“I’ve Got A Woman”
Song by Ray Charles
You can trace Ray Charles’ career as far back as you want, but it was “I’ve Got A Woman” from December 1954 that really broke music open wide for him and prophesied the unique relationship he had and would explore with his muse.
“I’ve Got A Woman” was released on a 45 as Atlantic 1050, credited to “Ray Charles and His Band”; its B-side was “Come Back”. When both songs were included on Ray’s first album, which collected previously-released singles, the two songs were retitled as “I Got A Woman” and “Come Back, Baby”.
“It Must Be Jesus”
While touring the South on the back of a few hits for his new label Atlantic, Ray and his band listened to black gospel radio stations, and throughout 1954 heard “It Must Be Jesus” by The Southern Tones. Ray knew gospel music well, but made a remarkable choice when adapting this one to his own liking: he removed the religious words and replaced them with ones that bragged about the woman he kept across town. Oh the outrage!
Ray and his bandmate Renald Richard stole the beat and the melody from “It Must Be Jesus” wholesale, and much of its general feel and arrangement, but upped the freewheeling wildness of it, completely jettisoning any spiritual feel the original had and pointedly giving it a winking, raucous feel.
It may have shocked some religious folks, but “I’ve Got A Woman”, sped up and with its proto-rock ‘n’ roll backing, introduced a whole new type of thing in American music: a kind of compelling secular southern R&B-cum-rock. Ray revels in his delicious hedonism, revealing the details of his most enviable situation:
She gives me money when I’m in need
She’s a kind of “friend indeed”She saves her lovin’ just for me
Oh yeah she loves me so tenderly
What’s more, she never runs around and knows that “a woman’s place is right there in her home”. So it went in the 1950s.
Everything about the song is gospel, except the message. And the gulf between those things is the point: nobody had done anything quite like this before. It must definitely not be Jesus!
Recording
“I’ve Got A Woman” was recorded on November 18, 1954 at a radio station, of all places: WGST in Atlanta, Georgia, just a couple hours up the road from where Ray was born in Albany in 1930. WGST stood for Georgia School of Technology (as Georgia Tech was known in 1923 when the call letters were assigned). WGST, then at 920 AM but now 640 AM, was the first home of rock and roll in Atlanta; it now has a talk radio format.
“I’ve Got A Woman” was a significant hit for Atlantic, and is now considered one of the seminal releases in R&B and in rock history. “I’ve Got A Woman” appears on virtually every Ray Charles best-of album, of which there is an overabundance. Artists such as Elvis and the Beatles covered this song, and it continues to cast a long shadow over the pop music landscape.
Live versions of “I’ve Got A Woman”
Ray Charles At Newport
As “I Got A Woman”, Ray Charles included a live version of this song on his 1958 album Ray Charles At Newport. Stretching over six minutes, Ray begins this recording with an epic tease, a slow, bluesy voice-and-piano lament about how sometimes he feels so worried. But it’s all right, he assures the crowd – “beeeeeeeeeeeecause [sudden band with fast tempo] I got a woman way over town that’s good to me” (or, as he extemporizes later, “I got a woman right here in Newport”). The band is more together, and noticeably wilder, than on the original. What else would you expect from Ray Charles, circa 1958 in a live setting?
The last half of this recording is a punchy jam, the band hurtling along with a nice key change and with Ray scatting and finding new melodies to match the players. One imagines the crowd having no choice but to get up and dance the evening away during this one.
Live In Concert
Yet another live version, recorded in 1964, was released on the 1965 Live In Concert album as “I Gotta Woman”; this one was also released as a single (ABC 10649), the six-minute track broken up onto the 45’s two sides, and managed to chart just as the original had done.
This time, Ray begins with a short snatch of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” before beginning his usual tease: “Whoa, you know sometimes … that I get a little worried now,” he mopes, with real sorrow, but it’s too late: the crowd, likely familiar with the Newport LP version or having seen Ray in concert before, know what’s coming and they’re incongruously cheering Ray’s apparent pity.
“I want y’all to know,” he sings slowly. “What’s that, Ray?” someone in the crowd shouts excitedly. “That – I got a woman!” comes the payoff, and they band is off and running. The band is fantastic, and it’s clear that Ray is mesmerizingly familiar and comfortable with the song. It ends with a long, danceable jam as it does on the Newport album, with the intriguing key change and Ray’s continuous vocal improvisations. Ray tests the limits of public acceptance in 1965, too, singing that she doesn’t just make him feel all right, but does so “in my room, in my bed”.
Single releases
“I’ve Got A Woman”
b/w
“Come Back Baby”
“I Gotta Woman” [part 1]
b/w
“I Gotta Woman” [part 2]
Listen to “I’ve Got A Woman”
Get your own “I’ve Got A Woman” on 45, LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon. Or get the complete Atlantic recordings 7xCD box set or the out-of-print complete ABC singles 5xCD box set.
