8-9 雷·查尔斯传奇式的声音：永恒的最爱（在线收听）

Can’t Stop Loving the Legendary Ray Charles Sound

Ray Charles, who virtually invented soul music¹ by infusing² R＆ B with gospel³ fervor, was often called the Genius for his significant influence not only on urban music, but jazz and country as well.

Charles, 73, died on June 11 at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends. His more-than-50-year career included dozens of hits and nearly non-stop touring, and gave him millions of other friends worldwide.

Born dirt-poor⁴ in Albany, Ga., in 1930, he was raised in the tiny, segregated⁵ town of Greenville, Fla.. When he was 5, he watched as his only sibling⁶, 4-year-old George, drowned in a washtub. A year later, he started to go blind. At 7, he went to a school for the blind in St. Augustine, Fla., where he learned Braille⁷ and got formal musical training. Charles, who said he never used a cane or guide dog or begged for money, left school at 15 after his mother died.

He compensated for his blindness with acute⁸ hearing and a keen musical sensibility. Mable John, a member of his backing singers, The Raeletts, says Charles “taught me how to listen. He taught me to hear things I never heard before musically. He said most people hear with their eyes, but he taught me to see with my ears.”

In 1947, he arrived in Seattle, where he formed the McSon Trio and first met Jones. He cut his first record, Confession Blues, with the group later that year. He patterned his style after Nat King Cole's and signed with Atlantic Records in 1952, but didn't break through until he heeded his mother's advice.

In 1954, when he did I Got a Woman, which blended secular⁹ lyrics with gospel stylings, soul music was born. At the height of his R＆ B popularity in 1962, he boldly released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.

“He raised the profile of country music as a genre¹⁰ of American music in ways that have had an impact ever since,” wrote Daniel Cooper in the liner notes for The Complete Country ＆ Western Recordings 1959～ 1986. “There is no telling how many people, who perhaps never paid much attention to country music or even had professed to dislike it, listened anew based on the impact of having heard what Ray Charles was capable of doing with that music.”

Charles also put out the seminal¹¹ Genius＋Soul=Jazz in 1961, and remained immensely popular through the '60s. He topped the R＆ B charts with Let's Go Get Stoned in 1966. He hit No. 1 on the country charts in 1985 with Seven Spanish Angels, a duet with Nelson, and topped the R＆ B charts again in 1989 when he joined Chaka Khan and Quincy Jones on I'll Be Good to You.

Despite his physical handicaps and a lengthy addiction¹² to heroin that ended only after a 1965 arrest in Boston, there was virtually nothing he did not accomplish in his career. The 12-time Grammy winner received countless awards and honorary college degrees. He played before kings, queens and presidents and was inducted¹³ into nine halls of fame, including the Rock and Roll Hall in 1986. Two years ago he played the first music concert in the 2,000-year existence of the Roman Colosseum¹⁴.

He received the President's Merit Award just before this year's Grammy Awards, and got the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame Award on March 6. Charles' last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when Los Angeles named the singer's studio a historic landmark.

In an interview two years ago, he said, “Music to me is just like breathing. I have to have it. It’s part of me.”

注释：

1. soul music  [美口] 爵士灵歌(源出美国黑人的福音唱诗，其特点为朴实、伤感、节奏极强)

