Just days before what would've been his 65th birthday, blues artist Marvin Sease died of pneumonia at River Region Medical Center in Vicksburg, Miss. Best known for his infamous track 'Candy Licker,' from his 1987 self-titled, major-label debut, Sease carved a niche for himself as a raunchy, X-rated singer who used gospel, soul and blues to deliver explicit messages -- raw in content but smooth in execution. As such, he developed and maintained a solid fan base that, notably, tended to be females who took a liking to his word play.
A South Carolina native, Sease moved to New York by the time he was 20 to pursue a career in music. He got his start fronting several soul and gospel groups but soon began leaning more towards R&B. He secured a residency gig at a bar in Brooklyn -- Casablanca -- but also toured heavily in the south, where he appeared to be better received. When his record label, London/Mercury, released the ten-minute track 'Candy Licker' as a single, it became something of a jukebox hit even if radio shied away from it because of its explicit content. All told, the song propelled the debut album to number 14 on Billboard's R&B chart and transformed Sease into a strong live draw.
None of his subsequent albums were able to match his initial success, however Sease was able to maintain a core group of fans and he will remain relevant as a forefather of a certain sexually-explicit blend of R&B and gospel-tinged blues.
~ Spinner.com
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