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Remembrances of Ray Charles

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I admit to not being a great Ray Charles fan, but he was the epitome of "cool."

I always thought it was kind of amazing that one of his most acclaimed albums is "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." Any time you see a list of his best, it's there. He truly was a multifaceted talent.

I guess my favorite memory of him will be his appearance in the movie THE BLUES BROTHERS.

"Two thousand dollars and it's yours....I'll even throw in the black keys for free!"
 
His passing is quite a shock...I remember him as Sammy on THE NANNY, and for singing GEORGIA ON MY MIND as the opening for DESIGNING WOMEN. Also, he did A SONG FOR YOU in his own inimitable style. He HAD to be the most visible handicapped person on the planet...and even though I knew he was blind, I never thought about it at all.

Ray was an avid flyer, and even tried to get the FAA to grant him a pilot's license...sophisticated instruments and avionics...but it never happenned.

Miss you, Ray...


Dan
 
Mike Blakesley said:
I always thought it was kind of amazing that one of his most acclaimed albums is "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." Any time you see a list of his best, it's there. He truly was a multifaceted talent.
Click to expand...

I agree - that IS pretty amazing!
And while he never recorded for A&M, he does have a passing connection to the label - his final Top 40 hit was 1989's "I'll Be Good to You," a remake of ex-A&Mers The Brothers Johnson's song that Charles did with ex-A&Mer Quincy Jones on the latter's "Back to the Block" album.
 
I was surprised to hear this also; wasn't aware he was ill. His album MODERN SOUNDS ... has to be among the popular albums of all time. When visiting friends I always made it a point to thumb through their record collections. This Ray Charles title almost always could be found.
He was an amazing talent.
JB
 
The passing of Ray Charles comes a suprise--and a very sad one to me, too. Last year he gave a concert in Toronto, Canada at THE JOHN LABATT'S CENTRE FOR PERFORMING ARTS and back in 2001 he gave a concert at THE MACOMB CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS, which I now wish I hadn't missed! :sad:

Ray Charles contributed greatly to the music world and to our lives. And just by overcoming his handicap, alone to reach out to the people was a great enough achievement!

God Bless You, Ray and Thanks for the music!

Dave :angel:
 
I also was surprised that he was diagnosed with a liver disease. Ray Charles was about soul. He had it. There was just something about that gravelly voice that made him unique. I only have one album of his - Genius + Soul = Jazz - but have heard him on radio and TV a lot. He was a perfect fit on Quincy Jones's version of "I'll Be Good To You". He was also a great fit for the Blues Brothers movie. This is truly a lost treasure in American music - with no one to take his place.


Capt. Bacardi
 
I have a two-CD Anthology of his that I can highly recommend--since he owned his own masters, he was able to assemble all of his best songs from his Atlantic and ABC/Paramount years into this set. The hits are there, as are the "landmark" songs sampled from various phases of his career. It's hard to touch on everything in a two-CD set, but Rhino did a good job of it. I wasn't much of a fan of his until I got this set a few years ago. It makes you appreciate exactly what it was that made him such an influential music figure, and it's also a lot of fun to listen to.

Ironically, I had just read a Ray Charles biography a few months ago. "Ray Charles: Man and Music" by Michael Lydon. It covers every part of his career. As I read it, I started thinking that I should try to see Ray Charles the next time he went on a tour, before it was too late. Well, unfortunately... :sad:
 
Sad news, indeed. Ray Charles was an institution, bar none. I had the pleasure of seeing Ray perform a couple of times over the years. His rendition of "God Bless America" would have the audience in tears.

One of our layover hotels in Sacramento is well known for its live performances by top musical acts. The concerts are held in an outdoor pavillion. Early last year, we arrived at the hotel (dead tired from flying all day) and checked into our rooms. I had just settled in my room when it occured to me that a concert was being held in courtyard below. I opened my sliding glass door to the pleasant surprise of seeing Ray Charles onstage, about half-way through his program. The rest of the flight attendants and pilots gathered in my room. We ordered room service, drinks, and enjoyed the rest of the concert from the balcony of my room. It's something I will never forget.

