Clarence Clemons has passed on. It’s not a stretch to say that he was the single most important instrumentalist in rock history who didn’t play the guitar. A quick scan of the potential competitors for that crown would be Garth Hudson (Keyboards: The Band), John Entwistle (Bass: The Who), Phil Lesh (Bass: Grateful Dead), John Bonham (Drums: Led Zeppelin), Keith Moon (Drums: The Who). I can name a few others, but these were the obvious stand-outs. IMHO, Clemons tops the list. His sax was so integral to Springsteen’s sound, so utterly essential, that its impossible to imagine Springsteen without it. The Clemons sound built and built from album to album. You heard it on Greetings from Asbury Park and Wild, Innocent, but Born to Run took it to an entirely new level. I remember seeing the cover of Born to Run for the first time. It featured Clarence as the Boss’s equal. That made an immediate impression on me. I was only 18 at the time, but remembered thinking how much the Boss loved the Big Man to feature him that way on the most important album of his career. And Clarence’s playing lived up to and even surpassed that top billing. The legendary sax solo in Jungleland took its place in rock history along side guitar solos in Stairway to Heaven, Aqualung, Freebird and other air guitar anthems. What other non-guitar solo can you say that about? After that it got to the point where with each Springsteen release, you just waited for the sax solos. As a matter of fact, Springsteen albums were evaluated based on how many sax solos they had. Springsteen albums without the Big Man’s sax are considered weaker efforts by most Springsteen fans. It’s an incalculable loss. Nobody didn’t love the Big Man. So as a tribute to the Big Man and his fans, I have compiled my list of his most important sax solos for your listening pleasure. Rest in Peace Big Man.
This is the solo that put the Big Man on the map. Millions of kids learned to play air-sax while resting their beers on the Osprey Hotel bar on this one…
This solo sneaks up on you. Being one of the last songs on the double album the River, it never got the acclaim it deserved. It’s a quintessential late night just finished a fifth of Jack Daniels and a pack of Lucky’s kind of solo. Goose bump material…
Like some, I was skeptical when the Boss released Magic. He seemed to be running out of steam for years in the studio, reserving all of his passion for the road. The fist time I listened to Magic, I just wasn’t feeling it until I dropped the needle (metaphorically speaking of course) on Long Walk Home. I was listening to it on my iPOD and when that sax kicked in, I immediately welled up in tears. Totally unexpected and easily one of his greatest efforts.
I first heard the Boss on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. I was 17 at the time and for a kid who was listening to Elton John, David Bowie, ELP and Jethro Tull, Springsteen was something completely different. It wasn’t like anything else out there in 1974…not rock, not singer songwriter. I didn’t know what to make of it, but I knew it was something special. Here was a guy that was not only mentioning NJ in songs, but actually praising it. Having driven home many a night through the swamps of Jersey past exit 15 on the NJ Tpke, I was amazed by that. I loved the image he cultivated on this album, that of a barefoot scraggly street poet who was at once a vulnerable loser (Sandy) yet determined to win (Rosalita). The photo on the back cover was of a group of guys that I definitely wanted to hang out and share a beer with. And the person who stood out for me (after the Boss) was the Big Man. He towered over the rest of the group and had this beaming smile on his face. And the music…It was Jazz oriented and defiantly non-commercial (after this album, his label Columbia threatened to drop him if he didn’t crank out something that would shift some more units..out came Born to Run and the rest is history). New York City Serenade is one of the most beautiful songs the Boss has ever written, as great an example of his sophistication and musical genius as any song in his catalog. The Big Man lays down some backing sax that many Springsteen fans may never have heard. Give it a listen and appreciate the Big Man’s greatness.
This solo was an example of the work that people waited for on every Springsteen album. Although it didn’t carry the tune a la Jungleland, it complimented it perfectly…
Not necessarily a sax solo, just sustained gale force horn blowing by the Big Man. His sax could make you cry like a new born baby in one instant and make you reach for a cold one and a pool cue in another.
I remember the day you bought The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. We were in Two Guys (from Harrison). I think we walked there but I’m not sure. You brought the album home and blasted it on your stereo. It was back in the day when you measured your coolness by the size of your woofers and the watts per channel on your receiver. I remember loving Kitty’s Back and Sandy. I still think about Sandy as a personal anthem along with the Who’s Sea and Sand. Then came Born to Run. Soon thereafter came the midnight runs to Seaside Heights after a night pumping gas at Benny X’s Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard. I probably got pulled over cause the sax solo made me hit the gas that much harder. I too loved the Big Man.
Me.
P.S. If my memory is off don’t correct me. I like it that way.
You are so articulate and such a talented writer and musical critic. You should have a radio show!