A GREAT ARTIST HAS DIED

[bigguyinpasadena]

I was really saddned to read of the passing of Mr.Ray Charles.A wonderful musician,song writer and performer.

His performances will be missed but his music will live on.

[+ Axiom2001]

"His performances will be missed, but his music will live on!" Yes, BigGuy..., I definitely concur with your sentiments. ...heard about his death on NPR today.

[Luv2play]

I, too, will miss Ray Charles, and his music will definitely live on. But why is it that all three media sources that have reported on his death that I have heard today have played "Georgia on My Mind". Personally, my fave is "Hit the Road Jack". As a kid, I just LOVED that song! Along with Peggy Lee's "Fever", which was around the same time as I recall, ( we're talking the late 50's, I believe). Oh, the memories...

[SouthBeachBtm]

A true musical genius and great artist. Society and man kind will miss his contributions.

 

Thank you Ray

[+ deej]

Musicians everywhere have lost a best friend, mentor, older brother. He paved the way for many, and encouraged each to follow their own route.

 

He will be missed.

[Doug69]

>A true musical genius and great artist. Society and man kind

>will miss his contributions.

 

Oh please - speak for yourself.

 

Amazing - an American President who is re-elected with one of the greatest landslides ever and frees the entire Eastern bloc dies, and they celebrate his death, dance over his body, and cackle about how he's burning in hell.

 

But some blind guy blows into a metal tube, and they put on their serious humanist face and act like his death is cause for solemn grieving.

 

Could someone lend me a barf bag?

[VaHawk]

"But some blind guy blows into a metal tube, and they put on their serious humanist face and act like his death is cause for solemn grieving."

 

I didn't know that Ray Charles was a horn player. I thought he played the piano!

[Guest Lust4Life]

http://www.michaelromanos.com/pictures/stock_photos/ray_charles.jpg

 

The Sound of Silence

 

Ray Charles

R.I.P.

[Boston Guy]

>"But some blind guy blows into a metal tube, and they put on

>their serious humanist face and act like his death is cause

>for solemn grieving."

>

>I didn't know that Ray Charles was a horn player. I thought

>he played the piano!

>

 

Good one! :-)

 

Actually, he played the piano, clarinet and alto saxophone... learning how to play all of them without the aid of vision. But, as you note, he was most well-known for vocals and the piano.

 

He certainly was instrumental in the development of modern popular music, most especially, of course, soul. He was actually pretty much the creator of modern soul, fusing elements of gospel, blues, pop, country, R&B, jass, and rock and roll. He wasn't known as the "father of soul" for nothing. But his influence can be seen widely. Artists who have claimed him as an inspiration have ranged from Paul McCartney to Willie Nelson, Chaka Khan to the Blues Brothers.

 

As a man, he was modest and philanthropic, raising money for charitable and humanitarian causes. But he was also a known womanizer and had been a heroin addict for 20 years before stopping cold turkey in the 60s. And he was kind to other musicians who followed him, helping -- among others -- a young Quincy Jones to get started.

 

A mammoth talent, a good man and one of the most important influences on popular music for decades. Yes, he will be missed.

 

BG

[Chuck50]

I personally like Georgia on my Mind HUGS Chuck50 :P

[bigguyinpasadena]

Because when a good man dies we mourn.When a monster dies we celebrate.

Art or bombs?I'll take art.

[Guest icon513]

I'd take Ray Charles over Ronald Reagan any day...wish brother Ray had lived to 93.

[Doug69]

>I'd take Ray Charles over Ronald Reagan any day...wish

>brother Ray had lived to 93.

 

Ray Charles spent a huge bulk of his life shooting heroin into his arm every day. He also ran around fucking and using every woman he could find, while he was married, and left behind two broken marriages and 12 kids. He was a drug-addicted womanizer who abused everyone around him, including his own family and children.

 

But he sure could sing! And, oh - a bonus - he was black and blind. So let's all pretend that he was a great, good man and feel good about ourselves because we patronizingly call him "brother" and publicly proclaim how much we revered him.

