Clarence Clemons

Sad news over the weekend; Clarence Clemons passed away at the age of 69. My friend "BP" is a huge fan of Springsteen, and this is the way he describes the importance of Clarence to the E-Street Band...

"Without Clarence, there would have been no E Street Band, at least as we knew it. His contributions to “Jungleland,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run” are enough for an entire career. And that is just on a single album. I was listening to “Rosalita” yesterday while I was watering my garden and kept thinking back to all the times I’ve seen Bruce and the E Street Band (starting in Chicago on “The River” tour and most recently in Boston on the “Working on a Dream” tour) and all the joy that came from Clarence’s playing. Nobody enjoyed performing more than Clarence and his enthusiasm was contagious. Every time he had a sax solo, the crowd would erupt with a force like a touchdown being scored at Soldier Field. Speaking of Soldier Field, Bruce and the E Street Band played Soldier Field in August of ’85 on the “Born in the USA” Tour. I was there with 70,000 of my closest friends and it was A PARTY! In recent years, health problems limited Clarence and he had to sit for portions of shows due to hip and knee problems. But, you knew when it was time for the solo in “Badlands” (a song Bruce still plays almost every night on tour) Clarence would be there to let his horn howl. As Bruce posted on his website this weekend, his loss is “immeasurable.” R.I.P Big Man."

Aerosmith makes nice

Good news for Aerosmith fans from this morning's RAMP newsletter...

"Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has announced that the band, including once-estranged frontman Steven Tyler, will soon begin work on their first new album in 10 years. Using today's handiest news-delivery service, Twitter, Perry recently tweeted, "Whole band has plans to go into the studio with [producer] Jack Douglas second week of July to work on new Aero CD." Aerosmith have not released an album of new material since 2001's Just Push Play. According to Rolling Stone, things had become so strained between longtime friends Perry and Tyler that Perry didn't show up at Aerosmith's initial writing sessions earlier this year; however, the band did record several demos in Los Angeles a while back with tentative track titles that include "Bobbing for Piranha," "Asphalt" and "Legendary Child."

One of my favorite concert memories was driving to Springfield Illinois in 1984 to see the recently reunited Aerosmith perform. Tyler was so wasted that when he went down to do the splits during "Back in the Saddle" (the opening song), he had to be helped back up. He later fell off the stage, got his hair caught in a fan, and had a fist-fight with Joe Perry on stage. The stage went dark, and the band came back out a few minutes later (without Tyler) and did a few Hendrix songs before realizing they couldn't do it without their singer. The concert lasted about eight minutes, but I'll never forget it.

The 3 Most Popular Musical Artists in the Digital Age

These are surprising if you ask me, but Gracenotes has a way of tracking this worldwide.

The Top 3 Most Popular Musical Artists in the Digital Age are...

1. Michael Jackson
2. Bob Marley
3. Tupac

Incidentally, Michael wasn't on the list while he was still alive. This is a post-death phenomenon. Come to think of it, all three of those guys are dead.

In this country and Europe the Beatles would have made the list, but worldwide they aren't as strong as those three listed above.

Click on the link for further analysis and a discussion of methodology.