“Separate Ways”
Song by Ray Charles
On “Separate Ways” from his 1996 album Strong Love Affair, Ray Charles offers up a vocal performance that proves he still had all his powers, even as he approached his 70th birthday. Dense and slow-moving, “Separate Ways” is an orchestrated performance that allows Ray’s believably emotional singing center stage. It’s a mesmerizing moment.
The music was recorded in Paris and in Norway, and I’m not sure Ray was present for any of these sessions. One Kjetil Berkestrand gets credit for arranging “Separate Ways” and for playing keyboards and programming the drum machine – and if someone else is playing keyboards on a Ray Charles record, that’s quite an honor indeed, and would seem to suggest that Ray wasn’t needed.
Our man did record his vocals at his long-time R.P.M. Studios in Los Angeles, though. Presumably he received the backing track and did his thing over the top with his own microphones in his own studio, where he felt most comfortable. Unlike some other songs on Strong Love Affair, Ray did not produce or mix “Separate Ways”, which was written by Paul Breslin and Pierre Papadiamandis.
Although the instrumental mix of this track features synthetic, “modern” sounds, it is the Berkestrand-arranged string section – violins, viola, and cellos – that dominate. The strings are lugubrious and solid, flowing like molasses through the dramatic, minor-key song. They’re never not there, but they don’t do any fancy soloing or trilling either: just long, continuous notes, like a relationship drying up and finally slithering away into the dark ground.
The bass of Brad Lang is mixed somewhat higher, adding to the modern feel of “Separate Ways”, and a short, funky little keyboard break towards the end has the same effect.
In the middle of it all, though, is Ray Charles and his remarkable voice. Warm but hurt, expressive but mystifying, Ray’s great vocal instrument is masterful in establishing, exploring, and explicating the emotions suggested by the lyrics, which recognize and lament that a couple is growing irredeemably apart. “The facts are so unfair,” weeps Ray in one memorable line. Without even knowing exactly what those facts may be, the listener is able to feel their unfairness too.