Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
I've noticed there are plenty of music lovers and musicians here on Ricochet, so I hope you'll excuse my Sunday break from the purely political as I head into Pop Culture, to pay tribute to saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who passed away yesterday. My hometown mourns him today, and the Stone Pony is hosting a free show in his memory this afternoon.
Growing up in the once exceedingly poor City of Asbury Park had some perks, and one of them was the music scene, which stayed strong no matter how low the City By The Sea sunk (it has made a great comeback as a seaside resort, so visit if you can).
Asbury Park's best concert venue is the combined Convention Hall (2500 seats) and Paramount Theater (1500 seats) which are both gorgeous and sit right on the Atlantic. So perfect is the sound in the Paramount that a couple years ago Tony Bennett was performing, and asked the sound man to cut the microphones. He said, "I want you folks to hear what a wonderful theater you are in." He sang a song unplugged, and folks in the back could hear him like he was sitting next to them.
We local kids used to know every crack, crevice and unlocked side door to sneak into the place whether the marquee showed Led Zeppelin, the boat show or WWWF wrestling (that's what WWE was called when I was a boy).
Now, I know that to the social conservatives on our beloved Ricochet not buying a ticket and sneaking into a show is a sin, and you're right. I did go to confession over it. But it was more innocent than how it sounds. The City never cared when the local kids snuck in. There were some cops who would smile at us and walk away from the door just long enough for us to sneak in. Pre-Columbine, the relationship between local kids and cops in America was much different.
So I caught a good deal of Clarence Clemons over the years, be it at one of the larger concert venues, or at one of the local bars like The Stone Pony where he and other E Street Band members, The Boss included, love to just show up and jump on stage to jam with whatever band is playing (a great reason to visit Asbury Park if you are a music lover.)
My fondest memory will be the day Clarence held the release of his solo album one floor up from my law office on Mattison Avenue in Asbury Park. Since the CD signing was sponsored by The Merchant's Guild of Asbury Park, a group founded by a some Downtown merchants and me, our members and our families were given a private meet and greet with The Big Man before the public came in.
"Larger than life" fell short of capturing Clarence when you met him up close. Legend has it (from Bruce's mouth) that when Clarence came to see Bruce playing at the Student Prince on Kingsley Street, Clarence told him he was going to play sax in his band, and Bruce took one look at the 6'5" ex-Maryland football player and couldn't say no.
Clarence liked to joke that he "blew the doors off" the Student Prince when he played with Bruce that first night. Bruce adds to the story that there was a near hurricane that night, and the door literally came off the hinges and blew down the street when someone opened it. Bruce fell in love with The Big Man's sax that night and they stayed together.
Once Clarence flashed that mile wide smile and started to talk, immediately you saw the gentle giant. What a sweet and fun man.
We have some family memories from our meeting with Clarence. My oldest son was probably about 7 at the time. He didn't make a big deal about meeting Clarence. I said, "Billy go over and say hello to Clarence. He's Bruce Springsteen's saxophone player." Billy responded, "What's the big deal, it's just a job." Clarence's wife at the time, a tall beautiful woman I think from Sweden (Clarence married 5 times and had a favor for international women) was standing right next to my son when he dead panned that line. She fell apart with laughter when he said it. She repeated it a few times.
Also that day my middle son Vincent who was about 5 at the time walked right over to Clarence and sat at his table as Clarence was autographing CDs. Suddenly Vincent was pulling CDs out of the box to hand to Clarence, and Clarence kept laughing and smiling that the boy just started to help.
Clarence had taken a break, then the public came in. When he sat down to sign CDs, Clarence suddenly yelled, "Wait a minute! Where's Vincent? I'm not doing this without Vincent!" For that day, my 5 year old son Vincent and Clarence Clemons were best friends, and we had to stay the whole event, because Clarence wasn't sitting there without Vincent.
One more family connection with Clarence. May daughter Annalisa recorded a Christmas song called "There's Still Christmas" when she was 15, and she sells copies of it on the Internet each Christmas and gives the proceeds to the Ronald McDonald House (you can hear a clip but can't buy it now - we are changing bank accounts. Catch us at Christmas time).
The song was written by an old friend of mine, a vagabond singer/songwriter named Stevie Betts, whose enormous talent was cut short by brain cancer years ago.
Clarence Clemons once recorded There's Still Christmas himself for a solo project he was working on. He didn't release it. I'm not certain, but I may have the only recording of Clarence singing that song in existence. I'm thrilled my daughter released the same song.
Since it's Father's Day and I get to pick the music in the family SUV today, I think I'll throw in Clarence's solo CD and hang with The Big Man just one more time.
Photo credit John Cavanaugh, a friend, fellow Asbury Parker and best Rock n Roll photographer in the business.
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Comments :
Feb '11
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
A great personal tribute to a great sax player. Thanks for sharing this.
May '10
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
Very sweet memories Tommy. Rest Well Clarence Clemons
Jan '11
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
I hadn't know that he'd died when I started reading your post. A shock, because I loved the E Street Band, and loved Clemons. A great musician, and as others have confirmed your report about his kindness, apparently a great man. Thanks.
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
Thanks for everything, Big Man. You were one of the greats and I loved watching you work. Rest in peace.
Feb '11
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
Clemons owned a guitar that belonged to me. I put up for sale as a consignment in a store, and when it sold they told me he called up and bought it. This was about 10 years ago. I'm originally from New Jersey and remember when Springsteen was just something of a local curiosity (before the mania) that you could see at Seton Hall for $3.00. No one knew quite what to make of him. But still, there's no taking away from what he became, and what Clemons added to his music and stage show.
Edited on Jun 19, 2011 at 2:04pmSep '10
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
Tear drops on the city when the Big Man left the band. Springsteen's lyrics, to me, are a bit like the poetry of Dylan Thomas because I simply love the cadence and feel of the sounds regardless of the meaning but anyone who ever saw them in concert knows Clemons was an enormous part of the act. He will be missed. Beautiful story.
Mar '11
Re: Brush With Greatness: Meeting "The Big Man"
I fondly remember visiting Asbury Park in 1961 when I was stationed at Ft. Monmouth. Almost froze to death sleeping on the beach one night.