Ray Charles died

[James"Thunder"Early]

I just heard it on headline news. I'll post more info when I get it.

[Janice]

Oh, that's sad. I love his song, "I Can't Stop Loving You".

[James"Thunder"Early]

Here's the link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040610/ap_en_mu/obit_charles_1

[Rhiannon]

that's sad..:(

[*MIBabe03*]

Awwwwwwwwww! That's really sad. R.I.P.:(

[Georgia's on my Mind]

wow. how depressing.

[MonarC]

:( RIP Ray

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/ADL/PW-C014.jpg

[~*Dailey'sGurl*~]

how horrible - two deaths in the same week


..... didn't he play piano?

[EmoJoe]

Really? Thats sad. :( I did a report on him this year.

[Cactus Jack]

Originally posted by Rurry007
I did a report on him this year. Cool!






RIP Ray :(

[Cactus Jack]

I wonder how he died

[PZelda]

Originally posted by DLQSfan
how horrible - two deaths in the same week


..... didn't he play piano?

That's him. He can be seen playing the piano in the opening of "Designing Women", too. :D

RIP, Ray. :(

[EmoJoe]

Was he sick?

[PZelda]

UPDATED:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040610/ap_en_mu/obit_charles_8

Grammy-Winning Crooner Ray Charles Dies

26 minutes ago

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Ray Charles (news), the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and 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 (news) 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 (news) 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.

"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water."

Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr. a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. But politics didn't take.

He was happiest playing music, smiling and swaying behind the piano as his legs waved in rhythmic joy. His appeal spanned generations: He teamed with such disparate musicians as Willie Nelson (news), Chaka Khan (news) and Eric Clapton (news), and appeared in movies including "The Blues Brothers." Pepsi tapped him for TV spots around a simple "uh huh" theme, perhaps playing off the grunts and moans that pepper his songs.

"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones," he once told The Associated Press. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop."

Charles was no angel. He could be mercurial and his womanizing was legendary. He also struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that — he released both "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned" in 1966.

He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work.

"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more," he once said.

Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. His family moved to Gainesville, Fla., when Charles was an infant.

"Talk about poor," Charles once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder."

Charles saw his brother drown in the tub his mother used to do laundry when he was about 5 as the family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression. His sight was gone two years later. Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed. He said his mother never let him wallow in pity.

"When the doctors told her that I was gradually losing my sight, and that I wasn't going to get any better, she started helping me deal with it by showing me how to get around, how to find things," he said in the autobiography. "That made it a little bit easier to deal with."

Charles began dabbling in music at 3, encouraged by a cafe owner who played the piano. The knowledge was basic, but he was that much more prepared for music classes when he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score for big bands and play instruments — lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano.

"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory," Charles said. "I can sit at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the piano. .. There's no reason for it to come out any different than the way it sounds in my head."

His early influences were myriad: Chopin and Sibelius, country and western stars he heard on the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw.

By the time he was 15 his parents were dead and Charles had graduated from St. Augustine. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls — the so-called chitlin' circuit — and exposed himself to a variety of music, including hillbilly (he learned to yodel) before moving to Seattle.

He dropped his last name in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, patterned himself for a time after Nat "King" Cole and formed a group that backed rhythm 'n' blues singer Ruth Brown (news). It was in Seattle's red light district were he met a young Quincy Jones (news), showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Charles developed quickly in those early days. Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later he recorded "I Got a Woman," a raw mixture of gospel and rhythm 'n' blues, inventing what was later called soul. Soon, he was being called "The Genius" and was playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.

His first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say," a song built off a simple piano riff with suggestive moaning from the Raeletts. Some U.S. radio stations banned the song, but Charles was on his way to stardom.

Veteran producer Jerry Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say," said he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Bob Dylan (news), Aretha Franklin (news) and Charles.

"In each case they brought something new to the table," Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Charles "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them. ... He can take a gem from Tin Pan Alley or cut to the country, but he brings the same root to it, which is black American music."

