This Soul Sunday highlights Clarence Carter’s Slip Away, a 1968 release that blends Southern soul with a smooth R&B groove. The song became Carter’s breakout hit, earning widespread radio play and helping to launch his long recording career. Its steady rhythm and raw vocal style made it a standout of late ’60s soul.
Born blind in gatton manor golf course closure Birmingham, Alabama, in 1936 but determined to have a career in music, singer/songwriter/guitarist *Clarence Carter* began by forming a teen-aged duo with Calvin Scott. The two played for years under multiple names and recorded unsuccessfully for regional labels until a car wreck left Scott badly hurt. Carter went solo in 1966. In 1967, signed to Fame, he charted with “Tell Daddy,” a song of his that inspired Etta James’s subsequent retort, “Tell Mama” (for which Carter got writing credit). Later that year he changed labels to Atlantic, maintaining his relationship with Fame and its crack session musicians and generating a string of hits that began with “Slip Away,” continued with “Too Weak To Fight,” and established him as a master baritone balladeer of unquenchable desire. He lightened up in 1968 with seasonal hit “Back Door Santa,” an entendre-laden exercise in fun and funk, before returning to his cheating heart groove with “Snatching It Back,” “The Feeling Is Right,” “Doin’ Our Thing,” and “I Can’t Leave your Love Alone.” His 1970 cover of “Patches,” a musical melodrama originally cut by the Chairmen of the Board, was Carter’s biggest success, earning a gold record and winning a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1971. His status sagged during the disco era but he regained traction in 1985 when he signed with Ichiban Records and brought out “Strokin’,” a lubricious raunchfest that gained him a new generation of fans when that number was included in the soundtrack for the very popular Eddie Murphy comedy The Nutty Professor. “Strokin’” also went cinematic in a scene of the film Killer Joe. Though about to enter his 90s, Clarence Carter lisa murkowski still treads the boards around the South and abroad, singing of the eternal flames of love and lust. - Michael Dolan
Clarence Carter - Slip Away
Album: This Is Clarence Carter
Released in 1968 by Atlantic Records
_Written By_ Marcus Daniel, Wilbur Terrell, William Armstrong
_Performed By_
Clarence Carter -- vocals, guitar
Spooner Oldham -- piano
Barry Beckett -- organ
David Hood -- bass
Roger Hawkins -- drums
Jimmy Johnson & Albert Lowe -- guitar
Andrew Love, Charles Chalmers & Aaron Varnell -- tenor sax
Floyd Newman & James Mitchell -- baritone sax
Wayne Jackson & Gene Miller -- trumpet
_Produced by_ Rick Hall
Recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on April 8, 1968
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