Hello once more!! I frequent social media sites a lot and within the last several days I've been seeing a lot of video sharing of a certain Ray Stevens music video from 2012 called "Grandpa Voted Democrat". This is one of numerous political comedy videos released by Ray Stevens during what I refer to as his 'political phase' for lack of a better description. It started out of the blue in the final months of 2009 when a video single titled "We The People" hit YouTube and from there it took off like a rocket, as the saying goes. Ray found himself performing in a number of high profile political rallies and events throughout 2010...even appearing on several cable news television programs and talk radio programs.
He found himself back in Branson, Missouri performing a series of concerts at The Welk Theater on the strength of the political music videos. The concerts were broken in two halves in which the first half was a traditional concert filled with Ray's numerous serious and novelty recordings while the second half was strictly a political show where he performed a number of songs that gained their popularity through YouTube.
This videography lists the politically themed music videos, their release date, and unique view count rounded to the nearest hundred thousand or million depending on the level of unique views. In case you were wondering the letter 'K' stands for thousand and the letter 'M' stands for million. As an example: 2010's "Caribou Barbie", a music video about Sarah Palin, has received an estimated 648,000 unique views. 2014's "If You Like Your Plan" has received an estimated 454,000. I'm not posting exact numbers. I've highlighted in bold the music videos that have gotten more than a million unique views and italicized those with more than two million.
1. We The People; 12/11/2009 5.6 M
2. Caribou Barbie; 3/11/2010 648 K
3. Throw the Bums Out; 3/22/2010 1.3 M
4. Come to the U.S.A.; 5/13/2010 10 M
5. The Global Warming Song; 6/29/2010 1.2 M
6. God Save Arizona; 8/4/2010 1.1 M
7. Obama Budget Plan; 4/25/2011 5.2 M
8. Mr. President - Mr. President; 9/27/2011 3.5 M
9. Obama Nation; 7/23/2012 1.4 M
10. Grandpa Voted Democrat; 11/3/2012 2.2 M
11. If You Like Your Plan; 9/22/2014 454 K
12. Nero Fiddled; 10/10/2014 62 K
13. You Didn't Build That; 5/19/2015 401 K
As you can see by looking at the list of Ray Stevens YouTube political comedy music videos almost all of them have well over 100,000 unique views and several more have over 1,000,000. The only politically themed music video to not reach 100,000 or more is 2014's "Nero Fiddled". It's a moving and powerful music video. I'm sure some may have thought it too dramatic or heavy handed and that may have played a role in it's on-line performance...but it's hard to really tell because Ray emerged with "Dear America" a couple of years later. That recording wasn't politically based but it was just as powerful as "Nero Fiddled" and "God Save Arizona". "Dear America", by the way, sits with a little over 363,000 unique views as of this writing. It hit YouTube on September 6, 2016...a couple of months before the Presidential election of Donald Trump. I didn't include it in the list of political music videos because it's a patriotic song. A lot of people want to blend patriotism with their political beliefs but in my opinion those are two separate things.
Anyway, as you can see, I decided to embed "Nero Fiddled" in this blog entry. Ray appears with his back to the camera...and that may have been another reason this particular video clip didn't break loose like the others did.
Now, then, in a much more lighter mood...here's the video clip that's found new life on social media...2012's "Grandpa Voted Democrat"...
Showing posts with label Nero Fiddled. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nero Fiddled. Show all posts
September 3, 2015
Ray Stevens: Video Singles...
There's been a pair of video singles tied to the current Ray Stevens CD, Here We Go Again. The first happened to be "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" and the second, "You Didn't Build That".
The video's are extreme opposites of each other...the first one deals
with the delusions of a man believing Taylor is stalking him because he
sees her everywhere that he happens to be. Ray performed the song several times in the spring of 2015 during some of his appearances...one such being a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry...it happened to be the first time he performed it in concert. Those that had no idea who Ray Stevens happened to be didn't know what to make of the video.
A lot of those confused and at a loss being young kids and teenagers (primarily Taylor's fan base) that more or less had been alerted to the video due to it containing Taylor's name in the title. Some of the more humorless didn't care for the song's festive tempo and levity taking place at a fictional mental institution. It's gotten more than 300,000 views, regardless.
The second video single returned Ray to the political comedy field after an extended hiatus of new material for that genre of entertainment. Prior to the release of "You Didn't Build That" a couple of months ago his last political comedy video arrived a year ago this month in the form of "If You Like Your Plan" (September 22, 2014). It's been seen by more than 120,000 people. "You Didn't Build That" has been seen by close to 50,000 people so far.
