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Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles are insane. He was arrested numerous times for heroin, marijuana,

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Speaker 1: drug paraphernalia, who once by federal agents. He avoided a

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Speaker 1: deadly plane crash by helping pilot a plane, and it's

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Speaker 1: worth noting that he was blind. He used his genius

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Speaker 1: to mix gospel with blues and invent the genre of

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Speaker 1: R and B. Then he melded that new style with

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Speaker 1: country in Western to become one of the biggest selling

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Speaker 1: black artists of his day, crossing over to enjoy mainstream

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Speaker 1: success by attracting a massive white audience. And Ray Charles

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Speaker 1: influenced everyone from the Beatles to Belushi by making some

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Speaker 1: of the greatest music of all time. And that music

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Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show

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Speaker 1: that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from

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Speaker 1: Mellotron called Minnie Cha Cha Cha MK one. I played

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Speaker 1: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to

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Speaker 1: off Wheederson Sweetheart by via Lon. And why would I

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Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of stink Floyd Cheese? Could

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Speaker 1: I afford it? Because that was the number one song

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Speaker 1: in America? On September third, nineteen fifty two, and that

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Speaker 1: was the deve Ray Charles signed to Atlantic Records, setting

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Speaker 1: the chorus for him to manifest the vision of himself

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Speaker 1: he'd had since he was a young boy, a young

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Speaker 1: blind boy, a vision of becoming one of the greatest

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Speaker 1: musicians of all time. On this episode busted for Heroin

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Speaker 1: and busting genre seeing into the Future in the Genius

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Speaker 1: of Ray Charles. I'm Jake Brennan. In this this Disgraceland,

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles was co piloting the small plane, a six

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Speaker 1: seat Cessna three ten. Ray Charles couldn't see anything, but

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Speaker 1: not because he was blind, because visibility from the snowstorm.

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Speaker 1: He his pilot and there one passenger, a diminutive rock journalist,

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Speaker 1: who were trying to land in was zero zero visibility.

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Speaker 1: No need to lose his cool. The plan was for

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Speaker 1: air traffic control to radio in landing instructions. Ray Charles

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Speaker 1: was his pilot's eyes. He communicated the radio instructions to

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Speaker 1: his pilot, who kept his gaze on the cockpit's instrument

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Speaker 1: landing system, listening to Ray intently focused on guiding the

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Speaker 1: plane safely into the Oklahoma City landing strip. Ray loved

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Speaker 1: this plane. It made his life a lot easier traveling

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Speaker 1: to his concerts. This way was much more efficient and

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Speaker 1: theoretically safer. But more than that, Ray Charles, a musician

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Speaker 1: by trade, a piano player, a songwriter, and a ranger

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Speaker 1: and bandleader, having his own plane, said to those who

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Speaker 1: cared to know that he'd made it despite being born

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Speaker 1: into a literal dirt poor existence in the Jim Crow

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Speaker 1: era Deep South, despite going completely blind by the age

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Speaker 1: of seven, despite his Heroin addiction, an addiction that led

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Speaker 1: to three arrests up until that point. Despite all of that,

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles had made it. First as a teenage fenom

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Speaker 1: doing his best not king cold impression, an act that

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Speaker 1: allowed him to make a living playing music at a

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Speaker 1: young age and endeared him to older, more seasoned musicians.

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Speaker 1: And then as a sideman duking it out in the

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Speaker 1: violent Chipman circuit backing up Lowell Fulson, And then as

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Speaker 1: a singles man signed to Atlantic Records, where his genius

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Speaker 1: was given full creator freedom to blossom. And finally, as

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Speaker 1: a highly compensated album artist of the first order signed

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Speaker 1: to a lucrative recording contract with ABC Records, a contract

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Speaker 1: that granted him an unprecedented royalty rate, as well as

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Speaker 1: ownership of his master recordings, and of course enough money

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Speaker 1: to buy his own plane. Ray Charles was a somebody

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Speaker 1: in a world of nobody's because that's exactly who his

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Speaker 1: mama told him he would be, and there was no

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Speaker 1: giving in to defeat. Didn't matter that he was blind,

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Speaker 1: didn't matter that he was born poor, didn't matter that

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Speaker 1: he was black. Those things were givens. There was nothing

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Speaker 1: he could do to change them. The only thing he

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Speaker 1: could change was his own future. How he saw himself,

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Speaker 1: where he saw himself, who he was, and that meant resilience.

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Speaker 1: That meant no excuse, no self pity. That meant showing up.

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Speaker 1: That meant not taking no for an answer. That meant

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Speaker 1: working hard and seizing whatever opportunity was put in front

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Speaker 1: of him. White audiences wanted a polite nat King Cole's

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Speaker 1: sounding impersonator, no problem. Ray Charles thought that was a genius,

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Speaker 1: his phrasing, his playing, his delivery. Ray would learn it

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Speaker 1: all and deliver Lowel Folsom needed a piano player, sure thing,

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles would not only give him that, he'd lead

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Speaker 1: his band too and learn the ways. This seasoned road

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Speaker 1: musicians while he was at it. Atlantic Records needed hits

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Speaker 1: to keep their fledgling independent label competitive. Not a problem.

