Remembering Clarence Clemons

One year ago today is the date of the sad passing of the legendary saxophonist of The E Street Band Clarence Clemons. For me, the news of his death was one of those “remember where you were” moments. Readers of this blog may have viagra 50mg noticed that at least once a year I have a Bruce Springsteen related post, so on the anniversary of Clarence’s death it is no surprise I had a real urge to write about ‘The Big Man!’

Clarence was a man mountain, he was (as Bruce would introduce him), ‘The Biggest Man You’ve Ever Seen’, he was (and always will be) an absolute legend. Not only was he the saxophonist in the greatest house band in the land but he also appeared in Bill & Ted, The Wire & in his last years on earth was still cool enough to be demanded by the biggest popstar in the world, Lady Gaga.

I count myself extremely lucky to have had the chance to have seen Clarence in the flesh on 4 separate occasions. In the later shows he had his infamous throne to give him a break during Springsteens epic 3 hour+ sets, yet when the time came for The Big Man to step up he would still own the stage, still playing off the energy of the crowd and the rest of the band. Despite his body slowly working against him I will never forget the fantastic image at the end of the show. The whole band were stood down on a slightly lower (front) stage, right at the screaming crowd who were stretching as hard as they could to touch either Bruce, Steve Van Zandt, Nils, or any of The E Street Band, however, while all this was going on the remainder of the audience were looking at only one man. Clarence Clemons stood a level up (his knees unable to support taking the few short steps down) standing behind the band, arms crossed, nodding…he was The Big Man and it was your privilege to have seen him. Epic!

And so, one year on from his passing Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are back in the UK and therefore I have hijacked the blog for the next few days to dedicate a few posts to Clarence ‘The Big Man’ Clemons. In the next couple of days I will tell you about his book, share his best bits in mix-tape form and let Bruce say a little something about the man himself.