I stress that this isn't the heat of a political season, yet, and even though Obama can't run for a third term he nevertheless is going to play a major part in the 2016 election cycle by virtue of his policies being attached to whichever Democrat gets the nomination. If it's Joe Biden expect to see a lot of issues that defined the Obama-Biden Administration to be fair game during the campaign trail in 2016.
Even though Ray's foray into political entertainment came as a surprise and a shock to most people late in 2009 nearly all of the political music videos from him that have appeared on YouTube feature a comical presentation to keep the mood lighthearted even though, if you listen carefully, the lyrics are pointed and actually, serious, but masked behind a comical presentation on video. "You Didn't Build That", his current video single, takes a phrase from one of Obama's speeches and it's turned into a song about Obama's twisted attitude about American business.
Not all of Ray's political videos have been visually comical, though. A couple are deeply serious. In the latter category there's "God Save Arizona" (August 4, 2010) and last year's "Nero Fiddled" (October 10, 2014). The 2010 video's focus happened to be the enormous problem of illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border...more specifically the lawsuit that former Attorney General, Eric Holder, issued against the State of Arizona as a result of their enforcement of their immigration laws.
The 2014 video focuses in on Obama's consistent misplaced priorities and his lack of strong leadership in face of real threats...like the real threat of global terrorism. It's a strong message criticizing Obama's Presidency. "If You Like Your Plan" and "Nero Fiddled", at the moment, are available only as video singles on YouTube.
Share these among your on-line friends if you hadn't done so already... "You Didn't Build That", "Nero Fiddled", and "If You Like Your Plan"...
A lot of those confused and at a loss being young kids and teenagers (primarily Taylor's fan base) that more or less had been alerted to the video due to it containing Taylor's name in the title. Some of the more humorless didn't care for the song's festive tempo and levity taking place at a fictional mental institution. It's gotten more than 300,000 views, regardless.
The second video single returned Ray to the political comedy field after an extended hiatus of new material for that genre of entertainment. Prior to the release of "You Didn't Build That" a couple of months ago his last political comedy video arrived a year ago this month in the form of "If You Like Your Plan" (September 22, 2014). It's been seen by more than 120,000 people. "You Didn't Build That" has been seen by close to 50,000 people so far.
I stress that this isn't the heat of a political season, yet, and even though Obama can't run for a third term he nevertheless is going to play a major part in the 2016 election cycle by virtue of his policies being attached to whichever Democrat gets the nomination. If it's Joe Biden expect to see a lot of issues that defined the Obama-Biden Administration to be fair game during the campaign trail in 2016.
Even though Ray's foray into political entertainment came as a surprise and a shock to most people late in 2009 nearly all of the political music videos from him that have appeared on YouTube feature a comical presentation to keep the mood lighthearted even though, if you listen carefully, the lyrics are pointed and actually, serious, but masked behind a comical presentation on video. "You Didn't Build That", his current video single, takes a phrase from one of Obama's speeches and it's turned into a song about Obama's twisted attitude about American business.
Not all of Ray's political videos have been visually comical, though. A couple are deeply serious. In the latter category there's "God Save Arizona" (August 4, 2010) and last year's "Nero Fiddled" (October 10, 2014). The 2010 video's focus happened to be the enormous problem of illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border...more specifically the lawsuit that former Attorney General, Eric Holder, issued against the State of Arizona as a result of their enforcement of their immigration laws.
The 2014 video focuses in on Obama's consistent misplaced priorities and his lack of strong leadership in face of real threats...like the real threat of global terrorism. It's a strong message criticizing Obama's Presidency. "If You Like Your Plan" and "Nero Fiddled", at the moment, are available only as video singles on YouTube.
Share these among your on-line friends if you hadn't done so already... "You Didn't Build That", "Nero Fiddled", and "If You Like Your Plan"...
April 5, 2015
Ray Stevens: If You Like Your Plan nearing 90,000 views...
Yes, oh yes, it's me once more! It may seem like an eternity but it's only been half a year (!) since I've blogged much about a certain music video from Ray Stevens titled "If You Like Your Plan".
On a personal note my healthcare provider, starting in January 2015, had implemented an out of pocket deductible. In years past I never had to meet any kind of out of pocket deductible in order for my insurance to pay on my prescriptions. However, thanks to Obamacare, I now have to meet a deductible (for individual coverage) and it's already set at a specific amount. It's in the $1,500 range! Some may wonder what my complaint is...it looks like a cheap deductible on the surface, yes?
