Soul and R&B singer James Carr was born on June 13, 1942 in Mississippi. His family soon moved to Memphis, where Carr would grow up singing in the church and eventually for Goldwax Records (after being rejected by Stax). Carr is most remembered for his amazing vocal performance on the original recording of “The Dark End of the Street.”
But, despite a spotty recording career for various reasons, Carr created some other great recordings in addition to “The Dark End of the Street.” Below, a young Carr sings “Love Attack” live in 1967, early in his career when he was full of promise.
Prior to “Dark End of the Street,” Carr’s first success came from “You Got My Mind Messed Up,” which he released in 1966. Below he performs the song live late in his career.
The Dark End of the Street
Dan Penn and Chips Moman wrote “The Dark End of the Street,” and many artists have covered the song over the years, including Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, and Gram Parsons. But it is Carr’s original 1967 recording that stands out. It went to number 10 on the R&B chart and number 77 on the pop chart, but the recording remains timeless.
Penn and Moman had the idea for the song when they were playing cards, with their conversation turning to the subject of cheating. During a break from the game, in about a half hour the two men created what Penn initially considered a “straightforward country cheatin’ ballad.”
Carr’s version of the song may be the best recording ever made about a forbidden love. The two lovers meet “at the dark end of the street” where they are “hiding in shadows where we don’t belong.” During the day, they can’t acknowledge each other. But the most anguished part of the song is where Carr’s voice reveals that the singer knows it is a sin and inevitable they will be caught.
Carr’s Life & Career
Like the narrator of the song, James Carr experienced a lot of anguish in his life. And perhaps some of that pain came through in his songs. As “The Dark End of the Street” songwriter Dan Penn explained regarding the various versions of that song, “Nobody did it as good as James Carr. Not even me.”
Carr suffered from bipolar disorder much of his life, and his recording career was off and on, without ever providing him the fame he deserved. His mental condition impaired his career in a number of ways, including abandoned recording sessions. Similarly, an overdose of antidepressants led him to freeze onstage before an audience in Japan in 1979. Even as he struggled with his mental health, he periodically made music, even recording two albums in the early 1990s.
But in the mid-1990s, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He passed away on January 7, 2001 at the age of 57 in a Memphis nursing home, leaving us too soon but leaving us with some great music from a troubled soul.
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