Papers Pay Tribute to 'National Treasure,' Ray Charles

By: Greg Mitchell He was a true American original who rose from humble beginnings to reshape his times for all who followed. Fans mourn his passing like few that came before. He made tens of millions proud to be an American.

No, not Ron. Ray.

When the great Ray Charles passed away unexpectedly on Thursday at the age of 73, newspapers scrambled to bring a sense of his genius and significance to the standard wire service reports, one of which opened by calling him "the Grammy-winning crooner."

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel (Click for QuikCap) certainly improved on that with: "Ray Charles has the distinction of being both a national treasure and an international phenomenon."

Richard Harrington, The Washington Post music critic, said he couldn't believe Ray was mortal, calling him the most soulful singer of the century. He imagined that if Walt Whitman was still around, the poet would write, "I hear Ray Charles singing."

Reuters recalled Frank Sinatra calling Ray "the only genius in the business." The Associated Press turned to Van Morrison (from a Rolling Stone interview): "His sound was stunning, it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing, it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing."

The Miami Herald noted that The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind joined fans around the nation in mourning the loss of their best-known graduate.

In another Reuters report, Steve James aptly observed that Brother Ray's "I Got A Woman," from 1954 "is widely considered to be the key that opened the door for a crossover of the black musical heritage into the white American musical mainstream. 'For blacks it served as an unabashed celebration of negritude without religion; to whites it opened doors that had always been shut,' said Peter Guralnick, a music writer and historian."

Jon Pareles in The New York Times declared simply: "Mr. Charles reshaped American music for half a century as a singer, pianist, songwriter, bandleader and producer. He was a remarkable pianist, at home with splashy barrelhouse playing and precisely understated swing. But his playing was inevitably overshadowed by his voice, a forthright baritone steeped in the blues, strong and impure and gloriously unpredictable."

Anyone for putting Ray Charles on a $20 bill? Actually, the 50-cent piece might be more appropriate. One of his most famous lines, from "Let the Good Times Roll" (off his classic "The Genius" album) was: "Don't let no female play me cheap, I got 50 cents more than I'm gonna keep."