Ray Stevens: Forty Five at Fifty Three...

One of the aspects of the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom in West Nashville is the interior design. While the exterior of the showroom is wonderful to look at the interior is obviously much more wonderful to behold. The performance area includes pictorial tributes to various people behind the scenes that were instrumental in the shaping of Nashville as Music City, U.S.A. and while some of the names on the wall are familiar to a general audience there may be some that aren't. The booth's inside the showroom are named for record producers, for example, in addition to their name and imagery on the walls. I'll be including a video embed near the end of this blog entry that takes a brief tour of the CabaRay prior to it's grand opening. In the video you'll notice a white piano sitting on stage. I don't know how long the white piano was in use but in every photo I've seen and when I visited the CabaRay back in March he had the ever popular red piano on stage. The video clip was posted on YouTube on January 9th and the CabaRay had it's grand opening later that month.

This opening paragraph about the CabaRay leads into the overall focus of this blog entry. While I've written frequently about a number of Ray Stevens single releases I felt like writing a blog entry about a particular recording titled "The Old English Surfer". This song, written by Ray, was released as the B-side of a single on Mercury Records in the summer of 1965. The A-side is "Mr. Baker the Undertaker".

The recording was produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. When you watch the video clip later on in the blog entry you'll see their names along the CabaRay wall. The song can be classified as pure novelty as can it's A-side. This recording came along at a time when Ray's main focus happened to be in the production side of the music industry. Ray had two separate careers going at the same time. He had a recording contract with Mercury Records while he played on sessions and did production work for acts primarily on the Monument Records label but he also produced, arranged, and played on the recording sessions of lesser known acts on a wide variety of labels in the Mercury and Monument family of subsidiary labels. Ray didn't have a recording contract with Monument Records during this time and so any studio recording from Ray that appeared on vinyl was under the control of Mercury Records. This unique scenario of working for two competing record labels ended, though, by late 1965. He became a recording artist for Monument Records, interestingly enough, with his next single release and so "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" / "The Old English Surfer" happened to be the final single release on him, at the moment, from Mercury Records. He returned to Mercury Records later on for a series of single releases and an album but the bulk of his recordings for the label arrived during the 1961-1965 time frame.

"The Old English Surfer" is a song about what you'd think it would be about. The novelty song uses the massive popularity of the surfer craze sweeping pop music but doesn't feature conventional 'surf music' in the background. Instead it features some sound effects of gurgling/bubbling water and an electric guitar contributing surf-type accompaniment. In the song Ray tells the story of an Englishman that works at a beach and how his violin controls the flow of the waves. According to the song the action takes place in the year 1542 and Ray assures the listener that this was well before Jan and Dean made their debut. Aside from that one reference to contemporary pop act, Jan and Dean, the rest of the song centers around the violinist's prowess and Ray's manic vocal delivery. In closing here's the video clip from earlier this year as Ray walks around the performance area of the CabaRay...

Ray Stevens and his Latest Video Clips...

Oh yes it's another fan created blog about Ray Stevens written by me that you're reading at the moment and based on my previous blog entry it got me thinking a little about simian songs from Ray's career. I touched on this subject many blogs ago but with the recent YouTube upload of "Too Much Monkey Business" I decided to re-visit the topic. I also decided to write this blog entry to pass along specific unique view numbers for the latest video clips from Ray Stevens that are on YouTube.



The August 14th upload, "Too Much Monkey Business", has received 3,124 unique views so far. This is something of a dramatic pick-up since writing about the clip yesterday. I'm too modest to think my blog sharing helped it receive additional unique views but something definitely caused the video to get nearly a thousand more unique views. I'm not going to monitor the unique view numbers of either video clip on a daily basis. I used to do this in the past with other YouTube videos that Ray would upload but I no longer do that. Every so often I'll check the unique view count of these two videos and provide information on this blog at that time.



The August 17th upload, "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me", has received 20,068 unique views as of this writing. Yes, you read that correct, it's surpassed the 20,000 plateau as I write this. This video has also received a dramatic rise in unique views since I last wrote about it yesterday. The subject matter revolves around the medical profession and this is something that's been highly topical ever since politics crept into things in a major way in 2010. Although the song itself has nothing to do with that side of the medical profession (healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. etc.) it nevertheless is a song dealing with doctors...more specifically primary care doctors/family doctors and the frustrations all of us have when visiting the doctor. So the topicality of the subject matter gives it more of an edge in social media and you're seeing the results.

Simian silliness in song has been part of Ray's career dating back to the early 1960s. The cover photo of TV Magazine off to the left, though, is from the summer of 1970. The first notable recording spotlighting this happened to be 1963's "Harry the Hairy Ape". The recording became a Top-20 pop and a Top-20 Rhythm and Blues hit. Something more surprising is the fact that it's peak position was higher on the Rhythm and Blues chart. The song tells the story of an ape that spends his days attempting to scare people and it eventually leads to his becoming a rock and roll star. It was originally released on his 1963 album, This is Ray Stevens. 1969's "Gitarzan" took the fictional Tarzan and his jungle family and turned them into rock and roll performers. Although this Top-10 million selling pop hit is definitely more about it's parody of Tarzan as a rock and roll guitarist nevertheless there's the memorable vocal appearances of both Jane and their pet chimpanzee, Cheetah. The chimp is referred to as a monkey in the recording although technically Cheetah was a chimp. In this song the chimp likes getting intoxicated prior to his performances but you can't tell it based on the fervor in which he contributes to the jungle band. Why am I even making a distinction between a chimp and a monkey? You never know in this day and age...if I didn't make that distinction there would be somebody out there raising a fuss about Ray referring to a chimp as a monkey. Some people can be way too over-analytical. Ironically, Ray re-recorded "Harry the Hairy Ape" for the 1969 Gitarzan album. If you've got a lot of compilation albums released on Ray it's likely the 1969 recording of "Harry the Hairy Ape" that are on most collections. When the limited animation music video was produced of the song they used the 1969 recording instead of the 1963 recording.

