“Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All”
Song by Ray Charles
“Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All” is a sexy, sly country song from Ray’s 1983 album Wish You Were Here Tonight; it was also released as a single. Originally recorded by Merle Haggard in 1977 and by George Jones in 1978, it’s a straight-up country tune on this first album for Columbia, showing that Brother Ray was indeed, as the press releases were saying, dipping his toes into true country music, and not the ostentatiously orchestral “country” that made him so famous in the early 1960s.
On “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All”, Ray sings critically to his former lover, whose memory keeps popping up even as his new relationship seems to be going swimmingly. He’ll be talking with or touching his new love, but the memory of his ex will, unbidden, materialize – oh, how could she? Doesn’t the memory of her have any shame at all?!
It’s a quintessentially country sentiment: an almost childish whine about some obscure cri du coeur, a mundane and personal tale recounted in comically abstruse terms.
As a country song, “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All” is more “authentic” than Ray Charles’ 1960s country: it’s updated, and well inside the establishment sound of 1980s Nashville. Ray plays a real piano (not his beloved electric piano), and Buddy Emmons’ steel guitar drips like silver into the cracks of the resolutely sparse and laid-back band, arranged by James Pulk.
Ray always had to put his own stamp on everything he did, and the solo in “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All” is one of the strangest of his entire career: split into two halves, it begins with a multi-tracked Ray Charles singing falsetto wah-wahs and bellowing field hollers; he then gives way to a crisp harmonica that meanders through the main vocal melody to finish out the solo. It’s an odd moment but a welcome one, underscoring the humor of the lyric and positively screaming “RAY!”
Ultimately, “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All” is a charmingly played and sung piece of light, relaxed country soul. It was released as the third single from Wish You Were Here Tonight in August 1983 (Columbia 4083); its B-side was “I Don’t Want No Stranger Sleepin’ In My Bed”, also from the album.
Single releases
Listen to “Ain’t Your Memory Got No Pride At All”
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Songs on Wish You Were Here Tonight