\n\tClarence Carter, the blind Southern soul star whose songs were often as emotionally profound as they were delightfully bawdy, died Thursday, May 14. He was 90.<\/p>\n
\n\tRodney Hall, president of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Carter frequently recorded, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone after speaking with the family of Candi Staton, the singer and Carter\u2019s ex-wife. A spokesperson for Staton said Carter was recently diagnosed with 4 prostate cancer diagnosis, and was also battling pneumonia and sepsis.<\/p>\n
\n\tCarter was a constant presence on the R&B charts during his late-Sixties and 1970s heyday, and he twice crossed over into the upper echelons of the pop charts. His two Top 10 hits, \u201cSlip Away\u201d and \u201cPatches,\u201d exemplified his ability to navigate the raw and ribald.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSlip Away,\u201d which arrived in 1968 and peaked at Number Six, was a yearning appeal to adultery that managed to excavate some genuine vulnerability buried deep within the sin. And 1970\u2019s \u201cPatches\u201d \u2014 which peaked at Number Four and won the Grammy for Best R&B Song \u2014 was a stirring saga about an Alabama boy who cares for his family amid the indignities of an indifferent world. The song\u2019s titular hero repeatedly returns to his father\u2019s final words for resilience, which Carter belts with world-weary resolve on the chorus: \u201cPatches, I\u2019m depending on you son\/To pull the family through\/My son, it\u2019s all left up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think \u2018Patches\u2019 really etched me into the music world,\u201d Carter said<\/a> in 2010. \u201cWhere people are probably going to remember me for a long time to come. Which I always wanted\u00a0\u2014 but I never knew it would happen that way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe same year \u201cSlip Away\u201d came out, Carter also scored a novelty Christmas hit with the wickedly raunchy \u201cBack Door Santa.\u201d His equally libidinous 1986 song \u201cStrokin\u2019\u201d became a cult favorite and later featured in movies like Eddie Murphy\u2019s The Nutty Professor and William Friedkin\u2019s Killer Joe. (Friedkin, an avowed fan, once called<\/a> \u201cStrokin\u2019\u201d \u201cone of the great American songs,\u201d and Carter the \u201cMozart of Southern Music.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\tCarter\u2019s sense of humor and fun was always key to his approach to music. In a 2011 radio interview<\/a>, he noted the perception of blues music as focused on the solemn, somber side of life. \u201cBut you could also sing the blues about something happy,\u201d Carter countered, adding: \u201cIn general, most people think of the blues as something sad and \u2018I wish I hadn\u2019t done that,\u2019 and this kind of thing. But I don\u2019t. Usually, when I go to my show, you\u2019re gonna hear me sing more up-tunes that you dance by than you\u2019re gonna hear me sing songs that you\u2019ll cry about.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCarter was born Jan. 14, 1936 in Montgomery, Alabama. As a kid<\/a>, he was gifted a guitar for Christmas and taught himself how to play by listening to other peoples\u2019 records and copying what he heard. Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, and later studied music at Alabama State College, graduating in 1960.<\/p>\n \n\tFor his first professional project, Carter linked up with another blind student, Calvin Scott, to form the duo Clarence & Calvin, later known as the C&C Boys. The duo released a handful of singles during the early Sixties, but failed to make any real headway. In 1965, they traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they cut several songs at Rick Hall\u2019s<\/a> FAME Studios<\/a>. One, \u201cStep By Step,\u201d earned the attention of Jerry Wexler, who released it on the Atlantic imprint, Atco, though it too failed to chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNot long after, Carter and Scott were involved in a car crash that left the latter severely injured. A dispute over medical bills led to the group\u2019s demise, with the two embarking on separate solo careers. Carter continued to work with Hall and his FAME label, releasing his debut single, \u201cTell Daddy,\u201d in 1967. It was a modest success that turned into a major one after Etta James cut a response called \u201cTell Mama\u201d that peaked at Number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tCarter was soon turning out hits of his own, often backed by the celebrated session players at FAME. Carter would write all the arrangements in braille and then have them transcribed for the others. Duane Allman, a FAME player in his pre-Allman Brothers Band days, said of Carter in a 1971 Rolling Stone article, \u201cHe\u2019s the most amazingly perceptive man I ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn 1968, Carter returned to Atlantic as a solo artist, and the success of \u201cSlip Away\u201d was buoyed by hits like the Gold-certified \u201cToo Weak to Fight\u201d and \u201cLooking for a Fox.\u201d Over the next two years, he placed seven songs in the Top 10 of the R&B charts, including \u201cSnatching it Back,\u201d \u201cThe Feeling Is Right,\u201d \u201cDoin\u2019 Our Thing,\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Leave You Alone.\u201d His b-sides, too, frequently became favorites, chief among them a take on James Carr\u2019s classic, \u201cThe Dark End of the Street,\u201d reworked in quintessential Carter fashion as, \u201cMaking Love (At the Dark End of the Street).\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the pinnacle of \u201cPatches,\u201d Carter continued to work regularly, but never had the same kind of commercial appeal. He left Atlantic, returned to the Fame label, and scored a minor hit in 1973 with \u201cSixty Minute Man.\u201d After that, he jumped to ABC Records, but a career revival failed to materialized. <\/p>\n \n\tIn 1970, Carter also married one of his backing singers, Candi Staton; they had one child together before divorcing in 1973. Years later, in her memoir, Staton wrote about an incident during their relationship where Carter allegedly beat<\/a> her.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the early Eighties, Carter released several albums, and even built a studio in the basement of his Atlanta home, where he taught himself how to program keyboards and work with computers. As he told Rolling Stone in 1986, \u201cI think I got another Top Ten record in me. With the right amount of exposure, I know I could have it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA massive smash never arrived, but \u201cStrokin\u2019,\u201d released that same year, did sell a 1.5 million copies, despite being too raunchy for radio (it primarily gained traction thanks to jukebox plays). The track helped anchor a late career resurgence for Carter, who released several albums on the independent Atlanta label, Ichiban Records, many of which placed on the R&B Albums Chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tCarter continued to write, record, and release music \u2014 as well as tour \u2014 well into his Eighties. His last record, Mr. Old School, arrived in January 2020 on his own Cee Gee Entertainment label, while in 2024, he dropped a new single, \u201cDanger Point.\u201d<\/p>\n