Get on Down With Clarence & Calvin!

Clarence & Calvin - Rooster Knees and Rice

Clarence Carter's long career started in the early '60s with his Alabama State University classmate Calvin Scott. The duo recorded for Fairlane, Duke and Atco billed as "Clarence & Calvin" or the "C&C Boys," with no particular success. After Calvin was seriously injured in an auto accident, Clarence soldiered on as a solo act with Rick Hall, who had produced the duo's Atco single, signing to FAME and then achieving major success on Atlantic. Calvin would return to recording a few years later, but despite pretty good product - including the Stax LP I'm Not Blind ... I Just Can't See - his recording career never took off and he got out of show business in the mid-'70s. (Check out Calvin's official website for his biography and other information about his career.)

"Rooster Knees and Rice" was the flip side of the duo's Atco 45 (the A-side was a secular version of the Boyer Brothers' gospel classic "Step By Step"). The tune is an instrumental that is essentially a hybrid of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" and James Brown's "Mashed Potatoes," but it's a fun slice of greasy R&B that is good for some dancefloor action.