A Man Needs A Woman
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These are the liner notes with the new edition of the A Man Needs A Woman CD by Colin Dilnot, these are also available on his own blogspot site: http://keepingsoulalive.blogspot.com/
Fate and Chance on the Dark End Of The Street
Is it possible that fate and chance, time and place can all combine to make a
piece of music that continues to mesmerise us until today? One such meeting of
fate, chance, time and place was the recording of James Carr’s “Dark End Of
The Street” on Goldwax in the fall of 1966.
The song was a product of a multi-ethnic mix, which had been sown in the soil of
Memphis and washed up on the banks of the Mississippi over several generations.
It was the coming together of a disparate group of people – James Carr the son
of a preacher, Quinton Claunch a businessman and record producer, Chips Moman a
Georgian guitar player and Dan Penn a singer/song-writer from Vernon Alabama and
several other players. The song was recorded at a time when Memphis was on the
verge of disintegration because of the issues, which ran out of years of a
segregated black population. The place of the recording was the only time
Goldwax ever recorded there – the Royal Recording Studios, which also came
about by chance.
I’ve tried to piece together the events, which produced what most people would
agree was the archetypal soul record and demonstrate that sometimes the fates
conspire to bring about the best creations.
The Night Is Cool And Dark
It was a little after 10.00pm when Quinton Claunch anxiously looked at his watch
again to see that James Carr was now an hour late for the session. The night was
cool as he looked out from the porch of the Royal Recording Studios to see
whether there was any sign of James. His anxiety was growing because James had
been displaying some disturbing behaviour since his return from a tour that had
taken him to the Apollo in New York. However, Quinton believed in James and kept
telling everyone that he would show.
The whole day seemed to a write-off from the word go because the session had
been scheduled for Chips Moman’s American Recording Studios over on the corner
of Chelsea and Thomas. Quinton had got a call from Chips earlier in the day to
say the recording board had blown and there was no way of fixing it for the
“Dark End Of The Street” session scheduled for that day. Quinton had
suggested to Chips that he give his friend Willie Mitchell a call over at the
Royal Recording Studios to see whether they could use their facility. Quinton
told him that Willie would be OK because he owed him a few favours from his time
at the Hi label. Willie said they could have the studios from early evening and
he would call over and let them in and make sure everything was OK.
Quinton’s Mind Goes Back To Nashville
Quinton wanted to get going on this session for not only was it costing money
but also he believed that this was the song to make James a true star. His mind
drifted back to that night in the Nashville hotel when he and his partner Doc
Russell had met Chips and Dan Penn at a disc jockey convention. Quinton and Doc
thought the 2 guys were a little wild and obviously high but who cared when they
could come up with a song like “Dark End Of The Street”.
Quinton had heard Chips strumming out the melody of “Dark End Of The Street”
from across the hall and a little while later Chips and Dan showed up at the
door asking to come in to share a few drinks. Quinton smiled to himself when he
now looked over at Dan and Chips taking the band through the arrangement to the
song on the floor of the Royal Recording Studios. Quinton and Doc had welcomed
their company to play a hand of poker to kill time into the small hours over
glasses of bourbon. However, Quinton was smiling to himself because ever the
astute businessman he had recognised the talents of Chips and Dan and knew they
were coming up with a great song. He remembered the words he spoke to Chips as
he stood in the doorway asking to come in; “Man I don’t mind you staying
over here in my room all night long but on one condition. That you let me have
that song for James Carr when you get finished”. Chips had walked up to him
and shook his hand and agreed to Quinton’s request. So for the rest of the
night Chips and Dan worked over the song changing the words here and there –
yeah thought Quinton they came up with a hit song and now he was going to put
together the best production he could to showcase the song and James.
