It's 11:59pm as I begin this blog entry...the final minute of May 26, 2019...and the birthday of a celebrated movie icon, John Wayne. There was a number of on-line celebrations surrounding the birthday but I think the bigger remembrance will happen next month on June 11th. That's the day, in 1979, that he passed away...so it'll mark the 40th anniversary of his passing next month.
Some 30 years ago Ray Stevens issued an album titled Beside Myself. The album arrived, according to Ray's official webpage, on May 29, 1989 and so we're a couple of days ahead of it's original release date but given yesterday being the birthday of John Wayne I felt it appropriate to give some spotlight to this album. Why? Well, for those that don't have this glorious album, I'll explain that there's a particular song on it that pays tribute to the film career of John Wayne. The song's title, "Marion Michael Morrison", is from the pen of Buddy Kalb. It's the only song on the 10 track album that Ray didn't co-write but being his own music arranger he put his creativity into the execution of the song. It's long been something of a mystery among younger generations and even older ones as to the accurate birth name of John Wayne. There have been writings that state his name at birth as being Marion Mitchell Morrison, Marion Robert Morrison, and Marion Michael Morrison. The song is track three on Beside Myself...and completely different from the two songs that come before and after it on Side One of the album. Musically it channels imagery of the Old West whereas the songs that surround it have a decidedly more jazzy/pop flavor. As of this writing there's been no video surface of Ray performing the song but there's long been written evidence that he sang it on an episode of Hee Haw in 1989. The album, by the way, was his last for MCA Records during his first stay at the label (1984-1989) and it featured a music split of ballads and comedy. Side One features non-comedic, ballad performances while Side Two features comical performances.
Today being Memorial Day it ties into John Wayne's film career as he starred in several films that focused on military conflicts and epic battles. Reportedly the bulk of his films were Westerns set in all time periods but he starred in his fair share of military films. A number of the films and the characters he portrayed are referred to in Ray's "Marion Michael Morrison" recording. "The Fighting Seabees" (1944) gets a mention in the song as does 1942's "The Flying Tigers" (cited as his first war movie), "Back to Bataan" (1945), "The Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949), "The Wings of Eagles" (1957), "The Longest Day" (1962), and "The Green Berets" (1968).
There is a reference to a character named Big Jim McLain in the song. The character is from the 1952 film of the same name in which he plays a member of HUAC, an acronym from the past, which stood for House Un-American Activities Committee. It was devised to investigate anyone in America that came across dis-loyal, subversive, or expressed feelings of fascism and communism. It reached it zenith during the Truman and, later, Eisenhower Administrations as relations between Russia and the United States during that period of time were antagonistic (not unlike today). This period in time is historically referred to as the beginning of The Cold War which led to a Red Scare and the McCarthyism witch hunts.
In addition to the songs/characters mentioned in "Marion Michael Morrison" there were other war/military films starring John Wayne that weren't mentioned in the song: "They Were Expendable" (1945), "The Flying Leathernecks" (1951), "Operation Pacific" (1951), "The Sea Chase" (1955), and "In Harm's Way" (1965) just to name a few. Something to keep in mind is I'm referencing the John Wayne films that feature branches of the military that utilized mechanized warfare or modern warfare. This doesn't include the number of films in which he played soldiers and leaders of a horse mounted Calvary, for example, nor does it include some of his other Cold War-inspired films such as "Blood Alley" (1955) and "Jet Pilot" (released in 1957 but shot years earlier!) nor a Civil War film from 1969 that he starred in titled "The Undefeated".