My prescriptions are through mail-order and they're of the 90-day supply and so I only have to re-fill three to four times a year because each re-fill lasts roughly 3 months. Since there's 12 months in a calendar year and because they've added an out of pocket deductible to my plan I'd pay, in total, a little more than $600 a year...that isn't nowhere near the deductible amount, right?
So, in my situation, I'd be paying for my prescriptions out of pocket all the time because I'd never meet the health insurance's deductible in a calendar year.
Thank you Obama...my healthcare plan changed and I had no say in it whatsoever!!
In one of my last blog entries containing a mention of the music video (from October 2014) it had vaulted past the 30,000 unique view total. The video has continued to find audiences over the last 5 and a half months and currently it's been seen by 88,225 people. This is, of course, a pick-up of more than 50,000 unique views over the course of half a year...
A couple of things to keep in mind is that it had been Ray's first politically-driven comedy music video in more than half a year and so a lot of momentum had cooled down considerably.
"If You Like Your Plan" came from out of nowhere on September 22, 2014...but I find it a timely message...
His previous politically driven music video had been the tale of how "Grandpa Voted Democrat" on November 3, 2012 and so it had been closer to 2 full years between the release of that music video and "If You Like Your Plan" in September 2014.
"Grandpa Voted Democrat", still being discovered, has gotten 602,543 unique views so far.
One of the things that I continue to believe is the reason for "If You Like Your Plan" not reaching the 100,000 level is the lack of strong social media publicity...the video came from out of nowhere but it had been nearly 2 years since the last political comedy video. So, yes, in terms of the internet and the immediacy factor the hiatus of nearly 2 years is an eternity.
He followed "If You Like Your Plan" with another music video, the amazing "Nero Fiddled", a video in which Ray appears with his back to the camera the entire time...sawing away on the fiddle as Rome burns. Photos of political figures in Congress and in entertainment and images of war-torn areas all over the globe appear throughout.
The song's lyrics are amazing, too, and it's a slice of heavy commentary criticizing the policy of the Obama Administration when it comes to the ay in which they prioritize certain issues. The main focus of the song is the criticism of Obama reacting in a lax manner during a time of urgency, for example, or reacting too quickly to a situation before thinking things through. The phrase "Rome burns" is used strictly as a metaphor and it's being used to compare rioting and other chaotic events that had taken place during Obama's time in the Oval Office.
The video's arrival on YouTube, less than a month after "If You Like Your Plan", could have cut into the publicity that the bouncy "If You Like Your Plan" may have enjoyed but in hindsight "Nero Fiddled" didn't exactly capture a large audience (compared to Ray's other music video releases). It debuted on YouTube on October 10, 2014. It had only been something like a week and a half from the release of "If You Like Your Plan" in late September of 2014 before "Nero Fiddled" premiered.
By the latter half of 2014 Ray had moved on to promoting his gospel CD, titled Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Volume One; and his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He promoted these projects heavily and so "Nero Fiddled" didn't get much coverage and "If You Like Your Plan" faded a bit as a result of the heavier attention being focused on those 2 projects.
To date neither song has appeared on any CD...yet! For the time being they're music video exclusives.
Ray may have another political CD on the horizon...but that's just my guess. On his current CD, Here We Go Again!, there's an Obama song on it called "You Didn't Build That". Oh how I'd love to see it transformed into a music video if only for added publicity of the CD! You can purchase the Mp3 single at Amazon by clicking HERE. It's track 9 on the 12 song CD.
For those that read this particular blog entry and don't feel like searching for "Nero Fiddled" or have never even heard of the song/music video until today then click the video embed and watch it...or listen to it...one or the other...
The video's gotten 34,285 unique views and that indicates, to me, that it may be a bit too strong for some but it's an awesome song and video in my opinion. It may have been too strong for social media publicity, too, because very little became of the video's existence after it's initial splash of unique views on debut day. The video begins with a disclaimer and believe it or not the inclusion of a disclaimer actually got some people in a frenzy early on.
I'd seen commentary (long since scrubbed and therefore no longer visible) that blasted Ray for even putting out a video requiring a Viewer Discretion disclaimer. Let me say that the people that have those kinds of comments, in my opinion, have no appreciation for Ray's creativeness or his multiple talents since they want him to limit his output to certain kinds of songs and to never offer anything different...but I'm a different kind of fan.
