LOS ANGELES ( KTLA ) - Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player in Bruce Springsteen 's E Street Band, has passed away less than one week after he suffered a stroke, media reports said Saturday.
Rolling Stone first reported Clemons death Saturday afternoon. The media outlet claimed Clemons fell "seriously ill" after suffering the stroke at his Florida home on June 12.
Oh, good lord. The world of rock ’n roll will never be the same.
Everybody has their favorite Bruce Springsteen song, and everyone has their favorite Bruce Springsteen song featuring Clarence Clemmons, but for me it was always this:
Well the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city
All the little pretties raised their hand
I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half …
The first time I really listened to Bruce Springsteen was when one of my sisters bought Born to Run in he mid 1970s, and I wasn’t entirely blown away by it. But it grew on me, and anyway I always liked “Thunder Road,” which was the first song on the first side of the LP, and the only thing better than “Thunder Road” was going from “Thunder Road” right into “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” Man, nobody was making records like that in 1975 – not with that combination of folk and rock and rhythm and blues – and quite honestly, there’s no band on earth that can pull it off like the E Street Band. None.
The video posted above is of a live performance from 1978. Here’s a version from 2007:
And here’s Clarence Clemons from his first solo record, with the Red Bank Rockers, doing “Savin’ Up”:
And here’s one more oldie – Bruce and Clarence and the E-Street Band doing Gary U.S. Bonds’ classic, “Quarter to Three,” live in 1978:
The night is dark but the sidewalk’s bright and lined with the light of the living.
But tonight it’s a little less bright.
© 2011 David P. von Ebers. All rights reserved.
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