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles would casually meld the gospel influence he was

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Speaker 1: raised on with the low down, dirty blues of the

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Speaker 1: Chitlin circuit and invent modern rhythm and blues in the process.

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Speaker 1: Oh and ABC Records needed ready to go bigger, wider

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Speaker 1: to earn out that massive recording contract they'd given him.

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Speaker 1: Ray had it figured out. He put all of his

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Speaker 1: previous experience together and lent his genius to genre melting

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Speaker 1: once again, again, mixing country and Western with sophisticated jazz

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Speaker 1: and pop on his landmark album Modern Sounds in Country

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Speaker 1: and Western sell a gazillion copies and crossover to a

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Speaker 1: mainstream white audience in a way that no black artist

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Speaker 1: had done prior, not even his hero Nat King Cole.

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Speaker 1: It was all part of the job, doing the damn

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Speaker 1: thing whatever it was, and not accepting his own limitations,

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Speaker 1: because those limitations were just that his own show Ray Charles,

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Speaker 1: where it was written that he couldn't do a thing

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Speaker 1: because he was blind, and he'd point you to nowhere.

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Speaker 1: He didn't need a cane. He had ears, in a

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Speaker 1: mind and two hands, and he could hear, learn and

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Speaker 1: feel his way through. And he didn't need a seeing

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Speaker 1: eye dog either. He wasn't going to become relying on

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Speaker 1: a fucking animal to lead him around. Ray Charles made

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Speaker 1: his way throughout whatever city he was in on his own,

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Speaker 1: onto whatever stage he was playing that night, through whatever

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Speaker 1: song he was playing on his piano, to the end

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Speaker 1: of the set, off of the stage, to the after part,

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Speaker 1: already into the bed of whatever good time gal was

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Speaker 1: hanging around. And just because he was blind, it didn't

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Speaker 1: mean he settled for women who were less attractive. Ray

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Speaker 1: Charles knew beautiful women when speaking with them, if they

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Speaker 1: gave him the indication they were interested, and most did,

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Speaker 1: such as his appeal as a musician and entertainer, He'd

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Speaker 1: run his hand over their wrists and arms, and once

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Speaker 1: the signals were received, he'd casually sensually feel about to

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Speaker 1: get a fuller picture, and the flirting would continue, and

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Speaker 1: eventually off to bed they'd go. Ray Charles was just

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Speaker 1: like any other musician, except that he wasn't. He was

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles, a genius. Ray Charles had arrived and at

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Speaker 1: the moment as the newly released modern sounds in country

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Speaker 1: and Western music was gloriously climbing the charts. Ray Charles's

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Speaker 1: dual engine Cessna airplane was making a horrifying descent sixteen

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Speaker 1: feet fifteen ten nine, six thousand feet five thousand and

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Speaker 1: four three two thousand feet one thousand feet. Finally, the

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Speaker 1: plane was just two hundred and fifty feet above the

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Speaker 1: ground and ready to land. But then air traffic control

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Speaker 1: told him to bring the plane back up for a bit.

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Speaker 1: They were at too low an altitude for their approach.

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Speaker 1: Nothing out of the ordinary happened all the time. Ray

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Speaker 1: relayed the message to his pilot, and the pilot pulled

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Speaker 1: back on the yoke, and suddenly the plane wouldn't ascend.

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Speaker 1: There was no more lift. Ice from the snowstorm had

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Speaker 1: frozen on and around the tiny plane and was weighing

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Speaker 1: it down. The plane would only go in one direction down. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it was bad, but not that bad. They'd simply circle

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Speaker 1: the airport, recalibrate their approach, and put the plane down safely.

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Speaker 1: And the pilot began circling, and that's when he looked

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Speaker 1: up from his cockpit's instrument panel and out of the

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Speaker 1: cockpit's front window. To get a layer of the land

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Speaker 1: before touching down, and what he saw was this nothing.

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Speaker 1: The plane's windshield was completely frozen over. The pilot had

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Speaker 1: forgotten to turn the windshield to frost on, and now

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Speaker 1: it was too late. But no amount of heat melt

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Speaker 1: this block of sheer ice on the windshield, and they

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Speaker 1: couldn't see anything. The plane couldn't ascend, and they were

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Speaker 1: going down fast and blind. Ray radioed into air traffic control.

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Speaker 1: They had zero visibility for landing. Air traffic Control told

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Speaker 1: them they were going to have to figure something out.

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Speaker 1: The pilot needed visibility for those final few feet to

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Speaker 1: prevent drifting upon descent, to prevent crashing, and the pilot

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Speaker 1: was nervous. Ray could hear it in his voice. The

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Speaker 1: rock journalists in the seat behind them started reciting Hail

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Speaker 1: Mary's and the pilot turned to his instrument panel to

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Speaker 1: make his final turn back toward the landing strip. He

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Speaker 1: couldn't see anything, just ice, no flight tower, no lights

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Speaker 1: on the strip, no nothing. Ray Charles was literally flying blind.

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Speaker 1: There was one certain outcome defeat death, a plane crash.

