“I Love You More Than I Ever Have”

Ray Charles is having a hell of a lot of fun on “I Love You More Than I Ever Have”, a synthesizer- and keyboard-led song from his 2002 CD Thanks For Bringing Love Around Again. Written by Billy Osborne, who wrote most of the songs on the album, “I Love You More Than I Ever Have” bursts with a spirit of reinvigoration.

In the lyrics of “I Love You More Than I Ever Have”, Ray sings a joyous thank you to a woman whose own love brought him back from the edge of despair. He had given up on love, he explains – had become a “man who was tired of living” – and had assumed that “love and I was through”. But as soon as he first kissed her, it all came flooding back, and now he is “about as happy as I can be” because, really and truly, love is powerful and what everybody needs.

Although the song is apparently a thank-you note to a woman, it is really, at heart, a love song to love itself. The woman was the vessel through which love passed back into his life, but love is the object of devotion in this song. Ray Charles had had more than his share of experiences in love, however you define it; it’s a tribute to his artistry and genius that he could infuse a love song with such an effortless philosophical bent.

The music behind Ray’s exultant vocals is all computer-driven: keyboards and synthesizers, arranged by Osborne and played in part or wholly by Ray (the liner notes are stingy with the details). “I Love You More Than I Ever Have” is an irrepressibly upbeat tune, driven by fast taka-taka-taka electronic drums and a complex mixture of warbles, tones, and various exciting sounds. Although the song is rather long – over five minutes – the music doesn’t ever sink into monotony, because there are so many different things coming and going, and because the listener is transfixed on Ray Charles’ vocals anyway.

Sounding truly convincing on each word, Ray’s vocal performance is fantastic on “I Love You More Than I Ever Have”. Ray recorded this song when he was about 72 years old, and getting such a youthful, bouncy growl from a wise old voice of experience could only be done if the lyrics rang true for him. They obviously do here – like much of the album it came from, this song is a direct message to forces that had driven and shaped his long and illustrious life. He sounds excited and young again because that’s how he felt.

In the liner notes to the Thanks For Bringing Love Around Again CD, the printed lyrics of “I Love You More Than I Ever Have” are incomplete for some reason, missing the fourth verse after Ray Charles’ funky-but-restrained keyboard solo. It is:

We should plan a vacation for you and me
There’s a whole big wide world for us to see
We’ll take a cruise and when we get the notion
We’ll make love right there on the ocean
We’ll do anything that our minds think of
We’ll be together and so much in love
There is nothing I would not do for you
‘Cause I love you more than I ever have

Sharing in the joyousness is a chorus of Raelets – actually, one Raelet, Katrina Harper Clarke, her voice overdubbed to create a group of ladies. (Ray always liked a group of ladies, vocally in his songs and otherwise.) Clarke answers some of Ray’s lines, repeating them and reminding the listener that Ray couldn’t have done it without her.

Because the album it came from was never released on vinyl, “I Love You More Than I Ever Have” is one of the few Ray Charles songs not available on any record. But copies of the CD are easily located, and even new shouldn’t cost too much. It’s certainly worth it – songs like this one show Ray the old master, turning his ever-cool hand to a groove and an emotion with boundless soul and energy.

Listen to “I Love You More Than I Ever Have”

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