#245 – MESS AROUND – Ray Charles – 3/4/2020

The great John Candy – hero to big guys everywhere – passed away 24 years ago today. The list of Candy movies I love is too long to enumerate – but 3 especially crack me up to this day no matter how many times I see them: “Volunteers”, “Uncle Buck” & “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”. 

This version of this song is not the complete studio version, but as this is in memory of John Candy I had to show this clip when I found it. There was a day not very long ago as my nieces, nephews, friends and my wife (anyone that drove with me in the 90’s really) will attest, these “air instrument” moves were all well within my particular reality, although I have never truly mastered to air sax. You will all be glad to note that with age, I have reverted back to the more standard 10 o’clock / 2 o’clock method of using the steering wheel. Thanks for all the years of laughter, Big Man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQjKFXA4QPA

1953 

#825 – WHAT’D I SAY – Ray Charles - 1/23/2020

The initial class of inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was inducted on January 23, 1986 and will never suffer the same fate. The artists inducted in that initial class were: Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

There have been many deserving inductees over the years, but as if to prove the demise of rock & roll (or at the very least it’s relevance being kept alive by life-support), recent inductees have included such non-rock centric artists as Whitney Houston (2020), The Notorious B.I.G. (2020), Donna Summer (2013) and Quincy Jones (2013. These artists are exceptional in their own right, but to my ear haven’t thing one to do with rock & roll. Donna Summer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRhbBU_GtBs

1959