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Speaker 1: But then Ray Charles did what he'd done his whole life.

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Speaker 1: Unable to see, he visualized where he wanted to be

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Speaker 1: on the ground safe. He didn't accept his so called

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Speaker 1: predetermined outcome because blindness had given him something few others had,

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Speaker 1: true vision. Without sight, he literally could not see defeat.

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Speaker 1: Sites that distracted others, that pulled attention elsewhere did not exist,

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Speaker 1: and thus Ray Charles's imagination was given the freedom to

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Speaker 1: manifest powerful outcomes unimaginable to others. Comparatively, Ray Charles wasn't

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Speaker 1: blind compared to most, Ray Charles could see into the future,

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Speaker 1: and in that moment, with his plane fast approaching certain doom,

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Speaker 1: with his pilot's nerves betraying him, with his passenger in

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Speaker 1: the back spitting hail Mary's and pissing himself, Ray Charles

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Speaker 1: visualized a different outcome, a safe landing and lo and behold.

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Speaker 1: With less than one hundred feet above the ground, the

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Speaker 1: pilot saw something himself in the ice on the windshield,

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Speaker 1: a pinprick of light slowly expanding to the size of

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Speaker 1: a quarter to a half dollar. He leaned up put

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Speaker 1: his eye into the hole. With his hand still on

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Speaker 1: the controls and with Ray Charles by his side, the

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Speaker 1: pilot was able to use the vision the hole and

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Speaker 1: the ice gave him to see the landing strip and

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Speaker 1: bring the plane down safely. When they landed, the pilot collapsed.

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Speaker 1: Their rock journalists passenger was convinced an actual miracle had happened.

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Speaker 1: That as hail Mary's had paid off, air traffic control

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Speaker 1: workers came out of their tower down to the plane

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Speaker 1: to see for themselves what had happened. They couldn't believe

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Speaker 1: what they were witnessing, one tiny hole of which only

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Speaker 1: one eye could peer through, surrounded by solid ice, on

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Speaker 1: a plane completely frozen over. It was so improbable, this

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Speaker 1: tiny hole, this portal to salvation. But there it was

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Speaker 1: unexplainable except Ray. Charles didn't need an explanation. This was

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Speaker 1: nothing new for him, because though he was blind, he'd

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Speaker 1: been seeing the improbable his whole life. The teenage boys

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Speaker 1: on the city bus were staring at him, trying to

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Speaker 1: muzzle their excitement. It was coming up any minute now.

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Speaker 1: Of the two Harlem natives, one of them was a skeptic,

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Speaker 1: and a skepticism was about to make him pay. The

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Speaker 1: bet was a quarter to see if the blind dude

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Speaker 1: seated on the bus a couple rows down from them,

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Speaker 1: could do it. So they waited as the bus passed

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Speaker 1: block after New York City block on its way downtown,

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Speaker 1: and the boy who made the bet, the believer, knew

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Speaker 1: it was coming up next up. The bus chugged along

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Speaker 1: at its normal speed, keeping pace with the bustling traffic.

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Speaker 1: Any second now, both boys perched on the edge of

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Speaker 1: their seat, waiting, anticipating, alternately believing and unbelieving at the

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Speaker 1: same time. And there it was. The blind dude in

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Speaker 1: his seat reached up with his right hand pulled down

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Speaker 1: the bus stop lever, indicating this was his stop, and

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Speaker 1: the bus slowed itself over to the next stop, opened

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Speaker 1: its door and let the blind dude out, whereupon he

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Speaker 1: exited without a cane or a dog and made his

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Speaker 1: way to wherever it was he was going on assistance

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Speaker 1: pay up. The losing boy couldn't believe it. He forked

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Speaker 1: over his quarterer. How did the blind dude know? How

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Speaker 1: did he know which stop was his? The driver hadn't

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Speaker 1: called out any stops or streets. There was no pre

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Speaker 1: recorded message announcing the bus's progress blaring over a pa.

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Speaker 1: The bus just chugged along, had a good clip, and

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Speaker 1: the blind dude just knew where and when to make

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Speaker 1: The bus stop it was crazy, except that it really wasn't.

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles relied on his senses to get around. He

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Speaker 1: could feel the bend in the dip of the road

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Speaker 1: as the bus moved it told them where to get off.

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Speaker 1: He could sense it, just like he could sense that

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Speaker 1: I'm ed Erdgan, co founder and president of Atlantic Records,

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Speaker 1: knew what he was talking about. Ahmed had told Ray

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Speaker 1: that if he only saw pennies, well he'd see only pennies,

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Speaker 1: but if he saw dollars, he in fact would eventually

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Speaker 1: see dollars. Ray believed this in nineteen fifty two, at

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Speaker 1: the time Atlantic Record signed Ray Charles. This is what

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Speaker 1: qualified us straight talk in the music industry. So Ray

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Speaker 1: Charles considered himself lucky, and it went about doing his

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Speaker 1: and I'm at Erdigan's business, which at the time was

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Speaker 1: making hits. His first few singles failed to set the

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Speaker 1: world on fire. Ray was doing what he always did,

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Speaker 1: his version of Nat King Cole. He'd sometimes spice it

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Speaker 1: up with his version of Charles Brown. That approach worked

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Speaker 1: in the club, why wouldn't it work in the studio.

