“Drown In My Own Tears”

The stunning “Drown In My Own Tears” is one of Ray Charles’ greatest recordings, a moving and impassioned wail amid a dramatic backdrop of strange, uncomfortable chords and sympathetic-cum-mocking female backup singers. “There, there, baby, it’s gonna be all right… you dope…”

“Drown In My Own Tears” was first released in January 1956 as the B-side of “Mary Ann” (Atlantic 1085). It was added to Atlantic’s first Ray Charles LP in June 1957, the compilation Ray Charles.

The song is instantly identifiable from the very first seconds, with Ray’s solo voice emphasizing the hell out of the first word – “It brings a tear” — and then the music sliding in, instantly welling up like the imminent onset of uncontrollable sobbing. “Into my eyyyye…”

The song limps along, from beat to naked beat, as the piano and the brass embroider the melodies with a kind of smooth, unshowy virtuosity.

“Drown In My Own Tears” continues like this; with the lovely and painful music providing a sad counterpoint to Ray’s unbelievably soulful and heartfelt vocals. Each and every word drips with a fierce concentration and unhinged sense of abandonment, the lyrics detailing how the singer has been so sad since she left that he is liable to commit the cartoonish (and apparently accidental) suicide hinted at in the title.

Ray’s pitiful philosophizing about how rain must fall into each person’s life at times just makes it all the more tough to listen to him — he needs consoling but it’s going to take some time. His vocal performance, which often twists words and phrases into a strangled yell, is mesmerizing. The Raelets echo his words — “droooown in my own tears” — softening the sound but offering no particular balm.

It’s said that Ray’s band around this time were highly annoyed at the slow pace he insisted upon when playing this song live. That’s their problem though – Ray knew what he and the song both needed to get by.

Ray and drowning

Ray often exhibited a morbid gallows humor in his music. As a young boy in Greenville, Florida, before going blind, he watched his little brother George drown in a washtub, an especially traumatic event in a childhood full of them. And now here he is singing about drowning himself by crying over a failed relationship. (He did the same thing in “Misery In My Heart” on a pre-Atlantic 78 rpm record, which begins “I’m going down to the river and drown myself.”)

How could he sing these words? What was going through his mind? Did the word “drown” hold a special, haunted meaning for him, as it seems it must have?

The back story of Ray’s life makes “Drown In My Own Tears” a nearly unbearable listening experience, which it may be if it weren’t so crushingly beautiful and real.

“Drown In My Own Tears” is a signature song from Ray’s career, and is often included on his many compilation albums. The best place to get it in its original form is an Atlantic 45 or even 78, or on the 1957 Ray Charles compilation album.

Single releases

Listen to “Drown In My Own Tears”

Get your own “Drown In My Own Tears” on 45, LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon. Or get the complete Atlantic recordings 7xCD box set.