On this fan created blog page I celebrate all sides of Ray Stevens' career...I don't limit myself to maybe less than a handful of his recordings and ignore everything else he's recorded. So many others do that, though. I've always argued that if you only spotlight a couple of his songs over and over and over the general audience is going to assume that he's only had a couple of hit recordings...but he's placed more than 40 recordings on the charts but yet to focus on 3 or 4 of those 40+ hits does a huge disservice, I think.
His talent goes far beyond camel noises, affected voices, and Tarzan yells and I'm dedicated to making sure that the people that read my blog entries are made well aware of Ray's talents and his variety of music styles and perhaps learn a lot about Ray that they didn't know before coming across my blog page. Although I love his comical talents I also equally enjoy his non-comical recordings, too.
On a personal note my healthcare provider, starting in January 2015, had implemented an out of pocket deductible. In years past I never had to meet any kind of out of pocket deductible in order for my insurance to pay on my prescriptions. However, thanks to Obamacare, I now have to meet a deductible (for individual coverage) and it's already set at a specific amount. It's in the $1,500 range! Some may wonder what my complaint is...it looks like a cheap deductible on the surface, yes?
My prescriptions are through mail-order and they're of the 90-day supply and so I only have to re-fill three to four times a year because each re-fill lasts roughly 3 months. Since there's 12 months in a calendar year and because they've added an out of pocket deductible to my plan I'd pay, in total, a little more than $600 a year...that isn't nowhere near the deductible amount, right?
So, in my situation, I'd be paying for my prescriptions out of pocket all the time because I'd never meet the health insurance's deductible in a calendar year.
Thank you Obama...my healthcare plan changed and I had no say in it whatsoever!!
In one of my last blog entries containing a mention of the music video (from October 2014) it had vaulted past the 30,000 unique view total. The video has continued to find audiences over the last 5 and a half months and currently it's been seen by 88,225 people. This is, of course, a pick-up of more than 50,000 unique views over the course of half a year...
A couple of things to keep in mind is that it had been Ray's first politically-driven comedy music video in more than half a year and so a lot of momentum had cooled down considerably.
"If You Like Your Plan" came from out of nowhere on September 22, 2014...but I find it a timely message...
His previous politically driven music video had been the tale of how "Grandpa Voted Democrat" on November 3, 2012 and so it had been closer to 2 full years between the release of that music video and "If You Like Your Plan" in September 2014.
"Grandpa Voted Democrat", still being discovered, has gotten 602,543 unique views so far.
One of the things that I continue to believe is the reason for "If You Like Your Plan" not reaching the 100,000 level is the lack of strong social media publicity...the video came from out of nowhere but it had been nearly 2 years since the last political comedy video. So, yes, in terms of the internet and the immediacy factor the hiatus of nearly 2 years is an eternity.
He followed "If You Like Your Plan" with another music video, the amazing "Nero Fiddled", a video in which Ray appears with his back to the camera the entire time...sawing away on the fiddle as Rome burns. Photos of political figures in Congress and in entertainment and images of war-torn areas all over the globe appear throughout.
The song's lyrics are amazing, too, and it's a slice of heavy commentary criticizing the policy of the Obama Administration when it comes to the ay in which they prioritize certain issues. The main focus of the song is the criticism of Obama reacting in a lax manner during a time of urgency, for example, or reacting too quickly to a situation before thinking things through. The phrase "Rome burns" is used strictly as a metaphor and it's being used to compare rioting and other chaotic events that had taken place during Obama's time in the Oval Office.
The video's arrival on YouTube, less than a month after "If You Like Your Plan", could have cut into the publicity that the bouncy "If You Like Your Plan" may have enjoyed but in hindsight "Nero Fiddled" didn't exactly capture a large audience (compared to Ray's other music video releases). It debuted on YouTube on October 10, 2014. It had only been something like a week and a half from the release of "If You Like Your Plan" in late September of 2014 before "Nero Fiddled" premiered.
By the latter half of 2014 Ray had moved on to promoting his gospel CD, titled Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Volume One; and his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He promoted these projects heavily and so "Nero Fiddled" didn't get much coverage and "If You Like Your Plan" faded a bit as a result of the heavier attention being focused on those 2 projects.
To date neither song has appeared on any CD...yet! For the time being they're music video exclusives.
