Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:43 am
Sure would have loved for elvis to record this track at the memphis sessions. "The Dark End of the Street" is a 1967 soul song written by songwriters Dan Penn and Chips Moman and first recorded by James Carr. Many versions exist including Roy Hamilton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_End_of_the_Streetlisten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzcdNwIkmYAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gEyE5pnRLkif only...
Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:01 am
.. and a million other songs he could have done.
Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:35 am
I guess if I were forced to pick just one song that I would have liked to hear, that would probably be the one. I'd like it to have been in early '69, at American. But it didn't happen. He certainly could have done it then. (It wasn't in the cards for him to get at it first, because his whole career would have been different for that to have happened.)
So, I just enjoy these versions. They are miraculous. THE song about the pain of overwhelming guilt. Yet the protagonist is still going there: to the dark end of the street, unbearable guilt, or not. Carr gets the prize, but Hamilton is also wonderful. James Caar had such a rough life, that I guess he could go further "down the street" with it.
rjm
Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:22 pm
An incredible song, and an outstanding performance by James Carr. Elvis could have handled it in 1969.