Soul singer James Carr’s troubled life kept him from continued success, but his original recording of “The Dark End of the Street” remains the classic version of the great song.
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.
Nina Simone performs Barry Gibb’s “To Love Somebody” at the Jazz à Juan jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France in 1969.
In 2017, Barry Gibb was asked what was his favorite of all of the songs he had written. He reached back to a song that was released as a single fifty years earlier in 1967 to his wonderful track, “To Love Somebody.”
I’m not sure if anyone asked him about the number of great covers of the song, but certainly one of my favorite versions is the one by Nina Simone, who was born in North Carolina on February 21, 1933 as Eunice Kathleen Waymon.
Reportedly, Gibb wrote “To Love Somebody” with Otis Redding in mind. But unfortunately, Redding died before he had the chance to record “To Love Somebody.”
Nina Simone released a cover of “To Love Somebody” in 1971 on her album of the same name. But she was performing the song live long before that release. Simone does something different than Redding probably would have done. She definitely takes a different approach than the hit recording by Gibb’s Bee Gees.
Below, alone at the piano, she performs “To Love Somebody” at the Jazz à Juan jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France in 1969. Unlike the Bee Gees version, her version never reaches the frenzy of passion that their original did.
Similarly, here she avoids the groove and rhythm of her own full-band 1971 release that also featured backing vocals. Here, instead, she brings a longing sadness to the tune. Check it out.
Singer-songwriter Loudin Wainwright III brought his singing and acting talents to the third season of the TV series M*A*S*H.
Singer-songwriter Loudin Wainwright III has had a diverse career while creating a catalog of outstanding albums and songs. The Grammy-award winning artist’s early claim to fame was a 1972 novelty song, “Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road).” He was a musical guest during the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live in 1975. Through the years, Wainwright, once hailed as one of the “new Dylans,” has appeared in a number of TV shows and movies. But perhaps his most interesting recurring role was as Captain Calvin Spalding in three episodes of the third season of M*A*S*H during 1974-1975.
Wainwright brought his musical talents to the character of Spalding, a singing surgeon. During his appearances, he played guitar and sang, as in the opening of the episode below, where he sings “Oh Tokyo” and “North Korea Blues.”
Below, Wainwright plays some additional songs in an episode from November 1974. Wayne Rogers (as Trapper John) and Alan Alda (as Hawkeye Pierce) join in on the first song. Then, in perhaps his best performance from the show, Wainwright illustrates how the camp is missing the nurses who were evacuated due to an approaching enemy.
Interestingly, Wainwright’s character name, “Captain Spalding,” referenced a famous Groucho Marx character Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding in the 1930 movie Animal Crackers. In the movie, Marx’s character had the theme song, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding,” which Marx often used throughout his career. During the run of M*A*S*H, there were several Groucho references and Alda even donned a Groucho Marx costume in the episode “Yankee Doodle Doctor.”
What Happened to M*A*S*H’s Captain Spalding?
M*A*S*H creator Larry Gelbart brought Loudin Wainwright III to the show originally. Gelbert was a fan of Wainwright’s music and wanted to try adding his musical element to the show. Gelbert even wanted to use Wainwright more than they did during that third season. But due to the tight shooting schedules for the series, they were not able to make room for more Wainwright appearances.
During his short time on the series and three episodes (“Rainbow Bridge,” “There Is Nothing Like a Nurse,” and “Big Mac”), though, Wainwright wrote and performed several songs. They included “North Korea Blues,” “Unrequited to the Nth Degree,” “I Wonder if They Miss Us,” “Five Gold Stars,” and “Big Mac Is Coming.”
As for Captain Spalding, who we did see briefly as a surgeon in his final appearance, the series never explained his disappearance. Unlike many iconic characters of the show who had their own exits, Calvin Spalding and his guitar just seemed to disappear from the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Maybe he got transferred to another unit or got to go back home. Or maybe he ended up in Outer Mongolia playing basketball with Chuck Cunningham. But at least for a little while, he was part of one of the biggest shows on television.
As for Loudin Wainwright III, he continued making music and acting, and also is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Wainwright Roche. The clip below features his final appearance on M*A*S*H, where he is asked to write a song for a visit by General Douglas MacArthur. The episode ends with Wainwright singing a part of his song to a disappointed camp (after MacArthur drove through camp without stopping). It was the last we would see of Calvin Spalding.