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Speaker 1: The answer was because the record buying public didn't want

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Speaker 1: another mat King Cole or Charles Brown. They wanted something new,

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Speaker 1: so Ray Charles hit the road. The road was tough,

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00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: violent Chitlin circuit, roadhouses and dance halls, shootings, stabbings, robberies,

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Speaker 1: all manner of vice and grift. If you weren't careful

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Speaker 1: on the road, you'd let you wind up off the

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Speaker 1: road and in a hospital, a jail or worse, the Morgue.

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Speaker 1: And beyond the Chitlin circuit, there were the occasional segregated

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Speaker 1: shows in the South. When Ray was simply a hired gun,

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Speaker 1: there was little he could do about it. But later

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Speaker 1: when he fronted his own bands, Ray Charles wouldn't stand

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Speaker 1: for him. At a headlining show on Augusta, Georgia, a

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Speaker 1: promoter wanted blacks upstairs in whites downstairs. Ray insisted he

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Speaker 1: was fine with segregation if his loyal black audience could

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Speaker 1: get the better downstairs seats, and the promoter refused. Ensued,

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Speaker 1: Ray paid two thousand dollars for breach of contract. A

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00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,480
Speaker 1: line had been drawn, but later stands would break the

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Speaker 1: other way. What Ray could see was a vision of

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Speaker 1: integrated audiences in the South. For the most part. When

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00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,200
Speaker 1: it came to negativity, the type of negativity that can

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00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:07,520
Speaker 1: be debilitating for a performer. It was easy for Ray

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Speaker 1: Charles to block it out and concentrate on playing. He

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00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:14,800
Speaker 1: literally could not see the problems posed by road life.

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00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,320
Speaker 1: He could sense the danger, knew how to steer clear

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Speaker 1: of it. But because he was blind, he was immune

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00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:23,640
Speaker 1: to the petty stock, the nasty bits that drive the insecurity,

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00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,720
Speaker 1: the dirty looks in the attitude from the tough crowds,

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Speaker 1: even the jealousy from drunk competitive alphas in the audience

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Speaker 1: who worried about him stealing their dates. What was the

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00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,000
Speaker 1: little blind dude behind the piano going to actually do anyway?

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Speaker 1: Sing their girls into the sack. That's exactly what happened.

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Speaker 1: The after parties were legend usually an apartment held by

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Speaker 1: the promoter where the band was allowed to shock up.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes a boarding house, maybe, depending on what city they

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00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,920
Speaker 1: were in a hotel, but usually in an apartment where

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Speaker 1: all men are of debauchery went down. Was in the

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Speaker 1: john at the moment, getting down with what had become

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00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:07,399
Speaker 1: his daily ritual, shooting heroin, and there was no real reason.

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Speaker 1: Just what musicians did back then, especially the jazz musicians.

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Speaker 1: Ray revered, but jazz didn't have a monopoly on the horse,

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Speaker 1: as Ray affectionately referred to him. Blues musicians indulged as well,

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Speaker 1: and Ray Charles developed a taste early, and he found

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Speaker 1: his way to the drug. While on the road with

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00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:28,040
Speaker 1: lowell Fulson, band members were shooting up and Ray wanted

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Speaker 1: to know what the attraction was. Nobody pushed it on him.

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Speaker 1: Ray Charles went into Heroin clear eyed, knowing full well

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Speaker 1: the risk. He loved it. Heroin mellowed everything up, completely,

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00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,320
Speaker 1: loosened him up. It was like Reefer, but a deeper,

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00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:46,240
Speaker 1: heavier groove. Ray's ritual had him shooting up every day

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00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,919
Speaker 1: to start his morning, and then every night after the gig.

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00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,160
Speaker 1: Back in the early fifties, twenty year old reefers ran

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00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,680
Speaker 1: Ray a five spot and for another five Ray could

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00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 1: had a bag of heroin to his weekly supply. Set

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00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,760
Speaker 1: him up good. He score every week so or whenever

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00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,440
Speaker 1: they rolled through one of the bigger cities. Right now,

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00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:05,960
Speaker 1: at the after party in the John, Ray could hear

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00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,240
Speaker 1: the party on the other side of the bathroom door

293
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,080
Speaker 1: kicking up a notch. Someone in the band put Duke

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00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:14,720
Speaker 1: Ellington's take the a train on the turntable was part joke,

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00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,800
Speaker 1: part Q for the real train, the sex train, as

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00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:20,720
Speaker 1: in quote unquote running train, one of the more popular

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00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:23,320
Speaker 1: group sex tricks. Ray and his band would partake in

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00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:25,919
Speaker 1: with whatever eager local gals were willing and able to

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00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,320
Speaker 1: mix it up on whatever night they rolled through town.

