Word: soule
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ESSAY: Christopher John Farley on the soul of Ray Charles...
...yowls for secular purpose. On What'd I Say (1959), he employed the call-and-response of church choirs to generate musical momentum and sexual tension: "Uhhhh!" "Ohhhh!" He didn't need words to get across what he meant, but music writers had a word for his music: soul. "I got criticism from the churches, and from musicians too," he once said. "But I kept doing it, and eventually, instead of criticizing me for it, the people started saying I was an innovator...
Charles has been called the father of soul, but that title is at once too broad and too limiting. He wasn't the first to combine gospel and the blues--but he did it so winningly, you could be sure he wouldn't be the last. He didn't add sex to church music--he just stopped denying it was there. But he was more than a soul provider. Throughout his career, he explored a variety of genres, including jazz and country, imbuing each with his singular grit and charm. His 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music...
...Busted (1963), were suffused with despair, but he performed them with such fortitude, they came across as revivifying. Indomitable in life (he overcame a 20-year heroin habit and fathered 11 children) and in song (he won 12 Grammys and legions of other honors), he showed that soul was good for the spirit...
...doing all right." He was doing all right all the way to the end. He recently completed a CD with contributions from Norah Jones, B.B. King and Willie Nelson. A biographical film starring Jamie Foxx will be out in October. Charles' legacy should last as long as soul itself. He did his mother proud. He found that other...