We are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 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.
This was Bruce Springsteen’s clearly heartfelt tribute to the larger-than-life saxophone player who was the soul of his famous E Street Band. Of course, anyone who knows anything about rock ‘n’ roll will understand the full meaning of Springsteen’s words. And I do.
Yet I am not paying homage to his death because I was a big fan. Truth be told, I never saw them perform, and I don’t even own any of the band’s CDs. I was/am more of a Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie kinda guy….
Instead, I felt moved to pay my own tribute because I remember well during the late 1970s and early 1980s when Springsteen and the E Street Band figured prominently in my consciousness for one reason: it was the only famous rock band that featured a black guy (and at 6 feet, 5 inches and 270 pounds, Clemons did not exactly fade into the background). In fact, this was a source of considerable black pride for me; not least because, being the only black kid in my prep school when the band first took off with Born to Run (1975), I identified with Clemons … a little.
Mind you, this is not to say that I did not like Clemons’s saxophone playing. It’s just that I think it was the novelty of this big black guy playing in a (white) rock band that was itself so appealing. More to the point, his mostly white fans were probably all too happy to revel in the racial harmony the E Street Band represented – given the smoking embers of racial turmoil that were still in the air from the 1960s.
Not to mention that I can think of far too many other saxophone players, like Charlie “Bird” Parker, John Coltrane and Grover Washington, who thrilled me more musically.
But to get a sense of how truly pioneering he was, just think of Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band being to rock ‘n’ roll what Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley of Vogue are to high fashion.
And if you don’t know who Anna and big Andre are, Google them, you cultural illiterate!
Clemons suffered from numerous ailments in recent years, affecting his hip, back and both knees, which limited his appearances with the band. This, however, did not prevent him from making a very memorable cameo in Lady Gaga’s most recent hit video, The Edge of Glory.
Clemons died on Saturday in a hospital in Palm Beach from complications due to a stroke. He was 69.
Farewell, Clarence