Any fans of Ray here? Love to hear your thoughts.

He was a key influence on my love of music from the age of 8 on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-27 03:30 by stonesrule.

I am a tad younger and until I saw RAY, I had *no* idea that he was so popular. My father, who is just a few years ahead of the Baby Boomers, was really broken up when Ray died. He would say, "If I had a nickel for every time I heard 'I Can't Stop Loving You' when I was I was in the Navy (early 1960s) .... '"

EDITED FOR SPELLING ERRORS





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-27 01:43 by MILKYWAY.

You know it! I'm from Georgia.

More later

I played classical piano seven years & appreciate any great keyboardist! Ray did a knockout rendition with Gladys Knight of Neither One Of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye. The movie about Ray's life was good, too!

Oh yes.

Oddly, is not. I have no grip of just how good he really is ... I would like to call him very uneven ...

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he always had major drug problems.

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owlbynite
he always had major drug problems.

Just. Then it's nice having well-behaved guys like Johnny Thunders or Chet Baker ...

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Come On

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owlbynite
he always had major drug problems.

Just. Then it's nice having well-behaved guys like Johnny Thunders or Chet Baker ...

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owlbynite

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Come On

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owlbynite
he always had major drug problems.

Just. Then it's nice having well-behaved guys like Johnny Thunders or Chet Baker ...

You have to consider quitting smoking ...

I love Ray Charles. Saw him once when I was in grad school in Virginia, so sometime in the late 80s. So different from the other shows I'd seen at that venue (which varied from Squeeze to the Beach Boys to Run DMC!), but super-enjoyable. Hit the Road Jack was a big hit when I was a kid.

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Come On

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owlbynite

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Come On

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owlbynite
he always had major drug problems.

Just. Then it's nice having well-behaved guys like Johnny Thunders or Chet Baker ...

You have to consider quitting smoking ...

drink more!

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owlbynite
drink more!

Cheers for that!

Do the mess around and don't forget night time is the right time.

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Elmo Lewis
Do the mess around and don't forget night time is the right time.

Creedence?

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Huge Fan Here. While always having respect for his music I didn't become a big fan until I found a copy of a greatest hits album called "Soul of A Man". Since then I have been picking albums and compilations of his on a regular basis. I can't tell you how many people, after hearing the album playing in my car have asked me to make a copy of it for them.

What’d I Say
(Night Time Is) The Right Time
That’s Enough
A Fool For You
It Should’ve Been Me
I Got A Woman
Just For A Thrill
Drown In My Own Tears
Don’t You Know
Ain't That Love
Swanee River Rock (Talkin’ ‘Bout That River)
Hallelujah, I Love Her So
Lonely Avenue
Greenbacks

A great playlist for just about any time even though "What'd I Say" is the radio edit.

One of my biggest regrets is I never went to see the man play live.

Peace,
Mr DJA

Nice post Mr DJA!

Lots more goodies...Genius of Soul album etc. Check out "Crying Time" with Barbra Steisand on YOUTUBE. Talk about two great artists mutually appreciating each other...completely wonderful!

I saw Ray several times in the Sixties as a kid sneaking out of the house to take a bus to a scary part of town. Blew my mind!

If any of you are unfamliar with Ray Charles, then you've missed "the diamonds in the mine."

Check out YOUTUBE and the rock and soul jam featuring Jerry Lee, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, BB King, Ray Charles and a James Brown "walk-on".

Eat your heart out, Kanye.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-27 19:39 by stonesrule.

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Come On

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Elmo Lewis
Do the mess around and don't forget night time is the right time.

Creedence?

Yup same song, Creedance covered Ray.
Ray was the man. The voice, the keys, and impeccable ear for melody. His stuff is amazing. I was lucky to see him once in Michigan with a full on orchestra, it was amazing!

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stonesrule
Nice post Mr DJA!

Lots more goodies...Genius of Soul album etc. Check out "Crying Time" with Barbra Steisand on YOUTUBE. Talk about two great artists mutually appreciating each other...completely wonderful!

I saw Ray several times in the Sixties as a kid sneaking out of the house to take a bus to a scary part of town. Blew my mind!

If any of you are unfamliar with Ray Charles, then you've missed "the diamonds in the mine."

"Genius of Soul" hu'? Consider the search started... Except I'm not finding that title on Amazon (betcha didn't even know I had left to look!). I found Genius & Soul which is a box set from 1997 & Genius+Soul=Jazz from 2010/2012. I've already got his Genius: The Ultimate Collection & Genius Love Company Albums. At some point if you could provide a bit more detail, I can tell you that it will be going towards the top of my "Albums to pick up" list. It won't surprise me if one day I have more Ray Charles Albums than Stones Albums. He's definately one of my top five favorites ever.

I wish I had the word to communicate how JEALOUS/ENVIOUS I am of your seeing "Ray several times in the Sixties as a kid sneaking out of the house to take a bus to a scary part of town." Just thinking about it blows my mind! I can only imagine! Wow! What great memories THOSE must be!

Peace,
Mr DJA

Mr. DJA, They are great memories...I really credit Ray for introducing me to the importance of the blues, the power of the truly soulful voice. I think "Genius of Soul" was released in the late sixties and these other titles incorporate much of what was on the original but I believe they also messed with the tracks a bit. Worth searching to find the original vinyl. A little later I met Randy Newman and we were comparing notes on our favorite "LPs". I said mine was "Genius of Soul" and he literally swooned -- "mine, too!" he said.

Another post mentioned Ray and drugs. Yeah, he was a heroin addict in the 60's but he did kick it all. I met him a number of times over the next 20 years. The first time he was heavy on heroin and it was quite shocking to me...a real mess and yet he could talk intelligently if briefly. Over the next ten or 15 years we had several in depth-conversations, and it really surprised me that he remembered me. Probably because I was asking about music. There's a lot I could say about those conversations but at some point I will put it in a chapter on my next book because he deserves a chapter.