Chips’s Big Deal
Chips looked down at the Royal Recording Studio board as Willie Mitchell
familiarised him and Quinton with the controls. He had played guitar a lot when
he first came to Memphis in the late 50’s but he was moving on now as an
engineer and producer. He was promised $5000 for the Goldwax sessions and he
wasn’t going to blow it after nearly losing it in the booze bottle a little
way back. No - he was up for this one and had surrounded himself with some of
the best Memphis musicians who he could now see out on the studio floor.
Tommy Cogbill, who was tuning his bass, had picked up the rest of the guys
earlier in the evening and brought them over to the Royal Recording Studios,
which was known to most of them. Chips knew most of the good musicians in town.
So when he’d got the money to cut the session he hired the best and had come
to think of them as his house band – Gene Christman smiled over to him and
acknowledged his drum mikes were OK; Reggie Young fastened his guitar around his
neck and adjusted his amp while Bobby Emmons ran his fingers over the keys of
the piano in the corner of the studio.
They were all set to stay until it was finished or as Chips always joked;
“Let’s call home sick until we get it right”. Nobody would leave until it
was perfect and James always came up with perfection and that’s why all the
guy’s liked working with him. Sometimes they were quick but if it didn’t
happen instantly then it was not unusual for them to spend 2 or 3 days on one
song. They just did it until they liked it – no problems with union rates in
good old Memphis
They were looking forward to the session because James was one of their
favourite singers and they all appreciated his talent. They were relaxing have a
few smokes waiting for James. They had listened to the demo tape several times
and noted down the chord changes and got the melody – all they needed was
James.
James Waiting On The Corner of 4th Street and Vance Avenue
James hadn’t forgotten about the session – he was sitting in his apartment
over in the Foot Homes Housing Project on 4th Street and Vance looking over the
lyrics he had on a scrap of paper. He had learnt the song from hearing the demo
that Dan Penn had put on a cassette. James had been over to Doc Russell’s
drugstore a few times to work the song up or he may have been over to George
Jackson’s place to work it up as he did for the songs he worked on with George
and Dan Greer. He had arranged it in his mind, because it was a simple song, by
the way the words come out as he talked them – yeah that was the way he was
going to sing the song.
James had drifted into one of his day dreams and lost track of time – dreaming
of the day he was born, listening to his father preaching, leading the choir,
watching the parades, running round Beale Street. He’d been out earlier in the
day wandering the streets and fallen asleep in the rain, which had awoken him as
it fell more heavily. He now thought of the last couple of months of his life.
He remembered the trip to the Apollo in Harlem early in the year. He still
couldn’t get over sharing the stage with Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and
James Brown. But as he sat in his chair in project apartment he was now broke.
All the money had gone from the deal with Bell Records executive Larry Utall and
now he was looking for the next break. Was he really going to be bigger than
Otis Redding as Larry told him?
He was now waiting for Dan and George to pick him up to take him down to the
Royal Recording Studios. James heard the blast on the horn of Dan Greer’s 1951
Plymouth and was out the door and into the car. They may have decided to have a
few drinks from a bottle they bought from a liquor store a long the way as they
had done before other sessions. They were now running over an hour late but who
cared because he needed a little pick me up before the session to get him
through the night. Dan and George hadn’t known James too long but they were
keen to help him. Sometimes they just went with the flow and let James do his
own thing. James liked to ride in Dan’s car because of the other passengers
who had taken a ride in it such as Wilson Pickett. He looked at his reflection
in the car window as the lights of Memphis danced by and he realised he was the
star of the evening.
Dan Penn Dreams of Caddy’s
Dan Penn had first met Quinton and Doc Russell down at Fame studios when he had
brought James down there to record “You Don’t Want Me” and “Only Fools
Run Away” back in 1964. He had joked to Quinton, as he came back in to the
studio after looking for James, whether Doc still had his Cadillac so he could
run round and get something to eat as the band where getting hungry while they
waited. Dan had always dreamt of owning a Caddy and had driven Doc Russell’s
brand new, ‘64, black, four-door, hard top Caddy out to get burgers and coke
when Doc and Quinton where down at James’s Fame sessions. Dan knew this song
was going to live forever - well that’s what Chips and him wanted to believe.
