大象传媒

Another chance to hear Stuart Maconie's profile of the man known to millions as 'The Genius'.

Ray Charles was a man of many talents - a towering musician, a free-lover and free thinker, a superb chess player, an infamously tough boss and fierce competitor. He had his critics - the church for one railed against Ray's gospel inspired soul, branding it suggestive and vulgar - but he remained unstoppable. During a career spanning five decades, he remained in complete control over his life and music, producing an outstanding body of work across a dizzying array of genres.

This examination is a no-holds-barred account of the turbulent life and work of a musical icon, from his poverty stricken childhood in the Southern States of America to the onset of blindness as a child, through his struggle against racial prejudice and drug addiction.

In the second episode charts Ray's journey through his international superstardom of the 1960s, his legal woes and becoming 'invisible' during the 1970s, before his re-emergence as a musical icon in the 1980s and 90s, right up until his death in 2004. Featuring contributions from Ray's biographer Michael Lydon, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sir Elton John, Dr John, Jerry Wexler and Ray Charles himself.

This series first aired on Radio 2 in the summer of 2000.