Show #171: Ray Charles

November 2nd, 2008

This past summer I caught part of the Ray Charles biopic, Ray. Although I was unable to watch the entire film at that time, I put it on my to-rent list. Here we are a few months later and I haven’t yet seen the movie. However, I’m going with some Ray Charles this week.

I am going to presume that you, dear reader, know about Ray Charles – he got glaucoma as a kid that went untreated and caused him to go blind yet he would go on to be a pioneer R&B and soul music, etc. There’s classics like “I’ve Got a Woman”, “Hit the Road Jack”, and “What’d I Say”.

Although today’s podcast features this side of Charles’ output, one thing that I really admired about him was that he had catholic tastes in music. In 1962 he released his first album of country music songs, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. He would go on to appear on The Johnny Cash Show and at the Grand Ole Opry. While he would occasionally return to country music later in his career, his music took yet another turn – towards jazz – in the second half of the 1960s. So, while he is best known for his R&B/soul music, Charles was really all over the map.

I am not quite of the exact date on which this concert was recorded. It was on 22 October and my show notes say 1966 but I’ve seen the year listed as 1961 as well. The venue was the Palais des Sport in Paris. It is of excellent quality.

Setlist:

Let The Good Times Roll
Come Rain Or Come ShineHallelujah I Just Love Her So
I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
Margie
Georgia On My Mind
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
Hit The Road Jack
What’d I Say

Download show

Ray Charles

Here’s Ray Charles doing Johnny Cash.

Related posts:

1. Show #19: Man in Black
2. Son Volt Samples