A tune from the Ray Charles Vaults at the RPM International studio in Los Angeles. The basic tracks were laid down by Ray himself, sometime in the '70s or '80s.
You can almost touch how little energy he put into his voice. I don't think this recording was ever meant to come out in any form.
Recorded with uncredited (band and sesson) musicians at RPM International in Los Angeles from the '70s to the '90s.
According to the album's press release, "Adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks was a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb' Mo' and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gary Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker and background vocalist Eric Benet."
Recorded with uncredited (band and session) musicians and The Raelettes at RPM International in Los Angeles between (probably) circa 1975 and circa 1985.
The track sounds like genuine Genius. I doubt if it required any "sweetening" by the producers of the Rare album.
From the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s Ray frequently used parts of this song as an intro (in 10- to 60-second versions) to What'd I Say, but to my knowledge never recorded a complete live version.
Recorded with uncredited (band and session) musicians at RPM International in Los Angeles from the '70s to the '90s.
According to the album's press release, "Adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks was a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb' Mo' and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gary Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker." Ray would have fired that drummer instantly.
This song emerged from the RPM vaults after Ray's death, and was released with the Rare Genius album.
Among a few conaisseurs the tune was already known before, through a demo tape that Ray made to brief Sid Feller on the arrangement. The song title at that time was The Heartaches Just Began.
I fear the recording fell victim to what the producers of the album called "adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks" (just listen to that wood hacking drummer!).
Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles. Date unknown, but looking at the recorded live performances, it most probably was in the '80s.
The percussion on the album track sounds like the producers added worse than just "a little sweetening" post mortem.
The Rare Genius album compiled recordings with uncredited (band and sesson) musicians at RPM International in Los Angeles from the '70s to the '90s.
A few details in this nice track sound as if it has been victim of "adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks [by] a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb' Mo' and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gary Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker and background vocalist Eric Benet".
This duet track with Why Me, Lord was discovered in the Sony vaults; the Kristofferson song was produced by Billy Sherrill in Nashville in 1981 for a Johnny Cash CBS album - which never was released. Ray added some fantastic keyboard licks.
HearthisJohnny Cash version, or Kris Kristofferson's live version here(and more here). Also read this, about a version by Sara Jordan Powell that was produced by Ray and was released in 1982.
Rare Genius was yet another post mortem album, released on 26 October 2010. The album was announced as a "treasure trove of newly discovered recordings", "culled from four decades worth of demos and other previously unreleased material", from the '70s, '80s and '90s. According to the press release, "Adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks was a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb' Mo' and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gary Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker and background vocalist Eric Benet."
This album is good news, of course. I wonder about the selection criteria. Ray was one of the inventors of thematic albums...; do we have a theme here? Why these tracks, and what more can we expect to come from the RPM Vaults in the foreseeable future? "The Undiscovered Masters" is an odd contradictio in terminis, and I really hope that "The" doesn't mean that the discovery adventures of Concord and the Ray Charles Foundation are over now. I certainly hope that we, ever, also get the opportunity to listen to the pure original, Genius-mastered takes, without the "sweetening" make-over additions.
Love's Gonna Bite You Back
It Hurts To Be In Love
Wheel Of Fortune
I’m Gonna Keep On Singin'
There'll Be Some Changes Made
Isn't It Wonderful
I Don’t Want No One But You
A Little Bitty Tear
She’s Gone
Why Me, Lord (with Johnny Cash)
Album: Concord Records, 25 October 2010, ASIN: B003ZDZ1Y4.
#1 - Love’s Gonna Bite You Back (recorded in March 1980):
#2 - We know It Hurts To Be In Love from a number of recorded concerts. See this. Free download here.
#3 - Hear Kay Starr's version of Wheel Of Fortune here; soundclip of Ray's version:
#4 - Since the 1970s Ray used this tune frequently as an intro (in 10- to 60-second versions) to What'd I Say, but to my knowledge never performed a complete version. Seethis.
#5 - Ray played There’ll Be Some Changes Made once at the Tonight Show and once at the Ear International 2nd Annual Ray Charles Birthday Celebration. Also see this.
#7 - I Don't Want No One But You (soundclip):
#8 - A Little Bitty Tear (Hear Burl Ives' version here); soundclip:
#9 - She's Gone (soundclip):
#10 - Why Me, Lord was discovered in the Sony vaults; the Kristofferson song was produced by Billy Sherrill in Nashville in 1981 for a Johnny Cash CBS album - which never was released. HearthisJohnny Cash version, or Kris Kristofferson's live version here. More here.
Promo:
Track-by-track walk-through with john Burk, producer:
"If it's really something good that was not on the record, that's okay, because when I perform I can make the performance of the song better than the record was."
The Genie
Ray Charles at the Apollo (Apr. or maybe Oct. 1959), working on his Wurlitzer. Photo by Alex Harsley.
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About
The Ray Charles Video Museum is a research project, documenting live performances by The Genius.
This blog is above all aMediagraphy. It's also a discography (or, more correctly, a trackography), aggregating all tunes that Ray sang and/or played - including the "canon" of 700 tracks listed on the official Ray Charles website, but also identifying the songs that have never been officially released, and e.g. the recordings of other artists, where Ray backed them on piano. Thirdly, this blog has evolved into a multimedia Chronology (click the years in the panel al the top of this page) of Ray's productive live.
I also try to do some justice to the more than 1,000 great musicians and singers who contributed to Ray's career (1, 2).
The Quotes page lists the wisest, craziest and funniest things that the Genius ever said. If you want to read more about Brother Ray, go here.
The availability of the streaming video and audio content on this blog is constantly under pressure. Some rights owners still think that sharing these videos damages their sales. I'm keeping disfunctional clips as placeholders - to show that the footage exists, and to replace them when new uploads appear on the Web.
The articles in this blog are continuously updated and improved. Your help is more than welcome.
The Bishop seduces the world with his voice
Sweat strangles mute eyes
As insinuations gush out through a hydrant of sorrow
Dreams, a world never seen
Mounded on Africa's anvil, tempered down home
Documented in cries and wails
Screaming to be ignored, crooning to be heard
Throbbing from the gutter
On Saturday night
Silver offering only,
The Right Reverend's Back in Town
Don't it make you feel all right?
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