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I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.
Ray Charles
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Ray Charles
Age: 71 †
Born: 1932
Born: September 23
Died: 2004
Died: June 10
Composer
Jazz Musician
Music Arranger
Musician
Pianist
Recording Artist
Saxophonist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Soul Musician
Vocalist
Albany
Georgia
Ray Charles Robinson
Raymond Charles Robinson Peter
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Music
Already
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Arrived
Heart
Food
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Within
Parts
Water
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Predestination
Force
Musician
Kidneys
Born
Scene
Ribs
More quotes by Ray Charles
[On his heroin addiction:] I did it to myself. It wasn't society...it wasn't a pusher, it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.
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There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities.
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Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.
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It's like Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. And you can tell when something is good.
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Crying's always been a way for me to get things out which are buried deep, deep down. When I sing, I often cry. Crying is feeling, and feeling is being human.
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Other arms reach out to me, Other eyes smile tenderly, Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you.
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Music to me is like breathing. I don't get tired of breathing, I don't get tired of music.
Ray Charles
I never said I was a genius. I never said I was a cornerstone. I've never said I'm a legend in my own time. You never heard me say nothing like that.
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I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.
Ray Charles
What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
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Music is the chalk to the blackboard of life. Without it everything is a blank slate
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Before I begin, let me say right here and now that I'm a country boy. And, man, I mean the real backwoods! That's at the start of the start of the thing, and that's at the heart of the thing.
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Now Listen You know I work so hard, all day long Everything I try to do, Seem to always turn out wrong That's why I wanna stop by on my way home and say Let's go get stoned
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Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. ... This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.
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Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically.
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I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear.
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I don't sing a song unless I feel it. The song don't tug at my heart, I pass on it. I have to believe in what I'm doing.
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When I started to sing like myself - as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while - when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it.
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I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.
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There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.
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