Brother Ray, Albany Born

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
You sat there in Mr. Wiley Pitman's store,
that old upright on the creaky floorboards,
Greenville, Florida, 1935,
pine sap heavy in the summer air.
I was five, Ray Charles Robinson,
born September 23, 1930, Albany,
in the wooden house on Henry Street,
The Bottom where the heat pressed down.
Your keys, worn ivory, called to me,
before the glaucoma took the light.

[Chorus]
Oh piano, you were my first love,
fingers dancing blind across your frame,
fusing gospel shouts with rhythm's ache,
from Aretha's kitchen fire at dawn,
to the statue now at Dougherty Courthouse.
Georgia on My Mind, state song since '79,
your notes still echo in my blood.

[Verse 2]
Orphaned at fifteen, 1945,
Aretha gone, her biscuits cold on the tin plate,
Greyhound bus to Jacksonville,
harmonica in my pocket, your memory in my hands.
I played you like ribs, kidneys, heart,
music force already in me,
blending sacred moans with secular swing,
The Genius they called me later.

[Bridge]
Under Pitman's porch, mimicking the Wurlitzer,
nickels in my cap, pine dust on my knees,
blind by seven, but you gave me sight,
through touch, through sound, through the trembling earth.

[Chorus]
Oh piano, you were my first love,
fingers dancing blind across your frame,
fusing gospel shouts with rhythm's ache,
from Aretha's kitchen fire at dawn,
to the statue now at Dougherty Courthouse.
Georgia on My Mind, state song since '79,
your notes still echo in my blood.

[Outro]
Albany born, Beverly Hills end, June 10, 2004,
but you, old upright, you're eternal,
in the plaza bronze, keys forever waiting.