What is your favorite non-major character from M*A*S*H? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 2014, Sturgill Simpson performed a newly released song that appeared to be about turtles or drugs or God at a college graduation ceremony.
One of the many questions I would have for Sturgill Simpson is: “What was going through your head when you played at the Beloit College graduation?” On May 14, 2014, Simpson appeared at the Wisconsin commencement ceremony to serenade the college graduates and their families. The song he and his band performed was what appeared to be an unusual choice for a graduation, “Turtles All the Way Down.”
The story of how Simpson came to sing at the graduation begins when Simpson was contacted after Beloit College President Scott Bierman heard “Turtles All the Way Down.” The song had been released in April 2014 as the second single from Simpson’s album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Bierman became excited to hear a song about turtles because the reptile is the beloved unofficial mascot of Beloit College.
Bierman personally felt a connection with turtles that led him to embrace Simpson’s song. When Bierman first became president of the college and gave his inaugural address, he began with, “I love turtles.” Additionally, Bierman used the “infinite turtle theory,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in order “to instill the role each student on campus has in the lives of each other.”
Bierman, who retired at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, by all accounts provided stellar leadership during his time at Beloit College. But one has to wonder if he thought much about Simpson’s song beyond the turtles reference.
What is it about besides turtles? In a NPR Concert, Simpson explained that most people did not understand the song. “It’s actually all about drugs,” he said, half-jokingly, “And some other stuff; Mostly about drugs.”
At least superficially, the song recounts the singer’s experiences with drugs. But also, beginning with a reference to Jesus, the song questions the validity of organized religion. The singer recounts using drugs to enter a gateway in the mind, “Where reptile aliens made of light / Cut you open and pull out all your pain.”
So on one level, I am amused watching the performance at Beloit College, wondering if anyone besides Simpson and his band has any idea of what is going on. Turtles and aliens? Drugs and God? (YouTube earlier had a longer version of the performance with Bierman enthusiastically introducing the song and its turtle reference. But now only a shorter version seems to be available.)
Turtles All the Way Down?
Simpson’s song, though, is great, not only because it sounds awesome. It also is deeper than a simple anti-religion drug song, despite Simpson’s NPR joking explanation. Robin Hilton, who wrote the NPR story referenced above, called “Turtles All the Way Down” a “seemingly existential meditation.”
The song title itself has a long and sophisticated history. The expression “Turtles All the Way Down” derives from a myth going back to at least the 1500s about the belief that the world rested on the back of an elephant, who stood on top of a turtle. By the 1900s, the tale evolved into the earth resting on an infinite stack of turtles.
The turtles story also comes from a tale recounted by physicist Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time (1988), a book that Simpson has read more than once. In the famous story, a famous philosopher was giving a lecture on astronomy and afterwards was approached by an outraged woman. The woman told him he was wrong about the earth floating in the sky. She explained that, instead, the earth rested on the back of a turtle. When the philosopher asked what the turtle stood on, she said another turtle. When the philosopher asked about that turtle, she replied, “It’s no use, it’s turtles all the way down.”
Meaning of the Song
So what does the philosopher story have to do with Simpson’s song referencing drugs, religion, and aliens? First, the singer of “Turtles All the Way Down” is critical of authoritarian attempts to control access to anything, such as LSD, which can help change one’s perspective and provide interior growth. For DMT, which occurs naturally in our brains, he asks how something we all make in our brains can be illegal: “Some say you might go crazy / But then again, it might make you go sane.”
Second, regarding religion, on his life’s journey, the singer encounters Jesus, the devil, and Buddha. Yet, “that old and fabled book”(i.e., the Bible) reminds him of the “pain caused by an old man in the sky.“
But the song is not a pro-drug and anti-religion diatribe. Reading other books influenced Simpson too. Drugs may have opened the mind of the singer, but he found more elsewhere beyond the drugs and books: “Marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT / They all changed the way I see. / But love’s the only thing that ever saved my life.”
As for religion, the singer says not to waste one’s time on nursery rhymes and “blood and wine.” But the rejection is not anti-God. It comes from the unsolvable mysteries of the universe that we just cannot understand beyond the infinite stack of turtles. So be careful how you waste your time.
“God” is not rejected but found by the singer in “in the eyes of my best friend.” And the friend teaches him something that sums up a message that is good advice for us all:
It’s all been done; And someday you’re gonna wake up old and gray; So go and try to have some fun; Showing warmth to everyone You meet and greet and cheat along the way.
