So long, Soul Man

Do you like Stevie Wonder? Billy Joel perhaps, or Elton John? Van Morrison, or The Band, or Elvis or Rod Stewart or Whitney Houston? That1...

Do you like Stevie Wonder? Billy Joel perhaps, or Elton John? Van Morrison, or The Band, or Elvis or Rod Stewart or Whitney Houston? That8217;s the swathe which Ray Charles cut in 50 years as the original Soul Man. Singer, pianist, arranger, equally at home with sax or clarinet too, Charles came up the very hard way to make his name as one of the pioneers of rock 8217;n8217; roll.

To be fair, Charles had an advantage his peers and successors didn8217;t: he was blind. This allowed him to see people without the prejudice of race and hear music without the prejudice of definitions. Both were important in the context of the times; while the issue of race is widely known though perhaps only those who have lived in the American Deep South can have an idea of just how tough things were, the borders that defined musical styles were just as impermeable. Charles simply ignored them and became the confluence of several great streams of music: blues, jazz, gospel, country, R038;B. And that, as Levon Helm tells Martin Scorcese in the latter8217;s film The Last Waltz, is rock 8217;n8217; roll.

He didn8217;t invent rock 8217;n8217; roll, of course, but Charles did invent soul, by taking the pain of blues and the promise of gospel and singing from the heart. Music that came from within, raw and direct, that spoke of areas everyone had been to but few wanted to talk about. And Charles had been places. Born in dire poverty 8212; 8220;nothing below us but the ground8221; 8212; in Georgia to a handyman, he fought the accident of his birth to pick up the rich musical influences of his environment. It was a time of great fecundity in American music; in the Eisenhower years, the post-War teens suddenly discovered they had money and needed outlets for it. So far, the commerce of music had been aimed at adults; now, teenagers called the shots. Record companies rushed to fulfil the demand 8212; and so were born Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and their ilk. And it was commerce that broke down the racial barriers, that prompted performers like Little Richard to water down their lyrics to suit the white audience and record labels like Atlantic to sign on black artists. And later a Detroit producer called Berry Gordy to set up Motown, the first 8212; and most successful 8212; record label for blacks with a roster that included Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

Today, few of Ray Charles8217;s songs will be remembered here save, perhaps, his reading of Georgia On My Mind. But his music will live on in the doors he opened for others and the standards he set for them to follow.