'I Got A Woman' and the Birth of Soul

A little black boy "RC" lived in the rural south, who listened to a divey cafe's juke box where his mother washed the dishes. He heard Count Basie and Nat King Cole, but also a great collection of classical music. The cafe owner encouraged RC to dabble on the honky ivories, and then reinforced whatever was found to sound good. The boy swayed to the rhythm on his soda crates chair. He lent his ear and built his comping chops through such influences as Art Tatum, Guitar Slim, hillbilly guitar strummers, the church choir he sang in, and Chopin.

Years later as a traveling musician listening to the radio while driving down the road, together with trumpeter Renald Richard, Ray Charles adapted the hymn, "My Jesus Is All the World To Me" into a revolutionary new genre.

"I Got a Woman" (Track 1, 1954) was the start of soul music, "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying" (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). He was soon further testifying on the forthright secular mnnnhmmmm's and uuuunnhhhhh's of lovemaking in one of my favorite recordings, "What'd I Say (Parts I & II)" (Track 2, 1959). His open-throated, emotional call and response style of vocals with some good moanin' and healthy repetition, his rhythmic piano with drum kit accentuated backbeat and horn accompaniment, and his natural coalescence of secular and sacred, rhythm and blues and gospel evolved into the foundation of soul music. Not only did other great soul artists rise, but soul music precipitated the Motown sound, funk, rock n' roll, surf music, slow jam, and further, affected all music as we know it. Many artists have covered the catalyst of soul, "I Got a Woman," including Stevie Wonder, the John Mayor Trio, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Elvis (Track 3, 1956), and the Beatles; the song has even been interpolated in Kanye's "Gold Digger" (Track 4, 2005). My favorite cover, however, is by the legendary Ray Charles himself. You can hear his classical influence smoothly layered with heightened soul as later performed in, "I Gotta Woman" (Track 5).