300
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,760
Speaker 1: Ray fingered through his toiletry's back for his works. He

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00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,359
Speaker 1: wasn't missing out on anything. He was right where he

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00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,680
Speaker 1: wanted to be. The train wasn't his thing anyway. Ray

303
00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:40,840
Speaker 1: liked group sex, but it had to be more than

304
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:43,640
Speaker 1: a bunch of drunk bandmates stumbling around in an apartment

305
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:46,840
Speaker 1: naked to the Duke. Ray wanted it to mean something

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00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,800
Speaker 1: to all involved, to really feel it. Heroin helped him

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00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,440
Speaker 1: really feel it, sex, music, whatever, and then it would

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00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:59,400
Speaker 1: take it all away, literally and figuratively. Heroin was good

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00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,080
Speaker 1: for a rating, whatever feelings, physical or mental or ailing. Ray.

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00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,720
Speaker 1: Ray also knew that if he wasn't careful, Heroin would

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00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,600
Speaker 1: take him away as well, land him in jail and

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00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:14,400
Speaker 1: off stage for quite a long time. His first Heroin

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00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,399
Speaker 1: bust was in nineteen fifty five, A little bit of

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00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 1: reefer and Heroin paraphernalia, A needle, a bird spoon. Miraculously

315
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,840
Speaker 1: he got off. He see. He was busted again in

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00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,920
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight in Philly. The cops burst in without

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00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,119
Speaker 1: a warrant, found his stash, and collared him without a warrant,

318
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:33,320
Speaker 1: though the CoP's case was thrown out a cord and

319
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:37,479
Speaker 1: Ray avoided jail. Nothing, not his arrests, his drug addiction,

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00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,520
Speaker 1: nor his blindness seemed could keep Ray Charles from doing

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00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:46,680
Speaker 1: what his mother compelled him to do. To be Ray Charles,

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00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:50,280
Speaker 1: he and I'm at Erican got down to business. Then

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00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:53,000
Speaker 1: that King cole knock Os wouldn't do. Ray had to

324
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:56,280
Speaker 1: dig deep, way down into his soul to find that

325
00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:00,080
Speaker 1: big scary thing inside of him that made him well him.

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00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,560
Speaker 1: The prospect of revealing one's true self to the world

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00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:08,280
Speaker 1: through art is to the artist terrifying, mainly because there

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00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:10,679
Speaker 1: is a high probability that your art, which is now

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00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,760
Speaker 1: quite literally you, will be rejected. Most artists only have

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00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:17,400
Speaker 1: to deal with the prospect of the world rejecting their art,

331
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 1: the thing they made, their album or song or painting

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00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 1: or whatever. True artists, original artists, artists who take the

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00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,920
Speaker 1: greatest risks, who don't imitate, who quite literally express themselves

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00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,639
Speaker 1: into a wholly new and original subjective creation, have to

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00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: deal with the prospect of the world rejecting whatever it

336
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,800
Speaker 1: is they created, but also with the world rejecting who

337
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 1: they are. Because true artists are their art. The risk

338
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:47,000
Speaker 1: is massive, but so is the reward. Dollars not pennies.

339
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:50,600
Speaker 1: Ahmed Ertigan knew this and repeated it over and over

340
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:54,240
Speaker 1: again until Ray Charles knew it too, because the prospect

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00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:58,800
Speaker 1: of expressing oneself honestly cannot only be terrifying but also stifling.

342
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:01,879
Speaker 1: A'm ed Eritigain w one further and offered Ray Charles

343
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 1: some lyrics to get him through the creative block, to

344
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,960
Speaker 1: provide just a touch of cover to better help him

345
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,720
Speaker 1: reach down into himself and pull out something that was

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00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:14,480
Speaker 1: uniquely him. Ahmet's lyrics were simple sexual double on tandra

347
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 1: the mess around. Ray Charles knew about sex. It was

348
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:24,639
Speaker 1: just the spark he needed. He took a mets simple

349
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 1: lyrics and applied them to an old gospel tune he'd

350
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,600
Speaker 1: known since his days back in Greensville, Florida as a boy.

351
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,160
Speaker 1: The melody might have been spiritual, but the music was blues,

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00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,679
Speaker 1: and the feel was something new, something that hadn't been

353
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,200
Speaker 1: heard before, something totally unique. It wasn't just blues, and

354
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,240
Speaker 1: it wasn't just rhythm. It was rhythm, and it was blues.

355
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:47,120
Speaker 1: That familiar, beloved gospel melody set over, jumped up, boogie woogie,

356
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 1: The spiritual swapped for the secular, the hint of sex.

357
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,919
Speaker 1: It was genius. It was Ray Charles. Mess Around was

358
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: a hit. Ray double down on his newfound combination of

359
00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: gospel and blues with his song I've Got a Woman,

360
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 1: the melody directly nicked from the gospel tune It must

361
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 1: be Jesus. It went straight to number two. He followed

362
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,119
Speaker 1: it up with this Little Girl of Mine, a fool

363
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,800
Speaker 1: for You, drowned in my own tears Hallelujah, I Love

364
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: Her So all singles for Atlantic that traded on Ray's

365
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 1: patented mix of gospel and blues, all of which charted

366
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 1: and culminated in nineteen fifty nine with the release of

367
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,000
Speaker 1: the single What I Say, which went to number six

368
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,639
Speaker 1: on the Billboard chart into number one on the Our

369
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: Beach Chart. But more than that, it was a classic

370
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,080
Speaker 1: in its own time, and by the end of the

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00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:36,000
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, the genius of Ray Charles was evident for

372
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 1: all to see. We'll be right back after this word

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Speaker 1: word word. McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, nineteen sixty five. It

374
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,160
Speaker 1: was once called the Asylum for the Insane, but sometime

375
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,679
Speaker 1: back around the turn of the century they dropped that

376
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: name for something less literal, more inviting, so McLain Hospital

377
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: it was. Ray Charles was cold and just his hospital gown.

