Inspired by the records of King Kurtis and Junior Walker and his father’s gift of a tenor sax,Clemons knocked around the Jersey Shore band scene before landing on E Street in 1972; he’s been on the frontline in Bruce Springsteen’s ministry of rock’n’roll ever since.
That same year Clemons played on Aretha Franklin’s massive hit, “Freeway of Love.” As if his stints with Springsteen and sitting in with the Grateful Dead and Ringo’s All-Star Band weren’t living large enough, the Big Man plays on three tracks on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way
Clemons tells all, but not too much: “Mere facts will never plumb the mysteries of the Big Man,” wrote Springsteen in the book’s forward.
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder played the David Letterman show on Monday night and paid tribute to Clarence Clemons during the appearance.
