Clarence Clemons -- Bruce Springsteen's "Big Man" on the sax -- has taken his final bow.
The musician, who died Saturday at age 69 in Florida after suffering a stroke on June 12, was a near-charter member of Mr. Springsteen's band, and played and toured with The Boss for four decades.
Hulking well over six feet tall, Clemons fully justified his moniker, especially in comparison to the much shorter Springsteen, and his looping tenor sax sound was a distinctive feature of nearly all the E Street Band's songs. Standards like "Born To Run," Jungleland," and "Badlands" featured him prominently.
Clemons was the oldest original E Streeter, and Springsteen would introduce him last, usually by saying, "The biggest man you ever seen…"
The son of a Norwalk, Va., fish seller and grandson of a Baptist preacher, Clemons grew up helping his dad deliver fish while practicing his saxophone in the back room of the store. He played in the high school jazz band and attended Maryland State College on a football scholarship. A potential career with the Cleveland Browns ended due to injuries in a car crash.
In the 1960s, Clemons worked as a counselor in a group home for emotionally disturbed children in Newark, N.J., and spent his free time playing with rock bands on the Jersey shore.
The story of how Clemons came to join the E Street Band was part of the group's mythology, told over and again. In 1971, Clemons was playing with a cover band in Asbury Park. After the show, he walked through a storm to a nearby club where Mr. Springsteen was playing.
"When I opened the door it blew off the hinges and flew down the street," Clemons wrote in a 2009 memoir,
Big Man
. He proceeded to sit in with Springsteen's band, starting with the song "Spirit in the Night."
The story took on a different tinge in the song "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," where Clemon's arrival heralds the start of the band's success: "When the change was made uptown/And the Big Man joined the band/From the coastline to the city/All the little pretties raise their hands."
The song appeared on Springsteen's break-out "Born to Run" album in 1975. On the cover the singer playfully leans on Clemons' ample shoulder.
"Sometimes you can't tell where Clarence ends and his sax begins," Springsteen said in Peter Gambaccini's 1985 Springsteen biography.
Between tours with Springsteen, Clemons organized his own band, the Red Bank Rockers. He toured with
Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band
, and
the Jerry Garcia Band
. He was in demand as a sideman for talents as diverse as Aretha Franklin and Janis Ian.
Most recently, he appeared on Lady Gaga's latest album including a solo on the hit "Edge of Glory." The album prompted some critics to speculate that a rock music saxophone revival lay around the corner.
A documentary about a trip Clemons took to China premiered at a New Jersey arts festival in April. In the film,
Who Do I Think I Am? Mr. Clemons plays his saxophone at the Great Wall.
Clemons underwent health reverses in recent years, including a minor heart attack and several joint replacements. But he managed to remain the stalwart center of the E Street Band on tour despite suffering from pain.
"I call the stage 'the healing floor,' he told the Allentown Morning Call in 2009, amid a seemingly endless Springsteen tour. "I walk out there and nothing hurts, nothing bothers me for the three hours."