I have Beside Myself in vinyl format, cassette format which you can see off to the right, and I have a CD version under a different name, At His Best. The album appeared on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart but none of the commercial singles reached the charts. "There's a Star Spangled Banner", track five, is a full-on Patriotic song that begins with a story of a P.O.W in Beirut and the thing that gets him through the brainwash attempts and torture is his hope of America's military power coming to his rescue and the sight of seeing the American flag waving in the breeze. The song further tells of how the presence of the American flag...the mere sight of it...draws contempt from "fanatical leaders" that plot it's defeat. It's a very stirring performance and one that a lot of fans that have heard it instantly fell in love with. The album kicks off with the harmonica-heavy, bluesy love ballad, "Your Bozo's Back Again", a song upon whose title ties into the cover art seen on the project. The cover art also reflects the fact that music on the album is split between serious Ray Stevens and comical Ray Stevens...and there you see them side by side. Among the comical songs are "I Used To Be Crazy" (track 10) which provides Ray plenty of opportunities to showcase his skills at mimicry. He mimics a couple of iconic celebrities along the way including none other than John Wayne in conversation with Walter Brennan. "The Woogie Boogie" was always funny...and it later became an even funnier music video in 1995 for his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!. The song is about a fictional Indian tribe in Chattanooga (pronounced in the song as 'Chattanoogie'). "Stuck on You" is a comical story revolving around a man's misfortunes after purchasing Instant Wonder Glue and accidentally spilling it. The song from the album that's gotten the most attention and had the longest lasting impact in his career is "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.". It became an extremely popular visual performance in concert...with most performances featuring a crew of pink aliens running around on stage (sometimes running in the audiences) and a giant flying saucer hovering above the stage. In Ray's performance of the song on the 1993 VHS, Ray Stevens Live!, he's dressed in a white jump suit as the pink aliens run everywhere and the saucer hovers overhead.
I came across an internet article focusing on John Wayne's appearances in television commercials. I think they're entertaining and you can see a lot of things in the physical performances and the vocal cadences that impersonators and impressionists picked up on and exaggerated for comical effect. If you listen to the commercials with your eyes closed and just listen to him speak you'll realize how uncanny Ray's vocal impression of him happens to be. I've featured articles by writer, Jeremy Roberts, in the past and I'll continue to do so and this is one of those times I've chosen to do so...you can read about John Wayne and the Datril 500 pills, the reaction he received for doing so-called 'lowly' commercial work, and watch commercials for not only for Datril 500 but for those that aired only in California for Great Western Bank. You can read and watch all of that and more in the article by clicking HERE. Off to the left hand side of that page there's a hand clap symbol. If you liked what you've read click that symbol to show that you liked it...it's a sort of thumbs up approval rating but in hand clap form. You can also add comments...and there's also links to other articles he's published that focus on John Wayne's life and career.
A kind of unusual blog entry this time around. I was looking in my stats for this blog and in the keyword section I noticed that somebody out there in cyberspace had did a search for the cast of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and that this fan created blog page was a search result they clicked. I don't think I've ever provided a list of the musicians and back-up singers that you see weekly on Ray's television series. If I had in the past it must have been in a blog entry buried in the archives. The band is known as The A-Team. Now, before some of you jump to conclusions, the name of the band has nothing to do with the famous 1980's action/adventure series. If you're knowledgeable in your country music history then you'll be familiar with The A-Team phrase. It's a descriptive name given to the musicians that played on nearly every recording session that came out of Nashville, TN in the '50s and '60s. I'm sure you've heard the names of Bob Moore, Grady Martin, Floyd Cramer, Hargus 'Pig' Robbins, Jimmy Capps, Charlie McCoy, Harold Bradley, Pete Drake, Johnny Gimble, Jerry Byrd, etc. etc. Some of those musicians either doubled or later became record producers: Owen Bradley, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Kennedy. Anyway, in reverence to Nashville's A-Team of session musicians, Ray named his television band after that collective group.
The core line-up of musicians that appear on Ray's television series are as follows: Jerry Kimbrough, Jim Ferguson, Jon Hamrick, Mike Noble, Scott Weckerly, Tommy White, and Denis Solee.
