Monday, June 3, 2013

Um...Wow!


10 comments:

buzzbabyjesus said...

I haven't watched/listened yet, but when I made a mashup in my head of Ray Charles singing that song, It sounded like a perfect marriage.

jeff k said...

Look, he can sing the phone book and make it great, but was he that desperate to be "relevant" to the MTV crowd that he would agree to appear with those guys when they were so irrelevant at such a venue or did they just give him a boatload of money and coke to do it?

And poor Ray, the best thing about that gig, aside from the coke and the cash was the girls jumping up and down in their bikinis, and he couldn't see any of it.

jeff k said...

but can I make it clear that this is a great clip. I'm one of those people who enjoys just about anything Ray Charles sings. I'm just wondering why he did this.

Noam Sane said...

Holy crap! This is better than his version of "Take Me Home Country Roads"!

Jeff, maybe he liked the song and enjoyed performing it. Sounds like he's feeling it. I doubt he was "desperate" in any sense, content in his position as The World's Coolest Human Being Ever.

Off-topic, I played a wedding this weekend with a band - the lead singer gal just MURDERED God Only Knows. I could have cried.

Anonymous said...

Wow, indeed. THAT MAKES ME PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! Thanks, Sal.. - bill buckner

Elroy said...

Thanks for sharing that! There is still so much buried treasure on the 'net...

A walk in the woods said...

Awesome, brought a smile on a too-damn-hard-workin' day.

Gene Oberto said...

What a amalgamation. The song has always been a favorite Beach Boy song, Blondie Chaplin does a great job and the harmonies are near perfect.

Ray Charles adds the gospel voice that obviously was heard in Van Dyke Park's head and clearly makes the song his own.

Seriously, Jeff K. was it necessary to denigrate a great artist like that. All our heroes have feet of clay, but that is to balance the great gifts they were given.

soundsource said...

yes wow

jeff k said...

I don't think I was denigrating anything. Of course Ray was a great talent. I love Ray Charles's music, but like a lot of well known major musical talents there was another side to him as well, one that I am sure led to this performance. I don't think he appeared with these guys at this time in their careers at that venue with that crowd to make great art. But he is Ray Charles, and as I said earlier he could give you chills singing the phone book. That's it.