>>>>>What a major bummer.
>>>>>
>>>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/arts/music/clarence-clemons-e-street-band-saxophonist-dies-at-69.html?_r=1&hp>>>>>
>>>>>
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html>>>>>
>>>>>Clarence's solo starts about 4:40 in....
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I ended up going to Phish this last Sunday (2 shows is enough thank you very much) and they played Thunder Road in his memory.
>>>>
>>>>The atmosphere of the show is something else. Its like the yoots who missed out on the 60's hippie / greatful dead scene have found a home. The city let the fans setup a "Shakedown" street outside the venue where "vendors" sell food, beer, shirts, rocks ("crystals" to the faithful), smoking utensils, etc. Quite surprised the city ok'd that.
>>>
>>>Did your son go with you? (Chris is too classy to brag about his kid so I will do it for him. His son is an ace guitarist).
>>
>>If you were repeatedly subjected to the very loud caterwauling coming from his room, you'd describe it a bit differently. Think Marines v. Noriega.
>>
>>>
>>>I have not seen Phish myself. One summer when I was on vacation in Maine they played in some festival way the heck up north and it turned into a mini Woodstock, fans from all over. The exodus clogged I-95 all the way to the New Hampshire border.
>>>
>>>Classy of them to play "Thunder Road" in tribute. (A song which contains its own tribute, to Roy Orbison).
>>
>>They played a great cover of No Quarter in NJ, but no luck here.
>
>Here is another one.
>
>
>It doesn't feature Clarence much other than the fans' exuberant response to him. What it does do is remind me why I became a Springsteen fanatic in the first place. He is one of those blessed ones who has that personal magnetism along with impeccable musical taste. This is far from my favorite Bruce song but he hits it out of the park. The audience singing the lyrics seems like a cliche now. It wasn't then. Maybe some others did it but AFAIK Bruce was the first. The sense of communion between audience and performer was new. An old business acquaintance met him in line at a movie in Los Angeles and said it's not fake at all, what you see is what you get. He was talking to everyone like your brother in law or an old friend at a picnic.
>
>More Bruce, more Bruce!
>
>Here is another one, from a concert in Spain. Wild fans and some nice bits from Clarence. One of the amazing things about Bruce is that in his early 20s he had Clarence and many other accomplished musicians working for him. Obviously they saw something big coming. Then later he added Nils Lofgren, a guy who had fronted two seriously good bands, to be the THIRD guitar player.
>
>From earlier, Nils on guitar, showing his sense of drama. The accordionist, Danny Federici, is also gone. I will be surprised if the E Street Band as such performs again. We were lucky to have them.
>
>
>And the best song yet written about 9/11 IMO. The whole CD was about it in one way or another. For months afterward the NY Times ran snapshot obituaries of the people who died there. Bruce followed it closely and called up the widow of a NY firefighter who the obit said was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. She said he talked to her for 45 minutes or an hour and that phone call helped her get through the initial annihilation. "I see Mary in the garden" -- one of his most poetic lines in years.
>
I have heard that this song was written before 911, but its been co-opted ever since. I'm surprised that this band -- LIVE -- did not get a bigger rep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DUfWnBL1nw