On some occasions there are guest musicians that sit in (Shad Cobb, Ned Luberecki, and Steve Gibson just to name a few). Buddy Skipper, for example, has made several appearances as a second saxophonist along side Denis Solee. Anyway, here's a break down of the studio band: The steel guitar is played by Tommy White. The most visible is Jerry Kimbrough, the electric guitarist, who sometimes is seen facially reacting to a lot of Ray's one-liners and is often seated in a chair at floor level below the backup singers and near the piano. Although Ray plays the piano the band's keyboard player is Jon Hamrick. The drummer of the band is Scott Weckerly. Jim Ferguson and Mike Noble are guitarists. The main trio of back-up vocalists are: Sheri Copeland Smith, Sabrina Shelfer Blanton, and Jennifer O'Brien. On special episodes (the Christmas and New Year's Eve episodes) the trio expands to a quartet of vocalists.
The episode of CabaRay Nashville airing tonight on RFD-TV guest stars Felix Cavaliere of the rock group The Rascals.
Oh yes it's me once more...a couple of days ago Ray Stevens revealed that he'll be appearing at this year's CMA Fest next month. The announcement came on his social media sites back on May 23rd but this is the first I've gotten to make mention of it in this fan created blog. Ray will take part in an interview on June 6th (which falls on a Thursday) and it'll be conducted by Peter Cooper. The segment is being sponsored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and it'll take place on the CMA Close-Up stage. As far as I know the interview will be his only appearance during the four day CMA Fest which once upon a time was called Fan Fair. The four day event takes place June 6 through June 9th. Ray will be on the CMA Close-Up stage roughly between 1:15pm - 2pm Central on June 6th. As in the past this is a tentative start and end time...with live events there's no telling how long or brief segments may last.
You can read about the CMA Close-Up stage as well as check out the CMA Fest website and learn more by clicking HERE. If you're in the area or are an annual visitor to the CMA Fest and happen to be a fan of Ray Stevens then I'd highly recommend you seek out the CMA Close-Up stage on June 6th!! If you're going to be in Nashville the entire weekend I'd also suggest you pay a visit to the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom on River Road in Bellevue, a suburb on the West side of Nashville. He's performing there every Friday and Saturday night. You can read all about the showroom by clicking HERE. If you use a GPS device enter Nashville, TN as the city and state. The address for the CabaRay is 5724 River Road and the City/State/Zip is Nashville, TN 37209.
Earlier in the year Ray was interviewed on a series that took place inside the Hall of Fame titled Voices in the Hall. The interview had been recorded in the latter half of 2018 but it's a series where country music artists are interviewed inside the Hall of Fame and so, literally, you're hearing Voices in the Hall...so it isn't a series that features Hall of Fame members exclusively. The series is hosted by Peter Cooper. Ray's episode of that series became available in late March...and by coincidence Ray was announced as one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame on March 18th. Ray's interview, though, was conduced in late 2018...months before he found out that he'd be one of the newest inductees. I commented on this ironic chain of events back when I shared the podcast.
I've decided to try out a series of flashback blog entries. I don't necessarily think it's considered repeating yourself because the commentary/opinions you'll be reading reflect my thoughts at the time of the writing...so it's not as if I'm copying/pasting past blog entry content and passing it off as new. In this experiment I've picked the year 2015. I pick that year because it's a pivotal year...a turning point in the career of Ray Stevens even though, like many other moments in his career, you don't notice it being a turning point until you're a couple years removed from it happening. Ray is the only recording artist that I can think of that can have multiple twists and turns in a career at any given moment and have it not negatively impact his career whatsoever or have it define his career.
Early in 2015 Ray released a comedy album, Here We Go Again!. This comedy album remains, to date, his last secular release. He issued a Christmas album in 2016 titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me and then, in 2017, he released Just a Closer Walk With Thee/Gospel Favorites, a sequel to 2014's Gospel Collection, Volume One but Here We Go Again! remains his last album of mostly original songs. I say mostly original because the 2015 album included a couple of cover songs and the inclusion of a recording from 2010. As mentioned in the above paragraph this flashback experimental series of blog entries isn't going to copy/paste commentary I've made in the past. If anything I hope to pick up on things I may not have noticed or didn't think to comment on at the time.