In 1970 there came a song titled "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and it's from his Unreal album. The song itself had nothing to do with the simian but had more to do with social commentary and the slang phrase of people seeing other people behaving or thinking in some fashion and therefore adopting the character traits of others rather than being true to one's own point of view. The song itself adopts that slang phrase and also adds envy to the equation in which members of society, in general, attempt to mimic their peers as far as fashion, physical appearance, and income are concerned. A neighbor has a house with two garages and so that may inspire somebody else to top that and have a house built nearby with a three car garage. A person holds a certain belief but doesn't dare speak their mind for fear of being shunned by society and as a result this person adopts the opinion of "a majority" just to fit in...and at the crux of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is the painting of society as a zoo as Ray asks us to find a mirror and look at ourselves. It goes hand in hand with the A-side of the single, "Come Around", a marvelous song criticizing excess, hypocrisy, and close mindedness found in some sectors of society. The picture sleeve of that particular single release you see above is from the overseas market. In America the A-side of the single was "America, Communicate with Me".

In 1984 Ray decided to do his version of the theme song of "The Monkees" television series. The song features Ray performing the theme song in a Monkees-like vocal performance at various moments throughout but the obvious highlight are the two greatly exaggerated fictional Austrian performers (Wolfgang and Fritzy) that frequently bicker and argue back and fourth as they attempt to perform their version of the theme song. You can find that hysterical performance on the album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens.

In November of last year Ray uploaded a music video of "Aba Daba Honeymoon". The music video appeared out of the blue. Ray had recorded the song at some point in 2010/2011 for inclusion on his mammoth box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The music video had been in existence since 2013 according to the video details on YouTube but it had never been uploaded onto the internet until November 2017. The song dates back to 1914 and so it was nearly 100 years old prior to Ray bringing it back when he decided to record it for his 2012 box set. It had been recorded numerous times and there were several pop hits of the song in the 1950s and it's chorus was parodied in a long running series of television commercials for Frito's. The song is incredibly simple if not entirely fictional as far as it's plot goes: a monkey and a chimpanzee fall in love and get married in a ceremony in which a baboon is the preacher. The nonsense phrase of the song's title is explained as monkey talk. The fun of the song is how the tempo of the song gradually moves higher and higher and the lyrics are performed in such a frenzied fashion aided by the use of some scat-singing, too, before the tempo falls back down for it's conclusion. Ray's version is outstanding...musically speaking and the actual vocal performance. The video features a cameo appearance of Ray as Gitarzan near the beginning.



This brings us, chronologically, to the performance from his CabaRay television series of "Too Much Monkey Business". Ray hasn't officially recorded the song but this performance of the song has become a video release on YouTube and that is what I started this blog entry with.

Ray Stevens at the CabaRay...

One of the things that happens when there's a lot of attention focused on something is the fact that other things that are going on are bound to get overlooked or go under reported. This is the case when it comes to a particular YouTube video clip from Ray Stevens. Although it didn't go unnoticed from me I didn't spotlight it too much due to all the focus being on the upcoming Music City Walk of Fame ceremony but yet I created a blog entry for another music video clip that debuted on YouTube three days later. That video, "Doctor Doctor Have Mercy on Me", debuted on YouTube on August 17th and to date it's gotten more than 18,000 unique views.

The video that debuted three days prior, on August 14th, happened to be a live performance from the CabaRay but it's gotten a little more than 3,000 unique views as of this writing. One clip is a conventional music video while the other is a live performance from his CabaRay showroom. The unique view discrepancy is also telling...it would suggest that those who share videos through social media sites tend to prefer the conventional green screen music video productions from Ray Stevens rather than stage performances...but yet there are other stage performances from Ray that are on YouTube that have gotten hundreds of thousands of unique views...so my theory isn't absolute. I just thought it worth pointing out given the closeness of each video as it relates to their upload date on YouTube and how the August 17th upload has the most unique views than the August 14th upload.

The performance uploaded to YouTube on August 14th is of Ray singing "Too Much Monkey Business", a recording originally made famous by Chuck Berry in 1956. The performance comes from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series...the one guest starring Micky Dolenz of the Monkees pop music group.

Ray Stevens: Music City Walk of Fame Press Coverage...

Hello once more...and in this blog entry I'm going to share some links that'll take you to several different websites. All of the sites feature press coverage/re-caps of the Music City Walk of Fame ceremony from August 21st. Each article basically uses the same press release but each author adds individual contributions to the overall article and most of the sites use different photo's of the recipients, too. One of the links, for example, includes a music video from each of the four recipients (Ray Stevens, Jeannie Seely, Brenda Lee, and Ben Folds).

First up we have an article from the TENNESSEE STAR. In the next link we have an article from BROADWAY WORLD. DIGITAL JOURNAL has the honors in this link. The fourth link will take you to COUNTRY BEAT magazine. THE GEORGIA SUN provides the fifth link of press coverage. A sixth link is from MUSIC ROW magazine and a seventh link is from KMAM radio in Butler, Missouri.

The coverage of the ceremony in the hours afterward was wonderful and those are just a sample of the websites I came across this morning when I arrived home from work. I didn't scour the internet too heavily yesterday because I wanted to give it a couple of days before I searched, in a detailed manner, for press coverage. When you visit any of those links, as a reminder, feel free to share them on social media sites or "like" them if you want. Feedback lets the people that run those websites and the authors of those articles know their coverage of the ceremony was appreciated. If you stay silent they'll never know.

In the articles there was mention of Ray's showroom, the CabaRay. Have you been there yet? He performs there every Friday and Saturday. The showroom's Piano Bar opens at 5pm. The dinner seating opens at 6pm. The concert begins at 7:30pm. There's a gift shop located inside the facility as well. You can purchase tickets or simply browse the CabaRay site by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens on the Music City Walk of Fame...

