While he was born in Virginia, Clarence Clemons was inextricably tied to New Jersey’s musical lore the moment he met Bruce Springsteen in 1971. Clemons moved to New Jersey in the early 1960s, attending Maryland State College on music and football scholarships. He also worked as a counselor for emotionally disturbed children at the New Jersey Training School for Boys in Jamesburg from 1962-1970.
Clemons later became a strong supporter of Home Safe, a non-profit based in south Florida that protects victims of child abuse and domestic violence. He helped the organization raise millions of dollars with an annual event and personally visited children at its campuses to offer support and advice.
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A Meeting for the Ages
Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen first met at The Student Prince, a club in Asbury Park, and they “knew they were the missing links in each other’s lives,” as Clemons once put it. In 1972, Springsteen invited Clemons to play tenor sax on two tracks, “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night,” on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. A few months later, Clemons joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for the first time onstage, and the rest is history.
Outside of his work with the E Street Band, Clemons had a solo career and collaborated with numerous famous musicians. He also dipped into acting, appearing in several shows and movies, including Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York, The Simpsons and The Wire.
On June 12, 2011, Clemons suffered a stroke, dying from complications a week later on June 18. Gov. Chris Christie ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff as a sign of respect following his death; he then signed a resolution in 2013, declaring Jan. 11 to be Clarence Clemons Day.
Clemons’ nephew, Jake, took over saxophone duties for the E Street Band after his uncle died. Jake told Rolling Stone in a 2013 interview that his uncle gave him his first horn when he was 11.
“As big as a man as he was, his heart was bigger than his body,” Jake told Rolling Stone. “If you heard his notes, if you saw his smile, you knew you were loved.”
Remembering Clarence Clemons
And that love and his story will never fade away, as Springsteen eloquently stated in his eulogy for his longtime friend:
“So, I’ll miss my friend, his sax, the force of nature his sound was, his glory, his foolishness, his accomplishments, his face, his hands, his humor, his skin, his noise, his confusion, his power, his peace. But his love and his story, the story that he gave me, that he whispered in my ear, that he allowed me to tell…and that he gave to you…is gonna carry on.”
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Hero (Top) Feature Image: © Martin Olbrich / Wikimedia Commons
Additional Images (in Order) Courtesy:
Jamison Foser / Wikimedia Commons