We’re Up and Running
Then just as an air of restlessness is settling over the studio James walks in
and greets everyone. The band see in his eyes that he is up for it and Dan and
Chips go over to him to make sure that he feels in good shape and his voice is
fine. Quinton stands back because he believes that James will pull out a fine
performance from somewhere.
James lights a cigarette and looks out in to space, as the band start playing
through the chords and warming up, he knows he’s got to take centre stage.
There’s no hiding place now and nowhere to run. He moves forward and says
he’s ready for the first take. He hums out the melody as the band pick up on
the fact that they are up and running. Dan and Chips come down onto the floor
and run through the song one more time, Dan accentuates the lyrics as any
song-writer would who knows his own material best but he is about to be eclipsed.
James runs right through the song with the band and his completely together with
them. His vagueness, aloofness whatever you want to say about him has gone and
he is centre stage.
Quinton asks James whether he is ready and the answer is affirmative and they go
for the first take and the tape machine rolls. Though there are more than a
dozen people in the studio James might as well be by himself and as he sings he
knows that he has caught hold of the song and so have the band. The first take
is good but he knows he can do better. When Quinton asks him can he put more
into it the second time round he nods yes and Quinton waves from the control
room like a football coach gesturing to give it more.
The Second Take
Quinton cues up the next take, James looks into the eyes of each band member and
they know this is the one. James takes one long drag of his cigarette and then
walks to the microphone. Quinton says Take 2, the tape rolls and Reggie Young
strums a tremolo-laden guitar riff before James baritone voice breaks into song.
He pushes out the words of the song as though he has back on church in front of
the congregation pleading a confession. All the troubles of his mind that day
come out in the song. He makes it through the 44 bars of the song. He finishes
and looks up to control booth as Quinton, Dan and Chips give him their OK’s
– he’s made it this time but for how long can a man be expected to sing
songs such as these without going under?
Did James know that he had conspired with the fates and assured himself a place
in soul history? James was just as full of doubts when he left the studio – he
always felt it was too easy and he could do better. He remembered again seeing
his face in the car window – it was up to others to look after him – he only
reflected back the truth on them.
The Mechanics of a Hit
They did go for a third take but they all knew the second one was the best. They
go through the playbacks and everyone agrees that the second take is the best.
The session had lasted a little over four hours and not a bad night’s work.
They decided because they were running late not to lay another track down and
each one of them disappeared into the dark Memphis night.
The track was far from finished; Chips took the master tape and cut a few copies
for safekeeping. He then later on headed down to Nashville where he had good
contacts and did the horn overdubs with unknown players. He secured the best
backing vocalists in Nashville the Anita Kerr Singers to weave their magic
behind James’s vocal. He then mixed the whole thing down over at his studio on
Madison and Thomas and delivered the 2 track master tape back to Doc Russell and
Quinton Claunch before the end of the year.”
The 45 was released in early 1967 and reached #10 on the charts in February 1967
– James Carr’s highest chart entry and the pinnacle of his career.
References
Peter Guralnick Sweet Soul Music 1986
Barney Hoskyns Say It One Time For The Broken Hearted 1987
Joss Hutton Penn and Oldham Perfect Sound Forever Website Dec 1998
Allen Smith An Interview With Legendary Producer Chips Moman Gritz Website 2001
Plus Interviews with Quinton Claunch January 2003 and Dan Greer January 2002
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A NOTE FROM THE PROJECT SUPERVISOR
As with out expanded and revised version of the original "You Got My Mind Messed Up" album (CDKEND 205), we have built on the foundation of the original ten track, 1968-released, US edition of "A Man Needs A Woman' and expanded it to a full 24 track release. In this instance, we didn't have to work so hard to raise the track quotient, as my Ace colleague Trevor Churchill had already begun the job when he was label manager for Bell Records in 1968! In a successful attempt to give buyers of the original UK vinyl release of "A Man Needs A Woman' better value for money, Trevor added a few of James' non-album singles and a couple of "Greatest Hits' from the (by that time long deleted) "You Got My Mind Messed Up' set. He then supplemented those with a number of hitherto unreleased selections that, for many years, could only be found on that UK vinyl album.
