January 3, 2010

Ray Stevens: We The People re-cap

So far, "We The People" has risen to the Top-100 on Amazon's list of top-selling MP3 country singles. I wrote about this several blogs ago and with the single attracting some buyer attention I think it's okay to hype the image of the single. This is the image of the physical copy CD...the MP3 copy, of course, is downloaded onto your computer and you don't literally get to hold the CD single in your hands. The music video of the song is still enjoying phenomenal popularity on You Tube with 1,221,247 total plays the last time I checked. There are also a couple of newer uploads of the song that were uploaded by member's of the site...three in all. Anyway...when it's all said and done, "We The People" will be linked to Ray Stevens amongst the internet users and You Tube watchers one way or another. Unfortunately, as of now, Ray hasn't appeared on any television programs that cater to country music to promote the song. He's appeared on a couple of radio programs, though. I'm surprised that he hasn't been booked on any Fox News programs...but it's only January 3...and the song has only been out 3 weeks. Some cynics out there believe that once ObamaCare passes then everyone is suppose to shut-up and stop talking about health care but a lot of this is a tool being used by the Democrats to perhaps keep health care and it's passage a non-issue come election time and distract the voters. The Christmas day 2009 terrorist attacks that didn't come into reality because of a malfunctioning bomb was the top story the day after the Senate passed their version of ObamaCare on a party-line vote and it became pretty much the most-talked about story the next several of days as priorities shifted from health care to the war on terrorism.

Such occurrences are unpredictable and I'm not saying coverage shouldn't have been placed on the failed terror plot on Christmas day but it struck me as odd that an administration that up until that point, one that didn't exactly have a positive attitude when it came to the middle east wars, was suddenly now talking tough and having a winning attitude about the war on terror. I'm in the minority, perhaps, when it comes to that line of thinking but part of me felt that the focus by the administration on the failed terror plot was to distract attention from the health care controversy. So, in my way of thinking, I think it's best for people who oppose ObamaCare to continue to oppose it even after it's eventually signed into law by Obama because those in favor of the bill, referring to the representatives and senate members, will hope and pray you forget come election time.

Reaching back 21 years we have Beside Myself from 1989. The album is one of those projects that I've written about at length in any number of my previous blog entries. This is the album that introduced the fans to "I Saw Elvis In a U.F.O" which became one of the most popular songs at his Branson, Missouri theater in the early 1990's. It's one of my favorite album covers, too, with the serious and comical Ray Stevens beside one another. The album opens up with the serious, bluesy "Your Bozo's Back Again" which is appropriate in a way seeing that Ray is wearing his clown nose and red facial cheeks. I'd like to have seen some photo out-takes during the session. A lot of times the album covers naturally become so normal looking that seeing other pictures taken during the same session create an entirely different visual. Like, for example, why is serious Ray sitting where he is...why couldn't clown Ray be seated on the left hand side? I often say that it reflects the emotional sequence of the album. Side one is serious songs and side two are the comical songs...and just like numerals the first image of Ray is serious and the second image is comical. First image represents side one and second image represents side two.

It just dawned on me that I've been writing Ray Stevens blog entries for almost 2 years. I write these blogs for creative enjoyment and to promote one of my favorite singers, Ray Stevens. I'm not being paid to write them and I don't work for Ray Stevens or any of his associates, neither. I say that because it dawned on me that people who stop by might think I have some personal connection to Ray or that I'm paid to write these blogs and I'm not. My mission or agenda has always been the same since day one...to give Ray the kind of respect and acknowledgment that I think he deserves and to shed light on all aspects of his career. The more active he is the more I tend to write blogs. "We The People" of course became the catalyst for the sheer amount of blogs I wrote during the month of December...and I'll probably slack off whenever "We The People" runs it's course.

5 comments:

  1. The Blogs you do AC are a labor of respect and love for Ray's fans. We all know that through the years he has never received the proper recognition that he so greatly deserves. It'a my opinion that if you are studying any field of the entertainment world Ray would be the one with the greatest talents and best answers to put you on the proper path to being a complete truely entertaining preformer.

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  2. I find it amusing that Ray's the only professional singer that decided to satirize Obama Care and yet without fail you see the critics wonder why he put out this song. It's quite obvious...it's a subject matter everyone's talking about for one thing...and the subject is dealt with in a humorous way which is what people come to expect from Ray. I guess it's those who are in favor of the bill that don't see the irony or the humor in the song.

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  3. Ray is so well rounded in his opinions and other ways of expressing himself. There are many that don't possess an essential that he displays, I think ethics would be a good discriptive word for it, he doesn't go for the cheap joke. His points are well thought out, and a joy to hear.

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  4. I agree...for those familiar with the various write-up's or bio's of Ray Stevens that are all over the internet most of them are copies of the official bio on his web-site. The key word is "thinks" when it comes to comedy to avoid the cheap shot method.

    If Ray took easy cheap shots at those who are the subject of his comical recordings he'd come off mean and cruel. Someone on-line actually said Ray was being cruel and heartless by recording a song like "We The People" because in their view Ray comes off insensitive toward the elderly and the poor.

    That sort of comment directed at Ray is what I'd call a cheap shot because it's easy to point fingers and blame people instead of taking it upon oneself to learn the facts about whatever it may be. In this case, health care.

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  5. Seems to me they need to study satire, it is one of the most creative forms of comedy. And he's at the very top of the list at being the best, bar none!

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