Hello one and all!! Yesterday was the Music City Walk of Fame ceremony in downtown Nashville and in this blog entry I'll be posting the YouTube video of the live stream from yesterday. You'll see emcee Bill Cody speak and introduce the presenter, Ricky Skaggs, who gives a heartfelt speech about Ray and the CabaRay showroom. Ricky points out one of the greatest things about the showroom is it's celebration of Music Row and the recording studios and producers that helped make Nashville 'Music City, U.S.A.'. You'll also see Ray on stage speaking...he mentions that he didn't know that he'd have to speak but this may have been a joke since his acceptance seemed well thought out...but then again he could've have been told about having to give some sort of speech a day or two ahead of time and then came up with what he said yesterday. He made mention of the current Mayor Briley having already made his exit and spoke of the origin of the song, "Nashville", and how he wrote it in Sydney, Australia while homesick. He made mention that in the original recording he referenced the current mayor's grandfather, Mayor Briley. He thanked/acknowledged those in attendance and pointed out his two daughters and his grandson. I don't want to give too detailed of a re-cap but I will add that he told a joke about Bubba, Earl, and the school teacher. In the video clip you'll see the other recipients on stage (Brenda Lee, Ben Folds, and Jeannie Seely) and seated directly behind them are the presenters. Charlie Daniels did the presentation for Brenda Lee while Trisha Yearwood did the presentation for Jeannie Seely. The presenter for Ben Folds was Jonathan Levine. A photo of all of them will close out this blog entry. This will be a rather unusual blog entry for me as it's mostly consisting of photo's and video clips. When you watch the video clip of Ray's speech you'll see who he's giving a thumb's up to.

I did a Google News search prior to my beginning this particular blog entry and I came across several video clips focusing on the Music City Walk of Fame ceremony. Some video clips run 4 hours while other video clips are from local news stations and those run the usual length...5 minutes at the most. In the collage below I included an image of Ray giving his speech at the microphone and right next to it in panel two came after the acceptance speech was over. Ray and presenter, Ricky Skaggs, went over and had their photo taken of Ray's Star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Bill Cody could be heard from the stage mentioning that Ray has the 84th Star on the Walk of Fame. In the background you can hear the guitarists from the stage performing "Everything is Beautiful" during the photo session. In panel three it's the Star, of course. I wanted to try and get an image of it by itself. 

Local Nashville station, Channel Five, also has snippets of the ceremony featuring all of the Walk of Fame recipients. You can read/watch that by clicking HERE. You can also see a newscast featuring commentary/video of the ceremony on WSMV-TV by clicking HERE.
 

Ray Stevens: Music City Walk of Fame Ceremony...Today!!

Hello one and all...well, the day has finally arrived...later this morning Ray Stevens will be among the recipients receiving a Star on the Music City Walk of Fame. It was around this time yesterday morning that I was putting the finishing touches on my previous blog entry and here I am anxiously awaiting for the ceremony to begin. Ray's office staff are hoping to have a live stream of the event on YouTube and Facebook. If there are any technical glitches then we'll have to wait for photo's and a recap to appear on-line but I'm hoping the live stream will go on without a problem. Ricky Skaggs is going to do the presentation of Ray's Star. As mentioned in some of my other blog entries Ray will be honored along side Brenda Lee, Jeannie Seely, and Ben Folds.

I didn't post this collage yesterday because I wanted to save it for the actual day he'll be receiving his Star. I included a simple star image from an image collection for panel four and I included an image of Ray's 1973 album, Nashville, in cassette format. It ties in with the city of Nashville and by pure coincidence he's in a shirts in which his shoulders and collar is decked out with stars. There is a song on the Nashville album titled "You've Got the Music Inside" and it also includes his take on "Never Ending Song of Love" as well as the aching "Love Me Longer" and the introspective "Golden Age". Since Ray's being inducted onto the Music City Walk of Fame this morning I purposely chose music-driven images, pretty much. Panel two, above the star image, is a photo of Ray taken from inside the CabaRay showroom. In the panel beneath the star image (panel five) it's a publicity photo of Ray from 1975. It would later serve as the cover photo of a 1980 issue of Country Song Roundup as well as serve as the cover photo of an obscure re-release of Even Stevens. Panel three, as you can tell, is a cassette version of Ray's 1977 album, Feel the Music. That's the album which includes his wonderful performance of "Save Me From Myself" in addition to the marvelous "Get Crazy With Me", "Road Widow", the majestic title track, and "Dixie Hummingbird". Well, now...it's 11:01am here...10:01am in Nashville...90 minutes left before the ceremony at the Music City Walk of Fame gets underway!

Ray Stevens: Music City Walk of Fame ceremony...Tomorrow...

As I write this blog entry this morning I can't help but think ahead to tomorrow...that's the day when the latest Stars will be added to the Music City Walk of Fame. I've written a couple of blog entries about the ceremony already (August 12th and just the other day, August 18th) and I'll no doubt be blogging about the ceremony tomorrow when it actually takes place. The ceremony is scheduled to get underway tomorrow (August 21st) at 11:30am Central and I do not know which of the recipients will be spotlighted first. If you've been reading my previous blog entries or have been reading the coverage that Ray and his social media staff have added to their on-line sites then you'll know that in addition to Ray receiving a Star there's going to be honors for Jeannie Seely, Brenda Lee, and Ben Folds. Ray and Brenda have a Georgia connection and their career's parallel one another...both began recording professionally in the late 1950s, too. Jeannie Seely is one of the legendary female country music artists and regularly appears on the Grand Ole Opry every weekend. Ben Folds is someone I knew of, by name, but not being a listener of the style of music he performs I know very little about him. I looked up some things on the internet just to find out biographical information on him and I was reminded of where I had originally heard the name...a group called Ben Folds Five was in existence from 1995 to 2000. I found out that he's long since had a solo career, too.

What about that collage? Well, it's a random photo collage depicting Ray through the years. Panel one actually appeared as the cover page for sheet music of "Indian Love Call" in 1975. The color of the pamphlet happened to be green and so there's a green overtone to the photo of Ray. The second panel's photo of Ray originated at some point in the mid 1980s. It appeared in a magazine article on Ray Stevens in 1986 and later served as the cover photo of a 1992 gospel collection, A Brighter Day, on Clyde Records. Panel three comes from the recently uploaded video of Ray in 1971 on an episode of BBC In Concert. He's performing "Gitarzan" in that 1971 appearance and then I decided to place a photo from this year of a "Gitarzan" performance next to it. So it jumps from 1971 to 2018. The final panel is a photo of Ray last year at one of his concert stops prior to the grand opening of his CabaRay showroom this past January.

