[lbo-talk] Re: Ray Charles RIP

[Dennis Perrin]

> Looking at a google search on Ray Charles I see French, Spanish,
> German tributes. I am sure there are plenty of Japanese and Russian
> ones too. At the top it says 5,230,000 for Ray Charles.
>
> Doing the same for the name, Ronald Reagan gets 2,020,000. I see no
> foreign language sites.
>
> That kind of says it all. Better than 2:1, for Ray. So Roll over
> Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news...
>
> CG

So it does. And even though Charles played the '84 GOP convention (I believe
he was a Repub), he still rules in my book. Dunno why he'd side with those
reactionaries, & I don't care. His music & spirit transcends earthly
political bias & stupidity.

I remember him hosting SNL in 1977. He was in several sketches, and
obviously had to memorize his lines (when Stevie Wonder hosted in the early
80s, I believe he had a hidden earphone prompting him). He was terrific,
mixing his music with that staff's comedy (The Raelettes backed him up). He
even outdid Michael O'Donoghue, who performed w/Charles a cheap joke about
blindness. He took and made fine whatever they threw at him. The affection
on the faces of that cast at the end of the show told the story.

DP