Clarence Clemons

During his ‘Underground Garage‘ radio show last weekend, ‘Little’ Steven Van Zandt took a moment to eulogize his recently deceased friend and musical comrade, Clarence Clemons — and to assure fans that the E Street Band will continue.

After opening the show with a live rendition of ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’ from 1975, Van Zandt paused to deliver a four-minute eulogy for Clemons, calling him a “lifelong friend and brother” and thanking him for “blowing life-changing energy and hope into this miserable world with your big beautiful lungs.” He also thanked Clemons for “sharing a piece of that big heart nightly with the world — it needs it, you and that magnificent saxophone, celebrating, confessing, seeking redemption and providing salvation, all at once. Speaking wordlessly, but so eloquently with that pure sound you made, the sound of life itself.”

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It isn’t often that you get to hear someone strumming a ukulele on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman,’ but the host made an exception Monday night for the performer he says “single-handedly made cool.”

We’re talking, of course, about Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, currently out making the promotional rounds in support of his new solo album, the aptly titled ‘Ukulele Songs.’ Vedder — who Letterman says was “nice enough to actually give me a guitar, and it occupies a position of honor in my home” — plunked down on a stool for a solo performance of ‘Without You,’ offering silent tribute to the recently deceased Clarence Clemons by way of a simple inscription, reading ‘CLARENCE,’ on his ukulele.

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Six days after suffering a massive stroke, saxophone legend and longtime E Street Band member Clarence Clemons has died at the age of 69.

Despite initial reports that Clemons was responding well to treatment – and despite a pair of brain surgeries to repair the damage wrought by the stroke – his condition worsened as the week wore on, and he died on Saturday, June 18.

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