In the collage off to the right I decided to emphasize imagery focusing on his CabaRay showroom and his locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville, in addition to spotlighting two of his signature hits, 1962's "Ahab the Arab" and 1974's "The Streak". The first panel uses the same photo I spotlighted in the other collage because I happen to like the photo. The center panel is a somewhat recent publicity photo of Ray which appeared a couple of years ago when he released the on-line music video and CD single, "Dear America", in September 2016. I purchased the Mp3 instead of the CD because I didn't know if a CD copy would arrive in what they call a jewel case or in a slip case or if it would arrive in a plain white paper sleeve. A couple of previous CD singles offered at Ray's web-store had arrived in plain paper sleeves...no art work/cover photo...so I decided I'd hold off on purchasing the CD single of "Dear America" just in case it didn't arrive with a photo of Ray and instead I purchased the Mp3.

The Music City Walk of Fame is located at 121 Fourth Avenue, South and it's situated inside a park setting as you can see from the sign off to the left. The ceremony is going to take place inside the park beginning at 11:30am Central tomorrow (August 21st). As mentioned in other blog entries I've written the park is located across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame. On one side of the park there's the Bridgestone Arena and on the other side of the park there's the Symphony Center. It's all situated in one sector of downtown Nashville. You can Google images of the park and you'll see the general layout and how the Star plaques are lined up on the sidewalk. The ceremony is free to the public so if you're a fan of Ray Stevens and are in the area by all means visit the Music City Walk of Fame tomorrow and experience the event. As is the case in many ceremonies of this kind there's likely to be acceptance speeches by those honored and of course there's going to be biographical information delivered by the emcee of the ceremony, too. Since there's going to be four honoree's receiving their Star I assume each one will be allotted a predetermined amount of speaking time. I don't think the ceremony is going to clock each honoree, though. As of this writing I don't know if Ray will appear first or if he'll appear last. He'll be the oldest of the honorees: Ray was born in 1939, Jeannie Seely was born in 1940, Brenda Lee was born in 1944, and Ben Folds was born in 1966. So, they might honor each one based on seniority or they go by reverse seniority (in that case Ben Folds would be first to receive a Star and Ray would be spotlighted last). However the presentation ends up being I'll be looking forward to the ceremony! It's almost 11am here in the East...almost 10am in Nashville...around this time tomorrow morning it'll certainly be busy at the Music City Walk of Fame park!!

Ray Stevens Single Releases on Vinyl: 1987

The second single release on Ray Stevens in 1987 came along this month, actually. "Three Legged Man" hit the market in August 1987 as the follow-up to April 1987's release, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". Unfortunately, for the two additional single releases that year, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" would prove to take a life of it's own and overshadow whatever impact the follow-up singles may have generated. "Three Legged Man" tells the comical story of a man who falls for a woman he met...and even after being told the woman is already in a relationship with a man named Peg Leg Johnson. Ray's character is undeterred and he steals the woman and also takes the wooden leg to prevent (he thinks) Peg Leg from chasing them down. To Ray's surprise Peg Leg starts giving chase... "...hopping and flopping..." on one leg trying to keep up. Ray tells of every place he, the two legged woman, and the one legged fool have passed though during the literal cross country foot chase. Finally, though, Peg Leg's exhaustion gets the best of him and he pleas for something of a truce. He relents and says that Ray can keep the woman for himself but in the name of all things decent he'd like to have his leg returned. However, there's a twist ending to the story, that I won't give away in case you hadn't heard the song. The song was penned by Shel Silverstein.

The third single release on Ray Stevens in 1987 came along in December. "Sex Symbols" (from the pen of Buddy Kalb) had actually become a very popular song in Ray's concerts in the months and years after it was released. In fact he performed the song on television for the first time on an episode of Hee Haw...and I think it could have been on an episode he was the guest co-host. I should clarify that it was the first time I had seen him perform the song...he could have performed the song on Nashville Now as well but if so I hadn't seen it. The song's inspiration was an unlikely but massively popular duet by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias called "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" a couple of years earlier. In "Sex Symbols", Ray performs it as a duet with Julio...but it isn't the famed Latin singer featured with Willie Nelson, though. Ray does a broad vocal impression of Julio Iglesias and whenever Ray speaks to Julio he consistently mispronounces the name as Jewel-E-Oh to which Julio always reminds him "no, no, it's Julio, Julio!!". Throughout the song the 'two' reflect on their popularity with women and they compare themselves to other perceived sex symbols (although Ray deliberately names very unlikely sex symbols for comical effect). As an added touch whenever Ray performed the song on television or in concert he'd always deliver it as a ventriloquist. A dummy of Julio would sit next to him and Ray would operate it's mouth whenever Julio would speak. You can see a performance of the song on the Ray Stevens Live! home video from 1993.

The first single release from Ray Stevens in 1987 came along, as mentioned, in April. "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" became a very popular hit that year and one that happened to be very timely as it dealt with the national controversy of scandalous televangelists. In this song (penned by Chet Atkins and Margaret Archer) Ray sings about waking up one morning and upon watching television he's greeted by a man asking for donations. He describes the man's attire and notices the Rolex strapped on the preacher's arm. This causes Ray to wonder if Jesus would be wearing a Rolex when he returns. The social commentary combined with the televangelist scandals went hand in hand and although you're not going to see any chart publications showing the song perched at the top do not let that mislead you in any way. The song was more popular than it's chart standings (something that's a common theme in Ray's career). The controversial subject matter it dealt with created a polarizing atmosphere and it never received the airplay it truly deserved given how popular the song was. In 1988 the song was nominated for a Grammy and if I needed to prove it's popularity even further Ray performed it on The Tonight Show...which wasn't necessarily a hot-bed for country music performers...and by this time Ray had firmly established himself as a country music performer/country comedian. Radio legend, Paul Harvey, dedicated two separate editorial columns to the song which ran in newspapers across the country.

