Ray Charles, 1930-2004: He Created a Sound That Had a Huge Influence on Popular Music part II

Source: Voice of America Special English   

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people 

This is Faith Lapidus. And this is Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Last week, we began the story of a blind musician who had a huge influence on American popular music.  He was famous for his recordings of jazz, rock-and-roll, blues and country music.  His name was Ray Charles Robinson.  But the world knew him better as Ray Charles.

(MUSIC:  "Let''s Go Get Stoned")

The name of that song is "Let's Go Get Stoned."  It is an example of Ray Charles' own kind of music—his own sound.  He worked hard for several years to create that sound.  No one ever tried it before.  He mixed black church music, blues and rock-and-roll.  The sound was extremely successful.  In the nineteen fifties, his records began to sell millions of copies.

At the same time, Ray Charles recorded jazz music.  Those records sold well, too.  Critics said they were new and exciting.  Listen to his jazz song, "Sweet Sixteen Bars."

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Ray Charles became famous because he could play blues, rock and jazz.  He also liked other kinds of music.  He told record company officials that he wanted to record an album of country-and-western music.

The president of the record company told him it would be a mistake.  He said Ray's fans would not buy the album.  Charles disagreed.  He said he believed he would gain many new fans to replace the few he might lose.  He produced the album and it was an immediate success.

The album was called "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music."  Many of the songs were major hits.  One of the most popular was "I Can't Stop Loving You."  It is a country-and-western song with Ray Charles' sound of blues and black church music.

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Ray Charles lived in a world of sound.  For six months each year he traveled with his orchestra, performing in theaters.  For the other six months, he worked in his recording studio in Los Angles, California.  He did much of the recording work to produce his own albums.

Ray Charles would often say that sound and music were his life's blood.  In fact, he said many times that he would not trade his musical ability for the ability to see again.

You begin to understand what sound meant to Ray Charles when you learn that he helped create and support the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders.  This organization helps people deal with the loss of their hearing.

You might think Ray Charles would have given his time and money to help the blind.  He did not.  He once said: "Being blind is my handicap.  But ears are my opportunity."  He said losing his hearing would have ended his life.

Ray Charles lived a long life that included his share of problems.  There was a time when he used illegal drugs.  He was married and divorced several times.  Yet the Ray Charles sound, and his success, continued.

He received twelve Grammy Awards from the recording industry.  He was one of the first musicians to be elected to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame. Several universities honored him.  So did the French and American governments.  His home state of Georgia made his recording of "Georgia on My Mind" the official state song.

Several years ago, Ray Charles was asked to sing at a political convention.  He performed the song "America the Beautiful."  Many people thought his recording was the best ever made.

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Ray Charles always said he owed most of his success to his mother.  He said when he was a boy, she taught him a valuable lesson.  She told him: "You can do anything you want to do.  You cannot use your eyes.  But you can work hard and use your brain."

Ray Charles died June tenth, two thousand four at the age of seventy-three.  Music experts say he did more than anyone in the twentieth century to change American popular music.

More than one hundred years ago, Alice Cary wrote a poem that could have been written for Ray Charles.  She wrote:

My soul is full of whispered song, --

My blindness is my sight;

The shadows that I feared so long

Are full of life and light.

(MUSIC:  "Seven Spanish Angels")

This program was written by Paul Thompson.  It was produced by Lawan Davis.    This is Doug Johnson. And this is Faith Lapidus.  Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English.

Ray Charles, 1930-2004: Singer, Songwriter and Musician Extraordinaire

Source: Voice of America Special English
www.manythings.org/voa/people 

This is Faith Lapidus. And this is Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.  Today we begin a two-part report about singer, songwriter, and musician Ray Charles.  His work will continue to have a lasting influence on American music.

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Ray Charles spent almost sixty years as a professional musician.  Millions of people around the world enjoy his recordings.  If Ray Charles only played the piano, he would have been considered one of the best.  If he had only sung his music, his voice would have made him famous.  If he had only played jazz music, the world would have listened.  But Ray Charles did all these things and more.

