Bruce Springsteen misses the Big Man, said Jon Stewart in Rolling Stone. Nearly a year after Clarence Clemons, legendary saxophone player and backbone of Springsteen’s E Street Band, passed away following a stroke, Springsteen is nowhere close to getting over the loss. Clemons’s death came suddenly during sessions for the band’s new album. “The record was pretty much done, except that I wanted to get Clarence on it,” he recalls. “I called him to come in and record. He was having problems with the feeling in his hand. He was worried and asked if he could go home to Florida first and have it checked out. It was the first time Clarence passed on a recording session.” Within a week, Clemons had the stroke. “I flew down and spent the week at his bedside. In the first few days he would squeeze my hand when he heard my voice. Then things got worse.” Clemons left behind one last musical gift: a solo from one of his last performances that a producer inserted into one of the new album’s tracks. “When the solo section hit, Clarence’s sax filled the room. I cried. So he’s there, through a little technical magic…but he’s there,” says the Boss. “He played beautifully.”
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