378
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: The room he was in was barren and freezing, not

379
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 1: to mention slightly terrifying. Sites didn't freak Ray Charles out,

380
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 1: but sounds. Sounds could be downright horrific. The shrieks of

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00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 1: terror coming from elsewhere in the hospital were so strong

382
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,440
Speaker 1: he himself could taste the tube of rubber, the one

383
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,679
Speaker 1: the orderly shoved in your mouth to make sure you

384
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,440
Speaker 1: didn't bite your tongue off while they administered their electric

385
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 1: shock treatments. The sound of the electricity jewels, the shake

386
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:38,280
Speaker 1: of the patient spasming on a metal chair, its feet

387
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 1: sharply digging into the linoleum floor was downright chilling, same

388
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,240
Speaker 1: as the room he was in. On purpose, the hospital

389
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: is trying to freeze Ray Charles the junkie out, except

390
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:54,120
Speaker 1: it wasn't working. For most junkies trying to wean off

391
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: of heroin. The cold helped speed withdrawls, but Ray Charles

392
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,679
Speaker 1: wasn't having withdrawls. He'd been there, done that, There was

393
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: no weaning for him. He'd kicked cold turkey for the judge.

394
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 1: That judge was a real motherfucker, and Ray knew his

395
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,919
Speaker 1: best chance at mercy was to kick Heroin before the

396
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: sentencing portion of his trial for his most recent bust,

397
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:24,919
Speaker 1: the one in Boston. A couple months prior Logan Airfield,

398
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: Ray's plane landed without incident after a performance in Canada.

399
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: He and his bandmates exited and headed to the hotel.

400
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: The bite in the Boston air was nastier than Ray

401
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 1: was used to. He was looking forward to a hot

402
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,680
Speaker 1: shower in the warm embrace of his fix, but when

403
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: he got to his room, he realized he left his

404
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: works on his plane. He had his assistant grab a

405
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 1: cab and the two headed back to Logan to his

406
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 1: plane to grab his heroin. Ray Charles did just that,

407
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 1: and then Ray Charles was grabbed by a pair of

408
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,440
Speaker 1: federal agents drug squad. They had been watching the notorious

409
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: drugged out musician hit to his many previous arrests and

410
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,440
Speaker 1: championing at the bit to bring him down. The headlines

411
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: alone would be worth it, and headlines there were. Ray

412
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: Charles busted again for heroin. Ray's profile at the time

413
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 1: was too damn big to keep his bust quiet. A

414
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 1: loud arrest meant a loud trial, and the loud trial

415
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: often meant a stiff sentence. Ray got hip quick. He

416
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: wasn't about to be made an example of. He wasn't

417
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: about to do real time to become a cautionary tale

418
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: something parents and music teachers tell their kids. Stay off

419
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 1: them drugs. You're gonna end up in jail, just like that,

420
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: Ray Charles. Fuck that. Ray hooked himself up with the

421
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: top notch attorney. Justice might have been blind like Ray Charles,

422
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,919
Speaker 1: but she wasn't cheap like Ray Charles. Ray pooned up

423
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,640
Speaker 1: the bread for the best attorney money could buy. Then

424
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: he doubled down and shelled out the cash for a

425
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: famous Vienna shrink, Frederic Hacker, the good Doctor, would play

426
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 1: nice in court with the judge. Ray checked himself into

427
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: the docks Beverly Hill's clinic and got down to the

428
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: business of getting clean. No weeding, just cold turkey. It

429
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: was violent, painful, immensely distressing, both physically and mentally, but

430
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 1: Ray pulled through. As always, he had an image, a

431
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 1: powerful image of himself in his head, future Ray, who

432
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 1: he will become. This visualization was nothing new. Visualization, or

433
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,199
Speaker 1: manifestation as it's sometimes called, is a powerful tool that

434
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: has been used by many of the world's biggest celebrities,

435
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: who visualize their success, the things they don't have, and

436
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: then manifest them. Oprah Winfrey is a forceful advocate of visualization, or,

437
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: as she calls it, the secret, having famously employed the

438
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: tactic to land her career making role in Steven Spielberg's

439
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,840
Speaker 1: film The Color Purple. Jim Carrey, when he was a

440
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: broke struggling actor, wrote himself a ten million dollar check

441
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: and kept it in his wallet, knowing that one day

442
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: he would cash. A decade later, he earned ten million

443
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 1: dollars to star and Dumb and Dumber. Lady Gaga has

444
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 1: long held a singular vision of herself. She reminds herself

445
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,359
Speaker 1: of that vision every day and regularly repeats various affirmations

446
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: to help keep her on her path toward realizing that

447
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: vision of herself. And Will Smith is also a strong

448
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,879
Speaker 1: believer in visualization, saying, quote, the universe is not a

449
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,159
Speaker 1: thing that is going to push us around. That the

450
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: world and people and situations are not things that are

451
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: going to push us around. We are going to command

452
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 1: and demand that the universe become what we want it

453
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 1: to be. And for Will Smith, of course, that meant

454
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,679
Speaker 1: becoming one of the biggest stars in the history of Hollywood.