 

Yeah, especially compared to some do-nothing irrelevancy like Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles was a real gem.

 

Just vile.

[Boston Guy]

When we write, we inevitably reveal bits and pieces of our personalities, of who we are, of what we value.

 

As with the above, what you write here often suggests a bitterness and lack of compassion. One can only hope that your words are those of a persona you choose to project here and not truly reflective of the values you actually bring to life and those who share it with you on a day-to-day basis.

 

BG

[Doug69]

>When we write, we inevitably reveal bits and pieces of our

>personalities, of who we are, of what we value.

 

I agree. That's why it's so interesting how you didn't feel a need to trot out your little sermon when your ideological comrades said the most vicious, disgusting things about Ronald Reagan - how great it is that he's dead, how he's burning deservedly in hell, good riddance to bad filth -- that I have ever read. You participtaed in those threads, piled on with criticism, but said nothing about what you read. Your concern for humanity only suddenly arose when someone refused to pretend that Ray Charles was some patron saint of greatness.

 

Expressing glee over the death of Ronald Reagan is fine. But refusing to lie about Ray Charles reflects character defects. You're right, that is revealing.

 

>As with the above, what you write here often suggests a

>bitterness and lack of compassion.

 

I have compassion for the children of Ray Charles, for the wives he cheated on and whose lives he wrecked. I also have compassion for Ronald Reagan and his family, and wouldn't parade myself around celebrating his death and consigning him to hell while they - and millions of other people around the world - are still grieving his death.

 

Too bad you don't have the same compassion.

[Guest Tristan]

>Amazing - an American President who is re-elected with one of

>the greatest landslides ever and frees the entire Eastern bloc

>dies, and they celebrate his death, dance over his body, and

>cackle about how he's burning in hell.

>

>But some blind guy blows into a metal tube, and they put on

>their serious humanist face and act like his death is cause

>for solemn grieving.

 

Doug, I'm not an advocate for dancing over any American President's grave, but let's look at the downside to Reagan's presidency as well. He did contribute to the breaking up of the Soviet Empire, but historians agree that the internal politics of the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc countries were changing and ripe for a president like Reagan. Reagan's "star wars" initiative scared the hell out of the Soviet Union, which didn't have the financial resources to match it. Mikhael Gorbachaev was a pragmatist and knew that it would bankrupt the Soviet Union to continue to compete militarily. A different Soviet premier may not have been so practical. Further, Reagan did greatly increase our military strength, but at the cost of doubling the deficit.

 

He drastically cut social programs, making worse the lives of the poor. Finally, he was no friend to gay people. He ignored AIDS for most of his presidency, not even talking about its existence. This position contributed to many deaths which may not have otherwise occurred had he supported the funding of research and educational programs.

 

As for Ray Charles, he may have had all the faults you list later in this thread. Perhaps, he had more than the average share. But a person's faults don't negate his creative contributions. Many of the great musicians and artists in the history of the world had their faults and undesirable human traits. But we can still appreciate and honor their artistic contributions to the world. Otherwise, there might be precious few creative geniuses to revere.

[bigguyinpasadena]

Of course there IS a little p.r. problem with Saint Ronnie,namely him stapeeng out with Nancy Davis while still married to Jane Wyman...

And as to early Drug/alcohol problems,,sorry that is another hollier than thou repug.

[Guest icon513]

"Brother Ray" was one of well-known nicknames -- not something I made up to appear hip with a black man. His contribution to popular music is of historic proportions. What he injected himself with and whom he cheated on...well, I could care less.

 

Ronald Reagan was a a guy who just happened to hold the presidency when the Soviet empire imploded. Yawn.

[Doug69]

RE: Compassion

 

>As with the above, what you write here often suggests a

>bitterness and lack of compassion.

