The Birth of Soul Reviewed

This three-disc album is arranged chronologically covering the period from 1952-1959.

Disc 1

The first five tracks on Disc are vocalized with big band orchestration. The first three are smooth and jazzy. Starting with track 4, Jumpin' in the Morning, the sound becomes less smooth and more R&B.

Tracks 6 through 17 feature smaller, rhythmic R&B sounding bands. These tracks are bluesy, becoming more and more intense, bringing in gospel elements toward the end of the disc.

My favorite Ray Charles is the blues singer. My favorite track on this disc is # 8, Sinner's Prayer, featuring a great blues band, Ray's piano, and a gospel-charged soulfulness. Here is an older Ray Charles singing and playing this song with B.B. King.


Disc 2

Disc 2 is the heart of this album. The blues/gospel fusion is well developed, and Charles' voice is amazing with an inner lightness under the grit.

I have a lot of favorite tracks from this disc, but the first (track 18), I Got a Woman, is a must-listen. It is a Ray Charles original, based on a gospel tune, but I thought it was a traditional blues when I first heard it. Come Back Baby, track 20, sounds very gospel to me, slow, rhythmic, and intense with gospel shouting, and Hard Times, track 23, sounds very bluesy. Starting with track 26, Drown in My Own Tears, another soulful favorite of mine, Ray's back up singers, the Raylettes, first appear. Hallelujah I Love Her So, track 27, is a Ray Charles hallmark, here in a youtube of a rare 1955 live performance.

Disc 3

Here there are fewer Ray Charles originals, a general smoothing out of the grit, and evidences of a more commercial sound. Track 36, Swanee River, is cute, a soul-ish version of a classic with an R&B beat. Tracks 37-39 are straight R&B to my ears. Track 40, I Want a Little Girl, is to the tune of This little Light of Mine, and has a commercialized R&B sound. My track picks from disc 3 are track 44, Tell the World About You and Track 50, What'd I Say, seen here in a remarkable 1963 performance.

Happy New Year everyone! I plan to spend the holiday listening to Ray's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, number 104 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.