Charles released "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 and 2" in the early '60s, a big switch from his gospel work. It included "Born to Lose," "Take These Chains From My Heart (And Set Me Free)" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," some of the biggest hits of his career.

He made it a point to explore each medium he took on. Country sides were sometimes pop-oriented, while fiddle, mandolin, banjo and steel guitar were added to "Wish You Were Here Tonight" in the '80s. Jones even wrote a choral and orchestral work for Charles to perform with the Roanoke, Va., symphony.

Charles' last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You," but he never dropped out of the music scene. He continued to tour and long treasured time for chess. He once told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm not Spassky, but I'll make it interesting for you."

"Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead," he told the Washington Post in 1983. "I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal."

[Brent88]

He died of liver disease. I didn't know he was that sick, but apparently he was. :(

[MonarC]

What an incredible life story. :eek:

[FamilyTiesGOP]

RIP, Ray Charles.

It is ironic that President Reagan was a fan of Ray Charles' and had him sing "America the Beautiful" at his 1985 Inauguration.

[Stuck In The '70's]

R.I.P. Ray.:(

[jamier42]

I just found out that Ray Charles has died that is sad. I liked him alot he had alot of good songs. I loved Georgia On My Mind alot. He also was a very good piano player too.

[EmoJoe]

Originally posted by FamilyTiesGOP
RIP, Ray Charles.

It is ironic that President Reagan was a fan of Ray Charles' and had him sing "America the Beautiful" at his 1985 Inauguration.

Wow, thats really ironic!!!:eek:

[Small Wonderian]

RIP, Mr. Ray Charles. :( :crying:

[Lady T]

God Bless Ray Charles; I guess it is true that it comes in threes; first Tony Randal, then Ronald Reagan, and now Ray Charles; may, all of them have eternal happiness:)

[JDS84]

That is so sad. I will never forget the pepsi commericals that he did in the early 1990's you go the right one baby uh huh. He was also on several episodes of the Nanny.

[Jrnygrl]

RIP BROTHER RAY!!!!!

:crying: :crying: peacesign: peacesign:

[80s_Fan]

:crying:

Another good person is gone and it's not fair.

[Cashodeen]

Deaths sure do seem to come in threes. Ray Charles was one heck of a talented man. Rest in Peace, Ray.

[Faith]

:( Rest in Peace, Ray.

[Brian Damage]

No one will EVER sing a better rendition of America, the beautiful :(

[Brent88]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
No one will EVER sing a better rendition of America, the beautiful :(

I saw the video of him tonight singing that at the 1984 Republican Convention, ironically with President and Mrs. Reagan(1984 was the year he was re-elected), and they both end up dying within a week of each other.

He really was a great singer. :(

[¤I Love Clay Aiken¤]

:( :( :( :heart:

[Fleet]

I liked his music. Especially "I Can't Stop Loving You" from 1962.

Can you imagine being blind for 66 years though?

[webuster]

I just heard about Ray's death. I didn't even know he was ill. This is so sad- he was a great musician, and he was really funny when he did guest appearances on 'The Nanny' and Moonlighting, as well as his great scene in The Blues Brothers.

RIP Ray.

[dandelion wine]

Originally posted by MonarC
What an incredible life story. :eek:

:nod:

His "Georgia On My Mind" was one of my favorites and I agree with Brian when it came to "America the Beautiful." Incredibly gifted and beautiful musician who will be missed. God bless ya, Mr. Charles. :(

[Chocoholic]

That's sad. I really liked him.

[Rebel Queen 1980]

This may sound weird,But like a few days ago I was thinking
of the Diet Pepi Commercials,You know the ones where
he sang in the early 1990's I think... and then I heard
pn the news that he died.I was kind of sad.I'm young
but I'd liked to hear all his music.It was so comforting.:(
R.I.P.Ray Charles :crying:

[Janice]

Loving Ray Charles

The New York Times

Sing the song, children . . .

