When keyboardist Danny Federici — like Clemons, an original E Street Band member — died in 2008, the band segued smoothly to its next phase. But that was a totally different scenario. Federici had been suffering from melanoma for awhile, and the undeniably capable Charles Giordano had already been filling in for him on tour. After Federici’s death, Giordano simply stayed on.
Clemons’ shoes are harder to fill. While Federici was one of the architects of the E Street sound, he did not play a big role in the band’s stage show. Clemons, though, was right up front, taking solos (though, admittedly, fewer and fewer as the years went on) and acting as a kind of Springsteen sidekick.
Van Zandt, on Sunday, called Clemons the band’s “second member,” and I don’t think he meant chronologically. He meant that Clemons was the second most important guy (Springsteen always fed into that idea, too, by introducing Clemons last at shows). As has been mentioned countless times since Clemons’ death, it was he — and no other E Streeter — that Springsteen chose to pose with on the cover of his “Born to Run” album. And Clemons’ booming saxophone was a big part of the E Street sound, from “Spirit in the Night” (from Springsteen’s first album, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.”) to “This Life” (from his most recent one, “Working on a Dream”).
The symbolism of Clemons just being there, onstage, was powerful: Here were Springsteen and his cherished friend, still together after so many years, so many tours. Another musician can play Clemons’ parts, but that can never be replaced.
So what can Springsteen do?
The most straightforward solution — hire another sax player — is also the most problematic. Another musician can never offer the resonance that Clemons did, just by showing up.
Some fans have brought up the prospect of Clemons’ nephew — Jake Clemons, who plays sax as well as guitar — stepping into the role. Of course, drummer Jay Weinberg, Max Weinberg’s son, filled in for his father for portions of the 2009 “Working on a Dream” tour, and that worked out well. So that’s one possibility — and one that would at least offer some sentimental uplift.
But there are other ways to go, too.
Springsteen could avoid songs that are sax-heavy, or rearrange them so that they don’t need sax. That was his strategy, more or less, on the 1992-93 band tour he did without Clemons and most of the other E Streeters. He did have a multi-instrumentalist in the band, Crystal Taliefero, who could play sax. But she didn’t play it much.
He could add a full horn section, not just a sax, so that the horn parts could be spread around. This would at least take some of the pressure off the new sax player.
He could really shuffle things up, with various E Streeters playing in several different combinations — electric, acoustic, semi-acoustic — at different points in the show, and the songs getting drastic reinterpretations. I really like this solution: I’m always eager to hear Springsteen reworking things instead of just cranking out songs such as “Badlands” and “The Rising” — great as they are — the same way they’ve always been played.
And Springsteen might have been thinking along these lines before the start of his 2005 solo tour; he reportedly rehearsed with a stripped-down band featuring Federici, guitarist Nils Lofgren, violinist Soozie Tyrell and drummer Steve Jordan before deciding to do the tour solo.
I have my doubts, though, that Springsteen would do something so radical,
especially for an arena/stadium tour.
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