The B-sides of two of the singles I wrote about above were "Cool Down, Willard" and "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty". "Cool Down, Willard" is the B-side of "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" while "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty" appeared as the B-side of "Sex Symbols". In the case of "Cool Down, Willard" we have a very funny song about a farmer who's frustrated that his entire family is obsessed with the weatherman, Willard Scott, of The Today Show. In the song Ray plays the part of the frustrated husband as he complains about all the attention directed at Willard and how it's interfering and destroying his family life. Things are so bad, according to Ray, that nobody helps him with the chores and the women in his life (his wife, his grandmother, and his aunt) spend their day talking and gossiping about all things Willard Scott. Ray gets the chance to do his grandmother voice several times as he relates to us how much his grandmother's flipped out over Willard. "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty" (written by Ray and Buddy Kalb) is a comical tale of a Western codger and his pet sidewinder, Lefty. It's a spoof of campfire storytelling sessions but in this case it's set in the Old West as Cactus Pete tells of the many adventures he and Lefty have encountered while living in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. A running gag in the song is every time Cactus Pete mentions some sort of animal the ever hungry Lefty would shake it's tail in excitement. Like so many Ray Stevens songs the music helps paint a mental picture. Among the adventures recounted is the time Lefty fought an Eagle...described by Cactus Pete in his distinctive gravelly voice, "a baldy headed eagle...".

The B-side of "Three Legged Man" is none other than "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me" (from the pen of Buddy Kalb). As mentioned earlier this single was released in August 1987 as the second single from Crackin' Up, Ray's album that year. The essence of many Ray Stevens songs is the fact they take on lives of their own...regardless of when they were originally recorded or originally released. "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me" has always been a favorite of mine and as those of you should know by now it's since been uploaded as a music video on YouTube...some 31 years after it was originally recorded. The video itself, as I learned, was produced in 2013 and had aired on a television series Ray hosted for a retooled version of The Nashville Network (now called Heartland TV). Ray-ality TV was picked up by The Nashville Network in 2013. This 78 episode series was a follow-up to a short-lived subscription based service called Ray Stevens Backstage. It was in service for probably a little over a year, 2009-2011. I have some blog entries in the archives from 2009 spotlighting the subscription-based service and so I know it launched in 2009. The focal point of this service was to spotlight exclusive content and it served as the home for early episodes of his on-line sitcom, We Ain't Dead Yet, which starred Ray and featured many of his close friends and peers in the music business. The series was set in a fictional retirement home called The Encore. Ralph Emery appeared in several episodes as Doctor Wellman...which he plays in the music video of "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me". After Ray-ality TV aired on The Nashville Network in 2013 it became an on-line series in the spring of 2014 on YouTube. I'm thinking it was put on-line due to the fact that the re-launched Nashville Network had very little subscribers nationally and as a result not many people were able to see Ray's previous series the first time around.

Today, of course, Ray's television series is a music/talk show titled Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and it's locally syndicated on PBS stations nationally. His video site, RayStevens.TV, is subscription based and it's the place to watch all episodes of the CabaRay Nashville television series that have previously aired. His current television series has been in production since 2015. It was originally titled Ray Stevens' Nashville and it aired for two 13 episode seasons on RFD-TV (2015-2016). It moved to local PBS syndication beginning in January 2017 under the new title, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. There have been 78 half hour episodes produced of this particular series. Episodes never took place at the actual CabaRay showroom, though, until after it opened it's doors in January of this year. The last nine episodes of it's most recent season (Season Six) took place at the CabaRay showroom. As you all should know Ray and his associates had hoped to have the CabaRay open by the summer of 2017 or at the very least the fall of 2017 but it finally had it's grand opening in January this year.

In closing here's that music video for "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy On Me"...

Ray Stevens: Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me...

Yes, it's me and I'm posting the blog entry I hinted about in my previous post. In this blog entry I'm spotlighting the recently uploaded music video from Ray Stevens, "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me". This song goes back a bit in the career of Ray Stevens and was first heard in 1987 on his comedy album, Crackin' Up. That's the album which features Ray dressed as Humpty Dumpty on the cover. I've mentioned the album and this particular song numerous times in blog entries over the last decade but it wasn't until this morning that I knew a music video had been made. Ray once had a series on a retooled version of The Nashville Network titled Ray-ality TV. It was a series that featured a hodgepodge of sketches and clips mostly from his archives but there would be exclusive content as well. This music video (from 2013) happened to be one of the latter. It had never been on-line until Ray uploaded it yesterday evening. I wasn't on-line yesterday evening and so I didn't see the video until this morning when I arrived home from work. Ray re-recorded "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me" and eventually placed it on a CD titled Laughter is the Best Medicine. That CD remains, to date, the only place you can find the obscure "PSA Song". Anyway...here's the music video for "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me". The timeless lyrics reflect all of our frustrations. Appearing in the video along side Ray are Sabrina (as the nurse) and the legendary Ralph Emery (as the doctor).

Ray Stevens: Nashville Walk of Fame Ceremony...3 days from now...

Hello once more!! We've gone from 9 days down to 3 days...yes, three days until Ray Stevens receives his star on the Music City Walk of Fame. In case you want to learn more about the ceremony you can click HERE. The link will take you to the Music City Walk of Fame press release that I posted on here late last month. The ceremony will start at 11:30am Central time. Ray has a YouTube video link set to stream the ceremony and on his YouTube page it has 10:45am as the moment live coverage will start. I found out the reason for this and it's for planning purposes. Live streams are highly unpredictable...sometimes there are glitches and sometimes the natural act of a lot of people accessing the video at the same time may create some sort of crash or blackout or whatever technical interference there may be. In my experience I've had good and bad when it comes to streaming video. Usually if I have an issue with a live stream it goes away once I watch the archive because, of course, there aren't a lot of devices attempting to access the site at one time.

Are you into the technical aspects of the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom? By that I mean are you interested in reading about the equipment used in giving the CabaRay it's glorious sound? I came across a website the other day that highlighted the sound system being used at the CabaRay. You can read about it HERE. Ray uploaded a music video yesterday on YouTube. The video originated in 2013 but had never been put on-line until yesterday evening. I seen it for the first time this morning. I'll be spotlighting that music video in my next blog entry but in the meantime he had previously uploaded a music video onto YouTube of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (in November 2017) and it's origins were 2013 as well. Here's that particular music video...