Good thoughts and prayers go out to Ray and his family at this time.

Jon
 
I was saddened to hear of Ray Charles passing yesterday as I was driving home from work. I can't say I was a great fan, but I certainly recognized that the man was a great talent.

I have just one Ray Charles CD in my collection. It's from a series of 50th Anniversary Collectors Series of reissues of his original albums from Rhino, dated around 1997. As I recall there was a bunch of these being given out at the radio station and I grabbed this one because it had my favorite of his, "Georgia On My Mind." The album is THE GENIUS HITS THE ROAD - an album which thematically takes the listener all over the place, sort of Ray's version of Herb's GOING PLACES, predating it by five years, and originally released on ABC-Paramount.

It's a well-mastered (Bill Inglot/Dan Hersh) and well-thought out release (six bonus tracks). We can only hope that someday Herb's reissues will sound as good.

RIP, Ray. We'll miss you.

Harry
NP: Ray Charles, THE GENIUS HITS THE ROAD
 
I typically see enough of Ray's records to make a "complete collection"; wonder how they could be "said to be out-of-print", yet I typically see so many copies of one title. :?:

I imagine those "LP's that don't sell as much as they used to" might now become valuable! :idea:

Dave

...remembering a very irreplaceable force in the music industry...
:cool:
 
The first Ray Charles song I knew was his version of "I Can't Stop Loving You," which was so distinctive that I had no idea it wasn't his song originally... Then I heard "Georgia on My Mind" and "Hit the Road Jack" and "You Don't Know Me" ... and "What'd I Say" .... and his Crossover Records version of "America the Beautiful," which was a big airplay hit during the Bicentennial of 1976; it was celebratory without being jingoistic.

I have many of his 45s and even some albums, but it wasn't until last year that I picked up my first Ray Charles CD, a 20-song Rhino CD that came out in the late 1980s. Just a few months later, I found the DCC Compact Classics 2-CD set Uh Huh!. Both were compiled by Brother Ray himself with the help of Steve Hoffman.

Finally, I can't ignore Ray's foray into "real" country music in the 1980s; I really love that duet he did with Willie Nelson, "Seven Spanish Angels."

Ray had Top 10 hits in six different decades, if you include all four of the major Billboard singles charts (pop, R&B, country and easy listening/adult contemporary).
 
Tim Neely said:
... and his Crossover Records version of "America the Beautiful," which was a big airplay hit during the Bicentennial of 1976
Click to expand...
I.I.N.M., his recording of this standard was first released on ABC / Tangerine Records in 1972 (ABC-11329), originally as the flip side of his version of the Melanie (Safka) composition "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma," which differed radically from The New Seekers' hit version from two years before. Both came from his LP A Message from the People (ABCX 755/TRC).
 
I finally saw his Biopic, Ray... It was actually on Nat'l TV (the ABC-network, one of his former Record Companies!) right on Today, his 77th Birthday!

Excellent Documentary and Jamie Foxx really played the role of Mr. Charles very well... Yes, I'll echo that his Drug Use and Womanizing was portrayed quite publically, and beyond what anyone could be "comfprtable" with, along with his Marriage, struggling for stregnth along with his growth of fame, the legnth and number of cars and homes and studios he had, too! (I don't think Elvis really quite had the controversy following him, let alone the Law on him over his drug use, for example...)

And on a lighter note, Mr. Charles could handle a demanding audience claiming the "demonizing" of Gospel and not quite welcoming his turning to Country Music and MOR--at first; he made just ANYTHING Rock 'N' Roll and pioneered Modern Soul and R&B, with the "party and crowd noises" peppering "What'd I Say?!", for example... Let's not also forgetting refusing to perform for segregated audiences, too! (Ray was Cool!):cool: There was also a lot of never-ending and self-proclaimed guilt over seeing the loss of his younger brother, which contiued haunting him and that he could'a helped prevent his death from drowning in a tub...! :cry:

None-the-less I'm glad to have seen a great Biography on a great and respected Musical Hero...!!!



Dave
 
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