The Entroporium

Susie and I finally got to see Ray last night. Despite the fact that Ray Charles is one of my favorite all-time artists, that his story is endlessly fascinating in the same way that Elvis’s is and that the movie was generally well-reviewed, I still approached seeing this with trepidation. I had a terrible feeling that the movie would end with Ray kicking heroin and playing “America The Beautiful” in front of a flag at the White House. Or some mawkish nonsense like that.

As it turned out, I was part right. Ray cold-turkeys in one of those tiresome montage scenes with obligatory writhing, followed by a scene in the Georgia legislature (with the real Julian Bond presiding) in which Ray gets his political redemption.

The movie effectively ends in the early 60s with many of Ray’s best recordings in front of him. It also neatly leaves out some of the less-great artistic choices he made later in life, like his over-over-exposure as Pepsi’s pitchman in the 80s and maybe just a little too much time hanging out with the Muppets. Weirdly, Quincy Jones turns up in the 40s as an innocent sidekick, but never turns up in the 60s when his arrangements propelled his and Ray’s careers into the stratosphere. Also, no mention whatsoever of Percy Mayfield, who may or may not have written many of Ray’s 60s hits like “Hit The Road Jack.”

It also leaves out admirable moves like his jazz albums and, yes, “God Bless America.” Can you imagine one of America’s most popular cross-boundary entertainers — Beyonce, for example — putting out country and jazz instrumental albums at the top of their popularity? That the albums are good? And actually enhance their reputation? This was Ray Charles. (If you said Shania Twain’s Bollwood album, you’d be close, but no cigar since it wasn’t released here.)

In the end, the very hugeness of the Ray Charles story proves itself too big to be captured in full in a long long long 150-minute movie. The music is well-represented — the best thing about the movie, really — but they probably could have just stuck to any particular 10-year period of his career and had a fine, fascinating movie. But overreaching seems appropriate to the subject matter.

Here are two selections from the 1950s Ray. Pre-Big Band, pre-country. Just raw unadulterated soul, baby. Check it.

[Soundtrack]
Ray Charles – A Fool For You.mp3
Ray Charles – Don’t You Know.mp3