Ray may have another political CD on the horizon...but that's just my guess. On his current CD, Here We Go Again!, there's an Obama song on it called "You Didn't Build That". Oh how I'd love to see it transformed into a music video if only for added publicity of the CD! You can purchase the Mp3 single at Amazon by clicking HERE. It's track 9 on the 12 song CD.
For those that read this particular blog entry and don't feel like searching for "Nero Fiddled" or have never even heard of the song/music video until today then click the video embed and watch it...or listen to it...one or the other...
The video's gotten 34,285 unique views and that indicates, to me, that it may be a bit too strong for some but it's an awesome song and video in my opinion. It may have been too strong for social media publicity, too, because very little became of the video's existence after it's initial splash of unique views on debut day. The video begins with a disclaimer and believe it or not the inclusion of a disclaimer actually got some people in a frenzy early on.
I'd seen commentary (long since scrubbed and therefore no longer visible) that blasted Ray for even putting out a video requiring a Viewer Discretion disclaimer. Let me say that the people that have those kinds of comments, in my opinion, have no appreciation for Ray's creativeness or his multiple talents since they want him to limit his output to certain kinds of songs and to never offer anything different...but I'm a different kind of fan.
On this fan created blog page I celebrate all sides of Ray Stevens' career...I don't limit myself to maybe less than a handful of his recordings and ignore everything else he's recorded. So many others do that, though. I've always argued that if you only spotlight a couple of his songs over and over and over the general audience is going to assume that he's only had a couple of hit recordings...but he's placed more than 40 recordings on the charts but yet to focus on 3 or 4 of those 40+ hits does a huge disservice, I think.
His talent goes far beyond camel noises, affected voices, and Tarzan yells and I'm dedicated to making sure that the people that read my blog entries are made well aware of Ray's talents and his variety of music styles and perhaps learn a lot about Ray that they didn't know before coming across my blog page. Although I love his comical talents I also equally enjoy his non-comical recordings, too.
October 23, 2014
Ray Stevens: If You Like Your Plan surpasses 30,000 unique views...
Hello all...although the Ray Stevens music video "If You Like Your Plan" obtained more than 30,000 unique views a couple of days ago I wanted to highlight this in the title of a blog entry and so there you have it. In one of my other blog posts I mentioned that the video had gotten 30,572 views...it's now sitting at 31,809 for a pick-up of 1,237. As I've mentioned several times since the video's debut a month ago on September 22, the subject matter of Obamacare is going to forever be a topic throughout the rest of Obama's time in the White House (through late January 2017!). Obamacare may not be issue #1 or issue #2 on a national level (therefore getting less coverage than before) but it'll forever be an issue of the Obama Administration and so the music video is going to remain timely as the months and years go by.
On the heels of "If You Like Your Plan" there's the ballad "Nero Fiddled". It just keeps getting better the more and more you listen to it. I thought the song was great on first listen but some people need to hear a song several times before it really connects with them. This particular video has gotten 16,760 views since it's October 10th debut. It's arguably the more popular of the 2 YouTube videos at the moment if you consider that in the same time span that seen "If You Like Your Plan" pick up 1,237 additional unique views, "Nero Fiddled" picked up 2,062.
Be on the lookout for an appearance by Ray Stevens on Geraldo's Fox News Channel program in late November. Ray posted on his Facebook page that he taped the interview and it's set to air in late November 2014. Judging by the post, which features a picture of Ray and Geraldo, Ray is going to talk about...Elvis!?! Perhaps that's just a joke...but time will tell. I asked why the interview is taped so long in advance...there's not been a reply as of yet. Of course, as you know, Fox News Channel (like the other 24/7 cable news channels) reports 'breaking news' a lot of the time...and it's unlikely any pre-taped interviews make the national airwaves if it doesn't relate to the current day's news cycle and so, with that in mind, I'm not going to hype up a future Geraldo appearance that much but I wanted to at least make mention of it. The more closer we get to late November and the more that it looks like the appearance is to definitely take place the more I'll post reminders about it.
Have you all heard about the most recent voter fraud?? This time, apparently, voter machines in Illinois have given votes for Republican candidates to Democrats...it's a murky story that I've only read a little bit about but as soon as I seen the headline on a social media site I instantly thought of this modern-day Ray Stevens classic with over half a million unique views (522,789)...
"Grandpa Voted Democrat"...enjoy...
