Ray Charles: 'As Frank Sinatra Said, He Was The Only True Genius In Our Business'

FOR ALL PRACTICAL purposes, Ray Charles invented modern soul music. By fusing the sensual and secular preoccupations of the blues and the galvanic fervour of gospel, he created a sublime blasphemy which was at once the initiation of one of the past century's most vital music forms, and a potent metaphor for the Civil Rights struggle: that spiritual passion can righteously be applied to secular ends.