Ray Charles Robinson…..

I happen to be a Ray Charles aficionado… So… You’re stuck… If you ain’t, all’s cool and I’ll seeya (I hope) next time.. If you enjoyed the man… stick around… I’m leaving links (remember I do this crap for me) so I can quickly find them again, play and watch… I’m old school, what can I say…

There’s just something about the passion that was within the man - the happiness he displayed in spite of being robbed of one of the five senses…Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia… the son of Aretha Williams - who stacked boards in a sawmill, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man.. The two were never married..

The family moved to Greenville, Florida when Ray was an infant…When Ray was five, he witnessed his younger brother George drown in a silver large portable laundry tub… Ray and his brother were playing in the backyard.. His brother fell in the tub.. Ray thought he was playing - but he wasn’t.. he was lifeless.. Ray tried to pull him out - but his soaked clothing made him so heavy it was impossible to do so.. He ran inside, got his mom - she pulled him out - gave him mouth to mouth, pumped on his stomach.. It was too late..

At age six, he began to go blind… Never knew the exact cause, perhaps glaucoma:

“Strangely enough, losing my sight wasn't quite as bad as you'd think, because my mom conditioned me for the day that I would be totally blind. When the doctors told her that I was gradually losing my sight, and that I wasn't going to get any better, she started helping me deal with it by showing me how to get around, how to find things. That made it a little bit easier to deal with. My mother was awful smart, even though she'd only gotten to fourth grade. She had knowledge all her own; knowledge of human nature, plus plenty of common sense.”

Ray attended St. Augustine School for the Dear and the Blind.. There he learned to write music and play various instruments… He was totally blind by age seven… While in this school, his mother died:

"AI wasn't quite 15 when my mama died. That was the most devastating thing in my whole experience -- bar nothing, period. It happened while I was away at school, and they didn't want to tell me about it. They just called me in to the principal's office and said that I needed to go home right away. When I got there I found out from Miss Mary Jane, a lady that helped my mom raise me and take care of me; she gave me the news. From that moment on, I was completely in another world. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep -- I was totally out of it. There's no way to describe how I actually felt. I was truly a lost child.

The big problem was I couldn't cry; I couldn't get the sorrow out of my system, and that made things worse. Now, there was an old lady in town we called Ma Beck. She was the kind of lady that --well, everybody in town used to say that if there was a heaven, she was certainly going to be there when she passed. Anyway, this elderly woman saw the trauma I was going through. So she took me aside one day and said, "Son, you know that I knew your mama. And I know how she tried to raise you. And I know she always taught you to carry on. I also know she told you she wanted you to know how to get around and be independent. Because she knew she wasn't always gonna be with you. Didn't she tell you that?"

I said, "Yes ma'am'" and started to tear up. And Ma Beck kept after me. "Well, then, you also know that your mamma didn't want you going around just doing nothing and feeling sorry for yourself, 'cause that's not the way she brought you up. Isn't that right?" I said, "Yes, ma'am," and more tears came out. Now this elderly lady, she knew everything about me, including my sorrow over my brother's death. She made me realize that it wasn't my fault, and told me that I couldn't go through life blaming myself.

That episode with Ma Beck shook me out of my depression. It really started me on my way. After that I told myself that I must do what my mom would have expected me to do. And so the two greatest tragedies in my life -- losing my brother and then my mom -- were, strangely enough, extraordinarily positive for me. What I've accomplished since then, really, grows out of my coming to terms with those events."

It was only two years later Ray's father passed.…

Ray started playing jazz with the Florida Playboys (and others)in Tampa, and other Florida cities while still in school.. Charles moved to Seattle at age 17:

“ Eventually, I got tired of Florida. I was working with these different bands and I had worked with The Florida Playboys, when I got the feeling one day -- just an impulse -- and I said to myself, I'm going to leave here because I'm not going anywhere, I'm not doing anything. I was too scared to go to a big city like New York or Chicago, but I wanted to go to a city that was a nice size and where I thought I wouldn't get swallowed up. So I said to a friend, Gosady McGee, "I want to go to a city. . .what would be the furthest city I could get to from Florida that's still a city." And that's how I wound up in Seattle. I saved what little money I could -- about $500 -- and finally took a bus from Tampa, Florida, to Seattle, Washington. The trip took me 5 days.”

There, he recorded his first song - “Baby let me hold your hand” - and his name was shortened so there wouldn’t be confusion between he and Sugar Ray Robinson, the boxer..

The first song Ray recorded I remember and love is “The night time (is the right time)”... Another onea my alltime favs was the Bill Cosby show… Here’s a clip of the Cosby’s ‘performing’ this song…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvGdfOfLFw

Charles introduction to the “Big Stage” was his hit “What’d I say”.. December 3rd, 1967.. The Ed Sullivan show… Ray and the Raelettes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9h77KzF2iY

The hits kept coming… Georgia on My Mind.. Hit the Road Jack… Unchain My Heart…

In 1965 - Ray was arrested for possession of heroin, a drug to which he had been addicted for 20 years… He avoided jail time after kicking the habit in a clinic in Los Angeles… and spent a year on parole…

In 1979, while performing “Georgia On My Mind” on the floor of the Georgia State Legislature - it was then proclaimed the State Song..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thls_tMuFkc

His rendition of America the Beautiful so moved Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes he deemed it “a definitive version of the song, an American anthem - a classic, just as the man who sang it.”
A little tribute to Ray - our country:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Wt4XlXUrc

In 1985, in a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie - “We Are the World” was a charity single intended to raise funds to help famine-relief efforts in Ethiopia.. There was unusual drought there in 1984/85.. Ray was in it… you might recognize some others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7fPpxAnuM

Frank Sinatra call Ray “the only true genius in the business.”… In 2005, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Ray #10 on their list of The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time…

John Belushi - damn he died too soon. What brilliance… Ray even had a bit (there’s that word again) part with the Blues Brothers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7lwcjNaH_A

In 1987, Charles established the Ray Charles Robinson Foundation for the hearing impaired.
Since its creation, the foundation, with Charles' encouragement and generous, on-going funding, as blazed a trail of discovery in auditory physiology and hearing implantation. Each such implant procedure costs upwards of $40,000, which the Foundation pays to have done. Of some 145-celebrity charities, the Ray Charles Foundation is rated by non-profit experts as one of the top five most efficient with zero administrative overhead.

Ray had over 250 albums, performed over 10,000 concerts, won 12 Grammys,

Rays final concert was on April 30, 2004 at the dedication of his music studio as a historic landmark in the city of Los Angeles.. Ray expired on June 10, 2004 of hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) at his home in Beverly Hills - surrounded by friends and family..

Ray was married twice - yet fathered 12 children by nine different women.. His first marriage to Eileen Williams was brief - about a year.. And he’s got three children from his second marriage to Della Beatrice Howard Robinson from 1955-1977... His longterm girlfriend and partner at the time of this death was Norma Pinella…Charles gave each of his 12 children $1,000,000 tax free in 2005 just before he died…

I know this ain’t the normal blog - I just loved the man. I am so all about smiles, and his was maybe the best one I’ve ever seen. Hope you enjoyed. I sure enjoyed him, his gifts. Love, Victurd.