Search - James Carr :: You Got My Mind Messed Up

A classic soul album

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 07/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"James Carr's 1967 LP has been augumented by a whopping twelve bonus tracks on this remixed stereo edition, and several of them are previously unreleased.

Very generous...and several of these twelve songs are really good. The only thing I don't like about these deluxe editions with a million bonus tracks is that they often tend to detract a little from the overall impression of the album.

The original "You Got My Mind Messed Up" was such a terrific album, with barely a single weak song, and it's not that there are too many of them among the bonus material, but they generally aren't up to the level of the original cuts, and that dulls the impact of the CD a little bit.



But hey, you can program the CD player or something. Whatever you do, don't let my griping deter you from getting this otherwise wonderful CD.

James Carr is not one of the best known U.S. soul singers, but this his debut album is simply filled with genuine soul classics, and Carr delivers them with power and pathos to rival Otis Redding. "Pouring Water On A Drowning Man" is probably my favourite soul tune, and songs like the emotional "These Ain't Raindrops", the muscular groove of "Better Than You" and the wonderfully melodic, soulful title track are right up there as well. And while it's true that there are very few bad versions of Dan Penn's and Lincoln "Chips" Moman's wonderful "The Dark End Of The Street", James Carr's rendition still stands as the ultimate rendition of that song.



Backed by a stellar band which includes the great Steve Cropper, Carr lays down two dozen impeccable vocal performances, emotional but never over the top. This one of the finest soul records of the 60s - of any era, actually - and no soul fan should be without it.

One of the greatest soul singers of all time, James Carr succumbed to lung cancer on January 7th, 2001, just 58 years old. This magnificent album is his lasting legacy."

A Deep Soul Masterpiece/Brilliance by a vocal and interpreti

C. Fields | Jackson, MS USA | 03/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This cd is extremely intense. There was no singer as raw and passionate as James Carr and this cd is just one example. It is very ironic that this cd is called "You Got My Mind Messed Up" because he really did have mental problems. It's almost like you can hear it in his voice without even knowing that he really did. I say that because it is almost scary the way he sings these songs. From "Pouring Water On a Drowning Man" to the very end James is singing for himself and him alone. He is held as the man who has the definitive version of "Dark end of the Street," but like co-writter of the song Dan Penn has stated compared to his version there is no other version, period. It's pretty hard to describe his vocal interpretive capability. He puts forth so much passion into these songs its mind blowing. If you have only just heard of James Carr I highly recommend purchasing this cd and then the rest of his 60's work. It has been remastered extrodinarily well, job very very well done and it has also been mixed to stereo(excluding "I Don't Want To Be Hurt Anymore" "Coming Back To Me Baby" and "She's Better Than You")A lot of people don't realize that a lot of material that was orginally in mono has the instruments at the correct level. And sometimes the remastering prouducers, when mixing to stereo dont keep certain things at the correct level(guitars are usually such the case)fortunately that is not the case here (except for possibly the title track. The guitar is slightly lower than the orginal mono is). But hey, I'm nitpicking so don't worry about that :o) For some soul singers cd's don't do them enough justice, so if you have a turntable get the LP so you can truly experience this."