Here We Go Again! contains 12 recordings of various styles. To be sure it's a comedy album...but there are a number of songs that channel early rock music as well as rhythm and blues. The album was released early in March of 2015...where it had followed the on-line release of a music video on YouTube from Ray on February 24th. It was a little out of the norm for Ray to issue a music video and then more or less a week later have the album it's on become available for purchase...usually there's a waiting period of several weeks between a lead-off single (in this case a lead-off music video) and the release of the album. Nevertheless the lead-off release from Here We Go Again! arrived in music video form on YouTube in the name of "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". Ray co-wrote the song with Buddy Kalb and Chuck Redden and as you could guess the music video became a viral hit and, again, as you could guess, a lot of that had to do with the video's subject matter being Taylor Swift. The song/video came at a time when she was everywhere...country radio, pop radio, country music television, MTV, VH-1, magazine covers that catered to various music formats, etc. etc. and at the same time there were a lot of really bizarre stories popping up on-line of people thinking that they were being stalked by the singer. The utterly bizarre nature of such claims goes hand-in-hand with Ray's song. There's a twist ending to the story but you'll have to wait until near the end of the song to hear it.
On the back of the CD you'll see the track list written on a mock-up of an airline arrival board. The front of the CD, above, has Ray at an airport setting in front of a Limo...with a gorilla being the chauffeur. If you look in the background you'll see a trailer of a semi truck with Clyde Van Lines written on it above the Clyde Records logo. The irony is this CD was released on Player Records which I'm assuming served as an in-house label and I don't think the Player imprint appeared on any further releases from Ray. There's a mini fold-out booklet contained within the CD sleeve. The booklet features a photo of Ray and his comments surrounding the CD and there's lyrics printed for all of the songs, too. "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" continues to attract unique views but a recent statistical search shows that it's gotten more than 2.3 million unique views. Included on this CD is another song Ray co-wrote with Buddy Kalb and Chuck Redden. The trio wrote "You Didn't Build That" and it became a music video on YouTube, ironically enough, four years ago yesterday: May 19, 2015. That particular music video's gotten a little over 300,000 unique views. The CD also features, as mentioned earlier, a song from 2010 titled "Come to the USA". On the album it follows "You Didn't Build That". Elsewhere on the album there's his cover of "Hearts Made of Stone" which I had to look up back in 2015 because Ray sings it against a background reminiscent of the 1950s. I had initially thought that Ray performed the song like that on purpose and that it was a new song but then I thought that maybe it's a cover song. Ray does his version of "What'd I Say", a classic originally recorded by one of Ray's music heroes, Ray Charles. "There Must Be a Pill For This" was written by Don Cusic and that's a name that's become associated with Ray over the last 5+ years. Don helped put together the 2012 9-CD project, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, and he later supplied Ray with a couple of original gospel songs: 2014's "If Jesus is a Stranger" and 2017's "Just a Touch of Jesus". The latter co-written with Buddy Kalb. You can purchase the 2015 album, as well as most of the music Ray has issued over the last 10 to 15 years, at his web-store. Here's the product page for the 2015 ALBUM.
In addition to this comedy album in 2015 and the two music video hits that emerged from it the biggest and some might say shocking and unexpected news of the year came in the late summer/early fall of 2015. It was around the late summer time frame that on-line reports began to show up revolving around Ray's plans of becoming a television talk show host. The episodes of this as yet to be announced series had already been recorded weeks in advance and so on November 7, 2015 the debut episode of Ray Stevens' Nashville aired on RFD-TV with Steve Wariner as the special guest. In the first and second seasons of the show there was a segment featuring Don Cusic dressed in a graduate's gown, referred to as Professor Cusic: Doctor of Music, giving historical information about an upcoming song Ray was to perform. A lot of the information was tied into the mini-book he wrote for Ray's 2012 encyclopedia box set. Don happens to be a real college professor and so it was like art imitating life. The television series became a popular show on RFD-TV throughout 2016. The popularity led to more episodes being produced throughout the year. In total 26 first-run episodes and a Christmas themed episode aired between November 7, 2015 and December 31, 2016. This time frame also included the repeat cycle of all 27 episodes. In fact, RFD-TV aired a marathon of episodes as special programming on New Year's Eve.
