The man known as The Candy Licker after his racy ten minute track of the same name, Marvin Sease, passed away Tuesday, a week shy of his 65th birthday, following a lengthy battle with pneumonia.
Marvin Sease was born in Blackville, South Carolina on February 16, 1946. He began his singing career, like many other Southern soul stars, in church. Still in his teens, Sease joined a local gospel group, The Five Gospel Crowns who were popular in the Charleston area. At the age of 20, Sease took his gospel singing north to New York. But, as a young man in a very big city at a time when soul music was perhaps at its peak (James Brown, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, etc, etc), Sease found himself drawn to the secular R&B music and clubs. He soon put his own R&B band together, Sease, which featured his brothers on backing vocals. When the brother act broke up, Marvin turned to singing pre-recorded backing tracks for the dance clubs. He self-released a handful of 45s and, by the mid-80s, Marvin held down a regular gig at Brooklyn's Casablanca bar and night club.
Marvin Sease was born in Blackville, South Carolina on February 16, 1946. He began his singing career, like many other Southern soul stars, in church. Still in his teens, Sease joined a local gospel group, The Five Gospel Crowns who were popular in the Charleston area. At the age of 20, Sease took his gospel singing north to New York. But, as a young man in a very big city at a time when soul music was perhaps at its peak (James Brown, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, etc, etc), Sease found himself drawn to the secular R&B music and clubs. He soon put his own R&B band together, Sease, which featured his brothers on backing vocals. When the brother act broke up, Marvin turned to singing pre-recorded backing tracks for the dance clubs. He self-released a handful of 45s and, by the mid-80s, Marvin held down a regular gig at Brooklyn's Casablanca bar and night club.
In 1986, having cultivated a sound and style very much in the mold of Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis, Marvin self-released his debut album, "Marvin Sease". The album and it's single, "Ghetto Man", generated enough interest in both the north and south that Mercury records signed the 40 year old and re-released the set nationally on their London label. The re-release featured a single new track, a ten minute ode to oral sex called "Candy Licker". The song begins with the declaration "I'm not ashamed.... I want to do the thing that your lover never did before, girl". Then, unashamed, Sease explains what it is he wants to do. With its single-entendre lyrics and smooth, soulful beat, the record became an underground hit. Underground because no radio station would touch it, yet it immediately earned Sease a legion of forever devoted fans--mostly women, not surprisingly. And Sease used this new found fame to build a career headlining the so called "Chitlin' Circuit", from Memphis to Mississippi.
The "Chitlin' Circuit" is a mostly black Soul and Blues club circuit that covers the south, though, in recent years, it's extended into the north as well. It began to form in earnest following World War II--a place where African-Americans could see revue styled shows featuring multiple artists performing music that can't be heard on the radio--often because the lyrics are too sexual in nature. It's been mostly black owned and run, as well. In spite of perception, the clubs on the circuit frequently outdraw their mainstream counterparts. Audiences are multi-generational; it's not at all uncommon to see three generations of women from the same family attending shows together. The pay is better than many would think, with headliners pulling in 12 thousand dollars a night or more--still far less than half of what their mainstream counterparts make in the mainstream clubs. But the schedules on the circuit are difficult, consisting mostly of one nighters, with endless travel from town to town by bus and car. Artists working the circuit often perform as many as 300 shows a year. You'll find Blues on the circuit as well as R&B--Southern Soul is the label of the moment. Some call it Soul Blues or Folk Funk. Singer Bobby Rush calls it "a black thing", saying "do what you do for the audience that will listen to you." And Sease told Memphis Magazine a few years back, "There ain't even a category for what we do."
Riding the success of "Candy Licker", Sease became not just a staple of the Chitlin' Circuit, but one of it's biggest stars. He followed that explicit single with many others on the same theme--"Candy Licker 2", "Do You Need A Licker?", "I Ate You For My Breakfast", "A Woman Would Rather Be Licked", "Sit Down On It", "I Wanna Do Ya"--but also with songs that were more sensual than sexual and the equal of many charting soul records. His album catalog numbered more than 20, and sales were generally solid, but the lack of airplay kept Sease at arm's length from the charts more often than not. His highest charting single, "Tonight", reached only #86 on the R&B charts in 1991.
A year earlier, in 1990, Marvin Sease made his contribution to the holiday season, releasing a 12" EP entitled "It's Christmas Time". The EP featured a holiday greeting, the songs "Merry Christmas" and "Funky Christmas", a Christmas version of his single "Do It Tonight" and the song "Take A Look Around You". "It's Christmas Time" has never been released on CD, though "Funky Christmas" has been included on Sease's entry into the "20th Century Masters/Millennium Collection" series.
Marvin Sease played the circuit pretty much up to the time of his death, in spite of pneumonia he'd been fighting on and off over the last year or so. He had a string of dates lined up for this month and next. Sease's final album, released in 2008, "Who's Got The Power", included his musical tribute to other R&B giants who have passed on. At the age of 64, the great and underapreciated Marvin Sease has joined their number. Marvin Sease has "Gone On".
A year earlier, in 1990, Marvin Sease made his contribution to the holiday season, releasing a 12" EP entitled "It's Christmas Time". The EP featured a holiday greeting, the songs "Merry Christmas" and "Funky Christmas", a Christmas version of his single "Do It Tonight" and the song "Take A Look Around You". "It's Christmas Time" has never been released on CD, though "Funky Christmas" has been included on Sease's entry into the "20th Century Masters/Millennium Collection" series.
Marvin Sease played the circuit pretty much up to the time of his death, in spite of pneumonia he'd been fighting on and off over the last year or so. He had a string of dates lined up for this month and next. Sease's final album, released in 2008, "Who's Got The Power", included his musical tribute to other R&B giants who have passed on. At the age of 64, the great and underapreciated Marvin Sease has joined their number. Marvin Sease has "Gone On".
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