Thus, what we have for you here breaks down as follows:
Tracks 1-11: Goldwax GWX 3002
Tracks 12-16: Additional material added by Trevor Churchill to expand GWX 3002 to UK Bell SBLL 113
Tracks 17-24: Further additional material added by your annotator to expand UK SBLL 113 to CDKEND 206
Doubtless
there'll be a few moaners out there who'll be whining on -wholly unnecessarily,
as far as I'm concerned -about the further repetition of 'The
Dark End Of the Street" and 'You've
Got My Mind Messed Up', To them I say –well I'd like to say something that
you wouldn't normally find in the pages of a Kent CD booklet, Instead, though,
I'll content myself with a comment about the small mindedness of such bickering
and say that, as far as I'm concerned, you could have both these tracks on every
Deep Soul CD from here to Armageddon and it still wouldn't negate their
excellence. They are here because they were integral to either GWX 3002 or SBLL
113, and here they'll stay. Most Cart fans will know every note of GWX 3002/SBLL
113 as well as they know the hairs on the back of their hand. I don't think
anyone would contest my opinion that it contains same of the best of James'
Goldwax sides -including one of the very best in the gut wrenching 'A
Woman Is A Man's Best Friend' (which had actually received its world-wide
premiere release in the UK ahead of the USA, thanks to the aforementioned Mr
Churchill's excellent "Bell's Cellar Of Soul Vol. 1"). This is
quintessential Southern Soul in every respect, the mournful tune and
James' heartrending delivery belying the fact that the song's actuality a
celebration of romantic fidelity, rather than an exercise in wrist-slashing. The
album's title track is every bit as classic, writers Claunch and OB McClinton
reshaping the melody of Otis Redding's adaptation of 'That's How Strong My Love
Is' -and, thus, also 'You've Got My Mind Messed Up' -to fit lyrics that could
only belong to a record made below the Mason-Dixon line (“a man needs a woman…
just like rough hands need lotion... (and) like a vampire needs blood").
It's quite brilliant, but then, you know that already, don't you?
Before
it became the album's title track, 'A Man Needs A Woman' '" was also
pressed into service as the A-side of Goldwax 332 (c/w the chunky Memphis mover
‘Stronger Than Love’). James' easygoing stroller 'I'm A Fool For You’
(featuring an at-the-time unaccredited Betty Harris) and a tough makeover
of Timmy Willis' 1963 R&B chart hit 'Gonna Send You Back To Georgia', also
graduated from being Goldwax 328 to becoming part of the album. And his next
single, the stellar version of Harlan Howard's 'Life Turned Her That Way (the
legendary country songwriter's own favourite version of this song, he told me in
1995), was broken out from the album to become Goldwax 332, just as the album
itself hit the racks. Truthfully, any of the other four new featured cuts could
have done the same, James' take on Wayne Carson Thompson's 'More Love' has
always deserved its reputation as a Carr collector's special favourite, and the
Dickey Lee-Allen Reynolds mover 'I
Sowed
Love And Reaped A Heartache' is another flagrant example of how thin the
separation line between soul and country music can get at times. Toss
in
a powerhouse version of George Jackson and Dan Greer's 'You Didn't Know
It
But You Had Me', top it all off with welcome reprises of 'You've Got
My
Mind Messed Up' and 'The Dark End Of The Street and there you have it, music
lovers, a perfect Southern Soul album. A perfect Southern soul album that was
made even more perfect by Mr Churchill's wisely-selected additional
performances. We’ve met the majestic ‘Let It Happen' and 'A Message To Young
Lovers', as well as the thumping 'A Losing Game' (surely Paul McCartney had
the intro of this track in mind when he wrote 'Get Back'?). Suffice
to say that they sound as great here as they do in any other company they choose
to keep. The two tracks Trevor issued in '68 for the first time are also primo
quality Carr, and it's hard to understand why Quinton chose to omit them from
Goldwax 3002. William Bell's excellent 'You Hurt (Me) So Good' is everything a
midtempo soul ballad should be -short, sharp, sentimentally intact and stunning.
