Ray Charles |
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Thu. June 10.2004 12:00 AM EDT |
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Ray Charles: Soul PowerThe innovative R&B singer explains his early days in the music biz, and the way he battled racism. by VH1 Staff |
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Passion is at the heart of all classic soul music, and the greatest R&B singers are skilled at the task of communicating deep emotions. But no one really made their ardor seem so natural, so informal, or as profound as Ray Charles. His voice could be
It took a visionary to combine gospel, jazz and even a little bit of country & western into a whole new genre. Ray Charles was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1930. When he was six, he went blind from glaucoma. The St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind, however, gave him the opportunity to study composition and piano. Soon Charles fell into the life of itinerant musician, moving to Tallahassee and later Seattle. By the end of the '40s, the teenager was establishing himself as a gifted follower of Nat King Cole. With his nimble keyboard skills and a commanding voice, Charles was an arresting performer whether playing R&B or jazz. A move to New Orleans, however, added more grit to his music. By 1955, his artistic persona was blossoming wildly. When he cut the uproarious "I Got a Woman" for the fledgling Atlantic label, he established himself as an R&B voice to be reckoned with. "I Got a Woman," along with the raucous "What'd I Say," consolidated his appeal with white audiences, and in the late '50s, he moved to the ABC label in hopes of getting greater artistic control. No one expected his next move. In 1962, he released Modern Sounds in Country and Western and topped the charts with the sublime ballad "I Can't Stop Loving You." From that moment on, it could be argued, there were no more boundaries. In an 2001 interview recorded for the VH1 series Say It Loud, Charles recalled his early days, and his remarkable tenures both at Atlantic and ABC. His memories accounted for playing tea parties as a child, how his mother inspired him to find his own voice, and dealing with racism in the South. VH1: How did you get your start in music? Ray Charles: It was just one of those things that was destined [to happen]. When I was like 10 or 11 years old, I used to play for the ladies tea parties on Sunday. By the time they got through taking up money, I would wind up with about 9 or 10 dollars. For a kid, that was a lot of money ! Later on I went up to Tallahassee. They had a band up there with Cannonball Adderley and bunch of other guys who could really play. I would go up there in the summer time and sit in with them and they would take me around to different jobs. I could make a few dollars that way. VH1: What was working with Adderley like? RC: My friend Cannonball Adderley was one of the greatest saxophonists that ever lived. Of course, we all know about Charlie Parker. What I loved about Cannonball was the fact that he could play anything on that horn - but he never sounded like Charlie Parker. He was Cannonball Adderley and his sound expressed that. VH1: How did you go from Tallahassee to Seattle? RC: I guess like most guys do, I was coming up through the ranks - you work for this guy; you work for that guy. By the time I was about 18, I wanted to leave Florida and try to do something with my life because it didn't look like it was going any place. I didn't want to go to New York because I felt I would get swallowed up. So my friend and I took this map and I had him to show me the furtherest town away - one that was not a small town but not a huge town. We picked Seattle and that's where I went. VH1: What were your experiences with the music industry during the early days? RC: The guy that made my first record for me had a company called Swing Time. He never paid me any royalties, but he liked me. He loved to gamble. I would be out with him sometimes. He'd be having his fun. I'd say, "Hey Jack, let me have $500. I'm going to get in the game." He'd give it to me. That's how I got extra money. But he never paid me a penny of royalties per se. VH1: Was that a common practice? RC: The guy had a little company. I would figure in those days, it wasn't very much different. Most artists didn't hardly get paid any royalties. That's the way it was. VH1: How did that change? RC: I had a little luck. Atlantic bought my contract from Swing Time. By the time I got to Atlantic, I had learned a few things from talking to other cats. One thing I had learned was that if you're going to sign with somebody, whatever you do, have it in your contract where you can audit the books at your expense. Then at least you can halfway know what's going on. Then in 1959, I signed a contract with ABC. I went to Sam Clark, who was the president at the time. We were negotiating the contract. My mom always told me, "Ask people. They can only give you two answers - yes and no. You respect both of them." I said to Sam, "I'd like to own my own masters." He said, "Oh my God, Ray, I don't know about that. We've never done that before. I'm going to have to go upstairs and talk to Mr. Goldstein." I said, "OK, you go and talk to him and see what he says." What they didn't know was I was going to sign the contract anyway because it was very lucrative. Seventy-five cents out of every dollar? That ain't bad! But he called me back in about three days and he