In the summer of 1962, when John Kennedy was president, Ed Sullivan was the C.E.O. of Sunday-night television and the word Beatles still sounded to most Americans like a reference to insects, the airwaves were all but overwhelmed by Ray Charles's soaring country ballad "I Can't Stop Loving You."

It was an amazingly popular song. But it was almost a hit by, of all people, Tab Hunter, not Ray Charles. That's right, Tab Hunter, a champion ice skater and one of the blandest pop stars it's possible to imagine.

Charles recorded the song first, on the now-legendary album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." But neither he nor the executives at ABC-Paramount Records, which put out the album, expected the song to be a hit. For one thing, an earlier version by Don Gibson had gone nowhere. But disc jockeys started playing it, people loved it and Tab Hunter pounced. He put out a single that copied the Ray Charles album version almost note for note.

ABC had to scramble to put out its own single. In his book "Ray Charles: Man and Music," Michael Lydon described ABC's frantic effort to shorten the album version and get it distributed as a single. He quoted the arranger Sid Feller:

"If Tab Hunter's record had gotten any more head start, Ray's record would have been lost. Even though Hunter was copying us, people would have thought we were copying him."

Once Ray's single was available, said Feller, "Tab Hunter was finished."

I was in a taxi in Boston last Thursday, heading to Logan Airport, when I heard on the radio that Ray Charles had died.

For someone who had grown up with his music, as I had, who had gyrated to it in moments of fierce adolescent ecstasy, and listened to it with the volume turned low on some of those nights that no one should have to go through, it was like hearing about the death of a close friend who was both amazingly generous and remarkably wise.

Even as youngsters in the late-50's and 60's, my friends and I knew that Ray was special. He had a shamanistic quality. We understood that his music, like life, was both spiritual and profane. And we reveled in the fact that it was also unquestionably subversive.

"I Got a Woman," which debuted in the Eisenhower era and remained a force in the popular-music culture for years, had an irresistible gospel feeling that moved with tremendous power toward a culmination that couldn't be anything but sexual.

Whether he intended to or not, Ray had opened fire on two very distinct cultures at one and the same time: the white-bread mass culture that was on its guard against sexuality of any kind (and especially the black kind), and the black religious community, which felt that gospel was the Lord's music, and thus should be off-limits to the wild secular shenanigans that Ray represented.

But here's the thing. Ray Charles's music has touched so many people so deeply for so many decades precisely because it is religious. Listen to the way he transforms "America the Beautiful" from an anthem to a hymn. Listen to the joyous call-and-response of "What'd I Say?" or the slow majestic lament of "Drown in My Own Tears."

Ray's music envelops the willing listener in a glorious ritualistic expression of the sweet and bitter mysteries of life without the coercion, hypocrisy or intolerance that is so frequently a part of organized religion.

It transcends cultures. It transcends genres — gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll, country, pop. At its best, it is raw and beautiful and accessible, a gift from an artist who bravely explored regions of the heart and soul that are important to all of us.

Comparing himself to the early rock 'n' rollers, Ray said, "My stuff was more adult, filled with more despair than anything you'd associate with rock 'n' roll."

Maybe that's why so many people were surprised to hear last week that he was only 73. In the obituary in Friday's Times, Jon Pareles and Bernard Weinraub wrote, "Even in his early years he sounded like a voice of experience, someone who had seen all the hopes and follies of humanity."

My friends and I all felt we knew him. He seemed as familiar as someone who'd actually hung out with us. An old friend. And it's hard whenever an old friend slips away.


Published: June 14, 2004

Copyright © 2004 The New York Times Company.

[Lee]

Nick-At-Nite aired the "Happy Anniversary" episode of The Cosby
Show on Friday and Saturday featuring the family performing
Night Time Is The Right Time by Ray Charles. A nice little tribute.