210. Ray Charles, "The Birth of Soul"

 


Everybody loves Ray Charles, it's true, how could you not, but this is an absolutely punishing 53-song, 2 1/2 hour collection.  I did my best but did I listen to every bit of every song?  No.  No, I did not.

There are some highlights.  "Mess Around," a New Orleans boogie with its piano part almost certainly lifted from a bunch of earlier songs.  It was written, believe it or not, by Ahmet Ertegun, the legenday co-founder of Atlantic Records.  I didn't know "I've Got a Woman" but I immediately recognized it as the source of a sample on Kanye's "Gold Digger" (the "She gives me money/When I'm in need" part).  It's a pretty good song on its own.

The iconic "What'd I Say" is on here too, which I didn't know had two parts and which I didn't know was formative in the history of rock and roll.  When Paul McCartney heard it, it made him want to start making music!  It was the first song Mick Jagger sang with the future Stones!  It also has an extremely dirty break that you don't ever hear in the radio version, for obvious reasons.  I also quite liked "Leave My Woman Alone," in which Ray Charles sets forth the Fuck Around and Find Out Philosophy, 1958 edition:

Well, I know you are a playboy
And you've got women all over town
But listen, buddy, if you ever sweet-talk my little girl
I'm gonna lay your body down

I was surprised by how much of this record is more or less straight blues.  This is the still the era when Charles was figuring out how to mix the R into R&B, and you can sort of see it coming together.  

Ray Charles only died in 2004.  He is without a doubt one of the most important figures in American music, and we will see him again before we are done.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? By now, you know my misgivings about putting compilations and greatest hits on this list, so because of that, I wouldn't, but of course you could easily put any single album from his Atlantic run on here, so sure.

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