome. The band was at the top of it's game, it was a well known commodity before this, but now they were on a different planet and playing in front of 70,000 people and made it feel like a club that was just over stuffed with friends. Since I had never seen the band I didn't know what to expect, you always heard about these great 3 hour marathon shows and I was thinking "3 hours? This could get boring in the middle, ugh..." But because of the band chemistry and the show that was put on it felt like a short show and Clarence was a huge part of it.
The 2nd time was at the Joe Louis Arena, this time on the "Tunnel Of Love" tour and it was another show where I wasn't sure what we would get. The album was a somber one about relationships falling apart and most of the E street band was not on the record. But the band didn't disappoint. They had several stage props including a bench where Bruce sat with Clarence and sang "Glory Days", but I will never forget the beginning of the show... They had a ticket booth at the front corner of the stage, each band member walked out and bought a ticket and took their place on stage, one by one they come out to applause (by now everyone in the band was recognizable) and then the big man came out and the roof damn near came off the place! He stood there and smiled at the crowd for a second and took it in, I think he was as happy to see us as we were to see him. Of course Bruce was last out, but Clarence had just as big a reception... He was that important.
The 3rd time was on "The Rising" tour at the Palace of Auburn Hills. It had been a long time since I'd seen Bruce live, a few solo tours that just didn't do it for me and a E Street reunion that I was too broke for, but I loved the album and didn't want to miss them again, so we went. It was an odd show because the album was about Bruce's reaction to 9/11 and he wanted some reflective moments which is not a party type thing, but when the E Streeters were out there it was fun and Clarence lead the way.
The last time I actually watched them was on TV at the Superbowl half time show. For me they were the 2nd best performance that the Superbowl has had (hard to beat Prince) and the amazing thing is that up to a week before the show I was hearing Clarence may not be there. He had just had knee surgery and was having a hard time walking, let alone standing, he was a big man after all, and I was telling people that were looking forward to it to not get too upset because it wouldn't be the same without him. Yesterday I read an account from a sports writer who was there. He saw Clarence and some handlers struggling to get him on stage and then once he got up there... BOOM! The big man! If you watch that performance you would never know he was in great pain.
He most recently contributed to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" on 2 songs, one of them being the single "Edge Of Glory" showing once again that he was more then just Bruce's sideman but also a sought out performer 40 years into his career.
Side men are rarely known unless they have a significant solo career also. Clarence was the E Street band. I don't know if they will play again, this is their 2nd loss (Danny Federici died in 2008 while they were on tour, he was not on tour with them though) and their drummer can't handle the road stress anymore (So his son replaced him, lol) but this feels like the main cog is gone. It will never be the same again.
Side men are rarely known unless they have a significant solo career also. Clarence was the E Street band. I don't know if they will play again, this is their 2nd loss (Danny Federici died in 2008 while they were on tour, he was not on tour with them though) and their drummer can't handle the road stress anymore (So his son replaced him, lol) but this feels like the main cog is gone. It will never be the same again.
I'm going to leave with one of my favorite songs from the band live and it also features Clarence pretty heavily
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