Record Boy Ink:

Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement Award 2000

So there I was at the House of Blues, attending The Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Ray Charles. Lots of celebs besides myself in a fairly intimate atmosphere.

Quincy Jones, Ray’s pal since their teenage days in Seattle, was the presenter. He was charming, as always, noting that he now has to worry about feedback from his earrings in his hearing aid. Quincy read a chapter from his upcoming autobiography; the chapter that Ray Charles wrote. After presenting Ray with the award, both men sat down together at their table and the evening’s entertainment began.

Diane Schur led off the evening’s festivities. Her Ray Charles connection is that he recorded a duet with her on her new album. Y’know, Diane strikes me as probably one of the nicest ladies you’d ever want to meet. She is always personable, warm and funny on stage. Thing is, I just can’t stand her singing! She has a pleasant enough voice when she sings in the middle register but on every song she glides into this high end, grating screech that makes Record Boy cringe! She only did about three tunes however and the audience expressed their gratitude.

Next up was Ashford & Simpson. Nick Ashford is like Dorian Gray…he has looked exactly the same for at least the past 20 years. Valerie Simpson… well, she might want to reconsider the halter top/ leather pants thing for future performances. As they sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” Record Boy was challenged to think of what their connection to Ray was. Then Nick said the first song the team sold that made them any money was to Ray Charles. The tune of course was “Let’s Go Get Stoned”. This was followed by “I Don’t Need No Doctor” which Ray also recorded, although one might have thought Nick & Val would save that for the Humble Pie Lifetime Achievement Award show.

Then Billy Preston, who played on one of Ray’s albums, hit the stage. Billy has so much good-natured high energy that Record Boy was able to temporarily suspend his ban on ever hearing “Nothing From Nothing” and “Will It Go Around In Circles” again. Never before has a performer been able to milk so much out of two hit songs. A consummate showman, Billy engaged Ray throughout his four song set, changing lyrics to mention Ray’s name and even doing a spot-on vocal imitation of him. His spirit was contagious and made people forget all about his ‘70s Afro wig.

Then to finish the evening’s musical performance, Willie Nelson came on. Maybe his connection to the “Father of Soul Music” is Ray’s well known forays into country music. Looking closely at Willie made Record Boy think that Willie is the Keith Richards of country: still vital as a musician but physically appearing to have risen from the dead. On his battered guitar (which doesn’t look any better than he does), Willie performed “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Nightlife”, “On The Road Again” and “Georgia”(now there’s a Ray connection!)

The best part of the evening for ol’ Record Boy was off the stage. Ray was in a great mood and he and Quincy were either getting into the music or cracking each other up the entire time. Quincy was having such a good time with his old pal that he was ignoring the young thing in the tight leather skirt that was at his side all evening. Surely this must have been Q’s granddaughter…ya think?

In addition to an appearance by John Mellencamp presenting an award, and house band drummer Ricky Fataar who looked suspiciously like one of the Rutles, Record Boy didn’t spot much more of the rich and famous. As I was leaving however, I came face to face with Phil Spector. Phil had some kind of prosthetic long black hair device on his head and damn if he didn’t look 30 years younger. Phil looked at me, I looked at him and in a split second we made a mutual decision to respect each other’s privacy. I left the building as coolly as I came in, knowing full well that Phil Spector probably had a million questions for Record Boy and that he went home kicking himself for not asking.

Record Boy’s only disappointment was that Ray didn’t perform at his own Award show, which deprived us of another opportunity to tell him what he’d said. But Hallelujah, we still love him so.