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andit’sablotonhislifeandcareerthatheletherslipaway.“Whatkindofmannn areyou?Whatkindofmannn areyou?”theRaelettessing.Geniusthathewas,that question must have stumped him sometimes in the night after Margie was gone. InBrazilin’63,Margie,liketheotherthreeRaelettes(she’ssecondfromthe left),iswearingaperkytaffetapartydresswithabigflatbowatthewaist.Demure, except for her mouth. She’s not very big and not very pretty (she has Michael Jackson’s original nose, in fact she looks a bit like him when he looked real), but you can’t take your eyes off her, the confident, slightly lopsided curl of her lip as shegoes Wow’r.Sheworkshermoutharoundasifshe’swindingup,andpooches herlipswithzestonthelet-go.Ifyouhaveahardtimepicturingtwopeopletwenty feetapartturning“YouAreMySunshine”intocarnalknowledge,thenyouoweit toyourselftocheckoutthisDVD.On“Don’tSetMeFree,”Margieletsouta“Non ’-no-no-no!” that will make your blood run several directions at once. Whenhesings“Margie,”abouttherebeingonlyoneand“Margie,it’syou,”the Raelettes aren’t onstage, so we don’t know whether the other three are giving her jealouslooks,or....Oh,well,I’mgoingtoletMargiegonow.IfeelpartlylikeI’mher fatherandpartlylikeIwishIcouldhavegoneoutwithherinhighschool.Buthere’s aquestion:WhenRaysings,whomisRaysingingto?Agooddealofthetime,I’dsay it’shismother,hisonlyparent,andit’sabouthavingtoleaveherwhenhewasstilla boysohecouldlearntobeself-reliant.Howeverwarmlyhemayhavefelttowardhis wifewhenhewasathome,hewastoomuchahabituéoftheroadtobefeelingprofoundseparationfromherwhenhesingswithsuchlonging ,“NowifIcallheronthe telephone/AndtellherthatI’mallalone,”on“HallelujahILoveHerSo.” I talked to David Ritz back in 1983, and he did grumble about Ray Charles: “He’saninterestingAmericanbusinessman.Hisentirelifeismusic,touring,and pussy.That’sit.He’sonlywrittenfiveorsixtunes—oncehemadealotofmoney he let other people write for him. He should deal more autobiographically with his art.” But that was back then, when the man was coasting. When he was cooking ,hecouldturnanything—“MyBonnie,”even—intoapersonalgrievanceover primallovelost,sunshinetakenaway.Herecordedlotsofsongsaboutlight,vision, andtears:“ICanSeeClearlyNow,”“Don’tLettheSunCatchYouCryin’,”“I’llBe Seeing You,” “Drown in My Own Tears,” “Ma, She’s Making Eyes at Me,” “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” “Show Me the Sunshine.” Just a few of them. He didn’t sing, “Hear the gal with the red dress on.” On his rendering of “Till There Was You,” Ritz says, in his notes to Brother Ray, “if you listen closely, you’ll hear himcry.”That’sasongwithlineslike,“Therewerebirdsinthesky/ButIneversaw them winging.” Don’twanttoexplainamanbyhissongs,ofcourse,northesongsbytheman. Here’s one he sings with great conviction: “You Don’t Know Me.” When I tried to sound him out about the kind of work he was doing in 1983, he said, “I ain’t never beensosureofwhatIwasdoing.ButI’vealwaysbeenoneofthosepeoplewhohad BOOK OF GREAT MUSIC WRITING 153 1SMIRNOFF_pages.qxd 8/27/08 10:43 AM Page 153 the balls or, what they call it in sports, confidence. My mother’s training. I’ve been outhereperformingthirty-eightyears.IfI’mgoingtodie,I’llkillmyself.You’vegot some people want to tell you what to do, who are accountants, lawyers, who can’t taptheirfeettohardlyanything—Ihopeyoudon’tmakethatsoundnasty.” I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to make it sound like much of anything . I asked him how he felt when Elvis came along. “I think in all fairness about that,” he said, “at the time, white families were notabouttolettheiryounggirlsgooutandswoonoverablackguy.AndElviswas the cat that came along at the time. Doing everything that black people had been doingall thetime.Getoutonstageandwigglehisbehind,thewhiteversion.You hadalotofwhiteartistsdoingclean-upversions.Like...whowasit?Hecovered a lot of Little Richard—it was like food with no seasoning in it. Can’t think of his name. He had a daughter who sang, too.” Ididn’tknowwhohewastryingtothinkof.Hegotafarawaylookonhisface, as I tried to press him on why he carried seventeen musicians around with him, when his earlier work with a small combo had been so fine. “When you got a big plate,youcanputasmuchasyouwantonit.Ifyouwantjustalittlebittoeat,just put a little bit on, but if you want a lot, you can have that too.” He said a number ofthingsthathe’dsaidininterviewsbefore.WhenIaskedhimwhyhethoughthe hadn’t self-destructed like so many great American musicians, he said, “I have never let anything, anything—I have never let nothing come between me and my music.IhaveneverbeensooutofitthatIcouldn’tgetuponstageandsing‘ICan’t Stop Loving You.’ And the fact I’m blind, that’s bad enough—I better keep my senses about me.” Meanwhile,Icouldtellhewasdoggedlytryingtoremembersomething.The name of that other white guy besides Elvis. “The key to survival is know what you’re doing. People may not like it, but some people don’t like sex, far as that goes. When it’s time to start singing, you just—Pat Boone!” NearlythewholetimeofmyonlyconversationwithRayCharles,hehadbeen trying to think of Pat Boone. I didn’t much want to share that with the world. But, hey. Tell the truth, I sort of liked “Love Letters in the Sand” back when that came out, which was before “What I Say.” I met Pat Boone once, a nice fella. Wewereinagreenroom,waitingtogoonTV.Pat’stopicwashowChristianscould have better sex, and feel good about it. Pat Boone is part of America. If it hadn’t been...

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