Today marks what would have been legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons’ 80th birthday. The E Street Band fixture died on June 18, 2011 due to complications from a stroke he suffered a few days earlier. While “The Big Man” is best known for his long tenure backing Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band, he played a number of shows with the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band in 1989 and 1990.
Clarence Clemons first sat-in with the Jerry Garcia Band on March 3, 1989 at The Warfield in San Francisco. The saxophonist was then the guest of the Grateful Dead a few months later, when he sat-in with them at the “In Concert Against Aids” benefit on May 27, 1989 in Oakland. He also appeared with the Dead on June 21, 1989 at Shoreline and at a pair of December ’89 shows.
The best Jerry Garcia/Clarence Clemons combo came in September of 1989, when The Big Man augmented the Jerry Garcia Band for a run of shows that spanned September 7 in East Rutherford, New Jersey to September 16 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Excellent fan-shot video of Clarence Clemons guesting with the Jerry Garcia Band at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts on September 10, 1989 has circulated for years. Clemons fits in perfectly on such JGB staples as “Run For The Roses,” “Second That Emotion,” “Aint It Stoned Me” and “Tangled Up In Blue” on that evening.
Watch footage of The Big Man and JGB at Great Woods captured by Less Than Face Productions and shared by Whoaduderighteous via the JamBase Live Video Archive (JBLVA):
Setlist
Set One: Cats Under The Stars, They Love Each Other, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Run For The Roses, Mississippi Moon, Hope It Won’t Be This Way, Deal
Set Two: Second That Emotion, And It Stoned Me, Simple Twist Of Fate, Waiting For A Miracle, Evangeline, That Lucky Old Sun, Tangled Up In Blue
[Originally Published: January 11, 2017]
