Some records you only have to hear once.<\/p>\n
And then you’ve got to hear them again and again and again.<\/p>\n
It’s easy to do it just like everybody else.\u00c2\u00a0 That requires no imagination, no risk.\u00c2\u00a0 When you fail you shrug your shoulders and say it’s not your fault.\u00c2\u00a0 When you succeed you smile but you cringe on the inside, you know you’re not worthy, it’s hard walking around as a fake.<\/p>\n
But no one believed Tina Turner could come back.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for Carter.<\/p>\n
Hell, she never really made it in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, she sang "Proud Mary" on that Stones tour, but most white folk were clueless and she’d split from Ike and she was too old.<\/p>\n
But she could sing.<\/p>\n
And perform.<\/p>\n
Marry this with the right song and…<\/p>\n
That’s what a great A&R man does.<\/p>\n
And when he gets it right, everybody nods his head and no one complains.\u00c2\u00a0 If you hate Tina Turner I haven’t met you.<\/p>\n
It took years to make "Private Dancer".\u00c2\u00a0 We thought it was a fool’s folly.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we heard "What’s Love Got To Do With It".<\/p>\n
The sneaky intro, with the strings, slick when that was anathema.<\/p>\n
And then that sultry vocal.\u00c2\u00a0 When Tina sings "the touch of your hand makes my pulse react" it’s like she’s put her hand on your shoulder, your arm, you tingle all over.<\/p>\n
That’s a hit.<\/p>\n
Carter started early.\u00c2\u00a0 Writing the lyrics for "Incense and Peppermints".\u00c2\u00a0 Which was only a rumor back before the Internet. Did he really do it? \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I saw the Strawberry Alarm Clock…<\/p>\n
But I first learned Carter’s name on the back of Sammy Hagar’s "Red" album.\u00c2\u00a0 And then met him when I was working with W.A.S.P.\u00c2\u00a0 But we didn’t become close until relatively recently, when the Internet allowed us to interact on a whim and we both had so many miles on us we could laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 You get old enough and posturing is for pussies.<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t only Tina and Sammy.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike so many, Carter continued to have success as the years passed by.\u00c2\u00a0 Paula Cole was successful with him, a stiff without him.<\/p>\n
In the old days those with the Big C evaporated.\u00c2\u00a0 They were alive, but removed, unreachable.\u00c2\u00a0 But I never believed Carter would die, because he was right there, in my inbox.\u00c2\u00a0 As recently as April 12th: <\/p>\n
\n"Palm Springs? Give me an hour the next time you are here <\/p>\nCarter"<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I answered that my mother was there for the month of February, and if she was healthy enough to return next year, I’d certainly stop by.<\/p>\n
That’s never going to happen.<\/p>\n
Carter died.<\/p>\n
And although this happens.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially to those with esophageal cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that he’s truly gone I just can’t believe it.<\/p>\n
Because he was so alive.\u00c2\u00a0 A teenager in a sexagenarian’s body.\u00c2\u00a0 With that little soul patch and the twinkle in his eye. He never got old.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike so many who put on the suit and went straight, Carter was rock and roll until he died.<\/p>\n
I’ve been looking for obituaries online.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’m just too early, I could only find one, on a music business site.<\/p>\n
But in my Googling I came across a page for "Private Dancer".<\/p>\n
And I was impressed once again, how great those tracks were and still are.<\/p>\n
I pulled up Paul Brady’s original "Steel Claw" in Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 This was before he had the success with Bonnie Raitt.\u00c2\u00a0 But Carter knew how great Paul was.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, Tina’s take is better.<\/p>\n
And the "Centenary Edition" of "Private Dancer" has a bonus version of Eric Burdon and the Animals’ "When I Was Young".<\/p>\n
But the song that I couldn’t stop playing was "Better Be Good To Me".<\/p>\n
Carter was good to Tina Turner.<\/p>\n
Right now I’m listening to the original by Spider.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never heard it before.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s intriguing, it’s the same song, but it’s not the same record.<\/p>\n
It’s quiet in a way Tina’s take is loud.<\/p>\n
It’s cerebral in a way Tina’s take is physical.<\/p>\n
It’s slow in a way Tina’s take is fast.<\/p>\n
It’s controlled in a way Tina’s is loose.
‘Cause I don’t have no use<\/span>
For what you loosely call the truth<\/span>
And I don’t have the time<\/span>
For your overloaded lines<\/span>
‘Cause you better be good to me<\/span>
Yes, you better be good<\/span>
Better be good to me<\/span><\/p>\nCarter had no time for phonies.\u00c2\u00a0 Although he could be a team player, he was always his own man.\u00c2\u00a0 He was far from sentimental, he was always looking for the next thrill.<\/p>\n
It’s not him singing on the records, but he’s there, in the grooves.\u00c2\u00a0 You can hear him.\u00c2\u00a0 The swagger.\u00c2\u00a0 The attitude.<\/p>\n
He ran away to play in the rock and roll circus.<\/p>\n
He won.<\/p>\n
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Some records you only have to hear once. And then you’ve got to hear them again and again and again. It’s easy to do it just like everybody else.\u00c2\u00a0 That requires no imagination, no risk.\u00c2\u00a0 When you fail you shrug your shoulders and say it’s not your fault.\u00c2\u00a0 When you succeed you smile but you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-carter","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}