[FourEsters]

I just heard that Clarence Clemons died after suffering from a stroke earlier this week. He was always a part of The many Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concerts I have seen over the years. This saddens me very much. RIP Clarence. You will be missed.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...ons-obit_n.htm

E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemons dies
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Clarence Clemons, longtime saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Saturday in Florida after suffering a massive stroke a week ago. He was 69.


Fondly known as "the Big Man," Clemons had been The Boss' vital and colorful sideman since 1972. His busy solo career as a bandleader and session player found him performing and recording with artists ranging from Aretha Franklin to Ringo Starr.
In recent years, Clemons underwent spinal surgery and knee replacement operations. An injured hand forced him to pull out of performing The Star-Spangled Banner at the June 2 NBA finals game.
Yet health issues failed to suppress his exuberance or talent. He enjoyed a career upswing of late, contributing to tracks on Lady Gaga's Born This Way album and joining her on the American Idol season finale. When she performed April 12 in Sunrise, Fla., Gaga dedicated You and I to Clemons, dubbing him "one of my favorite people in the world."
Upon learning that Clemons was in serious condition Monday, Gaga tweeted, "Little monsters, my very close friend + musician on The Edge of Glory, Clarence Clemons, is very sick. Can we all make some get well videos?"
The Gaga project was the last in a long series of high notes for the irrepressible showman who moved into music after a car accident (the day before a Cleveland Browns try-out) derailed his football ambitions.
Weaned on gospel music, the Virginia native began playing sax at 9 (he wanted an electric train for Christmas, but received a saxophone) and joined a jazz band in high school. He was inspired by King Curtis, Junior Walker and Gato Barbieri but gradually developed a distinctive blazing rock-driven style.
In 1971, he heard the Bruce Springsteen Band at a New Jersey club, The Student Prince, and told the singer, "I want to be in your band." Springsteen was not averse to the idea and summoned Clemons for tenor sax parts on his 1973 debut, then enlisted him for his touring band.
Clemons' signature wail is stamped on many Springsteen classics, including Rosalita, Born to Run, Jungleland and Thunder Road. On stage, he served as a charismatic soloist and humorous foil.
On his own, Clemons released several solo albums, most notably 1985's well-received Hero, which generated a hit duet with Jackson Browne, You're a Friend of Mine. Temple of Soul, his band with Narada Michael Walden, released the R&B/funk album Brothers In Arms in 2008.
He's played on scores of albums across multiple genres, including on solo discs by fellow E-Streeters Nils Lofgren and Steven Van Zandt. Clemons also recorded with Ricky Skaggs, Dave Koz, Joe Cocker, Twisted Sister, Roy Orbison, Alvin Lee, Luther Vandross, Carl Perkins, Gary "U.S." Bonds and Lisa Stansfield.
And he branched out into film, TV and publishing. He got roles in the series Diff'rent Strokes, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons and HBO's The Wire. And he landed big-screen parts in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Blues Brothers 2000 and Martin Scorsese's New York, New York.
In 2009, Clemens published his memoir, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales, which President Bill Clinton called "an essential read for any music lover" and "a unique personal narrative that's bound in both history and folklore."
In the updated reprint, Clemons shared details about his 2010 back operation while recuperating at his Florida home.
"In a 13-hour surgery, my spine was fused from L2 to L5," he wrote. "I've got metal all over my body now. It's in my hips, knees, chest and back. Don't come to the airport with me unless you've got a lot of time. … I feel stronger every day and look forward to dancing across the stage again on the next tour.
"As I write this I'm sitting on my porch looking out at the Bay toward the horizon where the ocean meets the sky. I intend to keep on keeping on until the day the music swells and giant letters rise out of the sea and spell the words The End."
The end has come for the Big Man but not for his legacy, carried forward by fans of his big sound and his bigger spirit.

[verizon]

RIP Clarence, the best always go early.