 He played and sang rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues songs.  He sold millions of country and western records, too.  His work brought together different kinds of music and different kinds of music fans.  His influence on much of America's popular music cannot be truly measured.

(MUSIC:  "One Mint Julep")

That was Ray Charles and "One Mint Julep."  He recorded that song in nineteen sixty-one on an album called "Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz."  It is one of the many hundreds of records he recorded.

Ray Charles Robinson was born in nineteen thirty in Albany, Georgia.  When he was six years old, he began to suffer from the eye disease glaucoma.  The disease made him blind.  He left the world of sight forever and turned to the world of sound.  He learned to love sounds, especially music of all kinds.

Ray Charles taught himself to play the organ, alto saxophone, clarinet and trumpet.  Yet there was a special relationship between him and the piano.  Here is part of the song "Worried Mind."  The style is country and western, with a heavy influence of blues.  Listen to his work on the piano, an instrument he truly loved.   You can almost see him smiling.

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Ray Charles was fifteen years old when his mother died.   Within a year, he had left school to work.  He began playing piano professionally in African American eating and drinking places in the state of Florida.

A year later, he moved to the opposite corner of America: Seattle, Washington.  While in Seattle, he made forty records.  But none was a success.

At that time, Ray Charles was trying to play the piano and sing like the famous performer Nat King Cole.  But he quickly learned there was only one Nat King Cole.  No one wanted to hear a copy, not even a good copy.

So Charles started looking for his own musical sound.  He began to experiment.  He tried mixing blues and jazz.  He used some jazz styles with the music that later was known as rock-and-roll.  His experiments soon became popular with many black Americans.

He played at dances around the country.  He also sold some records, mostly to black people.  Few white Americans had heard of a blind musician named Ray Charles.

By the middle of the nineteen fifties, he had his own band.  It was one of the most popular black dance bands in the country.  A group of women sang with the band.

One night, Charles began playing a simple song.  He told the women to sing in a style known as call and response.  In this style, the lead singer asks a question or sings some words.  The other singers answer.  This kind of singing was brought to America by black slaves from Africa.  It has remained very popular in black church music.

At the dance that night, Ray Charles put together simple piano music, traditional call and response and rock-and-roll.  The result was a revolution in American music.  Soon after, Ray recorded that song. It is called "What'd I Say?"

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"What'd I Say?" sold millions of copies.  Ray Charles no longer just played at small dances for black people.  He performed in large theaters for big audiences of every color.  He had found a sound like no other.  His style of music was filled with excitement.  And those who listened shared in that excitement.

By the end of the nineteen fifties, Ray Charles had recorded many hit songs.  Most of his music was black rhythm-and-blues or soul music.  Yet white Americans were listening, too.

Charles did not want to play just one kind of music, even if it was extremely popular.  He began experimenting again, this time with jazz.  One album, "Black Coffee," is considered by experts to be one of his very best jazz recordings.  It shows that his piano work can express many different feelings.  Here is the song "Black Coffee" from that album.

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Ray Charles continued to make rhythm-and-blues and jazz records.  But that was still not enough for him.  He had always loved country-and-western music.  So he decided to record a country album.

Music industry experts said he was making a mistake.  They told him not to do it.  They said he would lose many fans.  The fans, they said, would not understand or like this kind of music.  Ray Charles did not listen to the experts.  He took a chance. And he was right.  The public loved his country-and-western songs.  You can hear some of these country-and-western songs next week, when we bring you the second part of our report about Ray Charles.

(MUSIC:  "Making Whoopee")

This program was written by Paul Thompson.  It was produced by Lawan Davis.  I'm Doug Johnson. And I'm Faith Lapidus.  Join us next week for the second part of our program on Ray Charles on PEOPLE IN AMERICA, in VOA Special English.

