Or, at least, not on pop radio.
I’m all for giving him his due, even though, as I said, I don’t think he was anywhere near the best of the genre, but it isn’t like he invented a whole style single-handedly out of nothing, or that there weren’t any signposts. Ruth Brown and Wynonie Harris, who were both recording at the same time or prior to Charles’ first singles, were both mining a similar vein, though Harris was admittedly more on the rock ‘n’ roll side than R&B sometimes. Also, a lot of blues artists had discovered a similar formula at the same time, such as Dinah Washington and Etta James. And of course Sam Cooke, who was with the Soul Stirrers at the time, did his bit. There were also a lot of vocal groups (what became doo-wop, which contained hints of R&B) that sprang up in the late 40s/early 50s, such as the Orioles, who played a part in the music’s development.
Like you said, I wasn’t there, but at this late remove I have a hard time hearing why Ray Charles stands out head and shoulders above the rest of them.
I gave my husband the same set for his birthday in December! Your wife is very lucky to have such a kind and considerate husband that has actually opened it and played the hell out of it. I know my husband loves Ray Charles. But he knows that I love Ray Charles too. So he won’t open the CD’s and play them – just to taunt me. And I won’t mention that he hasn’t opened them just because I know he wants me to.
Goodness, you know your oldies! It gets complicated when people do crossovers. But all of the artists that you named were still doing R&B (from different angles and some headed in different directions) when Ray added the gospel element in his recordings. Sam Cooke’s group had the name, but didn’t have the gospel sound that Ray added until after Ray did it. I do remember Sam (and Dinah Washington too) before I remember hearing Ray.
The doo-wop sound wasn’t really a soul sound, was it? I don’t know. Radio was happily color blind for me. I didn’t find out until this year that the Diamonds are white guys even though Little Darlin’ was a favorite in the Fifties.
I have no idea if this article on “Soul Music” by Timothy Berg from the St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture is a reliable source or not on the evolution, so I won’t quote it here. But it does make for interesting reading.
The fact that it was 2-3 years ago makes me suspect that we are talking about more “bandwagon jumpers” here. If you remember, this was about the time that the Ken Burns series “Jazz” came out, and he practically deified Louis Armstrong. I’m not saying that Louis Armstrong isn’t more of a legend or a genius than Ray Charles, just that this might explain a 20 to 1 sales ratio.
And as far as Ray building on what came before – everybody builds on what goes before. Art that has no antecedents doesn’t exist, and if it did, how would it communicate to others?
Doo-Wop got integrated into soul in a roundabout way later on - mostly in the Motown lead-with-backing-vocals groups, though the instrumentation on the Motown stuff tended to obscure the obviousness of the heritage.
Thanks for the link. I haven’t read it before, but I’m always into any music history I can find.
You might be right - although I actually left the job 2-3 years ago, and was working there before the Ken Burns series came out. Even with Burns’s influence, though, I, at least, have still found Armstrong’s standing much higher (among Bay Area music geeks, at least) than Charles’s in discussions of 20th century American music.
Of course, everybody builds on what came before; that’s kind of my point - Ray Charles didn’t invent a whole genre in a vacuum - there were plenty of others working the same beat. And, back to the Louis Armstrong thing, while you could argue that soul music wouldn’t exist without Ray Charles, I think there’s also a pretty good case to be made that Ray Charles’s music wouldn’t have existed without Armstrong.
Second, those of you bitching about “corpse-fellating” are parading your ignorance in public. “An amusing novelty”? That’s not iconoclasm, that’s not knowing what you’re talking about.
Third, something that people have not yet mentioned is that Ray Charles was not only a brilliant innovator, but he was an important cross-over artist who helped soul expand out of the “race music” genre into the white radio and LP market. He led the way for general acceptance of black music by America at large.
Ray recorded the album Genius Loves Company while he was alive. It was released posthumously.
I’ve been a Ray Charles fan since I was a kid (and that’s a long damn time) and I would agree that there’s probably a huge number of people who only really became aware of his contributions recently, with the movie and the (IMHO) long-overdue awards. But that happens a lot in the entertainment industry, and it will pass. Meanwhile, those of us who have loved his music for years will stock up on stuff that was hard to find before, and enjoy listening to it for years after the curent lovefest passes.
The movie “Ray” DID NOT portray Ray Charles in a Hollywood-happy light. He was a troubled man whose troubles overflowed copiously onto people who cared for him, and Jamie Foxx did a phenomenal job of not “sucking up” to his status, but rather portraying him as-was – troubled, drug-addicted, selfish, inconsiderate and cold – and still making him seem a sympathetic character.
But what really pisses me off is that Amadeus guy. He named himself “Wolf Gang” like he was some sort of hip-hop goth. I mean, I kind of liked that song K492, and I guess he had a couple of other good songs, but really, what’s the big deal? He didn’t even play on his own albums! The only reason people like him is because he’s dead. Not only that, but he was a womanizer! That proves he’s not a saint, which is the real reason people should like music. Clay Aikins is much better.
I would have been ok with the Ray Charles tribute if they had bothered to pay tribute to a few of the other people who died this year. Dimebag Darrell got a one second picture on the wheel of the dead, but no mention that I heard. Now, I know he’s no Ray Charles, but he did have a heavy influence on the metal genre and the way he died was exceptionally tragic.
At least Ray got to live out his life, Darrell didn’t have that chance.
Everyone’s going to have their personal take on who or what is worthy of attention. Personally, I’m more upset about Jeff (Mayhem MacGregor) who was killed WITH Dimebag, and who is going to get NO attention, you know? You’ve got to take widespread fame into consideration.
The reason that he received it is because he was the most popular this year. Simple. Lord knows it’s not a talent contest…it’s a popularity contest. What…you think that twerp Kayne (who even mispronounces his misspelled name) shoulda got it?
