Clarence Carter - This Is Clarence Carter / Speakers Corner

Release October 2025

Clarence Carter, blind from birth, was a blues singer with lascivious wit, a talented guitarist, a songwriter with a twinkle in his eye, and a champion of down-to-earth soul grooves who taught himself to play the guitar.

He sang in a gospel choir, completed a degree in music, and grounded the duo Clarence & Calvin but was not however very successful. After a car crash involving Calvin Scott, Carter started on a solo career and

signed a contract with Rick Hall and the Fame label as a soloist. Among the earliest singles recorded at the Muscle Shoals studio were a few hits. After leaving Fame for Atlantic, he managed to enter the Top 20 of the

R & B charts with Looking For A Fox. His breakthrough came with Slip Away, which sold a million copies and was awarded a Gold Record.

The legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals remained the home basis, as it were, for Carter during his career with Atlantic. This Is… begins with a contemplative, soft sound. Do What You Gotta Do, written by Jim Webb,

is a lovely, melancholic mid-tempo ballad, saturated with Barry Beckett’s keyboard and smothered by lush, plaintive winds. But the man is primarily funky here … as three danceable, finger-snapping tracks prove; Wind It Up,

with further witty improvisations and a fervid organ solo, the highly syncopated, playful Thread The Needle, and the smoky, irresistible Funky Fever – all written by Carter himself. Dan Penn’s and Spooner Oldham’s Slippin’

Around has an unorthodox bossa nova-like beat that is reminiscent of Ray Charles’s What’d I Say, while Carter’s unmistakable chuckle is to be heard for the first time on the riotous funk-rock number I’m Qualified, which has the

very same unique, infectious groove as was to be heard on Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour. She Ain’t Gonna Do Right, composed by the same man, brings more Alabama Country to the mix, whereby Beckett contributes a catchy,

persistent organ riff in the refrain. Soul, blues, funk, R & B – a gigantic album from a giant of the genre.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under www.pure-analogue.com. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

We recommend the use of "L'Art du Son" LP cleaner to wet wash your vinyl. Even new records of high quality production will benefit from this.

Title

1. Do What You Gotta Do

2. Looking For A Fox

3. Slippin' Around

4. I'm Qualified

5. I Can't See Myself

6. Wind It Up

7. Part Time Love

8. Thread The Needle

9. Slip Away

10. Funky Fever

11. She Ain't Gonna Do Right

12. Set Me Free