You Don't Know Me

Ray Charles' groundbreaking 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, spawned four hit singles.  The album was Charles' reworking of country and western songs into a new vocabulary.  In an interview years later Ray remarked about the album, "You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing exactly."

The album went to the top of the charts, while I Can't Stop Loving You topped the singles chart.  You Don't Know Me, composed by country artists Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker in 1955, hit number two. Beautiful arrangement by Ray and his vocal perfectly conveys the pathos of the lyrics.  

Watching the video you have to get past it is Jamie Foxx from the movie Ray playing Ray Charles in most of the photos. 

Till All Success Be Nobleness

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country love
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

Eleanor Charles

This is the Ray Charles take on Eleanor Rigby.  Ray's arrangement and vocal adds a very distinct feel to the song, different and as good as the Beatles original.  In the Beatles original, Father McKenzie is observed from a distance.  In Ray's version, Father McKenzie speaks directly to us.

Hit The Road Jack

Driving in the car today this song came up on my playlist, bringing back memories of many years ago in Maine, driving with our children in the car with this playing on a Ray Charles CD I had.  Composed by Percy Mayfield (Little Richard performed at his funeral in 1984) and a #1 hit for Ray in 1961.

When I think of American Voices I always think of Ray Charles and Willie Nelson and from, an earlier generation, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, and Armstrong.  There is something so distinctive about their voices.  Even when they are covering songs by those darned foreigners!  Here's Ray Charles doing Eleanor Rigby, with a rhythm and blues touch.

America The Beautiful

And it does not get any more beautiful than when arranged and sung by Ray Charles.  He makes the brilliant choice to start with its seldom heard third verse.

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine

Originally written as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893 and put to music by Samuel Ward in 1910.  Charles is performing on the Dick Cavett Show in 1972.

America The Beautiful

And it does not get any more beautiful than Ray Charles singing it.  He makes the unusual choice of singing the seldom heard third verse first:

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine

Originally written as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893 and put to music by Samuel Ward in 1910.  Charles is performing on the Dick Cavett Show in 1972.

An Exceedingly Restful Finality

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

- Calvin Coolidge, July 4, 1926

Lincoln Memorial in 1917 before reflecting pool was built.

In New Orleans, a WW2 veteran was turning 100 years old.

This is how the neighborhood came out to celebrate: With food, music — and masks all around.

Then the commanding officer of @USCoastGuard base showed up.

Wait for the salute — it's worth it.#Humanity 😷🎶🎈 pic.twitter.com/97pUzdItJg

— Goodable (@Goodable) July 2, 2020

The 4th

Equality, rightly understood, as our Founding Fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. —Barry Goldwater

Makin' Whoopee

The great, great Ray Charles having some fun in concert; Paris in the early 1960s.  Slinky piano, slinky voice.

Now, I don't make much money
Only five thousand per
And some judge who thinks he's funny
Tells me I got to pay six to her

I say, "now judge, suppose I fail?"
The judge says, "Ray, son, go right into jail"
You better keep her
I think it's cheaper
Than makin' whoopee

Veterans Day

Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, the event that led to the creation of Veterans Day when that war ceased at 11am on the 11 day of the 11th month of 1918.

This past Saturday, the last 4 survivors from Jimmy Doolittle's April 1942 raid on Tokyo raised a toast  from a 117 year old bottle of cognac.  Pictured are three of the four in Dayton, Ohio at what was said to be their last reunion.

And for today here is Ray Charles with his version of America The Beautiful.  This is the only version of this song that should ever be played.  THC selected it because Charles decided to start the song with the infrequently sung second verse which is particularly appropriate for this day. From the Dick Cavett Show in 1972; take it away, Ray.

Monday Morning Wake Up

A 1968 live version of What'd I Say by Ray Charles performing in Paris.  The song had been recorded by Charles ten years earlier and was his first cross-over hit even though some radio stations refused to play it because it was "suggestive".   The song grew out of an improvisation during his stage show and you can read more about its origin at Open Culture.  Ray's made a prior appearance on this blog.

Covers

What makes for a good cover?  There are cover bands who do very skilled, precise and exact versions of  original tunes but that's not what I'm talking about.  It's taking someone else's song and making it your own through arrangement and vocal style.  Oh, and giving credit to the original composer is also important (see my prior post on The Evolution of Dazed and Confused).

I'm going to occasionally write about some of my favorite covers and we'll start with this one.

Here's Hoagy Carmichael with his 1930 composition, Georgia On My Mind

Nice tune, good lyric.

Now here is the Ray Charles version from 1960.  Listen to the creativity in Ray's arrangement along with his vocal which take the song to a different emotional level.  You can listen to it over and over again and I have.

Here's another Ray Charles cover - America The Beautiful.  Another great arrangement and vocal.  And he also transposed the verses, singing the little known second verse first which makes this a song about sacrifice for a greater cause instead of a travelogue.  The combination also takes this song to another emotional level.

Occasionally people have suggested that the The Star Spangled Banner be replaced as our national anthem.  I've never agreed but I could be persuaded to make it America The Beautiful if the only approved version used Ray's arrangement!