On the heels of "If You Like Your Plan" there's the ballad "Nero Fiddled". It just keeps getting better the more and more you listen to it. I thought the song was great on first listen but some people need to hear a song several times before it really connects with them. This particular video has gotten 16,760 views since it's October 10th debut. It's arguably the more popular of the 2 YouTube videos at the moment if you consider that in the same time span that seen "If You Like Your Plan" pick up 1,237 additional unique views, "Nero Fiddled" picked up 2,062.
Be on the lookout for an appearance by Ray Stevens on Geraldo's Fox News Channel program in late November. Ray posted on his Facebook page that he taped the interview and it's set to air in late November 2014. Judging by the post, which features a picture of Ray and Geraldo, Ray is going to talk about...Elvis!?! Perhaps that's just a joke...but time will tell. I asked why the interview is taped so long in advance...there's not been a reply as of yet. Of course, as you know, Fox News Channel (like the other 24/7 cable news channels) reports 'breaking news' a lot of the time...and it's unlikely any pre-taped interviews make the national airwaves if it doesn't relate to the current day's news cycle and so, with that in mind, I'm not going to hype up a future Geraldo appearance that much but I wanted to at least make mention of it. The more closer we get to late November and the more that it looks like the appearance is to definitely take place the more I'll post reminders about it.
Have you all heard about the most recent voter fraud?? This time, apparently, voter machines in Illinois have given votes for Republican candidates to Democrats...it's a murky story that I've only read a little bit about but as soon as I seen the headline on a social media site I instantly thought of this modern-day Ray Stevens classic with over half a million unique views (522,789)...
"Grandpa Voted Democrat"...enjoy...
October 19, 2014
Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Part 6...
Hello Ray Stevens fans!! It's 6am on a Sunday morning as I begin this latest fan-created blog entry. I started the day doing a search on social media sites of any articles pertaining to Ray Stevens. I came across a link to a site named Hallels.com and there's a new publicity piece for Volume One of the Ray Stevens Gospel Collection.
If that site's name sounds familiar you must have a sharp memory. The site featured a much earlier promo piece (posted August 8th) for the gospel collection CD. The August 8th promo and the one posted today are by the same author. I posted a link to the earlier article back in August.
You can see the latest promo piece for the gospel collection HERE.
Once there be on the lookout for a link to that August 8th publicity article. It can be found at the end of the article before you get to the comments area. The August posting contains a track list for the CD, too. The CD's been available since August 19th and it can be purchased HERE. If you purchase digital music/Mp3's there's a link to the Mp3 format on the CD's product page.
YouTube corner...the two concurrent music videos from Ray Stevens have the following unique views as of 6:42am Eastern time...
1. If You Like Your Plan: 30,572 (uploaded September 22, 2014; view HERE).
2. Nero Fiddled: 14,702 (uploaded October 10, 2014; view HERE).
And so...after searching several social media sites and Google for Ray Stevens happenings, I did an eBay search...and on page 1 at the moment there's an item being offered of a rare magazine publicity ad. The promo ad originated 45 years ago...right around this time of the year...back in 1969. No, no...for those that might be thinking "Gitarzan", it isn't the promo ad for that single (that hit came earlier in 1969). In the latter part of 1969 Ray had returned to his more serious side again and Monument Records began publicizing the latest single release, "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down". The eBay listing for the magazine promo ad for that single can be seen HERE. There have been thumbnail images of this ad that have surfaced in several CD compilation projects over the years.
I used to think Ray had a beard in that photo whenever I'd see the small, thumbnail replica. The reason being is the copy of the photo that appears in the fold-out cover of a 1998 compilation CD is so small and the lighting on the picture not so great that, to my eyes, it looked as if he had a beard. I've long since seen a bigger image of the promo ad and seen for myself he's clean shaven. Those interested in seeing/purchasing the promo ad can click the above link.
If that site's name sounds familiar you must have a sharp memory. The site featured a much earlier promo piece (posted August 8th) for the gospel collection CD. The August 8th promo and the one posted today are by the same author. I posted a link to the earlier article back in August.
You can see the latest promo piece for the gospel collection HERE.
Once there be on the lookout for a link to that August 8th publicity article. It can be found at the end of the article before you get to the comments area. The August posting contains a track list for the CD, too. The CD's been available since August 19th and it can be purchased HERE. If you purchase digital music/Mp3's there's a link to the Mp3 format on the CD's product page.
YouTube corner...the two concurrent music videos from Ray Stevens have the following unique views as of 6:42am Eastern time...
