The greatest showmen cannot do this alone. They need someone like cover handler Danny Ray, who died on Tuesday at the age of 85, to take care of their mortal needs.
Who takes charge during an emotional breakdown on stage when, for example, soul singer James Brown passes out in a cold sweat and needs his cover? Who takes the blazer and cleans it when life oppresses Brown a second time, then a third time?
For more than 45 years, the servant Ray ran to help the Godfather of Soul during that culminating moment, in the process playing a crucial role as a co-star in Brown’s magnetic show. Whenever Brown passed out with feigned sadness during the song “Please, Please, Please”, Ray was there to comfort Brown (just in case he passed out from despair).
Ray’s death was announced on Wednesday by the James Brown Estate. Describing him in a statement as “James Brown’s legendary emcee and foreman,” the statement calls Ray “the second hardest-working man in show business.”
The Augusta Chronicle, Ray’s hometown newspaper in Georgia, reported that he died of natural causes.
James Brown backstage at the Harlem Apollo Theater with Danny Ray in 1964.
(Michael Ochs Archives)
Ray did not attend a posh butler gym, but he got his job while at a prestigious venue: the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. As recounted in “The One: James Brown’s Life and Music,” RJ Smith’s definitive biography, Birmingham, born in the Ward. Ray moved to New York after leaving the army and started spending nights there as a fan.
“I used to go to the top of Apollo, the place they call the ‘crow’s nest’, and watch the show,” Ray told Smith. “For myself, I would say, if I could just get there.”
Well-dressed Ray had the chance when Brown hired him to introduce the showman to the shows. After Brown’s band, The Famous Flames, stimulated the audience with an extended instrumental rhythm, Ray went to the microphone to raise Brown to a metaphorical throne and present his sanctity.
“Right now, it’s time for the stars. Are you ready for the hour of the stars? Asked Ray.
But it was as Brown’s servant and client that Ray earned his place in American cultural history. According to Brown, the dramatic dramas next to the ring of professional fighter “Gorgeous George” Wagner served as inspiration. The well-groomed Gorgeous George, a chic guy with golden hair, wore Victorian dandy clothes, often including a velvet cape, when he went to the ring.
Brown’s expansion of the idea brought this type of melodrama to his “Please, Please, Please” moment, writes Smith, and changed the whole ensemble. “From the first time he used it, the show was changed by the cover; it made him look bizarre and grandly religious. This made him a victim and a champion, running in chains that alternated weakness with raw power. It said he gave us everything: the cover number showed that and showed that everything was bottomless. ”
Danny Ray holds the cover of the late James Brown at the Grammy Awards in February 2007.
(Michael Caulfield / WireImage file)
Despite what Brown said, Ray had a different memory of the cover’s origin story as a comfort. In his memory, the cover began as a towel with which he wrapped an overheated brown after “Please, please”.
“[H]he would be drenched in sweat and one thing I should do is hand him a towel, ”Ray said to Smith, adding that some clubs were so small that they often stayed outside the stage.
“It was, like, our little joke, in the beginning. I placed the Turkish towel on it; he would start and come back and sing some more, ”Ray added. “People could see from their seats. People started to notice and it just became something. “
Backstage, Ray was responsible for ensuring a perfect pre-show for his pupil. “My military training made me on time. I don’t think Brown was able to find anyone to shine his shoes and clean the five changes of clothing he had. “
Ray’s most prominent star came in 1964 when, at the Santa Monica Civic Center during the filming of the variety show “The TAMI Show”, Brown and the Famous Flames tore up “Please, Please, Please”. In a bill that included sets from the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and Leslie Gore, Brown’s appeal to a former lover took teenagers to a higher realm. Was the singer really falling apart?
In the video “TAMI Show”, Ray expresses concern as if it were Shakespeare’s Balthasar comforting a pale and wild Romeo. When Our Hero falls to his knees – “Please! Please! Please! “- the valet looks genuinely concerned. He wraps the cloak around Brown, takes him by the shoulder and pats him on the back. But no. The rejection is too much to bear. Brown takes off the cloak. Ray gives step back to allow your boss to suffer.
James Brown, “Please, Please, Please” at The Tami Show in 1964. His servant, Danny Ray, died.
When the singer removes another layer, his blazer, Ray gathers it and hangs it over his arm with the cape and takes a step back again. Brown falls again. Thinking he must be cold – he’s out of his blazer! – Ray is there with the cover and a hug.
Ray was not just Brown’s savior on stage. Backstage, he accompanied Brown’s wardrobe and always made sure the cape matched the outfit.
“He told me the color of the suits, the color of the covers, just before the shows,” Ray told Smith. “I kept them safe with me and I never lost sight of them, because I knew what they represented.”
On social media, fans lined up to praise Ray’s role. Rev. Al Sharpton wrote: “He was like an uncle to me while I was traveling the world years ago with the godfather of the soul. Danny will never be forgotten. Rest in peace and power, family. ”
Bootsy Collins, a former bassist for James Brown’s JB’s in the early 1970s, called Ray a “legend”.
Even after Brown’s death, Ray continued to attend to his boss’s needs. A resident, like Brown, from Augusta, Georgia, he was present at Brown’s memorial service in 2006, where he wrapped Brown’s body with a cape embroidered with the phrase “The Godfather of the Soul”.
A year later, during a tribute to Brown at the 49th Grammy Awards, Ray hung the cover over a single microphone.