THE PASSING OF A LEGEND


Ray Charles passed away today. I was at work on a high from visiting with a good friend who unfortunately [for me] is home in Napa for the summer. We hung out in the city, making stops at Good Vibrations and Big Al's [she had to shop for her sister's bachelorette party] before ultimately having a cup of java and bruschetta at a little ristorante in North Beach. It's weird because despite being of different social and ethnic backgrounds we have a lot in common.

Anyway, I went to work and happened to see it on the computer screen - 'Singer Ray Charles dies at age 73". And I was pretty bummed. It doesn't even compare to Reagan's passing - he meant nothing to me and my family. But to someone who was raised on music, especially the sounds of Soul and R&B, the passing of Ray Charles struck me as an incredible loss.

Amazingly, he learned to both write and read music in BRAILLE! What?! People have a hard enough time with notated music as it is, and he did it in Braille. Not only that, but he could write out complete scores by memory [and it was in Seattle where he met and mentored a young man by the name of Quincy Jones].

But the real first time I can remember Ray Charles is during 'We Are the World' when he says, "C'MON NOW LEMME HEAR YA!" My cousins and I always had a great time singing that line. Not to mention that when it comes to patriotism I'm not too much into it, but hearing his rendition of "America the Beautiful" made me proud that I'm from the same country that produced a genius such as Ray.

Ray Charles leaves some mighty big shoes to fill, but maybe someone will come through and take us through this BLAH of music that's playing mainstream right now.

Don't worry Ray, someone will.

I hope.

Requiem Aeternam.

~No Tations~