July 16, 2014

Ray Stevens and the Topical Comedy...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! If you've been reading much of the posts about Ray over on the social network sites you'll undoubtedly be aware that his illegal immigration mega-hit music video, "Come to the U.S.A." , has grabbed a lot of new viewers. The video had long since been a fixture on various sites and blogs that favor border security but in the last several days/weeks the refugee problem has sort of put some new life into this familiar music video. The music video, originally, came about during the early months of the illegal immigration battle and the eventual court case between the state of Arizona and the Federal Government several years ago.

It's important to point out, though, that there's a slight difference between a refugee and an illegal immigrant. A refugee is typically defined as someone that flees their country due to circumstances beyond their control. There has to be proof that a crisis is going on in order to classify one as a refugee. An illegal immigrant is typically defined as someone that flees their home country for their own personal reasons rather than any real threat taking place in their home country. Also, illegal immigration usually carries a sense of secrecy due to the fact that the immigrants are residing in America illegally and didn't get proper paperwork. Unfortunately, though, too many refugee's pose the same problem as too many illegal immigrants and it ends up being a societal and economic mess.



Both the humorous "Come to the U.S.A." (which has seen an obvious spike in unique views and has 7.9 million to date) and the pointed "God Save Arizona" are two songs from Ray Stevens that go in two very different directions. As you can see, "Come to the U.S.A." uses humor and sarcasm to point out the preposterous policies on illegal immigration in America compared to the illegal immigration policies of other nations around the globe.

"God Save Arizona" (1,013,997 unique views) is the complete opposite. It is very direct and pointed in it's message regarding the Federal Government and it's oppressive dealings with the State of Arizona on the issue of border security.

  

Don't forget, this coming Saturday, Ray Stevens is going to take part in a Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame. A couple of days ago I made mention of this in a blog post and I included detailed information surrounding the event. Here's the LINK to my previous blog entry.

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