Remembering Clarence Fountain, a Gospel Legend
The singers are dressed in sharp matching suits and dark sunglasses, facing an audience of several hundred. Standing at the center of the stage, lead singer Clarence Fountain holds a microphone with one hand and rests his other hand on his hip, as he begins to speak to the audience.
“I didn’t come here looking for Jesus,” he says, while the other singers moan in harmony behind him. “I brought Him along with me.”
Fountain removes his hand from his hip and it begins to shake wildly, as though possessed with a spirit of its own. Fountain lets out a quick laugh: ha ha.
“If this was a rock ‘n’ roll show here, you could hear ‘em hollering all down the streets,” he continues, grinning wide. “If James Brown can come in here and do the twist, and do the mess around for the devil, then I feel like it’s all right if I stand up here and mash potatoes