And the jubilant horn riffs of 'You Gotta Have Soul' bring us James in full on 'gotta-gotta’
mode, showing that anything Otis could do, he could do - well, just as good if
not better sometimes!
Neither
Goldwax 3002 nor SBLL 113 troubled any charts, likewise 'Life Turned Her That
Way'. However, the title track gave James his third biggest US R&B singles
chart hit when it topped out at #16 in early 1968, bettering the peak positions
of both 'Let It Happen' (#30) and 'Fool For You' (#40), Even 50, this small
chart showing is scant reward for such marvellous music, don't you agree?
Talking
of marvellous music, there's plenty more of it among the freshly-appended
"bonus bonus cuts" that we've selected for you here. As the notes of
"You Got My Mind Messed Up" explained, there's virtually no remaining
session paperwork in the 336 Goldwax files. Thus I've had to rely on what my
ears –and a lot of guesswork -told me, in respect of recording chronology. It
felt to me like the eigh tracks featured here belonged with the originally
unissued material, in terms of style and content.
And
again, wherever we had multitracks available to us we had our friend
Rob
Keyloch fashion new stereo mixes in the style of the originals, both on the
issued and originally unissued material. As you'll hear, Rob has not tried to
rewrite history. His mixes are true to the originals, and that's the way he, you,
I, and everyone else here at Ace would want it. Rob's even
freshened
up the mix on something as sparse as James' version of Otis I Can’t Turn You
Loose’, which only exists in this “underdubbed” form, and to which horns
were obviously meant to be added at some point.
(Actually,
there was talk around the Ace A&R dept at one point that we might actually
get a horn section in to add the brass 30 years alter the session. But in the
final analysis we decided that this would be cheating, so we left it exactly as
it was first heard on the 1977 Japanese Vivid Sound album VS 3006.) George
Jackson's stunning Deep Soul masterpiece 'Please Your Woman' is another 'unfinished
symphony', and may well have been cut at the same session as 'Loose'. Once again
the desire to present it as Carr fans would already know and love it over-ruled
our initial thoughts of 'horning in' on the basic track.
Without
wishing to once again second guess Quinton's (or possibly Bell's) A&R
selection policy, you really do have to wonder how two tracks as stupendous as 'Let's
Face Facts' and Dan and Spooner's 'The Lifetime Of A Man' managed to get on a
shelf for the best part of a decade, before the I
Japanese
"Freedom Train" album brought them to our attention for the first time
in 1977. The former, especially, is great almost beyond description. The
Masqueraders' 1968 version on Wand is also pretty mindblowing, but James' cut -on
the same backing track -manages to take the resigned anguish of a man just off
to war even further than Lee Jones did on the original (and the 'Raders version
must be the original, as Jones and fellow group member Harold Thomas wrote the
song!). An absolute highlight, even in a catalogue that's noted for not being
short on such things.
In
among these extra cuts we also get a chance to experience a more upbeat side of
James Carr. The mild double-entendre of erstwhile rockabilly-turned-country
songwriter Mack Vickery's 'Who's Been Warming My Oven' -which Claunch also cut
on James' fellow Goldwax alumnus Spencer Wiggins, using this self-same backing
track -is chunky and funky enough to have brought the track to the attention of
neo-mods, who've been spinning it off the Vivid Sound CD that it first appeared
on in 1992. And 'Your Love Made A U-Turn', which premiered on a 1995 US Goldwax
CD, displays a hard drive that jostles with James for joint star status,
although there can only be one winner in such a situation when James Carr is
involved.