Ray Stevens Both Sides CD...

I don't personally own this particular collection of Ray Stevens songs but it's a collection that I've seen on-line for a number of years. It's released on a label called Crown Records and research shows it was issued in the United Kingdom. There are several websites that differ on the actual year of release, though. Some cite 1976 and other sites give 1979 as the year of release. It features 12 songs...and as you can tell from the title, Both Sides of Ray Stevens, it concentrates on the comical and the serious in his music catalog. The first 6 recordings are aimed at the comical but in this particular collection they've included a particular song among the first 6 selections that isn't necessarily comical, humorous, or even a novelty. It's the serious, social commentary angst of "Mr. Businessman". I guess the people that compiled this collection felt that a song questioning the morals and ethics of a typical businessman was humorous or whatever but in reality it's social commentary. "Mr. Businessman" is located on this compilation as track three in between a couple of his most elaborate novelty recordings: 1974's "The Moonlight Special" and 1970's "Bridget the Midget The Queen of the Blues". The latter recording hit in December 1970 but had it's largest impact early in 1971...and ironically it had it's largest impact in the United Kingdom where it peaked in the runner-up position on the UK Pop music charts. The two recordings feature heavy use of mimicry, too. In "The Moonlight Special" Ray does his impression of Wolfman Jack (referred to as The Sheepdog) and along the way he does broad exaggerations/parodies of several high profile music acts: Gladys Knight and the Pips (referred to as Mildred Queen and the Dips), Alice Cooper (referred to as Agnes Stupor), and Jerry Lee Lewis (referred to as Jerry Joe Harry Lee Jimmy Billy).

"The Streak" is found on Both Sides of Ray Stevens as track five. Unusual for that particular recording to be found further down the track list on a compilation album isn't it? Originally "The Streak" and "The Moonlight Special" were issued on the same 1974 album, Boogity Boogity. As anyone that calls themselves a Ray Stevens fan should know already is "The Streak" is Ray's biggest selling single and biggest radio hit. The single sold millions of copies. The most reported sales figure is 5,000,000 worldwide. It had an incredible chart run on the Billboard Hot 100...by incredible I'm referring to the fact that "The Streak" was the number one pop hit in America within five weeks of it's release. This meteoric chart climb enabled the single to remain at the top for three consecutive weeks in the early summer of 1974. It also hit the music charts internationally, as well, plus it crossed over to the country music charts and hit the Top-10. "The Streak" would also, for a lot of the international market, be the last major release on Ray Stevens (excluding Canada). The lead-off track on Both Sides of Ray Stevens, "Gitarzan", comes from 1969. That particular song became an international pop hit in addition to it's million selling status in America (becoming a Top-10 hit on the pop charts). Track six is "Freddie Feelgood", a very funny novelty song from the mid '60s, where Ray vocally mimics music instruments. Since I do not own this collection I can't say whether or not the song found on Both Sides of Ray Stevens features audience laughter, as it does on the 1969 Gitarzan album, or if it's the original single release from 1966 minus the laughter which can be found on other compilation albums.

The selections considered serious on this collection reveal a couple of things. Earlier in the blog entry I mentioned that I wasn't sure of this collection's release year. However, simply by looking at the final 6 song selections we find three recordings from his 1975 album, Misty. Track seven is his country and pop hit, "Misty", from 1975 while this is followed by 1970's "Everything is Beautiful". Each of those recordings won a Grammy Award. "Misty" won for Best Arrangement accompanying a Vocalist (1976 Grammy telecast) while "Everything is Beautiful" won for Best Pop Vocal Performance- Male (1971 Grammy telecast). Ray didn't appear on the 1971 telecast because he was busy overseas on a tour (either in England or Australia) and so Glen Campbell accepted the Grammy. "Everything is Beautiful" hit both the country and pop charts...a massive pop hit and million seller...it hit the number one spot for 2 weeks on the pop chart while it spent 3 weeks at the top on the Easy-Listening chart (now known as Adult-Contemporary). In addition to Ray's performance of "Everything is Beautiful" winning a Grammy it was also a Grammy winner the same year for Jake Hess in the Best Inspirational Performance category. 

Tracks nine and ten both come from 1975: "Young Love" and "Sunshine". The fact that those two recordings, plus "Misty", all come from the same year and album it leads me to believe the compilation was released in 1976...but then again there are other compilation albums from the late '70s on Ray Stevens that stop at 1975 even though their year of release is later (1977, 1978, 1979). So your guess is as good as mine...I say Both Sides of Ray Stevens was released in 1976 due to the inclusion of "Young Love", specifically. Why do I say that? Barnaby Records released Ray's recording of the song as a single late in 1975 and so it would've been the current single from Ray early in 1976 which is the year I think this collection was released. "Sunshine", in the meantime, is the B-side of "Misty" and was not even promoted as an A-side release and so I have no idea why it was included on this collection. It's a wonderful song and in the same vein as "Misty", instrumentally, but "Sunshine" wasn't a chart hit.

The final two tracks on this collection are a pair of gospel hits, 1971's "All My Trials" and early 1972's "Turn Your Radio On". The former became a Top-10 hit on the Easy-Listening chart in addition to hitting the pop chart. It's appearance on the Hot 100 was something of a rare accomplishment for a song with such strong gospel/inspirational ties...the same held true for "Turn Your Radio On". It became a Top-20 country music hit early in 1972 and it's the title track of his 1972 gospel album. A third single from that album also peaked on the Easy-Listening chart in the Top-10 but it's not included on this collection. That recording happened to be "A Mama and a Papa". Among the selections on this collection from 1975 you won't find his hit recording of "Indian Love Call", neither.

The essay found on the back of the album contains several errors. One of them concerns his year of birth. It has his birth year as 1941 but it's actually 1939. It also states he was born in Atlanta, Georgia but he was actually born in Clarkdale, Georgia. Also, the essay mentions his hit, "Indian Love Call", and it's mentioned in the essay as if it's one of the songs on this album but it's not even part of the collection.

