Ray Charles was born poor and black in the Depression-era South. By age 7 he was blind. By his early teen years he was an orphan. He was a dropout and later a drug addict.
But he never played the victim card. That may be the ultimate legacy of Brother Ray’s iconic, eclectic American life. “What’d I Say” — but never “Why you ain’t?”
Ray Charles: R.I.P. Recording In Perpetuity. From “Sea to shining sea.”