Strokin by Clarence Carter: A lyrical Analysis

Today’s post is about a song entitled Strokin’ by Clarence Carter.  For many people, this is his best-known song only because it is played in clubs that normally don’t play this genre of music, or maybe you have seen the Strokin line dance video.  In fact, people who don’t know any better may think that Clarence Carter is a one-hit wonder when nothing could be further from the truth.  Among other Clarence Carter songs are “Slip Away” and “Back Door Santa.” In total, were are almost 40 Clarence Carter albums released over the years!

Strokin’ by Clarence Carter…What MOST People Think it’s About

Give the video below a good viewing.  After you watch it once or twice, you may think “strokin'” refers to something of a sexual nature, a double-entendre, if you will.  This is the mistake that MOST people make, so don’t feel bad if you do the same.

Do you still think Strokin’ is sexual in nature?  Well if you do, you are ever so wrong!

What Clarence Carter REALLY wrote Strokin’ about

Most people are completely unaware of this, but not only is Clarence Carter an accomplished blues musician, he is also a FAN of a wide variety of music styles.  As a blind man, he does not take music for granted like some people might.  One of his favorite songs is “The Stroke” by Billy Squier.  That song is so awesome, WHO COULDN’T LOVE IT?  Certainly not Clarence Carter, there’s no doubt about that at all.  If you are not familiar with this song, it is the song that Eminem based the song “Berzerk” on.  Here are some lyrics in Clarence’s song to maybe help illustrate my point a bit:

clarence carter - strokin lyrics
Clarence Carter was so moved by this song, he recorded a song to tell the world how much HE stroked! A true fan indeed!

I stroke it to the north
I stroke it to the south
I stroke it everywhere
I even stroke it with my, WHOOO!

When one starts stroking things with their WHOOO! you know that they’ve reached a zen-like state.

clarence carter strokin
Clarence Carter jamming out. Photo by John Mathew Smith used under Creative Commons 2.0 license

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