I was first exposed to Ray Charles in 1963. We lived in Oklahoma, and my uncle, who drove an Austin Healey, was the epitome of cool. He'd come over to the house, and after a round of pinning my six year old body to the ceiling, he would take us for rides in his baby, or, as a treat, he would put Ray on the Hi-fi. Yeah, that's what they were called back then. Uncle John was my hero, and we sat rapt on the rug listening to Ray, all the way back in 1963, and almost whenever he was over at the house the next five years.
I was late to the CD craze. In deference to sports radio and talk radio and being busy as a gradual student and later a career, I almost stopped listening to music for a long time. Then about 6 years ago I got myself a CD player, and began my collection with a four CD set of Ray Charles. Oh, I've got my Simon and Garfunkel, too, and Stan Rogers, Jackson Brown, The Philadelphia Boys Choir, from when I made a large charitable gift in honor of another uncle. (Uncle Doyle was hooked on Bob Wills. He's the one who once helped change a tire for Clyde Barrow and his girl out there in the Oklahoma plains in the Great Depression. And when he and my Dad sang together those old Bob Wills songs, near into their 70's, I never got the sound of boys singing out of my mind.) I have many cherished CDs. But Ray is the sound I keep coming back to.
There is so much to love about Ray Charles, and also so much of his life is a tragedy, with the drug use, his blindness. But Ray gave us a gift that is worth far more than politics. He gave us his soul.
I guess I've got to post some lyrics:
I Can't Stop Loving You
(I can't stop loving you)
I've made up my mind
To live in memory of the lonesome times
(I can't stop wanting you)
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams of yesterday
(Dreams of yesterday)
Those happy hours that we once knew
Tho' long ago, they still make me blue
They say that time heals a broken heart
But time has stood still since we've been apart
(I can't stop loving you)
I've made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times
(I can't stop wanting you)
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams of yesterday
(Those happy hours)
Those happy hours
(That we once knew)
That we once knew
(Tho' long ago)
Tho' long ago
(Still make me blue)
Still ma-a-a-ake me blue
(They say that time)
They say that time
(Heals a broken heart)
Heals a broken heart
(But time has stood still)
Time has stood still
(Since we've been apart)
Since we've been apart
(I can't stop loving you)
I said I made up my mind
To live in memory of the lonesome times
(I can't stop wanting you)
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life of dreams of yesterday
(Of yesterday)
I remember as if it really were yesterday. Uncle John called me a frog as a pet name, but what I remember is Ray's voice, hardly the croaking of a frog. God Bless Ray Charles.