1. If You Like Your Plan: 30,572 (uploaded September 22, 2014; view HERE).
2. Nero Fiddled: 14,702 (uploaded October 10, 2014; view HERE).
And so...after searching several social media sites and Google for Ray Stevens happenings, I did an eBay search...and on page 1 at the moment there's an item being offered of a rare magazine publicity ad. The promo ad originated 45 years ago...right around this time of the year...back in 1969. No, no...for those that might be thinking "Gitarzan", it isn't the promo ad for that single (that hit came earlier in 1969). In the latter part of 1969 Ray had returned to his more serious side again and Monument Records began publicizing the latest single release, "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down". The eBay listing for the magazine promo ad for that single can be seen HERE. There have been thumbnail images of this ad that have surfaced in several CD compilation projects over the years.
I used to think Ray had a beard in that photo whenever I'd see the small, thumbnail replica. The reason being is the copy of the photo that appears in the fold-out cover of a 1998 compilation CD is so small and the lighting on the picture not so great that, to my eyes, it looked as if he had a beard. I've long since seen a bigger image of the promo ad and seen for myself he's clean shaven. Those interested in seeing/purchasing the promo ad can click the above link.
October 16, 2014
Ray Stevens: Nero Fiddled, blog entry 2...
Hello all...it's been almost a week since my previous blog entry. I've had a busy work week as to the reason I haven't had the time to put together a blog post since the 10th of October.
The main subject at hand..."Nero Fiddled"! That's one of two current music videos from Ray Stevens being discovered on YouTube at the moment. The video's gotten more than 10,000 unique views over the course of the last six days. The total as of this writing is 12,863. Back on October 10th during the video's first hours of availability I reported that it had amassed 68 unique views.
The fact that the video's been seen by more than 12,000 is a good sign...but there's not been any publicity of it's existence (beyond my blog posts and the Facebook post on Ray's official page over there).
On my YouTube home page it lists the 'most recent uploads' from my subscriptions...curiously it lists 2 uploads of Rayality TV (episodes 24 and 25) as the 'most recent uploads' from Ray. Those videos happened to have been uploaded several weeks ago and therefore are NOT the most recent video uploads from Ray's channel...there's no reference to "Nero Fiddled" (uploaded on October 10th) or "If You Like Your Plan" (uploaded September 22) as being Ray's most recent video uploads. Something else I noticed is there's no video embed of either clip on Ray's official website.
It used to be you could visit Ray's website and whatever the latest YouTube video from Ray happened to be it could be watched on his website on the home page.
The home page of Ray's official website, as of this writing, contains links to purchase his Nashville memoir and his Gospel Collection CD. There's a link to Ray's "If You Like Your Plan" video (the link posted in a promo piece back on September 22) but it's not an embed video. It may not seem like much but if there's an embedded video located on a website, as opposed to a video's link, chances are pretty high the video's going to be seen a lot more simply due to the fact that the video box is visible on the page and all a person has to do is click the play button.
This is only my opinion but I happen to feel that an even bigger audience for either of Ray's current music videos can be obtained by simply embedding either of those videos on the official website. There's a lot of people that visit Ray's official site that never even think to visit his YouTube channel to see whatever latest music video from him there might be.
Speaking of "If You Like Your Plan", it's gotten 29,822 unique views since it's late September arrival. It could break the 30,000 plateau tomorrow!
A couple of days ago Ray taped his segments of an upcoming television program, The Music City Show. This program airs on RFD-TV. I used to have that channel. It's part of a premium bundle of channels offered by my cable provider but the monthly cable bill had become too costly and so the added expense of having those channels on the line-up required the decision to remove that particular bundle of channels (and the added expense). I'm hoping clips of his upcoming television performance appear on-line at some point...if they do I'll make mention of it. I had read about his participation and it's going to focus on the music from his Gospel Collection CD. You can purchase the gospel CD HERE. The CD's been a success but there's been no indication of a possible follow-up. The songs have already been recorded...in some of his interviews he's mentioned that he recorded 24 songs for the project. 12 are on Volume One and the second 12 are to be available on a possible Volume Two.
As a reminder...less than a month from today on November 13th Ray Stevens is to co-host the 20th annual Inspirational Country Music Awards. His co-host is Megan Alexander (from Inside Edition). As you could guess, Ray is to perform some songs from his gospel music CD.