Ray Kroc, 1902-1984: The Man Who Made McDonald's Popular Around the World

Source: Voice of America Special English

www.manythings.org/voa/people www.voanews.com

I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.  Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an international operation called McDonald's.

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You probably know what fast food is.  It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place.  It does not cost much.  It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world.  Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called French fries.  Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos.

You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States.  The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald's. Most are chain restaurants.  That means each one is part of a huge company.

Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away.  Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods.  Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain.

The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen forties.  Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant.  They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers.

People stood outside the restaurant at a window.  They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat.  They received and paid for their food very quickly.  The food came in containers that could be thrown away.  The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices.

Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies.  He recognized the importance of the McDonald brothers' idea.  He saw that food sales could be organized for mass production -- almost like a factory.  Mr. Kroc paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several restaurants similar to theirs.  He opened the first McDonald's restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five.  Soon, more McDonald's were opening all across the United States.  Other people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed.

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Raymond Albert Kroc was a very wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen eighty-four.  But he had not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in nineteen-oh-two.  His parents were not rich.  He attended school in Oak Park, near Chicago.  Ray never completed high school, however.  He left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One.  He lied about his age to be accepted.  He was only fifteen. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe.

After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player.  He played with famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty.  Then he began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups.  He kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the southern state of Florida.  That business failed.  Ray Kroc remembered driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed.  He said: "I will never forget that drive as long as I live.  The streets were covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing.  When I arrived home I was very cold and had no money."

Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Company.  He was responsible for product sales in the central United States.  His life improved when he started a small business that sold restaurant supplies.  He sold a machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time.

In nineteen fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was using eight of his machines.  He went there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers, French fries and drinks.

At first, Mr. Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the sales of his mixers to more restaurants.  Then he proposed an agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants.  Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a percentage of all sales.

The first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five.  Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age when many people start thinking about retirement.  He opened two restaurants.  Soon he began to understand that the real profits were made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers.  He quickly sold the mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of McDonald's restaurants.

In nineteen-sixty, Mr. Kroc bought the legal rights to the restaurants from the McDonald brothers.  By then, the chain had more than two hundred restaurants.

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Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because of franchising.  Franchising means selling the legal right to operate a store in a company's chain to an independent business person.  If the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store for a period of years.

Many people want to own a McDonald's restaurant, but only a few are approved.  Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from the parent company.  Each restaurant also gives the company about ten percent of the money it earns in sales.  Today, about seventy percent of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women.

Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted.  He knew that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes.  He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices, friendly service and no waiting.  And all McDonald's restaurants sold the same food in every restaurant across the country.

Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald's restaurants were to operate.  He demanded that every restaurant offer "quality, service and cleanliness."  People lucky enough to get a franchise must complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University.  They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the building clean.  More than sixty-five thousand people have completed this training.

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McDonald's began to expand around the world in nineteen sixty-seven.  Ray Kroc's business ability made McDonald's the largest restaurant company in the world.  There are now more than thirty thousand McDonald's restaurants on six continents.

The company operates in about one hundred twenty countries.  Every day, McDonald's restaurants around the world serve about fifty million people.

In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a private organization that gives money to help others.  He also established a number of centers that offer support to families of children who have cancer.  They are called Ronald McDonald houses.

Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company's success and good works.  But other people sharply criticized him for the way McDonald's treated young employees.  Many of the workers were paid the lowest wage permitted by American law.  Health experts still criticize McDonald's food for containing too much fat and salt.

In the nineteen seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from hamburgers to sports.  He bought a professional baseball team in California, the San Diego Padres.  He died in nineteen eighty-four.  He was eighty-one years old.

That first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was torn down.  It was replaced by a store and visitors center that attempts to copy what was in the original building.  Another museum in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc.  Ray Kroc's story remains an important part of McDonald's history. And his way of doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that feed people around the world.

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This program was written by George Grow.  Lawan Davis was the producer.  I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.  Join us again next week for anotherPEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English.