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Many times during auditions, I was told that I couldn't carry a note with a bucket, and that I sure couldn't play the piano.
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
Many
Piano
Notes
Carry
Couldn
Told
Bucket
Sure
Buckets
Times
Auditions
Play
Note
More quotes by Ray Charles
I heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit.
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I think that most great artists who are extremely known, as I am, would intimidate a lot of people. I don't want to do that to people, but I know I do.
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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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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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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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[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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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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When I'm having a rehearsal and there are new guys who come in to try out for the job, I always let my conductor rehearse them. Because I don't want the guy to get bent out of shape, because I walk in.
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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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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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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 had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.
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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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The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.
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Goodbye don't mean gone.
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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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There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.
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Music is the chalk to the blackboard of life. Without it everything is a blank slate
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I'm a firm believer in God himself, but that's as far as I can go. I'm not any denomination. I'm not Catholic or Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist or Jewish or Muslim. I'm none of those things. And I'm sure that's just fine with God.
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I cant retire from music any more than I can retire from my liver. Youd have to remove the music from me surgically—like you were taking out my appendix.
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