Quote

Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. ... This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.

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
Going
Rhythm
Years
Paid
Nobody
Called
Race
Attention
Used
Music
Blues

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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 heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit.
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Art Tatum -- he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.
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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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Sometimes my dreams are so deep that I dream that I'm dreaming.
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Music to me is like breathing. I don't get tired of breathing, I don't get tired of music.
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I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.
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Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal.
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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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Just because you can't see anything , doesn't mean you should shut your eyes.
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You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit - just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.
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I don't think any of us really knows why we're here. But I think we're supposed to believe we're here for a purpose.
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I'm not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don't have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That's the bottom line.
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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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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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Hit the road Jack, don'tcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road Jack, don'tcha come back no more.
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[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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I can't help what I sound like. What I sound like is what i am. You know? I cannot be anything other that what I am.
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The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
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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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