Clarence Clemons - serious stroke [& RIP]

[edit: Clarence Clemens died on 18 June 2011 - see second statement further below]

from brucespringsteen.net (14 June 2011)

"By now, many of you have heard that our beloved comrade and sax player Clarence Clemons has sufferred a serious stroke. While all initial signs are encouraging, Clarence will need much care and support to achieve his potential once again. He has his wonderfully supportive wife, Victoria, excellent doctors and health care professionals, and is surrounded by friends and family.

I thank you all for your prayers and positive energy and concern. This is a time for us all to share in a hopeful spirit that can ultimately inspire Clarence to greater heights.

-- Bruce Springsteen

FROM CLARENCE'S FAMILY

Clarence's family appreciates your concern and wants to let you know that you can send him your wishes via e-mail to notestoclarence@clarenceclemons.com"

The poor legend has been really struggling lately, I really hope this is the darkest before the dawn... thoughts and prayers to him and his family.

really sad news so hopefully he recovers and gets back to his normal self,one of the best sax players ever.

Just minutes ago, I found out Clarence "Big Man" Clemons passed away today.

I have listened to that sax on many lonely nights and through some of my happiest moments. I have never met him but I know I will miss him. I'm still in shock...
R.I.P. brother, Heaven is lucky to have ya. Thank you for sharing your gift with so many.

I could cry right now, Clarence is really gone :'(

Clarence Clemons - When they built you brother, they broke the mould

this is terribly sad. cant believe it. Some of the most emotional music i have ever heard was in his sax.

inspired me to want to someday play sax...

I actually feel so cut up now, Clarence was something else.

The day earth lost a great man Heaven earned a great angel

from brucespringsteen.net

"It is with overwhelming sadness that we inform our friends and fans that at 7:00 tonight, Saturday, June 18, our beloved friend and bandmate, Clarence Clemons passed away. The cause was complications from his stroke of last Sunday, June 12th.

Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty 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."

So sad

Vey sad news , RIP Clarence.

RIP Clarence .
Never the same Jungleland again...

: (

i aint felt this sad since someone in my family passed,it shows how great of a man he was,love you big man and always will remember you! R.I.P.

RIP Big Man.

after clarence's stroke i checked twitter every now and again to see if brian was going to tweet about it, just out of curiousity. today his tweet just said; "big man...", somehow, and i'm not just saying this because this is a TGA site, that's the most adequate way to sum up how i feel. well, that and "I actually feel so cut up now", as philo put it.

Labhras wrote:

after clarence's stroke i checked twitter every now and again to see if brian was going to tweet about it, just out of curiousity. today his tweet just said; "big man...", somehow, and i'm not just saying this because this is a TGA site, that's the most adequate way to sum up how i feel. well, that and "I actually feel so cut up now", as philo put it.

100% agreed on all counts.
I felt the exact same and thought so when reading Philo's.

It's hard to post on this thread. I don't really know what to say. But here goes...

I never actually met Clarecen, or talked to him. But if I go back to the Rising tour, my second show... remember stading in the front row at Valle Hovin in Oslo, in front of Nils mic, that night I saw Jungleland live for the very first time. Clarence stood right in front of me, playing THE saxsolo of saxsolos. When he was done, he walked over to his spot again, and I kept looking straight at him, for a long time, and kept looking. And then he finally notcied me. I rasie both my hands and appluded him. He looked back at me and raised his hands. He looked proud to have played that majestic solo, and I felt like he wanted to show that he appreciated what I did. Of course that may very well be in my mind only, but I like to tink of it that way.

Anyway, that's just one of many fine memories the Big Man have given me over so many great nights. And come to think of it, he has really been an important part of the music that has meant most to me in my life. All the joy, all the inspiration, everything. Thank you, Clarence, for being the Big Man and having such an impact on me.

RIP the biggest man of all big men!

Why Clarence Clemons Matters to Race Relations

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-mankiewicz/why-clarence-clemons-matters_b_880540.html

Pics from A Private Memorial Service for Clarence Clemons



More at:

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/events/Private%20Memorial%20Service%20for%20Clarence%20Clemons/private-memorial-service-for-clarence-clemons-04.html

Bruce eulogizes sax man Clemons at Fla funeral

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Bruce Springsteen eloquently eulogized his friend of more than four decades and E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons Tuesday at a private funeral at a small Florida church.

The roughly two-hour service for the 69-year-old Clemons, known as the Big Man and Springsteen's main foil onstage over their long careers, was at the Royal Poinciana Chapel on this manicured island of the rich and famous. Faint strains of music could be heard outside the small gray church.

Springsteen, among those delivering eulogies, spoke of his long kinship with Clemons, according to those leaving the church.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110622/ap_en_mu/us_clarence_clemons

Bruce Played "10th Ave. Freezeout" at Clarence's Private Funeral

Clemons, saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and a resident of Singer Island, died Saturday from complications of a stroke he suffered a week earlier. He was 69.

The private, by-invitation service was a bit late getting started due to a last-minute rehearsal for the performers, including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and the E Street Band.

Clemons’ brother, a career Marine who is now an ordained minister, sat at the altar next to the Rev. Robert Norris.

Springsteen, playing solo, offered a softened, almost tender version of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, the song that recalls his first meeting with Clemons in an Asbury Park bar on a snowy day.

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/private-clarence-clemons-memorial-features-bruce-springsteen-jackson-1552856.html?cxtype=rss_news[b][u]

'I'm going to keep going 'til I'm not there anymore' -Clarence in Feb. Rolling Stone interview

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-clarence-clemons-opens-up-about-health-problems-future-of-e-street-band-20110224

New Jersey to honor Springsteen sideman Clarence Clemons

(CNN) -- Flags in New Jersey will be flown at half-staff Thursday in honor of E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died of complications from a stroke. (June 23)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/22/new.jersey.clarence.clemons/[u]

Dave Marsh:

MIGHTY MIGHTY, SPADE AND WHITEY: Clarence and Bruce, Friendship and Race

Clarence
Clemons, said both my daughter and Bruce Springsteen this week, passed
through his life doing exactly what he wanted to do. Bruce said the
rest, which amounted to admitting that you can’t really do that, and the
result of trying to is confusion and turbulence and discomfort and
illusion. Except when it works. Then the result is clarity and joy,
peace and truth miraculously revealed.

There are all sorts of
meanings for what I watched Bruce and the Big Man do up there on those
hundreds of stages for the past four decades, but the one that always
struck closest to my heart drew them into the soul of the American drama
and dilemma. Like Huckleberry Finn, the guilty boy, and Nigger Jim, the
escaped slave, they traveled against the current even as they flowed
with it, innocents abroad on a mission to redeem themselves of “sins”
they hadn’t even committed in their quest for something closer to free.

Bruce
and Clarence acted out their drama, which is our drama, in the exact
same spirit, and with the exact same ambiguous result. At the end of
Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain was stuck because he had no ending. The
ending he used is preposterous, obviously. But not because it’s
over-reliant on the hand of God. The real problem is that it’s
predicated on a false idea: Freeing one slave. You cannot free one
slave, and since the slave owner is in the same prison as the slave,
just like any other jailer, you can’t free two either. It’s all of us or
none of us.

http://davemarsh.us/?p=918