The
final tracks on this CD post-date the demise of Goldwax. As every Carr fan knows,
Quinton Claunch pacted James with Atlantic -to the great expectation of everyone
familiar with the musical heritage of this venerabie R&B imprint. For his
first Atlantic recordings Claunch took James down to Jackson, Mississippi and to
Malaco studios -then the hot name in soul circles thanks to the individual, not
to say unique, sound of King Floyd's 'Groove Me' and Jean Knight's 'Mr Big
Stuff', which were both recorded there.
James'
four song session in late 1970 yielded just the one single - the excellent
coupling, on Atlantic 2083, of 'Hold On' and 'I'll Put It To You' (not available
to us here due to contractual reasons). This was not, by any stretch of the
imagination, a big seller for the label, and Atlantic resumed the masters of the
other two tracks to Quinton. Sadly one, 'Sweet
Angel
Child', seems to have been irretrievably lost, but the other, a nice cover of
George Jones' recent Country Top 20 hit 'Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are wrong',
survived and is presented here for your approbation.
It's
not vintage James, and the country fan in me feels compelled to tell you that
the great "Possum"'s original version is better. But he's singing
nicely, and the Malaco rhythm section cooks groovily in the background,
providing us with a rare chance to hear him with something other than a Memphis
or Muscle Shoals rhythm behind him.
It's
widely believed that, at this point in time, James' mind went out for a packet
of fags and didn't coma back for a few years. But although James was definitely
becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, Claunch had not completely given
up on his protégé and was still hopeful that they could cut soma releasable
material. We can't date the last of our "bonus tracks' for certain, but the
tape box tells us that it was "rejected by Atlantic' so it probably doesn't
post-date the Malaco Studios session by more than a year. To be fair, listening
to the version of Johnny Cash's mariachi-flavoured 1962 country monster 'Ring Of
Fire' it's not hard to see why Atlantic sent the tape back. James' mental
problems were already beginning to take a toll on his voice, and the overall
sound of the record wasn't really in keeping with what was happening in black
music in the early 70s. But it's never been issued anywhere in the world before
now, and no one should ever overlook an opportunity to add to the pitifully
small body of work created by James Carr -so I didn't. We hope you'll accept it
and enjoy it, even if it were not the James Carr track you'd want to take to
that desert island with you.
That,
dear fan, pretty much closes the book on the Goldwax recordings of James Carr.
The material released across this CD, "The Complete Goldwax
Singles"
(CDKEND 202) and "You Got My Mind Messed Up' (CDKEND 205) has effectively
drained the vaults dry of surviving masters and out-takes on
James.
Only these tracks remain unreissued:
You're
Pouring Water On A Drowning Man (second version)
Love
Attack (second version)
I
Can't Help Myself (duet with Barbara Perry)
What
The World Needs Now Is Love
All
of which, Messrs Croasdell and Ridley have assured me, will appear either on
"The Goldwax Story Volume 2" or future Kent Deep Soul releases!
Going
through James' tape inventory has been a truly exhilarating experience for a
lifelong James Carr fan. From precious between-song chatter I have learned that
light often broke through the dark cloud that, many would have you believe,
enveloped James' life in the early 60s and only finally dissipated when he was
called to rest on 7 January 2001. I have discovered, via the vocal out-takes,
that -like all true improvisers from Louis Armstrong downwards –James was
incapable of singing any song the same way twice (although, it must be said, the
master take of a James Carr track is always the definitive one). And I have come
to know that, like his avowed idol Otis Redding, James Carr could take just
about any kind of song -from hard country to New York pop –and make it his
very own. His was and is a very singular talent. It's one of the great human
tragedies that we were deprived of the opportunity to enjoy it for so much of (what
should have been) the prime of his lifetime.
At
least we have the recordings to remember him by stand what performances, at that!).
Ace is as proud to bring you this third and final instalment of the Goldwax
recordings of James Carr as it was to bring you the previous two. You have our
full permission to enjoy every note of it.
TONY
ROUNCE JANUARY 2003