Clarence Clemons Tribute Bumped By Whitney Houston Tribute

[JerseyGirl]

It's being said that maybe Chris Brown's performances could have been bumped down to one or nix Nicki Minaj's altogether. Anyway, here's the article:

2012 Grammy Awards: Clarence Clemons tribute bumped by Whitney Houston tribute

Apparently a musical tribute to the late Clarence Clemons was planned for Sunday's Grammy show, but it was dropped when the night's tributes to another New Jersey music icon, the late Whitney Houston, were added.

Saxophonist Maceo Parker, who has played with James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic and Prince, wrote on his Facebook page: "Thanks so much or all your messages and tweets about the GRAMMYs. I can now reveal that I was asked to perform a Clarence Clemmons tribute and then it got dropped to accommodate the tribute to Whitney Houston."

Clemons' death was noted in the portion of the show devoted to musicians and others in the music industry who had died since the last Grammy Awards. He was the last musician shown in this segment, before Houston.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed in public for the first time since Clemons' June 2011 death at the Grammys.

LINK: 2012 Grammy Awards: Clarence Clemons tribute bumped by Whitney Houston tribute | NJ.com

 

[Astrid Kirchherr65]

Thats really sad

All due respect to Whitney , but as far as I am conserned..they should have had both and cut something else {like Nicki wtf crap} Or Katy Perry or something..niether of those performances were things we could live w/o ?

And also , Clarence was an icon and lived a pretty descent life..his talented should have been honored..he wasn't found arse over tea kettle in the loo either..just saying..the value of this world REALLY gets me ..sad world..

R.I.P. Big C (k)

 

[TheSound]

Nobody respected Clarence Clemons more than I do, but I actually have no problem with this at all. My tribute to him is inside my heart and in my record/video collection of his work, as I'm sure many of his fans feel the same. The Grammys just did what they had to do when some huge news event like the Whitney thing hits the news cycle, she was a world famous star who died literally the day before the show in a hotel about 5 blocks from the awards arena, so they are hardly likely to give it equal billing with a guy who died 9 months ago and - to be fair - most non rock/Boss fan Grammys viewers probably would never have even heard of. I remember when Michael Jackson died in 2009 whilst the Glastonbury Festival was going on with BBC coverage, the whole weekend and the coverage changed and was altered to cover the MJ story, and most people were fine with that.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I have no problem with Whitney having a big tribute done for her. It was definitely deserving. But I don't think they needed to bump another planned tribute for a well respected member of the music world. They could have cut one of Chris Brown's songs. And not a huge tribute to him, but maybe something longer in the montage segment.

 

[LG]

I am not surprised, this is normal procedure and like TS noted we Know and remember how talented Clarence was, I like him more than Whitney myself.(I don't own any of her albums.)

But she cast such a giant shadow this was inevitable, doubly so given the proximity to the Grammy's.

I didn't watch the awards show, I never do but no matter what I would have squeezed in a CC tribute somewhere in the proceedings if I were in charge.

 

[TheSound]

I guess they just have to draw the line somewhere.... other big names in pop/rock like Etta James, Gary Moore, Jerry Leiber, Amy Winehouse, Gerry Rafferty, Ronnie James Dio all died in fairly recent months, so fans of theirs are going to say what happens to their Grammy tributes? Leiber wrote most of Elvis's early hits, so you don't get much more deserving than that. I guess it was just bad timing having Whitney die where and when she did.

 

[LG]

^^That is quite a list, but for me when they announced Springsteen performing I felt it only fitting he would do a CC tribute, it would have been perfectly natural and well received I am sure.

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

I guess they just have to draw the line somewhere.... other big names in pop/rock like Etta James, Gary Moore, Jerry Leiber, Amy Winehouse, Gerry Rafferty, Ronnie James Dio all died in fairly recent months, so fans of theirs are going to say what happens to their Grammy tributes? Leiber wrote most of Elvis's early hits, so you don't get much more deserving than that. I guess it was just bad timing having Whitney die where and when she did.

Good point Sound. As someone who never really got into Bruce I'll admit that I had no idea who Clarence was before he passed and a thread was posted about it. Whitney Houston, on the other hand... just about anyone could tell you at least a little about her and perhaps if the timing were a little different or the show had been a week later things would have panned out differently. However, with a live show (I assume it was live then again I'm on AK time so nothing is live for me) there is a strict schedule to adhere to, and if in the promos for the show acts like Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown were promised I don't think they would go back on that, and winners are each given an allotred amount of time to be on stage before that dreaded "Hurry up!" music begins such as what happened to Bon Iver, and Dave Grohl was cut off completely (which I found funny).

 

[JerseyGirl]

I guess they just have to draw the line somewhere.... other big names in pop/rock like Etta James, Gary Moore, Jerry Leiber, Amy Winehouse, Gerry Rafferty, Ronnie James Dio all died in fairly recent months, so fans of theirs are going to say what happens to their Grammy tributes? Leiber wrote most of Elvis's early hits, so you don't get much more deserving than that. I guess it was just bad timing having Whitney die where and when she did.

Well the difference there is that nothing was 'planned' for any of those names. If there wasn't something in the plans then this wouldn't be an issue. And I think most rock fans know who Clarence Clemons was whether they are a fan of Bruce or not. He was a legendary saxophonist and deserving of a small tribute especially since it was the first E Street Band performance without him since his death.

Again, I am not taking anything away from Whitney and her tribute.

 

[TheSound]

Good point Sound. As someone who never really got into Bruce I'll admit that I had no idea who Clarence was before he passed and a thread was posted about it. Whitney Houston, on the other hand... just about anyone could tell you at least a little about her and perhaps if the timing were a little different or the show had been a week later things would have panned out differently

Hi ILJP, yeah, I think that many 'rock' fans would probably have heard of Clarence, or at least recognise the 'big guy who plays sax in Springsteen's band', but I can guarantee that 90% of Grammy Awards show viewers and the general public - who as we know in the main these days listen only to pop, rap, R&B, hip hop, Indy etc - they certainly won't know who he was. I think we sometimes assume that the big outside world knows and loves everything that we like, and in fact we think there's probably something mentally wrong with them if they don't!!..."WHAT!??? You cannot be serious, how the hell can you not have heard the new Dweezil Zappa album man???!"...but sadly that is very rarely the case. For example, I am definitely in denial that like 3 other people on earth seem to agree with me that Larry 'Wild Man' Fischer - who also died a few months ago - was a total genius, and if they knew what's really good for the American people they should have scrapped the Grammys entirely, and just broadcast a 4 hour tribute to to the last great paranoid-schizophrenic/bipolar-disorder rock ' n roll legend!