The 12 songs are:

1. Gitarzan
2. The Moonlight Special
3. Mr. Businessman
4. Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues
5. The Streak
6. Freddie Feelgood
7. Misty
8. Everything is Beautiful
9. Young Love
10. Sunshine
11. A Mama and a Papa
12. Turn Your Radio On

Ray Stevens: Nashville Walk of Fame Ceremony...9 days from now...

It's getting closer to the ceremony this coming August 21st when Ray Stevens and company (Jeannie Seely, Brenda Lee, and Ben Folds) will receive their Stars on the Nashville Walk of Fame. I wrote about this upcoming event back on July 24th when I first read about it on-line and now we're nine days away from the ceremony. The ceremony will begin at the Music City Walk of Fame Park at 11:30am Central, 12:30pm Eastern. I do believe in my July blog entry I posted 10:30am Central, 11:30am Eastern. Either I misread the time or it's since been edited into the websites I got my initial information from. Whatever the case...the date is August 21st (which falls on a Tuesday) and the time is 11:30am Central, 12:30pm Eastern. If you're in the area it's a free event so if you happen to be a fan of Ray Stevens or a fan of the other performers why not stop by and enjoy the event if you're able to?

It's suppose to be streamed live and so I'm thinking ahead and assuming that there will be video clips available later in the day or perhaps immediately following the ceremony. I've had some bad experiences with video content that's suppose to stream live...sometimes the content will not load and play but yet sometimes the video will play just fine and then, all of the sudden, just stop for whatever reason and then pick up later...creating a choppy presentation which, of course, isn't easy to follow in real-time and so, usually, I depend on video clips posted at a later time. The photo you see is from a performance by Ray Stevens at his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. The venue is located on River Road just off Charlotte Pike on I-40. You'll see a billboard advertisement along the interstate with the exit to take so it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

I don't know how long the Nashville Walk of Fame ceremony will be...perhaps they'll spend 10 minutes on each entertainer and then have each recipient speak after their history/time-line is discussed by the emcee...so I think it'll run probably an hour; but maybe there won't be any commentary from the recipients and it'll just simply be a presentation by the emcee and then photo sessions commence featuring each holding their Star. Personally I'm hoping it'll be like other honor's that take place where the emcee is at a podium and each Plaque is revealed while the emcee tells of the recipient and then asks the recipient to speak. I knew of the Nashville Walk of Fame but I didn't know a whole lot about it's purpose. I thought it was a walkway of entertainers already elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame considering it's close proximity but I've learned a lot in just under a month. It's a walkway not exclusive to country music and not exclusive to Country Music Hall of Fame members.

For the record, Ray Stevens is not a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame but this upcoming ceremony will further acknowledge his multi-faceted career (after already having been inducted/elected to the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1980, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1980, the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009, and recognition as a Nashville Cat for his session work by, ironically, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010).

Ever since the news broke of the upcoming Nashville Walk of Fame ceremony there have been a number of websites that have shared the news (obviously!) and I'd like to provide some links to a couple of them. The links will take you from this particular blog...but return and click the other links as well. I'll obviously be writing a blog post on the day of the Nashville Walk of Fame ceremony...nine days from now!

GARY HAYES COUNTRY

MUSIC ROW

TASTE OF COUNTRY

NASH COUNTRY DAILY

Ray Stevens to release New Album...

Oh, yes, it's me once again...I wanted to create a separate blog entry for this bit of information rather than include it in my previous blog entry centering around 1971. In this blog entry I'm sharing a LINK to a video clip uploaded by Ray Stevens yesterday afternoon. The link reveals a brief music selection for a song that's go be on an upcoming album!

Yes...Ray revealed that there is a new album in the works and even though there isn't a time-line as to when it should be released at least he provided a video clip to get our ears excited for what's ahead. If you look carefully in the video clip you'll see Ray seated behind the producer's window. Along with the video clip (which hasn't been posted on YouTube as of this writing...it's only on Facebook) but along with the video clip there came half a dozen pictures from inside the studio.

In a couple of photo's you'll see Ray at the console...a rare visual glimpse of a recording session from within the Ray Stevens Studio. The half a dozen photo's were posted in collage form but you won't be able to get a separate image and so I used one of my computer's programs (snipping tool) and highlighted the images I wanted to save. I hope more information about this soon-to-be-released album becomes available. I have a feeling of what the upcoming album will be. In one of the recent episodes of CabaRay Nashville he spoke of an album that he hadn't started working on but one he had an idea about and based on the video clip he posted on his Facebook page it sounds like the album he made reference to on his television series is getting underway even as I type this.

Here's a screen cap of the video clip showing the musicians and that's Ray seated behind the glass in the white shirt...

Ray Stevens on the BBC in 1971...

Hello once more!! Several blog entries ago I shared a video clip or I posted a link to one which featured Ray Stevens singing "Can We Get To That?" from an episode of Top of the Pops. The video clip I'm about to tell you about in this blog entry is from the same time frame but a different program. This time around it's a half hour series titled BBC In Concert and it's from May 10, 1971. It was uploaded onto YouTube yesterday and I found it this morning while browsing YouTube for anything new...and how surprised and excited I was to find this!! I am posting a link to the video clip because I don't want, in the future, to visit this blog entry to find a big blank square where an embedded video should be. A lot of my older blog entries feature that kind of thing where video's have been removed from YouTube and I'm left with a "this video's been deleted" disclaimer blazing across the blog entry and so I'm providing a LINK to the video. If, at some later date, you click that link and a video doesn't show up then you'll know why I didn't embed it. However, for now, it's on-line so enjoy it while it lasts because these kinds of videos usually vanish within a year's time.