 

Here's compassion for you, BG - from your liberal friends. I'll guarantee you that the same people holding those signs are devestated - just devesteated - at the death of Brother Ray Charles - just like how many of the people in this thread weeping reverentially over Brother Ray's death are the same ones who cackled about how Reagan is burning in hell:

 

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040611/capt.zeb10206111551.ronald_reagan_zeb102.jpg

[Ignoto]

> I also have

>compassion for Ronald Reagan and his family, and wouldn't

>parade myself around celebrating his death and consigning him

>to hell while they - and millions of other people around the

>world - are still grieving his death.

 

 

There is, of course, a difference between Reagan and Charles. Not all of the eulogies at Charles' funeral will be delivered by white people.

[Doug69]

>Ronald Reagan was a a guy who just happened to hold the

>presidency when the Soviet empire imploded. Yawn.

 

From OpinionJournal.com, June 8:

 

<<Natan Sharansky (né Anatoly Shcharansky), the Soviet dissident turned Israeli official, tells a story of Reagan in today's Jerusalem Post:

 

"In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire." Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's "provocation" quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth--a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.">>

 

Yawn. If only he could have heard a Ray Charles song.

[Ignoto]

>Many of the great musicians and artists in the

>history of the world had their faults and undesirable human

>traits. But we can still appreciate and honor their artistic

>contributions to the world. Otherwise, there might be precious

>few creative geniuses to revere.

 

 

And, of course, Ray Charles never sent Donald Rumsfeld to play "Let's Make a Deal" with Saddam Hussein.

[Rick Munroe]

I haven't seen it in any of the obituaries but for me, his greatest role was as Grandma Yedda's boyfriend on The Nanny. :+

[bigguyinpasadena]

yeah---like the most stirring rendition of AMERICA("oh beautiful for spacious skies...")ever recorded.

[VaHawk]

I hated Reagan, and I did not vote for him either time that he ran for president.

 

I feel he was less than responsive in his reactions/policies towards the AIDS epidemic. I thought his economic policies were abhorrent and his foreign policy not much better, and I believe to this day, the country is feeling the negative impact of his policies.

 

Despite ALL that, I CERTAINLY hope I UNDERSTAND Doug's point, which it seems most of you, in your zealousness, seem to ignore.

 

Celebrating the death of anyone, stating that such a person is deservedly burning in Hell, and opining the desire to "piss" on that person's grave, or worse, while bemoaning the death of someone who you personally admired for whatever reasons, has got to be the HEIGHT of hypocrisy , especially when you "cloak" it in the terms of "liberal compassionism"!

 

And all your hypocrisy is how, in any way, different, than the far right Christians, who's policies you abhor? How are the sign waving protests and statements of hell burning for Reagan's funeral, in any way, different from those who protested Mark Shepard's funeral with their signs that all faggots deserve/will burn in hell????

 

Just me, but I was taught that two wrongs never make a right! The unmitigated hatred and shenanigans at RR's funeral are no more righteous/worthy of consideration/respect/admiration, than those propigated at the Mark Shepard funeral.

 

A human being has died, and for no other reason, than the FACT that RR was a human being, he should be due the respect that such humanism entails, in it's most basic form. So save your holy judgements to God, but then again, I forgot that God is such a "dirty word" on this site!

 

Not only was RR a human being, but he was the President of the United States, and as such, is worthy of the honors that such a position of achievement is entitled to, including the ornate State Funeral that many of his predecessors had! But so many feel it is their "duty" to dishonor that right with all their "Burn in Hell", "Good Riddance to Bad Garbage" protest signs and chants! WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS they all are, and how MUCH MORE they are a disgrace to not only the American spirit, but to HUMANITY itself!

 

I see nothing wrong with mourning the passing of both Reagan and Ray Charles. Both made unquestionable contributions to the spirit and persona that defines America, and at least for me, both affected my life, even though the effect was in different aspects of my life. So imo, the death of one should not be celebrated while the death of the other is bemoaned, but instead, the death of both should be mourned! And both should be honored with the respect that their contributions to not only America, but the human experience, entitle them to recieve!