Price, born in Perryville, Texas, served with the U.S. Marines from 1944–1946, and began singing for KRBC in Abilene, Texas during 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree in Dallas in 1949. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.
In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were; Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck and Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons, Pete Wade, Jan Kurtis, Shorty Lavender and Buddy Spicher. Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song "Night Life".
Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me". He later developed the famous "Ray Price Shuffle," a 4/4 arrangement of honky tonk music with a walking bassline, which can be heard on "Crazy Arms" (1956) and many of his other recordings from the late 1950s.
During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called Nashville sound, singing slow ballads and utilizing lush arrangements of strings and backing singers. Examples include his 1967 rendition of "Danny Boy", and "For the Good Times" in 1970 which was Price's first country music chart No. 1 hit since "The Same Old Me" in 1959. Written by Kris Kristofferson, the song also scored No. 11 on the popular music chart and featured a mellower Price backed by sophisticated musical sounds, quite in contrast to the honky tonk sounds Price had pioneered two decades before. Price had three more No. 1 country music successes during the 1970s: "I Won't Mention It Again", "She's Got To Be A Saint", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me." His final top ten hit was "Diamonds In The Stars" in early 1982. Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Later, he sang gospel music and recorded such songs as "Amazing Grace", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Farther Along" and "Rock of Ages."
In 2006, Price was living near Mount Pleasant, Texas and still performing in concerts throughout the country. In 2009, Price made two performances for the Fox News show Huckabee. The first was with the Cherokee Cowboys and host Mike Huckabee, and he performed "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches By The Number". Weeks later he performed with the Cherokee Cowboys and Willie Nelson (again with Huckabee playing bass guitar). This time they performed duets of "Faded Love" and "Crazy."
Price worked on his latest album, Last of the Breed, with fellow country music singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. This album was released on March 20, 2007 by the company Lost Highway Records. The two-disc set features 20 country classics as well as a pair of new compositions. The trio toured the U.S. from March 9 until March 25 starting in Arizona and finishing in Illinois. This was Price's third album with Nelson and first album with Haggard. After the tour, Haggard remarked, "I told Willie when it was over, 'That old man gave us a goddamn singing lesson.' He really did. He just sang so good. He sat there with the mic against his chest. And me and Willie are all over the microphone trying to find it, and he found it."
On November 6, 2012, Ray Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he had been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months. An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Said Price, "That's not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that." The 87-year-old Country Music Hall of Famer also told the newspaper, "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!" Price retained a positive outlook and hoped to play as many as a hundred concert dates in 2013.
As of early February 2013, the cancer appeared to be in remission. Sometime in May 2013, Price was hospitalized with severe dehydration. On December 2, 2013, Price entered a Tyler, Texas, hospital in the final stages of pancreatic cancer, according to his son, then left on December 12 for home hospice care. Price died at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, on December 16, 2013.
Rose Colored Glasses
Ray Price Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A perfect kind of love is what you want from me
If I could I'd gladly give you more
But I know that I can never paint for you
The rosie pictures you are searching for
You're wearing rose colored glasses
Cause you only want to see the brighter sight
You're wearing rose colored glasses
Cause someone hurt you so
And rose colored glasses help you hide
[ steel ]
You're wearing rose colored glasses
Everywhere you go
Cause you only want to see the brighter side
You're wearing rose colored glasses
Cause someone hurt you so
And rose colored glasses help you hide
Ray Price's "Rose Colored Glasses" is an insightful song that analyzes the dark yet hopeful perspective of a person who wears rose-colored glasses, which means they see the world in a positive light despite all negative aspects and hurdles. The songs starting lines are about the demand of perfect love from the singer's end. The metaphorical image of painting rosy pictures in the second line symbolizes the singer's inability to give the beloved what they want. The singer acknowledges their own shortcomings and limitations, and that they will not be able to provide the perfect love the beloved seeks.
The refrain explains the character of the significant other's perspective of the world by highlighting the line, "You’re wearing rose-colored glasses," repeated twice. It shows that the individual maintains positivity in life despite the pain and hurt inflicted upon them by someone close to them. The stanza's final line, "and rose-colored glasses help you hide," suggests that despite the positive outlook, the person is still in pain and trauma, but their glasses help them mask these emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
A perfect kind of love is what you want from me
You desire the kind of love that is ideal and flawless
If I could I'd gladly give you more
I would willingly go above and beyond to fulfill your desires if I could
But I know that I can never paint for you
However, I understand that it is impossible for me to create the romantic and optimistic imagery that you seek
The rosie pictures you are searching for
The idyllic images that you yearn for
You're wearing rose colored glasses
You view the world through an optimistic lens, disregarding all negativity
Everywhere you go
In every circumstance you find yourself in
Cause you only want to see the brighter sight
Because you choose to only focus on the positive aspects of things
Cause someone hurt you so
You have been hurt in the past
And rose colored glasses help you hide
Wearing these optimistic views helps you cope with and conceal the pain from that past hurt
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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