Joe Smith’ Interview With Ray Charles Now Online (1987)

While president of Capitol Records/EMI, Joe Smith recorded 238 hours of interviews with noted record artists and executives for his book, Off the Record: An Oral History Of Popular Music (1989). He donated this collection to the Library of Congress, who are digitizing the rough tapes, as a part of their Recorded Sound Research Center.

The first batch of 25 interviews has now been made accessible online, including a 32-minute interview with Ray Charles, taped on 3 June 1987 (in 2 parts: A, B). Ray tells nothing new, but he’s candid and entertaining as always.

Watch this for an entertaining animated selection of quotes from this interview: