James Car - The Dark End Of The Street

First performance: 02/06/2009

Coverinfo

Bruce played the song only once :  
 
 
2009-06-02 Ratinan Stadion, Tampere, Finland 

Premiere of James Carr’s "The Dark End Of The Street” . The song is played by sign request.
 
 
 

Songinfo

"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. In the summer of 1966, while a DJ convention was being held in Memphis, Penn and Moman were cheating while playing cards with Florida DJ Don Schroeder, and decided to write the song while on a break. Penn said of the song "We were always wanting to come up with the best cheatin’ song" . Ever. The duo went to the hotel room of Quinton Claunch, another Muscle Shoals alumnus, and founder of Hi Records, to write. Claunch told them, "Boys, you can use my room on one condition, which is that you give me that song for James Carr. They said I had a deal, and they kept their word. " The song, lyrics and all, was written in about thirty minutes. Soul artist James Carr, as promised, first recorded the song in late 1966, and it became his trademark song. Influences : Van Morrison's song "Bright Side of the Road" includes the lyrics "From the dark end of the street, to the bright side of the road," which many believe was influenced by Penn's song.
 
 
 

Bruce on the artist

2009-06-02 - RATINAN STADION, TAMPERE, FINLAND

Intro to the song :
 
(sees the sign for the song in the pit)…Thank you very much ….at the dark end of the street…. that’s good one – yeah, that’s where we’d always meet…hiding in shadows where we don’t belong…living in darkness to hide our wrong…you and me…at the dark end of the street…oh yeah…bring that sign up, keep playing, boys…his is a great soul song…by James Carr…also I think Clarence – did Clarence Carter cover this? (turns to Steve) yeah, he did…the great thing…and Percy Sledge, right…the great thing about this song was there was a big rap that Clarence Carter did, I’ll fake it a little bit for you… Clarence would say…here we go…now I wanna talk to the men out there tonight…are there any men out there tonight slipping around on their women? (not much of a response) very quiet in the crowd ….are there any women out there tonight slipping around on their men? …..the girls are not ashamed…but there’s a cost…there’s a cost that we pay for deception…we’ve always got a secret we’ve got to keep… we’ve always got to be hiding, sneaking around…now, I’ve been there myself…but not for many, many, many, many, many years ….many, many years!...but I would call this woman up and I would say…”Darling, are you free tonight?”…and she’d see if her husband was gonna be home…but then we had to decide where we might meet…now, we couldn’t take the chance of going downtown because someone might see us…we couldn’t go into a night club – someone might see us…so I’d call on the phone and say “Baby, I’ve got to see you…but we’ve got to meet…at the dark end of the street” – take it to the top now…at the dark end of the street…that’s where we always meet…hiding in shadows ‘cause we know we’re wrong…slipping in darkness to hide our wrong…you and me – hit it, boys – at the dark end…of the street..that’s how it went, that’s for you ..."

Lyrics

At the dark end of the street
That's where we always meet
Hiding in shadows
Where we don't belong
Living in darkness
To hide our wrong

You and me at the
Dark end of the street
You and me

I know time is
Gonna take it's toll
We have to pat for
The love that we stole

It's a sin and
We know it's wrong
Oh, but our love
Keeps coming on strong

Steal away to the
Dark end of the street

They're gonna to find us
They're gonna to find us
They're gonna to find us
Lord, someday

You and me at the
Dark end of the street
You and me

And when the
Daylight hours roll round
And by chance
We're both downtown

If we should meet
Just walk on by
Oh, darling, please don't cry

Tonight, we'll meet at
The dark end of the street