Carter is Gone
May 12th, 2011
The music world has lost a champion. Carter, as he was singularly known, died May 10 of esophageal cancer, at age 65. He produced and/or did A&R for such records as Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” the Motels, Sammy Hagar’s “Red”, Bruce Welch’s “French Kiss“ with “Sentimental Lady”, and is perhaps best known for signing, A&R & production of Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer”, including the single “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, launching Turner’s spectacular solo career.
He also produced Prism’s single “Cover Girl” and “Small Change” album, detailed below.
He was a rebel; he fought corporate politics, stood up for his artists. After success with Capitol Records, A&M, Atlantic, Chrysalis & Island Records, he hit the street as an independent manager. His latter successes included Sammy Hagar’s Chickenfoot, Tonio K, Tori Amos, Melissa Etheridge's publishing deal and more.
Mainly he was, as he said, a “professional fan” of music, never losing that youthful love that drives many of us to music in the first place. I recorded with him, stayed at his Hollywood house. He made you feel you were his best friend. It’s not until someone so special dies that you find he made many feel the same way. Today the eulogies are pouring in. It’s on the TV news.
Here is my reminiscence of Carter, during the making of Prism’s “Small Change” album, and “Cover Girl”:
Nobody, not even his parents called him by his full name, John Carter. He was simply Carter.
To clear up another myth, Carter did write the lyrics on "Incense & Peppermints", the ‘60s hit by Strawberry Alarm Clock; he told me so. He didn't blow smoke, so it's true.
I had the privilege of working with Carter over a year-and-a-half period in '80 - '81, when he was a staff producer for Capitol-EMI Los Angeles.
Bruce Fairbairn had left Prism, recently signed to Capitol, so they sent their man up to Vancouver to sort us out for a new album.
But instead of a staff cop, Carter stepped off the plane and handed us a copy of the latest Talking Heads album with, "Check this out, man. Very cool."
Instantly we were all kids in the basement, enthusing about records and bands.
Carter’s first task with us was a single bonus track for a greatest hits album. We cut “Cover Girl”, a tribute to slain Playboy playmate Dorothy Stratten, at Little Mountain studios in 1980. Carter wrote a considerable portion of the lyrics. The song would later be quoted in Peter Bogdanovich’s book “The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten (1960–1980)”
It was singer Ron Tabak’s last session with Prism before he was bluntly fired & replaced by Henry Small. While not part of that decision, Carter now had to make an album for Capitol with a well-known band they signed, but a replacement vocalist. He did it with class.
We made "Small Change" at Sunset Sound in LA. Carter would enter the studio in Hawaiian shirt and shades with, "Let's make a raackord, man!" like a Kim Fowley or Shadow Morton. Carter didn't "go Hollywood" - he had fun with it.
Bobby Columby would come down from the round tower to ensure we were behaving. Carter described his role as "Prod" by stating, "We're all playing a hand here, but I'm holding the aces." He called himself "Mr Demo", pulling endless cassettes of song submissions from his pockets, like Harpo Marx's stolen flatware. Demos of friends like Davitt Sigerson made fans of us all. Session extras were all Carter's friends: Norton Buffalo, Randy Hanson, Shirley Matthews ("she was an Orlon, man!") all became kids in Carter's basement.
It was a great hang. Sammy Hagar would show up late at night, and the session would move to the lounge. Carter constantly re-wrote lyrics, even during vocal takes. "I read about your blues. Got it? Red..."
I moved into his home for a month, the historic Samuel-Novarro house in the Hollywood hills. But his heart was down on the street. It was the art of the hang.
In early '82, long after the album was done and we'd all gone home, my phone rang. Carter's voice said, "We did what we said we were gonna do. We're on the radio."
Some took his deadpan manner as dour, or assumed it was the Acapulco Gold. But Carter was the hipster, the perennial teenager with the company keys. He achieved greatness; now the music world mourns a champion's passing. Some of us mourn a friend.
- Al Harlow
Read more here:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/05/12/carter/
Interviews with Carter:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/116661-the-story-of-a-soul-survivor-private-dancer-at-25/P1
http://www.taxi.com/music-business-faq/ar/carter.html
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