Ray really was a classy guy in his own way and managed to overcome his humble beginnings and blindness in a major way.

Don't be jealous! It's such a waste of time. I'm telling you stuff you'd never know otherwise. Here's a gem for you -- Jean Pierre Leloir was a classy man and a top photographer in Paris, he was there the first time Hendrix played Paris, only a days after he, Mitch and Noel became a band. (You should get Jimi Hendrix, The Man, The Magic, The Truth from the library because I have quite a bit to say about Leloir's memories.

Leloir loved and knew jazz, and all the greats loved him. He showed me some photos of Ray Charles first appearance in Paris, and they are SO wonderful. Ray is standing virtually on the edge of the stage at the Olympia as the audience are begging him not to leave. He has put his arms tightly around his chest as if to embrace every one there. You can just feel how thrilled he was...to be in Paris and to be accepted.

Ray's my man.

However, he's been distinctly wronged with reissues. Rhino did some excellent reissues in the 90s, and I have, in my collection, the 5cd Genius of Soul, which was, and is, utterly indispensable. Even the 80s and early 90s material, on the compilation, have a great quality about them.

Likewise, I have Sweet & Sour Tears / Have A Laugh With Me, Dedicated to You / Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Ingredients In a Recipe for Soul, Genius + Soul = Jazz / Jazz No 1, and the Country Recordings 1959 - 1986.I also have a rhinohandmade live compilation which compiles tracks from Live at Newport up to a 1975 Live In Japan album.

However, after Ray passed away, Concord got their hands on his ABC/Tangerine era material. I have their version of Genius + Soul, Genius Hits The Road, Live @ Shrine Auditorium 1965, Rare Genius, A Message For The People, and the Ray Charles / Count Basie studio jiggery pockery album.

A few years back Concord made available some of his post Atlantic material on Itunes, which has now disappeared. I also have on my IPOD Ray Charles / Cleo Laine Porgy & Bess, and the aforementioned 1975 Live In Japan album.

There's some excellent recordings by Ray, but some clear thinking on his reissues would go a long way. It's a pity Concord cannot do what Sony have done with Johnny Cash, but maybe they feel Ray's reissue well has ran dry.

Stonesrule ->

You're right, jealousy is a wasted emmotion. As I said I wish I had the right word. Envious might be the better of the two to use. I was born in 1969, but, due to my musical tastes, I've always said I should have been my dad's brother (born in 1948) as opposed to his son.

I didn't realize you were published! I've been enjoying your stories around here for years but will be looking for the Hendrix book you mentioned shortly. I enjoy reading/hearing the stories from people who "were there". Kinda feels like I'm getting the rest of the story that you can't just get from the music. At one point I lived in a town with a great library and was on my third time through the biography section, each time picking one title from each letter of the alphabet. Now I live in a town with a crappy library but have begun hitting the used book stores & amazon for stories on people I don't know about yet. Not as much fun as the library method though.

Thanks again for the insight... Time go looking for Hendrix! I'll also be looking forward to the book with the Ray Charles chapter! I forget which biography of his it was I read.

Peace,
Mr DJA

DJA, where do you live? Won't your local library request books from a central library?

I never have had any jealousy in me, Thank God. I grew up in LA around interesting people, quit UCLA to become a reporter working with all men. I worked round the clock, saw, met, became friendly with all sorts of interesting people. They liked me for one main reason -- I didn't act like a fan. Steve McQueen said to me, "Ah, the gal reporter. I see YOU at the Whisky A Go Go." We spent the next half hour discussing music while the very important people at our table were mightily surprised. Steve apparently could be temperamental but music was our bond. He even offered me a ride on his motorcycle. I had brothers...I put no man in awe then...and now. I said, "Do you think I'm crazy?"

There have been several books on Ray. Michael Lydon's is worth reading.

Unfortunately the town library where I live in is not part of a larger library network (SMALL town in E. TN). It's really a culture shock for me as I've had that ability at "home" libraries since I was a teenager in the suburbs of Boston. I'm actually working on getting a library card for an adjacent town (still in the same county and we DO pay our water bill to that town!) which is a part of the same network that the great library I meantioned earlier is a part of. Although I love "the country", this "city boy" does miss some of the advantages of being part of "the city". Small town America has some wonderful upsides, but there are downsides as well. True for everything I guess.

Your comment about not acting like a fan has proven true in my experience as well. Between Dollywood in the next county and just the history of country music in East Tennessee (Nashville's not everything after all!) it's not uncommon for local musicians like myself to cross paths with the "big guns" from time to time. I'll never forget the time I was heading to the employee parking lot at Dollywood after my show was done and ended up in a 45 minute conversation/jam session with Marty Stewart on his bus simply because, when he asked me if I played on park (the gig bag on my shoulder probably gave it away) I just talked with him like any other musician as opposed to a "big star".

Thanks for pointing me towards the Michael Lydon Ray book... Another one to add to the list... Good timing too... I've gone through most of my bio's right now and was needing to get some new one's!

Peace,
DJA

Boston is definitely different from East Tennessee. Love Dolly Parton by the way. What a wonderful songwriter.

Speaking of East Tennessee, Ray Charles early Sixties album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western" is one of his most important.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-28 01:32 by stonesrule.

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stonesrule
Boston is definitely different from East Tennessee. Love Dolly Parton by the way. What a wonderful songwriter.

Speaking of East Tennessee, Ray Charles early Sixties album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western" is one of his most important.

Agree on both counts: Dolly's image does detract, though, from her songwriting. I love Tennessee Mountain Home by Doly.