“A Perfect Love”
Song by Ray Charles
The wistful, self-reflecting ballad “A Perfect Love”, written by Paul Williams, was the last song on Side 1 of Ray Charles’ 1972 LP Through The Eyes Of Love. Melodic and lilting, the song features a somber-sounding Ray in front of a breezy Sid Feller arrangement and, for the intro and one of the verses, a swirling, angelic choir.
“A Perfect Love” first appeared on Paul Williams’ 1971 album Just An Old Fashioned Love Song, whose title track provided a hit for Three Dog Night. For its part, “A Perfect Love” must have appealed to Ray due to its irresistible, heartache-betraying melodic touches. Something in the prickly paleness of the music and in Ray’s accessible but distracted-sounding voice hints that the Genius related strongly to the song.
It would help me if I thought you might remember me
Not for what I’ve done
But for the other things I’d always meant to do
– “A Perfect Love”
At the age of 42, his biggest hits behind him and his records selling far fewer than they once did, Ray Charles infuses his performance here with a vague melancholia, a humble thanks tinged with hints of regret and maybe a tentatively hopeful promise.
“A Perfect Love” really shines thanks to Williams’ structure: lines seem to end but are unexpectedly continued in the next part of the song, often turning on the word “and”. It happens over and over, and is very effective in tugging the listener along. Just when you think Ray will stop singing for a little musical interlude, he doesn’t: the interlude comes all right, but there is more he wants to say. It reflects the confessional slant of the lyrics – “wait, there’s more, I’m not done, and another thing…”
Nobody ever accused Ray Charles of failing to take chances and do things his own way, and he dares you to mock him when he actually whispers the line “there’s nothing wrong with rainbows” early in the song. Nothing wrong with rainbows?? Is this the same guy who lunged and leered through “What’d I Say”? Who jettisoned Jesus for a kept woman in the lurid lyrics of “I’ve Got A Woman”? Who’d threatened to decapitate an unfaithful lover with an axe he bought at the hardware store in “Understanding” just four years prior?
Indeed it is. Ray could still do that sort of stuff – after all, he would go on to make more soft orchestral music like “A Perfect Love”, and a bunch of snappy R&B gems, plus more besides after 1972 – but here he is just explaining his feelings of the moment. Not giving you what you want but what he needs to give you.
And that is what the world requires of its artists – for them to express themselves, not to satisfy our whimsical needs. On “A Perfect Love”, Ray Charles shares some welcome glimpses into his current state of mind and the music he happens to be feeling at the moment. The results are gorgeous.
Listen to “A Perfect Love”
Songs on Through The Eyes Of Love