The musician Van Morrison claimed would outlive us all: “He changed music”
Not every mainstream artist is meant to last forever. For every artist who claims they will create timeless music until the day they die, that’s not really their choice to make when they’re putting out their material. A legacy is only built when people revisit you over time, but as far as Van Morrison could tell, Ray Charles could go down with the likes of any other 20th-century composer.
But it really makes sense when you look at where Morrison had taken his solo career. Sure, he gave the rock world one of its most enduring anthems with the song ‘Gloria’ while he was in the band Them, but he wasn’t itching to spend the rest of his days playing straight-ahead rock and roll. He was focused on making soulful music, and that kind of feeling flowed through Charles’s veins.
Before rock and roll even came into the public consciousness, Charles was already finding his middle ground between blues, R&B, and funk and creating his own hybrid of every sound. Even though Chuck Berry gets a lot of credit for pioneering what rock would become known for, you could argue that ‘What’d I Say’ did the exact same thing for R&B.
That was just one strength for Charles, though. For a man who radiated the sounds of soulfulness, the fact that one of his most famous albums is a collection of country songs is one of the most bafflingly inspired choices in music history, especially with his amazing performance of ‘Georgia On My Mind’.
When discussing Charles’s influence to Rolling Stone, Morrison was sure that we would be discussing his music for years to come, saying, “This music is way beyond marketing. This music is global, and its appeal is universal. Ray Charles changed music just by being himself — by doing what he did and translating it to millions of people with the force of his soul. That’s his legacy. I think that the music of Ray Charles will probably outlive us all — at least I hope that it will”.
Although Morrison eventually had the sobering task of singing alongside Charles on one of his later solo albums in the 2000s, it’s not like he didn’t have much practice going into it. Going back through albums like Moondance, half of Morrison’s riffing is indebted to soul music, which may or may not be down to Charles exclusively when performing a song like ‘Into The Mystic’.
It’s not like the future generations haven’t picked up where Charles had left off. When you listen to anyone from Beyonce to Chris Stapleton, there are bits and pieces of what the legendary R&B singer started, from ‘Queen Bey’s vocal power to the grit in the country superstar’s voice when he sings tracks like ‘Tennessee Whiskey’.
The more musically inclined artists knew where to look with Charles, with Billy Joel citing him as one of his favourite singers ever. Charles probably didn’t aim to be one of the biggest names in music, but it’s easier to relate to someone when you hear them quoting their own heart rather than putting on an act.
