Ray Charles citations

Ray Charles, pseudonyme de Ray Charles Robinson, né le 23 septembre 1930 à Albany et mort le 10 juin 2004 à Beverly Hills , était un chanteur, compositeur, arrangeur et pianiste américain. Figure majeure de la musique afro-américaine, il aborda de nombreux genres musicaux durant sa carrière de plus de cinquante ans : le jazz, le gospel, le blues, la country ou encore le rhythm and blues. Il est en outre fréquemment considéré comme l'un des pionniers de la soul.

Atteint de cécité totale à l'âge de sept ans, Ray Charles suit une formation musicale classique dans sa jeunesse. Il se tourne ensuite vers le blues et connaît le succès au début des années 1960 avec des titres tels que Georgia on My Mind ou Hit the Road Jack . On lui attribue alors le surnom de Genius. Confronté à des problèmes de drogue, il se fait plus rare sur scène durant les deux décennies suivantes, avant de connaître à nouveau un succès international jusqu'à sa mort.

Ray Charles a vendu plusieurs dizaines de millions d'albums et a influencé de nombreux artistes, comme Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, James Brown, Amy Winehouse ou encore Marvin Gaye. De nombreux chanteurs de RnB contemporain et de rap ont également revendiqué son héritage musical, dont Jamie Foxx, qui l'incarne dans sa biographie cinématographique, Ray . Wikipedia  

✵ 23. septembre 1930 – 10. juin 2004
Ray Charles photo
Ray Charles: 24 citations0 J'aime

Ray Charles: Citations en anglais

“I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal.”

Ray Charles

As quoted "Words of the Week" in Jet magazine, Vol. 64, No. 6 (25 April 1983), p. 40
Contexte: Music has been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal.

“Do it right or don't do it at all.”

Ray Charles

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (1998)
Contexte: Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it.

“You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit — just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.”

Ray Charles

For the Love of Women, p. 239
Brother Ray : Ray Charles' Own Story (1978)
Contexte: Women anchor me. They're there when I need them. They're sensitive to me, and I'm sensitive to them. I'm not saying I've loved that many women. Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.
But sex is something else. I'm not sure that there can ever be too much sex. To me, it's another one of our daily requirements — like eating. If I go twenty-four hours without it, I get hungry. Sex needs to be open and fun, free and happy. It's whatever you make it, and I try my hardest to create situations where me and my woman can enjoy ourselves — all of ourselves — without our inhibitions getting in the way.
You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit — just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.

“Soul is when you take a song and make it a part of you — a part that's so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you. … It's like electricity — we don't really know what it is, do we? But it's a force that can light a room. Soul is like electricity, like a spirit, a drive, a power.”

Ray Charles

As quoted in LIFE magazine (July 1966), also in Ray Charles : Man and Music (1998) by Michael Lydon, p. 264 <br class="br">As quoted in Pearls of Wisdom (198 http://interview.sweetsearch.com/2010/11/ray-charles.html <br class="br">Variante: What is soul? It&#x27;s like electricity — we don&#x27;t really know what it is, but it&#x27;s a force that can light a room.

“You better live every day like your last because one day you're going to be right.”

Ray Charles

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk (2007) by Larry Chang and Roderick Terry, p. 365

“Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together.”

Ray Charles

Roughing It, p. 155
Brother Ray : Ray Charles' Own Story (1978)
Contexte: Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine.
That's how my band made it. We swam through a lot of shit together, we swallowed a lot of pride, but we managed to do what we needed to do.

“Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.”

Ray Charles

For the Love of Women, p. 239
Brother Ray : Ray Charles' Own Story (1978)
Contexte: Women anchor me. They're there when I need them. They're sensitive to me, and I'm sensitive to them. I'm not saying I've loved that many women. Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.
But sex is something else. I'm not sure that there can ever be too much sex. To me, it's another one of our daily requirements — like eating. If I go twenty-four hours without it, I get hungry. Sex needs to be open and fun, free and happy. It's whatever you make it, and I try my hardest to create situations where me and my woman can enjoy ourselves — all of ourselves — without our inhibitions getting in the way.
You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit — just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.

“I was born with music inside me.”

Ray Charles

Home, p. 8
Brother Ray : Ray Charles' Own Story (1978)
Contexte: I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of, since none of my relatives could sing or play an instrument. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me — like food or water.

“You gotta know how to get to people's heart”

Ray Charles

Pop Chronicles: Show 15 - The Soul Reformation I: A symposium on soul http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19764/m1/, interview recorded 1.2.1968 http://web.archive.org/web/20110615153027/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/o-s.

“I got a woman way over town,
That's good to me, Oh yeah!”

Ray Charles

"I Got a Woman", written with Renald Richard (1954)

“But now if I can wrap myself up in that song, and when that song gets to be a part of me, and affects me emotionally, then the emotions that I go through, chances are I’ll be able to communicate to you. Make the people out there become a part of the life of this song that you’re singing about. That’s soul when you can do that.”

Ray Charles

http://interview.sweetsearch.com/2010/11/ray-charles.html <br class="br">A symposium on soul, Pop Chronicles, Show 15: The Soul Reformation http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/partners/UNTML/browse/?start=14&amp;fq=untl_collection%3AJGPC, interview recorded 3.8.1968 http://web.archive.org/web/20100116003442/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/index-to-interviews.

“My music had roots which I'd dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.”

Ray Charles

Fooling, Drowning, Hallelujahing, p. 174
Brother Ray : Ray Charles' Own Story (1978)

“Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. … This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.”

Ray Charles

Pop Chronicles: Show 55 - Crammer: A lively cram course on the history of rock and some other things http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19838/m1/, interview recorded 3.8.1968 http://web.archive.org/web/20100116003442/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/index-to-interviews.

“Other arms reach out to me
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you.
Georgia, oh Georgia, no peace I find…
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind.”

Ray Charles

Though renditions by Ray Charles are among the most popular and famous, the lyrics of "Georgia On My Mind" (1930) were written by Stuart Gorrell and the music by Hoagy Carmichael.
Misattributed

“Every music has its own soul, Quincy.”

Ray Charles

Source: Said to Quincy Jones as quoted in The Arranger, an article in Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-arranger-20940901/

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