455
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: For what it's worth, I too believe and have believed

456
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,360
Speaker 1: in visualization. Going back to the months prior to launching

457
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: this podcast, I had a vision of what I wanted

458
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 1: it to become and still do, and that vision was

459
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,959
Speaker 1: of course closely aligned with who I wanted to become

460
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 1: and now with who I am. I succeeded because I

461
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: believed and I believed because the evident for visualization is everywhere,

462
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,400
Speaker 1: not only in the examples I just listed, but throughout history,

463
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 1: especially in this country in America. What men and women

464
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: have achieved the odds and circumstances they overcame, odds and

465
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: circumstances much more challenging than the ones I was facing.

466
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: At some point, as I got older and maybe a

467
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: little smarter, it became clear to me that in this

468
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: world anything is possible because the world is what we

469
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 1: make of it. Outside distractions people's opinions, their emotions, politics, whatever.

470
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 1: We have the power to ignore it, to block out

471
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: the noise, and to choose something else, to make something else.

472
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: But first we have to see it. Ray Charles saw

473
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: it right after he went blind. The vision of who

474
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: he was to become, and a blind, jailed junkie was

475
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: not what he saw a genre melding, musical genius powerful

476
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 1: enough to bring black and white culture into one. That's

477
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: how we saw himself, as big and talented and widely

478
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: loved by audiences of any color, as his hero in

479
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,239
Speaker 1: that case, Cole was before him, as Frank Sinatra currently was.

480
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: This is who Ray Charles wanted to become. But to

481
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: do that he needed to kick heroin and impress that

482
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: damn judge and delaying a light sentence on him. So

483
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: that's what he did, kicked, powered through the withdrawals, committed

484
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: to the Shrinks program, and came out clean. They had

485
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: hauled him into McLean to test him to see if

486
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: he'd relapsed since the judge suspended his sentence, and if

487
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: he had, he'd be shipped off to prison. He of course,

488
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: hadn't relapsed. No amount of cold air pumped into his

489
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: barren hospital room is going to bring on heroin withdrawals

490
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 1: because there was no longer any heroin in his system.

491
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: He got off easy, five years probation, with the freedom

492
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: to travel and perform as a free man. Ray Charles

493
00:29:46,680 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: bounded his plane for the next gig. The plane was

494
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: making its descent. Every single passenger aboard knew they were

495
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: going to die. Everything was happening so fast, and they'd

496
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: just taken off from Boston some forty minutes ago. Things

497
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,760
Speaker 1: got bad quick. If death has a taste, it was

498
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: in the mouth of everyone seated on a flight eleven

499
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: that morning, hail Mary's tears. Soon as the plane speeded

500
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: faster and faster toward its crash, screams, but then a

501
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: glimmer of hope. The plane jerked itself violently up just

502
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: to touch, and the passengers felt it for a moment calm.

503
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: They seemed to be cruising again. Maybe this wouldn't end

504
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: in destruction. But then another violent march, a gut pulling acceleration.

505
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: The field of the plane's nose dipped back down. It

506
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: was slight but definitive. They were blazing through the sky

507
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: again in an unimaginable sit be a death plunge if

508
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: the river was one. More screams, more prayers, more. I

509
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: want you all to know that America Day is offended

510
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: deed in prayer for the people who live lost here, I.

511
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 2: Gotta hear you, he rest of the world. Here, you

512
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 2: and the people who don't these feelings, people who don't

513
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 2: these feelings down, well, here's all.

514
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:49,280
Speaker 1: Of the soup your home. Thank you for your heart work,

515
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 1: thank you for making a nation pound and may God

516
00:31:53,680 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: bless America, and make God bless America. America the beautiful

517
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: had been beat up. September eleventh, two thousand and one.

518
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: Was unlike anything Ray Charles and the rest of the

519
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: country had ever seen. It shook the country to its foundation.

520
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: Ray had seen rallying presidential speeches before he'd even met

521
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: his fair share of presidents. He'd performed at Richard Nixon's

522
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: White House, played at Ronald Reagan's inaugural and at the

523
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four Republican National Convention, and then at Bill

524
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 1: Clinton's inaugural too. He liked them all despite their flaws.

525
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: There were politicians, after all, and regardless of which party

526
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: they were in or what they promised, Ray Charles knew

527
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: that if he wanted something in this world. Relying on

528
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: a politician wasn't going to get him anywhere. He needed

529
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:51,239
Speaker 1: to rely on himself. But this speech from George W.

