I first heard Ray Charles through Billy Joel and their amazing duet, Baby Grand. To this day it's one of my favorite Billy Joel songs. As I got older I of course discovered America the Beautiful and Georgia (sweet Jesus Georgia) among many others. I have never seen the movie Ray though (although I have glimpsed bits and pieces here and there), and I can tell you that Ray Charles is the most unsuspecting heroin addict ever. Who would have thought? There are so many blind jokes that I'm going to stray for but it just didn't seem to fit.
I like these types of songs where the backup singers are involved with the lead singer or front band. James Brown would do this type of stuff all the time to the point where the backups played the role of James's conscience and he had to check in with them before he did anything else. I think it also boils down to the fact that music that requires participation from band members translates well to live shows because you can turn that participation to the crowd. And we all know that I love crowd participation.
The cool thing about Ray Charles was his passion. When the man was performing or recording you could hear it in his voice you could hear it in the piano playing…the man had passion and soul. Unchain My Heart touches on that soul. You can hear it while listening that Charles just wraps himself entirely in the song and creates almost his own little universe with himself and the band. I could easily picture him forgetting that there was anyone else in the world at that moment. That's the beauty of his music sometimes you forget too.
Five Songs I Can't Live Without (At Least This Week)
1. Truth- Alexander
2. Miss You- Foster the People
3. Waste- Forster the People
4. Kick Drum Heart- Avett Brothers
5. Given To Fly- Pearl Jam
No comments:
Post a Comment