Mm, I feel that sweet country lovin'
In which I ponder slide guitars and how any one person's voice can be so gosh darn good.
TL;DR
1.) Bye Bye Love - We're off with a wail! Ray Charles puts his stamp on the Everly Brothers classic – this version takes the youthful earnestness of the lyrics and melody and filters them through "Jump, Jive, and Wail" (I covered Louis Prima's version previously). Charles takes the wistful longing of the song and utterly rejects it - this "goodbye" to his love is not going to be a wake, but more a no holds barred party. Not to mention that Charles' interjections of his signature "What you say!" are just irrepressible. Strong, strong start.
2.) You Don't Know Me - And now we take it down a few pegs to a mid-tempo ballad of sorts. I'd never heard it before, but apparently Charles' is the most famous version, making it all the way up to number 2 on the charts.
One year before, a singer named Patti Page released her version, and honestly...I kinda prefer hers. Don't get me wrong, Ray Charles' vocals are absolutely untouchable, but I love the sultry sadness of her version - ESPECIALLY the instrumentation. It calls to mind Fats Domino and that vibe. Those baritone saxes! Yes, please!
Can someone please do a mashup with her instrumentation and his vocals? Now that would be the dream combo right there.
3.) Half as Much - This is some Count Basie-esque instrumentation to open, wow! This was first popularized a decade earlier by that country singer of country singers, Hank Williams. And on his track, Mr. Williams could never be confused for anything but a country singer. Fiddles? Check. Twangy delivery? Check. Mournful lyrics? Check and check.
Listening to this version, though, it calls to mind slinky lounges rather than the Grand Ole Opry. You know by now that I'm weak for a sax solo, and man, does this ever have a solid sax solo. Mm, tasty.
4.) I Love You So Much It Hurts - Again, like "Half as Much," the opening sounds like a lost Frank Sinatra track, more specifically the melancholic orchestral feeling of In the Wee Small Hours. Apparently, this song was originally written and recorded by honky-tonk singer Floyd Tillman in 1948. Tillman to me sounds like if a young Bing Crosby had decided to go for country music.
This is one case in which Charles' version is actually the sadder one - between the violins and his pleading vocals, you truly feel how much he loves you. Interestingly, this song isn't asking for "you" to return his love or to stop slighting him or anything of the like. No, he is simply in agony over the depth of his love: "I'm so afraid to go to bed at night/Afraid of losing you." It's a very sweet song that in less capable hands would border on saccharine.
5.) Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way) - We have another country song from 1948, this time co-written and popularized by Eddy Arnold. Interestingly, Arnold's has quite a bit of piano in it, which I'm not as used to hearing in older country music (or country music in general, but what do I know).
I have to admit, I don't like Arnold's version. You know how I said that in less capable hands some of these songs run the risk of being too schmaltzy? This is WAY too much for me - Arnold's ad-libs around the 1:15, 1:20 mark just make me cringe.
Ray Charles has the heft and weight in his voice and delivery to thread that delivery. He can deliver lines like, "Why don't you put your arms around me/I'll be your slave," and I buy it (disregarding the knee-jerk discomfort I have of a Black artist in the '60s singing about being a slave). A great track.
6.) Born to Lose - Similar vibe overall to "I Love You So Much It Hurts," but that much sadder and that much more aching. I mean, just listen to that chorus: "Born to lose, I've lived my life in vain/Every dream has only brought me pain/All my life I've always been so blue/Born to lose and now I'm losing you." Woof.
I'm not entirely sure, but I *think* that one of the earliest recordings of this is from around 1948 (take a shot!) by Elton Britt and the Skytoppers - I mean, WHAT a name, amirite? And it is definitely a country song, with all the steel guitar anyone could ever desire, along with Britt's plaintive warble.
Again, I'm #teamcharles on this one. He brings out the soul-wrenching sadness of the lyrics in a way the earlier version just doesn't.
UPDATE: Found an EVEN OLDER version, this one from 1940, by who I think is the songwriter - Ted Daffan's Texans. You can't make up a better name. So much steel guitar. It's actually a faster tempo than Britt's version, plus a vocal that is so quintessentially '30s/'40s. See previous note re: #teamcharles.
-THUS PASSES SIDE ONE-
7.) Worried Mind - OK, breaking out my conspiracy hat here, but the opening violin LITERALLY sounds like it's lifted the melody from the track "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning." Am I crazy? ...don't answer that.
So we have another feature from Ted Daffan's Texans here, also from 1940. This track sounds so much like "Born to Lose," it's crazy. I prefer that one, to be honest. The lyrics here are much more stereotypically "country" lyrics - girl, I spent all my money and gave you all this stuff, and you just gave me a worried mind. For shame.
It's a solid track, but I prefer "Born to Lose."