[viagra_generic]

One of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs and Clarence has an amazing sax solo in it....

[Nashhlkq]

From Bruce Springsteen...

It is with overwhelming sadness that we inform our friends and fans that at 7:00 tonight, Saturday, June 18, our beloved friend and bandmate, Clarence Clemons passed away. The cause was complications from his stroke of last Sunday, June 12th.

Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.

http://brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html

[Eh085zE7]

damn RIP. Bruce Springsteen is a legend. E. Street Band won't be the same.

[JackieC]

A very sad day in the world of music. It'll be poorer for this loss.

[Lhiistyssdds]

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/a...19/771541.aspx

'Big Man' Clarence Clemons Recalled In NJ Haunt

Posted on Sunday June 19, 2011 at 06:01 AM Add |
Clarence Clemons, the larger-than-life saxophone player who helped catapult Bruce Springsteen to rock fame, was known as "The Big Man," a nod to his physical size as well as his stage presence and booming sax notes.


Outside The Stone Pony, the legendary Jersey shore rock club where Clemons, Springsteen and other E Street band mates cut their musical teeth, Clemons loomed large as ever hours after his death Saturday from complications of a stroke.
"It's a sad day for music and for Asbury Park," said Caroline O'Toole, the club's general manager. "He was huge here at the Jersey shore. He was 'The Big Man,' but he was an even bigger man here. His presence was just enormous and unbelievable. No one who has ever played at our club in all the decades was ever like him."
The Stone Pony will open its doors at noon Sunday to let Clemons' fans gather and reminisce about his storied career.
Within hours of his death, fans were slowly stopping by the club, which was hosting an unrelated act catering to a younger crowd Saturday night. Flowers, a candle and a handwritten sign saying "RIP Big Man" sprouted outside the building.
Phil Kuntz stopped to place a small yellow flower on a decorative white fence at the club entrance. Nearby, someone taped a handwritten sign that read simply "RIP Big Man."
"I'll never hear 'Jungleland' played live again, and that's a bummer," said Kuntz, 51, who had seen Clemons perform with Springsteen in excess of 200 times.
Brian Gay, 37, of Fair Haven, was watching a roller derby show at Convention Hall two blocks away when Clemons' death was announced, and he, too, went to the Stone Pony to pay respects.
"You knew it was coming but it still hits you like a ton of bricks," he said. "It just hurts. As a kid some of my earliest memories were of listening to his music. It feels right to be in Asbury Park tonight."
John D'Esposito, a talent buyer for the concert promoter Live Nation, also stopped by The Stone Pony to honor The Big Man.
"Asbury Park is crying right now," he said. "It's like the whole city is one big teardrop. Our Pied Piper is gon
Kyle Brendle, the house promoter at the Stone Pony, said Springsteen and Clemons played routinely at the club in the 1970s -ut usually as unannounced acts.
"They never performed here as The E Street Band," he said. "It was usually that they'd jump up on stage, unannounced, and rock out, 'cause they were here so often."
The last time Clemons played the club was at a solo show in the summer of 2006, Brendle said. O'Toole laughed as she recalled having to find a masseuse for Clemons, who complained of an aching back that night.
"It was a Saturday night in the middle of the summer, and not exactly easy to come up with a masseuse on short notice," she said, "So I called this woman I knew, who wasn't a masseuse. I told her, 'If he asks if you're really a masseuse, just say yes.'"
O'Toole said Clemons, Springsteen and the E Street Band helped rebuild Asbury Park from a struggling, faded seaside resort in the early '70s to a rebounding, hip culture center. His raucous sax solos helped define the Jersey shore sound of the '70s and '80s, a genre that also included Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and occasionally, a young Jon Bon Jovi.
"He played a huge part in making this city what it is today," she said. "Losing part of our musical and personal history, well, it really, really hurts."

--Associated Press This is the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park , NJ where Bruce and the boys got their start. Many famous musical acts still play there today.