One may only surmise whether the message of the song conveys Simpson’s own true beliefs or are part of a made-up character singing. But from interviews with Simpson, it does seem that he might have some similar thoughts on these subjects, even as he has explained that his songs are often in the voice of a character.
Performance at Benoit College Graduation
So on a deeper level, the song is about love, life, and the quest for meaning as well as different ways to reach different levels of consciousness and understanding. And on this deeper level, going back to the Beloit graduation, I wonder whether during that Wisconsin spring day in 2014 anyone sitting quietly in their seats waiting for their loved ones to receive their diplomas had any inkling what they were hearing.
Of course, I doubt I would have understood in that context, first hearing the song from an artist I didn’t know. I suppose that is why artists like Simpson keep playing and performing and writing, hoping to make a connection at some point.
But I still can’t help wondering what was going through the mind of Simpson, who went into the Navy not long after his own high school graduation to try to straighten out his life. And in 2014, he stood playing off to the side of the college graduation audience on the constructed platform (not even at the front!), singing about turtles for the Beloit College faithful.
There are many things I love about this video. You can almost feel the air and smell spring in the air as parents and others sit through the graduation festivities. I love that Simpson brought a full band for this performance, which he could have done as easily by himself with an acoustic guitar. I love that when the video cuts out you can’t tell if anyone applauded (although in their defense, Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down” does have a somewhat abrupt ending here as well as on the album). I love that Simpson gives a knowing smile as the song goes into a list of drugs as if he senses the absurdity of the situation. And I love that the one audience member who may be enjoying the song the most can be seen behind the band on a giant rock listening to the band.
Of course, one cannot criticize Simpson for the performance or for agreeing to perform for this unusual audience. He had yet to find great success or to appear on network TV (that would come in July on Late Show With David Letterman). His first self-released album had only found modest sales, and this new one had been released one day prior to the graduation. He had no idea that album would significantly increase his audience.
So of course he took the graduation gig.
But maybe he reached some folks that day too.
God bless him and the graduates of Beloit College.
Turtle picture via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.
Some of the earliest recordings of Bob Dylan singing were made at the apartment of his college girlfriend Bonnie Beecher, who went on to play some iconic TV roles during her short acting career.
Bonnie Beecher, who was born on April 25, 1941, establishes an interesting connection between Bob Dylan and two classic TV shows, The Twilight Zone and Star Trek.
First, her connection to Dylan. Beecher was friends with and dated Dylan when they both went to the University of Minnesota. One theory is that “Girl from the North Country” may be at least partially about Beecher.
Perhaps most significantly for music history, there is no doubt that some of Dylan’s earliest recordings were made at Beecher’s home in 1961. Below are some of those recordings, including “Omie Wise,” “Wade in the Water,” and the not-to-be-missed “I Was Young When I Left Home.”
After her relationship with Bob Dylan, Beecher had a short successful acting career. Not long after her relationship with Dylan in the 1960s, Beecher pursued an acting career in television. Her biggest role was probably on the episode of The Twilight Zone entitled, “Come Wander With Me” (1964). In the episode, which was the final one of the series filmed, Beecher played a muse haunting a young singer seeking a new song.
Beecher, who beat out Liza Minelli for the role, also sings in the episode. She sings the title folk song that foretells the doom of the young man. Beecher, whose voice appears with Dylan on some of the Minneapolis tapes, had a wonderful singing voice herself.
The song “Come Wander With Me” was written by Jeff Alexander and Anthony Wilson. Most recently, Beecher’s recording of the song was used in the Netflix series Baby Reindeer(2024).
Beecher, however, did not continue with her acting and singing career past the 1960s. Her career ended around 1968, not long after appearing in a Star Trek episode, “Spectre of the Gun.” In that show, she appeared as Pavel Chekov’s love interest (where his love for her character saved his life).
In addition to Bob Dylan (and Chekov), Beecher’s love for another famous man would fill much of her life. Since 1967, she has been married to 1960s icon (and Woodstock MC) Wavy Gravy. She runs charitable organizations and Camp Winnarainbow with him. After her marriage to Gravy with whom she has a son, she adopted the name Jahanara Romney.
Finally, below, Beecher tells a funny story about Dylan traveling to Oklahoma.
Happy birthday Ms. Beecher/Romney! Leave your two cents in the comments.