The show had reportedly become the top rated series on the cable network but upon concluding it's repeat cycle Ray announced that the series was departing RFD for local PBS syndication. 52 first run episodes aired in local PBS syndication beginning in July of 2017 (following a repeat period of the 26 episodes originally shown on RFD). Those repeats were airing in the first half of 2017 on local PBS stations. The first-run PBS exclusives began on July 7, 2017 and the last first-run episode aired the weekend of July 6, 2018. By this time the name of the series had changed to Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The change in name happened in January 2017 when the show began airing on PBS. The show continues airing all over the country on local PBS stations and in December 2018 it returned to the RFD airwaves, too, in it's former time-slot on Saturday nights. Ever since the debut of his television program in the latter half of 2015 and continuing on with the 2018 opening of his showroom, CabaRay, Ray's career has gone through various twists and turns that nobody would have expected at the beginning of 2015 when "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me" and Here We Go Again! made their debuts.
Good early Sunday morning...being a night-owl on the weekends due to my third shift work schedule through the week it's long been a habit of mine of being awake at night. So, technically, I'm not up with the roosters. I don't think they start to make their noise for another half an hour anyway. Poultry has long been a side dish in the career of Ray Stevens...now, to be specific, it's not something that's a constant but poultry nevertheless has a place in his career.
I guess it all goes back to late 1976...Ray had joined the Warner Brothers label in the latter half of 1975 and his debut album for the label, Just For the Record, arrived early in 1976. The album included a couple of Top-40 country singles in the form of "You Are So Beautiful" and "Honky Tonk Waltz". Ray had been on a serious, non-comedic streak ever since the early period of 1975, a period which followed his massive worldwide success of "The Streak" a year earlier. He closed out 1974 with a non-comedic Top-40 country hit single, "Everybody Needs a Rainbow". He had released a mostly covers album in 1975 titled Misty and named after one of his hit singles that year. The success of "Misty" led to an album filled with, mostly, his versions of pop music standards of the '30s and '40s. "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Young Love" were released as singles during 1975 with "Mockingbird Hill" issued early in 1976, I suppose to fill out some kind of contractual agreement with Barnaby Records, considering that Ray had by that time joined Warner Brothers. Later on Barnaby also issued "Lady of Spain" as a single and it Bubbled Under the Hot 100 in the summer of 1976 well after Ray had joined Warner Brothers. So, in essence, you had Barnaby Records issuing five commercial singles from the Misty album altogether. Anyway...in late 1976 Warner Brothers released "In the Mood"...a chicken-clucking performance by Ray and issued as The Hen House Five Plus Too. Ray, in interviews, often remarked that the song was only meant to be an inside joke among him and the band but somehow along the way executives at Warner Brothers heard the 'joke' and insisted that it be released as a single and that's exactly what happened.