8.) It Makes No Difference Now - Ooh, a bluesy piano opening. And YES, BARITONE SAXES! This song has me from the first ten seconds. We have another song penned by Floyd Tillman, only from 1938 (sorry, no shots). The first recording was by...wait for it...Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers. I feel like I am just winning a weird game of cosmic bingo while writing this post, seriously. Steel/slide guitar? Check. Vaguely twangy vocals? Check. The original/early versions of all these tracks start sounding the same after a while, with a few exceptions ("Bye Bye Love," etc.).
The song takes a shockingly laissez-faire attitude to a breakup: "Let things happen as they will, I'll get along somehow/I don't worry, it makes no difference now." I mean, true! I appreciate the difference in arrangement here compared to the other tracks on the album thus far, not to mention a breakup song that doesn't blame the other party for everything. Is it woke, or is it just apathetic? Either way, still relevant in Anno Domini 2021!
9.) You Win Again - ...just kidding, it's all your fault again. So apparently Hank Williams wrote and recorded this song in 1952 post-divorce, which, yeah, that bitterness definitely comes across: "You have no heart/You have no shame/You take true love/And give the blame/I'll guess that I should not complain/I love you still/Well, you win again." According to the eminent scholars of Wikipedia, Williams actually first wanted to call this song "I Lose Again," but flipped the title when his producer pushed him to do so. Now I'm just imagining an album where all the song titles are about the narrator losing ("Born to Lose," "I Lose Again," "Did I Mention that I Am a Loser?"). I mean, what a mood.
I sound like a broken record (pun intended), but Williams' original version - Steel/slide guitar? Check. Twangy, plaintive vocals? Check. To me, this song sounds the most obviously "Of Country Music" in Charles' version. It's something about both the lyrics and the melody that gives off those vibes. Still, Charles kills it, as ever. Not my favorite track, but Charles' vocals when he sings the eponymous words "you win again"? That's a chef's kiss from me.
10.) Careless Love - I guess he took my notes about "It Makes No Difference Now" to heart - the piano and saxes are back, baby! This is actually an old standard - a so-called "traditional" song - that Charles arranged himself. It has an extended reference to "Amazing Grace" and everything: "Well, you know I once was blind but I'm so glad, so glad I see/That that old love has made a fool of me." Our buddy Eddy Arnold did a version in 1955. <insert checklist here>
This song is...fine. It's definitely more bluesy in some ways, but I wish it were bluesier, y'know? But the sheer vocal range that Charles shows off here - whispering, soaring, pining - is staggering. I want those vocals with a B.B. King-style instrumentation. Internet, make it happen!
11.) I Can't Stop Loving You - The longest track of the album at over four minutes long, and every second is drenched in sadness. You up and left, so I'm just gonna stay here and wallow in my sadness and unrequited love for you, kthnx.
Written and first recorded by Don Gibson in 1957, the original version is roughly half the run time, with the inclusion of a steel guitar and piano riff. Listening to Gibson's delivery and the lyrics themselves, I can't help but wonder to what extent Elvis was an influence. Cue the conspiracy hat again.
I'm still, naturally, #teamcharles when it comes to the vocals and all, but this doesn't need to be over four minutes long. The shorter original version trims the fat, so to speak. Still, Charles makes it his own, with a call-and-response arrangement between him and The Randy Van Horne Singers, who apparently sung the theme song for tons of classic cartoons? We're talking The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and more. The more you know! Wikipedia-sensei also tells me, "The Ray Charles version is noted for his saying the words before the last five lines of the song on the final chorus: "Sing the Song, Children." OK!
12.) Hey, Good Lookin' - Now THIS is a song I knew beforehand! And finally another more uptempo song to close us out! The lyrics to this Hank Williams classic <insert checklist> are shamelessly silly: "Hey, hey, good lookin', whatcha got cookin'?/How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?" Charles absolutely revels in it - he knows how ridiculous it all is, and sings it out with pure joy. And that last falsetto note he hits? Amazing.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This album took serious cojones to make. Ray Charles was a Black rhythm and blues singer who went again his label's wishes and recorded an entire album of country music. And even more than that, he took it to number one. People made a big to-do of "Old Town Road" and a Black artist having a number one on the country charts - an undeniably massive accomplishment. But it's hard to imagine anything like that happening without Ray Charles opening the door over a half-century earlier.
What was the most striking to me listening to this album is how natural it all sounds. I never once thought, "Wow, he should NOT be singing this." It goes to show how genres - and music in general - are more of a spectrum rather than tidy little boxes, even back then, and in no small part thanks to albums like this. Willie Nelson has been quoted as saying, "Ray Charles’ album [Modern Sounds] did more for country music than any one artist has ever done." And who are we to deny Willie?
Personal standout tracks:
HARD TO CHOOSE, but "Bye Bye Love," "I Love You So Much It Hurts," "Hey, Good Lookin'"
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