James Carr – You Got My Mind Messed Up

The voice of James Carr was a force of nature, but he also demonstrated exquisite control, rarely going over the top when a straight shot to the gut or ventricle would do. The tragedy is that Carr couldn’t control the forces around and inside him. Thus, his voice was also, in the words of writer Jimmy Guterman, “among soul’s darkest and most demon-driven.”

The dozen songs on this 1967 release rose from two templates, with southern soul ballads accented by Reggie Young’s country-bred guitar fills complementing uptempo semi-stompers driven by supple rhythm and horn sections that could get downright heart-palpitating when riled. “I Don’t Want To Be Hurt Anymore” is a stirring example of the former style, and “Pouring Water On A Drowning Man”, revived by Elvis Costello on his exercise in esoterica, Kojak Variety, is an especially infectious specimen of the latter.

Throughout, Carr makes the simple (“These ain’t raindrops in my eyes/They are tears”) sublime, and turns the sublime (“I know time is gonna take its toll/We have to pay for the love we stole”) into whatever exists a couple levels above sublime. At the album’s (broken) heart is “The Dark End Of The Street” — Carr’s definitive version, towering without being showy, positions the oft-covered Dan Penn/Chips Moman tune as both the quintessential adultery song and the quintessential country soul song.

This reissue doubles the original payload by adding twelve bonus tracks, including Otis Redding’s “These Arms Of Mine”, Harlan Howard’s “Life Turned Her That Way” and the rollicking Mitch Ryder number “Sock It to Me — Baby!” That last one ends abruptly, with a chuckling Carr confessing to a screw-up, a nice moment that captures the singer in good spirits. This exemplary but haunted southern soulman deserved more such moments.