2. infuse [in5fju:z] vt.  使充满，鼓舞

3. gospel [5^CspEl] n.  [宗] 福音

4. dirt-poor [`d:t`pJE(r)] a.  极贫困的

5. segregated [5se^ri^eitid] a.  被隔离的，分开的，种族隔离的

6. sibling [5sibliN] n.  兄弟(或姊妹)，同胞

7. Braille [breil] n.  布莱叶点字法(19世纪法国人 Louis Braille发明的盲字体系，用凸点符号代替字母)

8. acute [E5kju:t] a.  敏锐的

9. secular [5sekjulE] a.  现世的，尘世的，世俗的

10. genre [VB:Nr] n.  种，类，类型

11. seminal [5si:minl] a.  开创性的，有重大影响的，重要的

12. addiction [E5dikFEn] n.  瘾

13. induct [in5dQkt] vt.  吸收……为会员

14. Colosseum [7kClE5siEm] 古罗马圆型剧场(建成于公元80年)

雷·查尔斯传奇式的声音：永恒的最爱

雷·查尔斯可以说是爵士灵歌的创造者,他把福音音乐的热情融合到节奏布鲁斯当中。他对城市音乐,乃至爵士乐和乡村音乐都有着深远的影响,因而常被称为“天才”。

6月11日,查尔斯在他贝弗利山家中,在亲戚朋友的陪伴下去世,享年73岁。他50多年的音乐生涯中有着很多成功而风行一时的歌曲和几乎从未停止过的巡回演出,这使他在世界各地有着许许多多的朋友。

1930年,查尔斯出生于佐治亚州奥尔巴尼一个极贫穷的家庭,并在佛罗里达州格林维尔的一个种族隔离的小镇中长大。5岁的时候,他亲眼目睹了他惟一的兄弟，4岁的乔治淹死在洗衣盆里。次年,他开始逐渐失明。7岁的时候,他进入了佛罗里达州圣奥古斯丁的一所盲人学校。在那里,他学习了盲人用点字法,也接受了正式的音乐训练。在他母亲去世后,15岁的查尔斯离开了学校。他后来回忆说，他从不用手杖或是引路犬,也从不曾乞讨。

查尔斯敏锐的听力和极强的音乐敏感弥补了他视力上的不足。他的配唱组Raeletts中的一员梅布莱·约翰说查尔斯“教会了我如何倾听。他教我从音乐的角度来听,这是我以前从未做过的。他说大多数人都用眼睛听，但是他教我用耳朵看。”

1947年,查尔斯来到了西雅图,在那里,他组建了McSon三重唱小组,并且结识了琼斯。同年晚些时候，他与该组灌制了他的第一张唱片《忧郁布鲁斯》。当时他追随纳京高的音乐风格,并于1952年与大西洋唱片公司签约,但在那以后,直到他听从了他母亲的建议才获得了突破。

1954年,他完成了《我有一个女人》,在这首曲子的世俗歌词中融入了福音音乐的风格,于是，爵士灵歌诞生了。1962年,他的节奏布鲁斯作品大受欢迎,于是他大胆地发行了《乡村和西部音乐中的现代声音》。

“他提高了乡村音乐的格调,使其成为美国音乐的一种类型，并从此产生一种影响,”丹尼尔·库珀在《1959～1986乡村和西部音乐全集》的唱片套评注中写道,“查尔斯的演绎极具影响力，他使很多以前没怎么注意过或根本不喜欢乡村音乐的人重新认识它。”

1961年，查尔斯还推出了有重大影响的《天才＋灵歌=爵士乐》，在整个20世纪60年代红极一时。1966年，他凭借《让我们喝醉》登上节奏布鲁斯排行榜的榜首；1985年，他与纳尔逊的二重唱单曲《七个西班牙天使》登上乡村音乐排行榜的榜首；1987年，他与沙卡·坎、昆西·琼斯合作的《我会对你好》成为节奏布鲁斯排行榜的第一名。

虽然他有眼部残疾，1965年在波士顿被捕以前还长期吸毒,但他的事业可以说是成功至极。这位12项格莱美奖的得主获得过无数奖项和无数大学的荣誉学位。他为国王,王后和总统们演出过,他的名字被列入了9个名人堂,其中包括他1986年进入的摇滚名人堂。两年前,他在有着2000年历史的古罗马圆形大剧场举行了第一场音乐会。

在今年的格莱美颁奖之前，他获得了总统荣誉奖，并且在3月6日获得了全国有色人种协进会的名人殿堂奖。他最后一次公开露面是在4月30日与克林特·伊斯特伍德在一起，这一天洛杉矶把这位歌手的乐室定为历史标志性建筑。

在两年前的一次采访中查尔斯说道:“音乐对于我来说就像呼吸一样,我必须拥有它,它是我的一部分。”