said, "Man, you're the luckiest person in the world. I talked to Mr. Goldstein and he told me whatever Ray Charles wants, give it to him." I got lucky and that's one of my mainstays even today. I own all my old masters. Record companies don't give that up today. That's a no-no. VH1: Gospel was also a very important influence on your sound during the '50s. RC: Every kind of music that's been around has had some kind of influence on me, even country & western music, although people find that hard to believe. My mom was vigilant about my going to church with her. Naturally, I went to Sunday school. They had what they used to call the BYP, which was the Baptist Young People's Union. That's where all the kids would go do a little singing, recite poetry or whatever. Then there was a service what we called Revival Meetings, where you'd have preachers come through town. We'd have sessions every night. I went to all that. Naturally, between this religious music and the blues, it intertwined together. It had a lot to do with what I was feeling when I sang my songs. It just came naturally. That's the only way I can put it. VH1: How did your time at Atlantic compare to being on ABC? RC: Atlantic was good. One thing I'll say about companies back in those days - they might have been a little tardy with the royalties - but most of those guys in those days were record people. They were snapping fingers to the beat. You got people running record companies now that can't keep time to a march! I used to worry when I first went over there because I didn't have no hit. I had put out a couple of records. Jerry Wexler told me, "Look, don't you even think about no hits. All we want you to do is to think about your music. The hits will come." You find a record company that will tell you that today! VH1: How did you come to create "I Got a Woman"? RC: I was never a songwriter. I mean, a good songwriter can sit down and write a song in five minutes. With me, when I wrote song, sometimes it would take me two or three days, because I'd write something, I don't like it, I tear it up, I re-write it, I don't like it, I tear it up … But I wrote out of necessity. Atlantic would send me a lot of material by writers and composers and I didn't like it. So I said, "Well, if I don't like what they send me, I better write something myself." So I started writing songs. I was lucky because my songs wound up being successful. VH1: How important was that song to your development? RC: That's the song when I started sounding like myself. All I was doing was just being natural. Before that I was trying my best to sound like Nat King Cole. I slept Nat King Cole. I ate Nat King Cole. I drank Nat King Cole. I was pretty good at it, too. Everybody was like, "Hey, kid, you sound just like Nat King Cole!" That's what stopped me. That word, "kid." Nobody knew my name. I woke up one morning and said, "This has got to stop. Remember what your mom told you. You got to be yourself. You got to stop this. Because you're not doing nothing for yourself." So I said, "OK, I'm going to sing naturally." You dare to be different. It wasn't like, "Now I am going to take country and western and put it with this or I am going to take jazz and put it with that." All I said was I'm going to be myself and sing the way I feel. That's it. VH1: Did you experience a lot of racism when you would tour the South in the '50s and '60s? RC: No more than anybody else. I was treated no differently than any other black person. I went through everything everybody else went through. You got to stop at a restroom, and there ain't no restroom. Or it says for whites only. What are you going to do? You can't stop in the middle of the highway because if the cops catch you, then you're going to jail. The only thing I can say about that time in my life is thank God for music. If music hadn't been there to help me through all of this, I wouldn't have made it. VH1: Was there a difference between the way you were treated onstage and off? RC: The main problem I had once white people started coming to my concerts is that they would make the black people go upstairs. Then I wouldn't do the concert and I'd get sued. Naturally, I lost. I'd say, "Look, I don't mind playing my music for anybody, but I'm not going to play and have my people who made what I am sit upstairs." So I got sued a lot. VH1: What was the initial reaction like to Modern Sounds in Country and Western? RC: I got a lot of criticism. But my mom always had this thing about being yourself. I was successful being myself so why should I worry about somebody who don't like it? When I did the first country album, ABC said "You're going to lose a lot of fans, Ray. You're really a blues artist." I said, "I think you're probably right, but my feeling is if I do this right, I'll gain more fans than I lose." As it turned out, I was lucky. I was right again. You got to always focus on what you're doing. You can't let yourself slip into what other people want. VH1: What inspired you to mix country with R&B? RC: The only inspiration for my combining the two musics together was that I've always loved country music. I didn't want to do country western, like, roots. What I wanted to do was take these country songs and put some strings behind it and put a choir behind it and just sing them that way. My attitude was if I take these country songs and modernize them, something might come of it. Sure enough, as it turned out, it did. |
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