Legend Ray Charles Dies

[Zooropa]

American soul legend Ray Charles has died aged 73
His death, at home in Beverly Hills, followed a long fight against liver disease, his publicist Jerry Digney said.

His family and some colleagues of the legendary entertainer were with him when he died. One of his most famous hits was Hit The Road Jack.

In one of his last public appearances, the singer-songwriter turned up in a motorized wheelchair for a ceremony in April.

Visibly frail, his voice reduced to a whisper, Charles' demeanour then was a far cry from the wildly enthusiastic performer known to millions of fans for more than half a century.

A prolific musician, Charles has been off the road for almost a year so that he could undergo a hip replacement.

Complications forced him to scrap plans to resume touring with a performance in New York last month.

Charles, a pioneer of soul music whose biggest hits include Georgia on My Mind and Hit the Road Jack, was a multiple Grammy winner who had been blind since the age of 6.

While known as "The Genius of Soul," Charles' music included standards, R&B, country pop and jazz.

He achieved fame after overcoming a childhood of poverty

 

[lozzy]

ray charles
will be sorely missed by me,what a life he lead.i was suprised to hear on the news that he was a herion addict,after his struggle from poverty,still you never know what goes on in peoples lives,be it film star too.council estate living,human beings all same born in this world same way whether golden spoon in the mouth.or not we all go out the same way,still i was suprised by his lifestyle..would love to read a book on his life,maybe im just nosy cow,from rag to riches,but you must admit the guy was very talented for his era.god bless him may he rest in peace.regards to all his family
lozzy

 

[peacemaker]

a truly great man
sadly missed if u have no idea who he was read this

here

 

[nara]

Respect.

 

[Bad Karma[CORE]]

Great artist he was. Sad that he passed away

 

[Zooropa]

Soul genius Ray Charles spanned genres

As one of the greatest musical innovators of the 20th century, Ray Charles was certainly deserving of the "genius" tag bestowed on him by peers, fans and critics.
As with many innovations, Charles' concept seems reasonably simple. He was among the first artists to combine gospel with rhythm and blues, helping to create soul music. Both forms were steeped in the blues, but there had been very little crossover.
Church people were horrified by the sensuality of R&B. When gospel hero Sam Cooke went secular in 1956, he might as well have joined a satanic cult. It was no coincidence that Charles performed at Cooke's funeral eight years later.

Charles was unfazed by his accomplishments.
"I personally feel that it was not a question of mixing gospel with the blues. It was a question of singing the only way I knew how to sing," he modestly told Rolling Stone writer Ben Fong-Torres in 1972. "Gospel and the blues are really, if you break it down, almost the same thing. It's just a question of whether you're talkin' about a woman or God."
Throughout his career, Charles ventured past soul and into country, pop, standards, jazz, swing and even hip-hop. He could make a Pepsi soft drink commercial sound soulful.
"He didn't give a damn about the genres," Charles' biographer, David Ritz told Reuters. "He broke down the barriers and said, 'When I was a kid I listened to the Grand Ole Opry, and I like country and I like George Gershwin.'"

A "FEARLESS" INTERPRETER

Charles was "fearless" with his choice of material, Ritz said, but also put his uncompromising personal imprint on the songs he performed, leaving listeners no doubt that they were now his songs.

"The only thing he didn't like was bad music ... music that was played incorrectly," Charles' manager, Joe Adams, said at a news conference on Thursday. Charles' personal favourites included the Beatles, Johnny Cash and B.B. King, Adams said.

Charles' early professional career, which kicked off in 1947 after he moved to Seattle from Florida, owed much to crooners like Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown.
He started to develop his own voice with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand," a Top 10 R&B hit. Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun told Reuters he was "transported" when he heard the song, and bought Charles' contract from Swingtime Records for about $3,000, a hefty sum given that Atlantic had recently been formed with a $10,000 investment.
Charles scored his first national hit in 1955 with "I've Got A Woman," which peaked at No. 2 on the R&B charts thanks to his vociferous delivery. In 1959, he released his first million-seller, "What'd I Say," which reached No. 6 on the pop charts.
In the early 1960s, freed from Atlantic and with unprecedented creative control, he ventured into mainstream pop with two chart-toppers now considered to be his best-known songs, "Georgia On My Mind" and "Hit the Road, Jack."
In 1962, he ventured into the territory trod by boyhood heroes such as Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl by recording what many consider to be his greatest album, "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." His version of Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You" topped both the pop and R&B charts.

The album spawned a sequel later that year, and Charles kept returning to country throughout his career. In 1970, he appeared on Cash's popular ABC television variety how, the same year he covered the Cash hit "Ring of Fire."
Charles made a rare foray into protest songs with the 1972 album "A Message from the People," in which he took stands on poverty and civil rights. He described the song "I Gotta Do Wrong," a regretful commentary on the need to attract attention by any means necessary in order to have wrongs redressed, as the story of his life.
His 1993 album, "My World," featured hip-hop beats, though Charles claimed at the time not to know what hip-hop was. At the time of his death, he was putting the finishing touches on his first album of duets, on which he recorded with the likes of Elton John, Norah Jones and Willie Nelson. It is slated for release on August 31 via jazz label Concord Records.
"I think his legacy will be up there with Louis Armstrong as one of the great interpreters of the American artistic condition," Ritz said. "He was a great American voice and that voice touched everybody. It was a voice that was deeply and idiosyncratically ethnic. Yet his ethnicity had universal appeal."

 

[MINDER]

he will be sorely missed he was a great artist