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Liner Notes

A weekly column by Tribune pop music critic Curtis Ross

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By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

An old "Saturday Night Live" skit concerned Ray Charles recording his 1959 hit "What'd I Say" and an attempt to add sugary background vocals by The Young Caucasians. Much hilarity ensued.

A year after the actual recording of "What'd I Say," though, Charles used a backing chorus not unlike the fictional Young Caucasians on "Georgia On My Mind."

Hearing "Georgia" the other day, I wondered whether I'd like the song more without those vocals. I don't think I would. They're part of a song I've heard my whole life.

But the fact that I even had to think about it says something about critics' and other music snobs' obsession with authenticity.

When white, middle-class rock fans "discover" 50-year-old country and blues records, they start obsessing about how "real" they sound, and how pure the artists must have been, unsullied by commercial considerations.

Besides the condescending race and class considerations, the premise is false. Charles wasn't striving for authenticity. He was trying to make hit records. Same with Hank Williams, Muddy Waters and Bill Monroe. Their music still sounds great because they were trying to make records other people would want to hear. And buy.

It reminds me of seeing Johnny Cash in 1995. His most recent album then was the solo-acoustic "American Recordings."

I thought I'd be seeing the "real" Cash, playing stark, solo versions of his most soul-piercing ballads. Well, I did see the real Cash. He put on a show. He and his band played the hits. June Carter Cash did a stand-up routine. The Carter Family sang gospel.

"American Recordings" was a side of Cash, but so was being an entertainer. And he wasn't going to change his act just because some hipsters-come-lately thought they knew what he was supposed to sound like.

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