Ray Charles: “The Music That I Liked Was Music I Felt” (Interview, 1982)

The 2014 ebook re-release of Peter Guralnick’s magistral Sweet Soul Music – Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (1st ed. 1986) was enhanced with old and new interviews with a.o. Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, and Solomon Burke, and an additional new chapter for each.

The interview with Brother Ray took place in 1982, at RPM International in Los Angeles. Guralnick remembers:

“We were in the control room—but things were constantly happening. Ray, as you can tell from the way he talks, was a restless soul, and he was continually getting up and walking around, pouring himself a drink from his Thermos, and just generally totally engaged. At one point, he was supervising an overdub for the background singers, and he just ran back and forth between the control room and the studio, down the steps and across the hall, without a hint of hesitation or guidance.”