Introduction
Notwithstanding the fact that Ray Charles Robinson was blind, he left a legacy that very few people without disabilities can hand down. This essay seeks to provide a biography of this musician in light of his achievements. The biography starts at his birth and then develops logically to his death.
Moreover, a section is dedicated to critically analyzing the factors that made the musician succeed as well as the impact of his success on society. For these purposes, a number of academic sources are consulted to provide the background information from which the discussion arouses.
Biography
Birth and childhood
Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, in a poor family. His parents, Aretha and Bailey Robinson, were struggling to make both ends meet.
Aretha was a peasant farmer, and Bailey worked as a railway repairman. Soon after his birth, the family relocated from Albany to Greenville, a poor black neighborhood in West Greenville, Florida. As a child, Ray was interested in mechanics and spent a lot of time watching the men around him work on vehicles and other farm machinery. In the neighborhood, there was a man named Mr. Wiley Pit, who operated a restaurant called Red Wing Café.
From time to time, Pit helped Aretha take care of Ray’s younger brother, George, and it was at Pit’s place that Ray first showed interest in music, playing an upright piano that was at the café. George later drowned in his mother’s laundry tub. And that was the accident that was haunting Ray all his life as he had been to take care of his little brother.
At five years, Ray had developed glaucoma, which was unfortunately not treated and rapidly progressed. It resulted in complete blindness by the time he was seven. Because of his condition, Ray could not attend regular school, so he was enrolled at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind between 1937 and 1945 (Sloate 87-89). During this period, Ray suffered another blow as he lost both his parents – his father died in 1941 and his mother pass way in 1946.
At school, Ray’s musical talent flourished, and even though the curriculum was focused on classical music, he developed an interest in jazz and blues (“The soul of Ray Charles” 99-100).
At the end of the week, Ray performed at gatherings held by the South Campus Literary Society. During Halloween and Washington’s Birthday, Ray played at assemblies organized by the Colored Department at the institution, and during those events, Ray had first been introduced to RC Robinson and the Shop Boys, a band that later played his jazz and blues compositions.
After the death of his mother, Ray left school at the age of 15 and relocated to Jacksonville, where he was put up by a family friend. “Having friends of the family living in Jacksonville made it easier for Ray to leave Greenville and the State School for the blind” (Beyer 28). He stayed there for over a year, playing the piano at the Ritz Theatre. He earned $4 per night, which was not a bad amount by the standards of that time.
Later, he had shifted to Tampa where he joined a band called Florida Playboys and also developed a habit of wearing sunglasses (Charles and Ritz 87). The desire to have his own band forced Ray to move to a bigger city. He had contemplated moving to either New York or Chicago, but after thorough consideration, he opted for Seattle, about which he was informed by a friend as the farthest city from Florida.
In Seattle, Ray made his first record with Down Beat records as part of a band called the Maxin Trio. The band consisted of guitarist G.D. McKee and bassist Milton Garrett. The first successful record was the 1949 release titled the Confession Blues which rose to the second place in the Rhythm and Blues charts.
In 1950, Ray moved to Miami, where he signed with Swing Time Records and released to hit singles, Baby, let me hold your hand and Kiss me baby. Swing Time shut down in 1952, and Ray moved to Atlantic Records. Under Atlantic Records, Ray adopted jump-blues and boogie-woogie style. He also recorded some slower blues, with the first hit, Mess Around, in 1953. In 1954, he released two more records, It should have been me and Don’t you know.
In 1954, the song, I got a woman, saw the light; it was composed by Ray himself and ascended to the top of the charts in 1955, having become his first song to occupy the top most position. This hit had a combination of gospel, blues and jazz elements, and Ray continued to use the same style for the records produced between 1955 and 1958. By 1989, Ray had made a name for himself, and was the star of all the African-American events, such as the Newport Jazz Festival (Ford 66).
The song titled What’d I say released under Atlantic records was a complex arrangement comprising gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music. The song was included in the top ten pop songs list. In 1959, Ray’s contract with Atlantic expired, and he entered into a contract with ABC-Paramount records that gave him unrivaled freedoms. Ray’s first single with ABC-Paramount, Georgia on my mind, turned him into a national sensation, and he even won a Grammy award for it.
Ray Charles later won another Grammy Award for the song, Hit the Road Jack, and with a proper funding, he expanded band and enjoyed well-covered tours. In 1961, Ray’s success almost hit a rock after police, having searched his hotel room in Indiana, had found heroin in his possessions. Lucky for him, the policemen conducting the search did not have proper warranty, and the case was dropped.
Ray Charles’ music continued to dominate the airwaves through 1964, but in 1965, he was arrested for the third time for using heroin. In order to avoid going to jail, Ray agreed to go to rehab at a clinic in Los Angeles (Hubbarb-Brown 73).
Alone, Charles reached a decision. He went to Joe Adams’ office and announced that he was checking into a hospital. He was done with heroine. (Hubbarb-Brown 74).
After he had emerged from parole in 1966, he released chart-topping hits including the R&B song, Let’s go get stoned, which reached number one in the charts. Between 1968 and 1973, Ray had moderate success, with his popularity getting overshadowed by the rise of harder forms of rock.
He left ABC Records in 1974 and set up his own studio, which he named Crossover Records (Hubbarb-Brown 81). Three years later, he moved back to Atlantic records, where he stayed until 1980. Then he left to join Columbia Records. During the 1980s, Ray was renowned for his tough stance on racism, and he stuck to the mission until it began to bear fruit (Charles 56-57).
In 1993, Ray released an album titled My World, which reached the Billboard 200. He also received his last Grammy Award for his rendition of the track A song for you, originally done by Leon Russell.
Ray, who was married twice and had 12 children by nine different women, died at the age of 73 on June 10, 2004, succumbing to liver failure at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
Lessons from Ray Charles’ life
Ray Charles overcame insurmountable odds to become a world-renowned musician. A difficult childhood spurred him to seek success in his own unique way, which he eventually found it. From his life history, there are a number of lessons that young adults and general society can learn.
Following one’s heart
As a child, growing up in Georgia, Ray Charles first developed a keen interest in the piano that was in Wiley Pit’s café. The interest kept growing with each passing day, and Ray himself nurtured the interest practicing and showing off his skill at every opportunity he got (Schinder and Schwartz 29). He also faced some obstacles which though did not penetrate to attain what he wanted because at school, the curriculum was focused on classical music, while Ray gave primary attention to Blues and Jazz.
“Whether I was banging out “Cow Cow Boogie” in the rehearsal room with all the kids dancing round me, or whether I was fooling with the blues on Mr. Pit’s piano back home, I played wherever I could” (Charles and Ritz 56).
He pursued his heart’s desires and eventually became a legend. Following the sequence of those events, it is clear that if one finds something he/she is particularly interested in and pursues it fully, he/she will eventually succeed. Had Ray not focused on nurturing his talent, there is a high likelihood that he would not have attained an immense success he did.
Because of his desire for success and independence in decision making, Ray Charles became a more powerful name in music than other blind artistes like Andrea Bocelli and Stevie Wonder. Ray found his own way in art, while Bocelli and Wonder had helping hands.
The power of ambition
After staying in Tampa for a while and even finding a band to play in, Ray Charles came to the realization that he was getting too comfortable and needed a more space to develop further. He had at first thought of settling either in New York or in Chicago, but after thinking it over, he decided that he was not yet ripe enough for such a big market.
Still intent on relocating, Ray got a map and asked a friend to point at the furthest city from Florida. He was directed at Seattle, and without batting an eyelid, Charles packed his belongings and travelled to the city. Eventually, Ray moved to New York and gradually turned into a national sensation. “Ray took that journey with nothing but his talent, determination, and desire for independence” (Sloate 150).
Due to his wish to get out of his comfort zone and make a bigger impact on the world, Ray Charles has taught us that as long as one has an ambition and works towards its realization, he/she gets what one wants in the end (Ramsey 223). In the same way, we are also taught to keep our ambitions modest.
While at Tampa, Ray understood that his talent would only grow in a bigger town, but also knew that he was not ripe for such big cities as New York and Chicago. There is a likelihood that he would have failed, had he moved directly from Tampa to New York. The small cities he passed through served to compound his success in such a way that the big cities had no option but to take interest in him. This applies even in modern times, and in any situation.
The influence of friends
In his travels, Ray Charles made a number of friends who influenced the growth of his career to a very large extent. Some of those friends were Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones and Percy Mayfield, among the others. Most of the friends he made along the way helped him grow further as a musician, while some wrote his hit records and the rest assisted him in production and marketing.
This was confirmed by Norman Winski in his book Ray Charles: Singer and Musician. “Ray’s friendship with Quincy has lasted for decades. They have worked together in arranging music as well as appearing together on several occasions” (Winski 174).
Of course, there are a number of friends he met who influenced him negatively, having encouraged him to develop his drug addiction, but he ultimately had to leave them for the sake of his career. From this, we learn that, on the one hand, friends who positively influence someone will serve to foster one’s growth and should be kept close. On the other hand, individuals who keep pushing a person towards developing negative habits should be dropped.
The importance of family
As far as romantic relationships are concerned, Ray Charles was not very successful in his private life as he moved from one woman to another. At the end of the day, he had sired 12 children with nine different women.
However, he kept track of all his children and supported them in their exploits. At one point, he gave each of them $1million to use as they were pleased. By having maintained closeness with his children, Ray Charles was well supported in his last days, and even as he died, he was surrounded by the members of his family.
Works Cited
Beyer, Mark. Ray Charles, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. Print.
Charles, Ray and David Ritz. Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story, Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009. Print.
Ford, Carin. Ray Charles: I Was Born With Music Inside Me, Berkeley: Enslow Publishers, 2007. Print.
Hubbarb-Brown, Janet. Ray Charles, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print.
Ramsey, Doug. “Charles of the Ritz.” Texas Monthly, 1.15 (1978):223. Print.
“Ray Charles reveals ‘Bombs put under bandstand’ for his anti-racism role.” Jet 9 Dec. 1985:56-57.Print.
Schinder, Scott and Andy Schwatz. “Icons of rock.” ABC-CLIO, 35.2 (2008):3-56. Print.
Sloate, Susan. Ray Charles: Young Musician, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. Print.
“The soul of Ray Charles.” Ebony 1 Sept. 1960:99-100. Print.
Winski, Norman. Ray Charles: Singer and Musician, Los Angeles: Holloway House Publishing, 1994. Print.