Unfortunately Ray Charles has died at the age of 73. I saw him play live once and it was amazing. The one memory of him that will always stick around will be of the scene from The Blues Brothers when he plays the music store owner. He pretends that he isn't blind and when he waves the gun around, I just lose it. Classic musician, with a sense of humor about his misfortune. He will be missed.
From Newsday.com
- BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and heartfelt ballads like "Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73.
Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South.
"His sound was stunning — it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing — it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine in April.
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931 but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
aww...crap!
2 - Craig Lyndall
That kind of sums it up...
3 - ClubhouseCancer
This man's acheivement from 1956-1962 or so was monumental. Some of the greatest American music, period.
This is very sad.
4 - The Dude
Ever wake up in the morning
About the break of day
Feel over to the pillow
Where your baby used to lay
Then you go on crying
Like you never cried before
You even cry so loud
You give the blues to your neighbor next door
-- Ray Charles
5 - Mac Diva
Yes! A dead man who deserves our respect. I have a wall of framed candid photos of musicians in my little home office. Some of them set me back more than I could afford when I bought them. A picture of Ray Charles composing at the piano is central to the display. Rest in peace, R.C.
6 - Nyx
Now there's someone who should be on the ten dollar bill or Mt. Rushmore.
Think Fox News will have live coverage of his funeral? Hell no! Just more opression of the black man!
Let's paint the whitehouse black!
7 - TDavid
Ray had a smooth voice. He'll be sorely missed :(
8 - Jim Carruthers
This is a bad week for musicians who wear sunglasses, first we have Robert Quine, now Ray Charles.
9 - BJ
This is really a drag. Ray was a true original.
I saw him in Vegas in about '92 or so when I was there for a conference. It was a rundown casino (the Desert Inn, I think) and a small, crowded room, the sort where you pay your money and order your two drink minimum at the door. A pair of watered down vodka tonics, my main warm weather drink back then. They have to bring the drinks before the show starts, because there isn't room on the floor for waiters to move among the customers. I was alone; none of the people I knew at the conference cared to go. I was leaning my left arm on the stage, for both shows, maybe 8 feet from the man himself. The performance was uneven by Ray Charles standards, yet powerful and exhilerating. One of the best nights ever.
It was a classic American experience, like visiting Rushmore as a kid in the back of a station wagon.
10 - Jim Carruthers
After hearing Ray Charles died, I listened to what is probably his greatest album (and he was a performer who flourished in singles) "Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music".
He has passed on, but leaves a legacy which lives every day, which is more than most of us can claim.
11 - TDavid
Anybody know where or how to get ahold of that song, "You Don't Know Me" Ray sung on Groundhog's Day starring Bill Murray? It's not on the soundtrack.
We already own the DVD, and I suppose I could just copy it from there. Been looking to buy that song if I can find it and haven't seen it ...
12 - CW
Now he sees.
13 - TDavid
I found the song I was talking about here at Amazon. Maybe that can be added to the ASIN numbers above.
14 - Dirtgrain
"Blues and misery all around."
15 - RJ Elliott
"Yes! A dead man who deserves our respect."
Yeah, instead of all those undeserving white guys...
16 - Dirtgrain
RJ, are you seeing this as a case of affirmative action gone bad? Explain yourself. Not that I can complain, but your comment sounds a little kooky. Why bring up race?
17 - RJ Elliott
Dirt:
I wasn't bringing up race. MD did, though tacitly.
Ray Charles was a great performer. We will all miss him.
But MD's comment was anti-Reagan and anti-Tillman (two white guys).
You'd have to know the context to follow my argument...
18 - SFC SKI
A great singer and entertainer, I am glad I saw him perform at least once.
19 - HW Saxton Jr.
Ray was the greatest! He'll be missed.
His LP "The Genius Sings The Blues" is
a must have. Every song is better than
the next,leaving you wanting more when
it is over.The cat was fucking brilliant
what else can you say? Rest In Peace RC.
20 - The Dude
To TDavid
I believe that's from "Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music".
I was just thinking about that song. It's a classic lost-love song, but the way Brother Ray sings it, it sounds like he's telling the whole world, "you don't know me."
Heartbreaking.
21 - Jim Carruthers
"You Don't Know Me" is track #2 on "Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music", probably one of the best genre defying albums ever.
Rhino has a CD reissue of the original double LP set with bonus tracks.
22 - Mac Diva
(Whispering.) Jim, where can I download that song peer-to-peer?
Scanned the thread. Don't see anywhere I mentioned race. However, a Right Wing associate of RJ Elliiott's did in Comment 6.
23 - Jim Carruthers
Well, you could just go to Amazon via the link which credits Blogcritics.org with the sale and buy the Rhino CD Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music.
Not that I'm saying you, McD, advocate stealing from blind, black people with many children. You'd never do anything like that, would you?
24 - RJ Elliott
No, of course not. She'd rather steal from white kids.
25 - Mac Diva
(Whispering and winking.) Jim, I would if the children are older than I am. I'm not sure there are all that many Charlesettes. You may be confusing him with B.B. King, who got up off that thang without protection an awful lot. If I remember correctly, his offspring are in the high double digits.