Part of an all-star jam, recorded by Cinemax in Rome in February 1989. Ray had a good time sitting behind his keyboards. The other legends were James Brown, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Esther Phillips, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. The bandleader was Dave Edmunds; Maceo Parker was there too.
Part of an all-star jam, recorded by Cinemax in Rome in February 1989. Ray had a good time sitting behind his keyboards. The other legends were James Brown, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Esther Phillips, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. The bandleader was Dave Edmunds; Maceo Parker was there too.
Ray Charles was one of the soul & blues singers starring in the music comedy The Blues Brothers, a film directed by John Landis (original story written by Dan Aykroyd), and released by Universal Pictures on 16 June 1980.
The tag line was "They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God." Jake (Belushi) and Elwood (Aykroyd) are the former front men of a broken down blues band which disbanded after Jake was arrested several years before. Upon his release, he discovers that his boyhood orphanage home is about to be foreclosed upon for non-payment of property taxes. Beaten up by a nun, sung to by James Brown, and touched by God, Jake sees the light and seeks to put the band together for one last show - a charity benefit to save the orphanage.
Their journey takes them from James Brown to Aretha Franklin to Ray Charles to John Lee Hooker to Cab Calloway.
In Scene 20 Ray plays Ray, the owner of Ray's Music Exchange, a pawn shop in Calumet City (cf. this).
Jake, Elwood, and the Blues Brothers Band visit the shop to buy some new equipment. The characters in this scene are 'Joliet' Jake Blues, Elwood Blues, Ray, 'Duck' Dunn, Alan 'Mr Fabulous' Rubin, Lou 'Blue Lou' Marini, Matt 'Guitar' Murphy, Murphy 'Murph' Dunne, Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper, Tom 'Bones' Malone, Willie 'Too Big' Hall, and the Young Guitar Thief.
I assume the song was recorded in the sound studio (see B&W photos below), and therefore that Ray and 'the band' playbacked the song. (On Tail Feather you can also hear a bari player, while there was none on the film set).
The scene was filmed at Universal Studios Soundstages and Shelley's Loan Co (at 300 E. 47th, Chicago IL; coordinates: 41.80929852285026, -87.61956233877473. The dancers weren't hired - they just got off the train and started to boogie. The scene cost $600,000 to produce.
Clipping from Billboard, 13 September 1980.
Ray: Pardon me, but we have a strict policy concerning the handling of the instruments. An employee of Ray's Music Exchange must be present. Now, may I help you? Murph: Tell me a little about this electric piano, Ray. Ray: Ah, you have a good eye, my man. That's the best in the city Chicago. Jake: How much? Ray: 2,000 bucks and it's yours. You can take it home with you. As a matter of fact, I'll throw in the black keys for free. Jake: $2,000 for this chunk of shit? C'mon, Ray. Murph: I mean really, Ray, it's used. There's no action left in this piano. Ray: E-excuse me, uh, I don't think there's anything wrong with the action on this piano [launches into Shake A Tail Feather].
Ray's original text in the shooting sequence: Breaks my heart to see a boy that young goin' bad. Footage here.
At the closing of the film, as each character is credited, Ray, accompanied by the Blues Brothers Band, contributes a line to Jailhouse Rock: "Let's rock, everybody, let's rock" (just as James Brown, Cab Calloway, and Aretha Franklin):
The Blues Brothers' soundtrack album was released by Atlantic (SD 16017, June 20, 1980). A few tunes, including Tail Feather were also released as singles. Atlantic also released Tailfeather as a single (K 11615; backed with Cab Calloway's Minnie The Moocher).
Shake A Tail Feather:
The song was originally recorded in 1963 by The Five Du-Tones:
But the arrangement in the film was based on this version by James and Bobby Purify:
Scenario reconstruction (inc. spelling errors).
For the Billboard #1 live album Briefcase Full Of Blues (Atlantic, 1978) that preceded the film see this.
Legends Of Rock 'n' Roll Live was recorded in Rome and originally broadcast on Cinemax in 1989. A gathering of r&b, blues & rock greats, belting out 15 songs followed by an all-star jam, all seven of them in peak form.
Paul Litteral - trumpet; Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht - tenor saxophones; Chuck Leavell - keyboards; Dave Edmunds (musical director), Robert Funk - guitar); Phil Chen - bass; Terry Williams - drums.
HBO Archiveshas numerous clips of backstage scenes and interviews made during rehearsals for this concert. The concert took place in the Palalottomatic Arena. Some tapes are dated 21 November 1988, but the concert poster that's visible in some of the interview sets clearly has 17 November (one of the edited tapes is dated February 1989; I guess that was not too long before the broadcasting date).
Looking at that poster, and listening to Ray's surprised response, it becomes clear that B.B. King was a last moment replacement of Chuck Berry.
Some of the rushes of the interviews and of the rehearsals can be watched on the HBO Archives site:
Interview with Ray, part 1: Ray sitting indoors: smiling & rocking: talks about the artists he's playing with on show- they're innovators; explains that he is not a specialist (like the others), but a utility man; expresses excitement about seeing back James Brown, Bo Diddley, BB King, Fats Domino, telling jokes and lies to each other.
Interview with Ray, part 2:Ray explains that music is made one way; talks about accolades and being called a legend and a genius; his musical influences; the various music genres & musicians he likes. "Music is written the same way for everybody. I wished the world was like that."
Interview with Ray, part 3: Ray talks about Little Richard & Jerry Lee Lewis being one of a kind; explains the key to his longevity; his musical diversity; mentions future projects.
Reuters has archived an item on a press conference (without Ray), that aired on 16 November. The documentation of the reel is still including Chuck Berry in the line-up.
The content smells a bit like a desperate PR attempt. The statements of Diddley and Brown are hilariously far away from "reasons for doing the concert".
In the documentation Reuters explains that the concert was "[...] staged for the benefit of Unicef", and that it "[...] has already cost over two million dollars to stage, but more than 50,000 dollars has been set aside for Unicef. Live coverage of the show is to be broadcast in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Television stations in Europe and around the world are signing contracts for a later edited version. On Wednesday, some of the stars practiced their songs on stage and talked about their reasons for doing the concert."
But during the press conference Bo Diddley said on tape, "Rock 'n Roll is dead? I'm not going anywhere no way, Rock 'n Roll will never die." James Brown said, "Nobody has the monopoly on the feeling, nobody has the monopoly on God - may I go please?" Source here.
DVD: Image Entertainment, 5 December 2000, ASIN: B000051S5Q.
Mess Around: [You'll get the whole concert here!]
A Fool For You:
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On / You Don't Love Me No More (Jam):
"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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