Since everything is subject to change I hadn't written much about an upcoming event that Ray is to take part in. On December 7th Ray is to appear at The Ryman Auditorium in a special series called Sam's Place-Music for the Spirit. The series is hosted by gospel performer Steven Curtis Chapman. Ray is one of 2 guests that night and you can read more about it HERE.
The main subject at hand..."Nero Fiddled"! That's one of two current music videos from Ray Stevens being discovered on YouTube at the moment. The video's gotten more than 10,000 unique views over the course of the last six days. The total as of this writing is 12,863. Back on October 10th during the video's first hours of availability I reported that it had amassed 68 unique views.
The fact that the video's been seen by more than 12,000 is a good sign...but there's not been any publicity of it's existence (beyond my blog posts and the Facebook post on Ray's official page over there).
On my YouTube home page it lists the 'most recent uploads' from my subscriptions...curiously it lists 2 uploads of Rayality TV (episodes 24 and 25) as the 'most recent uploads' from Ray. Those videos happened to have been uploaded several weeks ago and therefore are NOT the most recent video uploads from Ray's channel...there's no reference to "Nero Fiddled" (uploaded on October 10th) or "If You Like Your Plan" (uploaded September 22) as being Ray's most recent video uploads. Something else I noticed is there's no video embed of either clip on Ray's official website.
It used to be you could visit Ray's website and whatever the latest YouTube video from Ray happened to be it could be watched on his website on the home page.
The home page of Ray's official website, as of this writing, contains links to purchase his Nashville memoir and his Gospel Collection CD. There's a link to Ray's "If You Like Your Plan" video (the link posted in a promo piece back on September 22) but it's not an embed video. It may not seem like much but if there's an embedded video located on a website, as opposed to a video's link, chances are pretty high the video's going to be seen a lot more simply due to the fact that the video box is visible on the page and all a person has to do is click the play button.
This is only my opinion but I happen to feel that an even bigger audience for either of Ray's current music videos can be obtained by simply embedding either of those videos on the official website. There's a lot of people that visit Ray's official site that never even think to visit his YouTube channel to see whatever latest music video from him there might be.
Speaking of "If You Like Your Plan", it's gotten 29,822 unique views since it's late September arrival. It could break the 30,000 plateau tomorrow!
A couple of days ago Ray taped his segments of an upcoming television program, The Music City Show. This program airs on RFD-TV. I used to have that channel. It's part of a premium bundle of channels offered by my cable provider but the monthly cable bill had become too costly and so the added expense of having those channels on the line-up required the decision to remove that particular bundle of channels (and the added expense). I'm hoping clips of his upcoming television performance appear on-line at some point...if they do I'll make mention of it. I had read about his participation and it's going to focus on the music from his Gospel Collection CD. You can purchase the gospel CD HERE. The CD's been a success but there's been no indication of a possible follow-up. The songs have already been recorded...in some of his interviews he's mentioned that he recorded 24 songs for the project. 12 are on Volume One and the second 12 are to be available on a possible Volume Two.
As a reminder...less than a month from today on November 13th Ray Stevens is to co-host the 20th annual Inspirational Country Music Awards. His co-host is Megan Alexander (from Inside Edition). As you could guess, Ray is to perform some songs from his gospel music CD.
Since everything is subject to change I hadn't written much about an upcoming event that Ray is to take part in. On December 7th Ray is to appear at The Ryman Auditorium in a special series called Sam's Place-Music for the Spirit. The series is hosted by gospel performer Steven Curtis Chapman. Ray is one of 2 guests that night and you can read more about it HERE.
October 10, 2014
Ray Stevens: Nero Fiddled...
Hot off the presses...yes, I know that's a term meant for newspaper and magazine publishing...but this music video from Ray Stevens is brand spanking new...uploaded onto YouTube within the last half hour...it's called "Nero Fiddled" and it's absolutely powerful in my opinion. It's not a comedy video...this one is a return to a more serious delivery...and the video opens up with a Viewer Discretion disclaimer...
I'll give you all time to let the hair settle down on the backs of your necks and the goosebumps to vanish from your body after seeing the video and hearing the in your face lyrical commentary. Isn't it phenomenal?? Yes, that's Ray playing the role of Nero with his back to the camera. In this early stage the video's gotten 68 unique views.
I'll give you all time to let the hair settle down on the backs of your necks and the goosebumps to vanish from your body after seeing the video and hearing the in your face lyrical commentary. Isn't it phenomenal?? Yes, that's Ray playing the role of Nero with his back to the camera. In this early stage the video's gotten 68 unique views.
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