Danny Ray

February 9, 2021 4:38 PM

In what became an iconic part of Brown’s concerts, Ray would walk onstage mid-“Please, Please, Please” and drape Brown with a cape, only for the singer to explode out of the cape with a second wind.

Danny Ray, 'cape man' and emmcee for James Brown, has died at 85.

The Augusta Chronicle, Ray's hometown paper:

"The people would love it. They go crazy just seeing him walk out on stage," he said. “A lot of people didn’t know him personally, but they see him on stage, they’d say, ‘That’s James Brown’s cape man.'"

Alex Abramovich, LRB:

A minute later, he’s on his knees again. The backing singer Bobby Bennett walks over and pats Brown’s back, as you would a baby’s. Dressed in a dark, immaculate suit, Ray walks out of the wings and drapes a long cape over Brown’s shoulders. ‘You’ve done enough,’ the gesture says. ‘You’ve done more than enough.’

James Brown sings 'Please Please Please', to a live audience, at the TAMI show, 1964.

posted by Fiasco da Gama (14 comments total)

Thank you for posting this! As someone who grew up in and still lives in Augusta, this was big news here. My Facebook feed was full of friends posting pics of themselves with Mr. Ray over the years. I thought about posting an obit thread myself, but didn’t know if anyone would be interested. Glad to see him get some recognition for all he did to help Mr. Brown become the incredible performer he was.
posted by TedW at 4:49 PM on February 9, 2021 [5 favorites]

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posted by jim in austin at 5:07 PM on February 9, 2021

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posted by adekllny at 5:33 PM on February 9, 2021

Together again in Soul Heaven.
posted by Capt. Renault at 5:42 PM on February 9, 2021

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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 6:34 PM on February 9, 2021

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posted by droplet at 6:57 PM on February 9, 2021

I was lucky enough to see James Brown in '99 at a music festival outside of Austin. I honestly don't remember much of the show or if Ray was there, but I imagine he probably was. I can't recall the details, but I do have a very pleasant memory-hole where they should be, so I know that if he was there, I loved it, and that's good enough.

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The coolest thing in the world would be for Morris Day's valet Jerome to do a tribute of some sort.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:27 PM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

James Brown sings 'Please Please Please', to a live audience, at the TAMI show, 1964 yt .

Thanks for the link. I've seen The TAMI Show more than once, although I never knew Danny Ray's name until today. Odd to be simultaneously iconic and largely anonymous.

I was thinking about the movie this week: I was talking to my dad about vanished movie theatres in the city we grew up in and I learned that a year before he met my mom, he went on New Year's Day with a date to see The TAMI Show at the now long-defunct Tivoli on James Street.

My dad went to the same high school as I did, and his childhood house was my grandparents' house until circa 2000, but this is really the only time before I was born that I know exactly where and when I could locate him when I get my hands on a time machine.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:14 PM on February 9, 2021 [6 favorites]

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posted by SageLeVoid at 12:25 AM on February 10, 2021

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posted by Gelatin at 4:12 AM on February 10, 2021

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posted by AugustWest at 10:08 AM on February 10, 2021

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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 1:54 PM on February 10, 2021

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posted by detachd at 2:52 PM on February 10, 2021

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posted by HeroZero at 4:32 PM on February 10, 2021