The current studio album from Ray Stevens when this BBC television program aired was Unreal. The album featured a couple of hit singles that are a product of the time period...one of those singles happened to be "America, Communicate With Me" which for obvious reasons wasn't performed on the BBC program simply because the subject matter didn't apply to England. That hit single, nevertheless, became a Top-20 hit on the Adult-Contemporary chart right around this time of the year in 1970. Looking through archives of Billboard Hot 100 and Adult-Contemporary charts from July, August, and September of 1970 show "America, Communicate With Me" being the first hit single from the album. This BBC program, as mentioned, aired on May 10, 1971 and both "America, Communicate With Me" and "Sunset Strip" had run their course on the music charts by then. "Sunset Strip" was issued as a single in the fall of 1970 and reached it's peak by November. In a lot of my past blog entries I've lamented that I'd never seen Ray perform "Sunset Strip" on any television program but yet with this BBC program I was finally, at long last, able to see him perform it on television. As I was watching the video clip and heard the music intro to the song start to play I gasped in excitement. I thought to myself "oh my God!! Is he really singing this???". I savored the entire performance. Whenever I watch it again I'll zero in on other details because there's probably a lot of little things I missed the first time around considering my excitement over seeing this entire program. In addition to "Sunset Strip" he also performed "Can We Get To That?" and "Loving You on Paper" (all three from the Unreal album). The other songs he sang were previous hits: "Ahab the Arab", "Mr. Businessman" (he tells a story about it that I'd never heard before); "Gitarzan"; and "Everything is Beautiful".

You may be wondering why Ray didn't perform a certain song that was a huge hit for him in the United Kingdom in late 1970 and into 1971 given that he was performing for a British audience on this BBC program...but then again you should already know the answer as to why it wasn't performed. "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" became a Top-5 hit for Ray in the United Kingdom early in 1971...but it's a novelty record focusing on an act that requires a sped-up vocal and even though Ray, in 1971, was using the most advanced recording equipment and technology available at the time I don't think a performance of the song in a concert setting was something anybody wanted to try and tackle back then. It's a pure one hundred percent novelty record built around using the sped-up gimmick Ross Bagdasarian (a/k/a David Seville) used on "The Witch Doctor" and later on when he created The Chipmunks.

Enjoy the 1971 BBC performance from Ray Stevens!! Here's the LINK once again!

Ray Stevens and CabaRay Wine...

Hello once more! This particular video clip's been on YouTube for a couple of days but it's the first time I've posted it on my blog page. In my previous blog entry I provided a link and a re-cap of the August 1st guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry by Ray Stevens...and I had the idea of posting and talking about this video clip but ultimately decided to hold off until later. Later has arrived and here's that video clip...



The CabaRay Wines are exclusive to the CabaRay and as you'll hear Ray mention in the video clip they're from the famed vineyards of Napa Valley. The video was uploaded onto YouTube this past Thursday (August 2nd) and it's nearing 700 unique views.

Given that I don't drink alcohol I've rarely focused on the Piano Bar located inside the CabaRay. Whenever I've made mention of the bar on here it's often in passing and usually mentioned as just one of the areas inside the showroom. In the video clip Ray mentions the Piano Bar and there's footage of him inside the bar after a concert.

When my brother and I went to the CabaRay this past March we sat on a bench just outside the Piano Bar as we waited for the main performance area to open for the dinner at 6pm. I was too nervous to go inside the Piano Bar area. We could hear the singer do his show from where we were seated and since I didn't want to look awkward inside a Piano Bar and not drinking anything we didn't go in. In hindsight I guess we should have went inside just to have the experience even though we weren't going to be drinking anything.

I don't think I shared that story on here before. I know I wrote a re-cap of my visit to Nashville and the CabaRay in early March but I don't think I gave any specifics concerning the Piano Bar beyond just mentioning it being in service starting at 5pm.

You can read all about the Piano Bar and see photo's by clicking HERE. The bar itself is located within an area called The Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium. You'll see a bird's eye view photo and an image of Bill Lowery up on the wall above the bar. That link takes you to the Piano Bar page at the CabaRay website and once there you can navigate to other areas of the site to find much more information about the showroom. Concerts are held every Friday and Saturday night. When you visit the site and see the information about Box Office hours as well as the Dinner/Show hours remember those represent the Central Time zone and so if you're like me and are from the Eastern Time zone plan your trip accordingly. The Central Time zone is an hour behind the Eastern Time zone.

Ray Stevens Opry Appearance: August 1, 2018...

Hello all...in my first fan created blog entry of the month it begins with a link/re-cap to Ray's guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry this past Wednesday (August 1st). I listened to much as I could on my car radio as I drove to work Wednesday night. 650 WSM radio comes in okay in the evening (after 7pm Eastern time) and is crystal clear in the overnight hours on the conventional radio. Of course with hi-tech listening gadgets of today you can tune into the station 24/7 static free from all over the world...but beyond a lap-top, which I'm typing on at the moment, I don't have a cell-phone with on-line connection (nor do I wish for one) and so I remain loyal to the radio when I'm in my car. So, this past Wednesday, I was listening to WSM and heard most of the half hour segment featuring Ray Stevens as one of the featured artists.

Ray made a guest appearance on the Opry last month, actually (July 3rd) as a make-up for a canceled appearance from June (if my memory serves correct). In last month's guest appearance Ray's segment was sponsored by his showroom in West Nashville, the CabaRay. The guest appearance a couple days ago also featured his CabaRay as the sponsor. Bill Cody happened to be on hand as the Opry announcer that night (he is also the announcer for Ray's locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville).

You can listen to the entire Wednesday Night Opry broadcast by clicking HERE. There isn't a link available that centers around Ray's segment and so you'll need to either listen for Ray's appearance or fast-forward to 42 minutes, 55 seconds. It's right around that point in time on the audio clip where Bill Cody begins to speak about the CabaRay. The commercial is nearly 2 minutes. Afterward he recognizes audience members that have milestone birthday and anniversary celebrations. 45 minutes, 49 seconds into the audio clip Bill introduces Ray to the audience. Ray speaks of the CabaRay and performs "Gitarzan". He tells a comical story about a chicken which you'll need to hear for yourselves. Upon the conclusion of the story he launches into "Misty" and this is followed by an abbreviated "Everything is Beautiful".

I don't mind the abbreviated version but I'd prefer the full version...which I'm sure most of you reading this also prefer hearing complete versions of songs if they don't happen to be part of a medley performance. The times I've seen him in concert he's performed the full version of the song so that leads me to guess that the abbreviated performance is reserved for his guest appearances either on television or in this case the Opry. Whether it's the abbreviated or full version of "Everything is Beautiful" it always gets strong applause from the audience.