530
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: Bush was different. There he was President of the United States,

531
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 1: standing in the rubble of the twin towers, his arm

532
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 1: around a fireman's, speaking through a bullhorn to assembled first responders, cops,

533
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: more firemen, EMTs, construction workers, all there doing the unthinkable

534
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: work of digging American bodies out from the pulverized remains

535
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: of cement, glass, plaster, office equipment, and everything else that

536
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: was once the World Trade Center. There was no teleprompter.

537
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: There was clearly no prepared, pre written speech. There was

538
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 1: just emotion, the best kind, uncalculated, real visceral. Somebody at

539
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: the back of the gathered crowd yelled to the President,

540
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: we can't hear you. George W. Bush improvises, I can

541
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: hear you. The rest of the world hears you. He

542
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: believed in what he was saying, and on that day,

543
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: just three days from the worst attack on American soil

544
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 1: since Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty one, the rest of

545
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: the country believed it too. It was one of those

546
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: rare moments of consensus in America. It wouldn't last. Within weeks,

547
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: America would begin siphoning itself off into familiar tribe. Never

548
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: wanted to let a good crisis go to waste. Republicans

549
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 1: would eventually use the situation to grandly and disingenuously reorganize

550
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,760
Speaker 1: their United States as imperialist ambitions in the Middle East,

551
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: and Democrats would use the situation to consolidate obstruction for

552
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 1: Bush's entire agenda. Both sides succeeded to varying degrees, and

553
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: both sides also failed fantastically, you know, like they always do.

554
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 1: But on that day, with the president down there, with

555
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 1: the people down in the rubble, bullhorn in his hand,

556
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: shouting from the heart like an impassioned Southern preacher, Ray

557
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:39,440
Speaker 1: Charles saw hope, and he also saw himself as someone

558
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,640
Speaker 1: who could remind America of its beauty. By two thousand

559
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: and one, Ray Charles was somewhat of an American institution.

560
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: After Kicking Dope, he had rebounded with a number one

561
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 1: hit on the R and B charts, the ironically titled

562
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: Let's Go Get Stoned. But over the decades, in a

563
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 1: discography now over fifty records long, his three number one

564
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: hit hits and his two gold records barely scratched the

565
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,720
Speaker 1: surface of his influence on the music industry in pop

566
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:10,760
Speaker 1: culture in general, from Cola commercials to Blues Brothers cameos

567
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 1: to current Hollywood talk of a biopic of his life.

568
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: Ray Charles had become part of the fabric of Americana.

569
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: So naturally, when America was hurting, Ray Charles wanted to

570
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 1: help rally the country. Like the President, Ray Charles knew

571
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: about hope. He also knew about grit and resilience. Ray

572
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 1: Charles was a symbol of resilience, a symbol of what

573
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: you can become no matter where you come from, no

574
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: matter how far down you are. And America at the

575
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: moment was down. But Ray Charles, the blind kid from

576
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,240
Speaker 1: the Jim Crow South, who'd never seen himself as anything

577
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,319
Speaker 1: but capable and the equal, was about to remind America

578
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:52,879
Speaker 1: of its beauty. October twenty eighth, two thousand and one,

579
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: Game two of the World Series, a series which was

580
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: delayed because of the al Qaeda attack on the World

581
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 1: Trade Center, the hometown Diamondbacks were up a game against

582
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,959
Speaker 1: the vaunted New York Yankees, who'd won the previous three

583
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: World series titles. The pregame Ceremony Packed House, America on Edge,

584
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 1: America on the.

585
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 2: Brink, Ladies and gentlemen, to honor America Araa with the

586
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:25,439
Speaker 2: singing of Amratha the Beautiful, Please well go the man

587
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 2: and his soul, Mister Ray Will.

588
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 1: Charles America the Beautiful for a couple minutes there. In

589
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, the genius of Ray Charles had

590
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 1: reimagined the Catherine Lee Bates song into a newfound national anthem.

591
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:48,799
Speaker 1: The emotion in the performance is chilling, hair raising, with

592
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:52,920
Speaker 1: nearly fifty thousand in attendance and sixteen million watching at home,

593
00:36:53,320 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: all keyed in to the same emotion. Hope, white, black, left, right, red, blue,

594
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: Republican Democrat. None of it matters. There is a fusion

595
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: that happens racing the song, a mass melding of oneness

596
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 1: of optimism. Just weeks after a near death blow in Arizona.

597
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: It's a phoenix rising, a reminder of our collective resilience,

598
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 1: a reminder to never lose sight of not only who

599
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 1: we are, but perhaps more important, of who we can become.

600
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:27,439
Speaker 1: A reminder from a true visionary, a blind visionary. It's

601
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:38,439
Speaker 1: Ray Charles Embody and Spirit in Soul Genius. I'm Jake

602
00:37:38,560 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 1: Brennan and this this Disgraceland from Disgraceland was created by

603
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.

604
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,480
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show

605
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as

606
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.

607
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,439
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become

608
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,840
Speaker 1: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com

609
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: Slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland

610
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Speaker 1: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode

611
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Speaker 1: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and

612
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Speaker 1: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com

613
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 1: slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and

614
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod

615
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Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod

616
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:54,880
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller. He then