Brother Ray

Now there's a juxtaposition for you: amidst all the hoopla about Reagan's funeral, Brother Ray's passed away and stolen some of his thunder. Of the two, there's no question in my mind which is the greater loss, and which leaves a more positive legacy. One of the first songs I remember learning when I was little was "Hit the Road, Jack," which somehow got concatenated in my mind with "Open the Door, Richard," though I can't say why. "Georgia on my Mind" was probably my least favorite of his songs (though I love "Rainy Night in Georgia"), "Unchain my Heart" one of my favorites. Then we have "Am I Blue," "C.C. Rider," and "What'd I Say." A lot, if not most of the songs Brother Ray did were covers, or written by someone else, but there was always his spin on them that often made them the definitive version. I'm not even that big a Ray Charles fan (B.B. King is more my speed), but it's impossible to deny how much influence he had on so much of the music I love, and I'm sad to see him gone. He was 73. Why couldn't he have had the 20 more years that Reagan got? The world would have been a better place for twenty more years of Brother Ray. That's the man we should be giving a state funeral to.