Ray phonetically clucked "In the Mood" (previously a gigantic instrumental hit for Glen Miller in 1939) with the smallest of music accompaniment. I think Ray only used a piano, bass guitar, and a saxophone. The B-side of the single was "Classical Cluck", another chicken clucking recital, this time staged in a classical music presentation rather than a small, jazzy combo. The photo above, by the way, accompanied the single release in the Netherlands. The photo off to the right is the single release in America. In some parts of the world the single release of "In the Mood" was issued under Ray's name while a majority of the releases featured the fictional Hen House Five Plus Too credit. The single became a Top-40 country and Top-40 pop hit early in 1977...and it became a Top-40 hit in the United Kingdom as well. "In the Mood" marked quite a departure for Ray as you could guess. The idea of clucking an entire song like a chicken was too irresistible for music consumers to pass up...so it became a hit...quite a feather in his cap...and, of course, Ray's reputation as a 'singer of novelty songs' continued to grow with each successive novelty song success. The single wasn't placed on any forthcoming studio albums by Ray for Warner Brothers. I don't know if that was by design or if they simply wanted the song to remain a single-only release. Ray would visit the chicken theme several more times in his career. "Thus Cacked Henrietta", from 1985, was a brief clucking interpretation of the first minute and a half of an instrumental (referred to as a fanfare) called "Also Sprach Zarathustra" which can be heard in the opening credits of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The half hour long instrumental originates from 1896 from the pen of Richard Strauss. Henrietta's interpretation is superb...and she receives background accompaniment from a sheep and a cow...a rooster brings the curtain down over the barn when he lets loose a mighty crow signaling the climax of the performance. "Thus Cacked Henrietta" can be found on Ray's 1985 album, I Have Returned. You can also find an audio track of it on YouTube. It's a very funny track...and you'll recognize the melody right away.
Since I don't live in the state of Tennessee or in the southern region of the United States I was never exposed to the television commercials that Ray Stevens appeared in. I've known of his involvement in commercials (particularly for Flav-o-Rich) and of course I knew of the nationally aired commercials for his home videos in the 1990s but that was it...and until a couple of weeks ago I had never seen one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials. Ray recently uploaded a video clip of one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials from the 1980s. I didn't know he did a regional commercial for McDonald's until this clip appeared on YouTube...the commercial is from 1989 and it was uploaded onto YouTube back in January of this year. I'm embedding it because of it's subject matter...Ray's singing about the franchise's latest item, the country style McChicken...
In 1991 the chickens mounted a comeback in "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", inspired by the ninja superhero turtles of Saturday morning television. In 2015 Ray recorded "Pickin' on the Chicken", a song from a chicken's point of view and the negative slang expressions derived from the chicken, and you can hear it on his Here We Go Again! comedy album.
A recording in 1995, however, is the featured attraction of this blog entry. The recording originated in his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!, and it's a duet (a rare occurrence in his career). "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" is performed as an elaborate song-and-dance between Ray and co-star Connie Freeman. The performance takes place on the farm of the Three Legged Chicken ranch owned by Charlene's family (Connie was portraying the role of Charlene MacKenzie in the movie). Ray and Charlene are on the run from patrolman Dudley Dorite and Deputy Coy among others and they hide out, in this part of the movie, at the ranch. Deputy Coy (Tim Hubbard) thinks he sees some prowling in the chicken coop and so he goes to investigate. The small chicken coop comically houses a sprawling performance area for a lot of singing and dancing not only from Ray and Charlene but a chorus of dancing girls that appear from behind the row of chicken nests. All of the performers, as you'll see in the music video, wear chicken outfits. Coy is wearing a chicken themed hat he found hanging inside the coop.
Also something to keep in mind is the song's title. "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" was actually a catchphrase and it was eventually turned into a song and it became a hit in the 1940s for the recording artist, Louis Jordan. The hit song helped re-introduce the phrase and it became a slang expression all over again. Ray's song uses the same title but it contains entirely different melody and lyrics than the Louis Jordan recording. I say that because in the comment section for Ray's video someone erroneously stated that the song had been recorded earlier by Louis Jordan. The person making the comment apparently based his opinion entirely on the song's title and making the assumption that Ray was doing a cover version of Louis Jordan's hit...which obviously means that the person hadn't even heard Louis Jordan's recording or else he/she would've known they're two different songs with the same title. Oh well, a couple of days ago I left a comment over there anyhow and pointed out the small error.
The video was uploaded onto YouTube back on May 14th but I hadn't embedded it into a blog entry until now. It's gotten over 9,000 unique views as of this writing. Also, as of this writing, one of the menu items at Ray's CabaRay showroom in West Nashville is Airline Chicken Breast.
When you purchase CabaRay tickets you'll have the option of selecting a dinner from their menu if you choose floor seating. The balcony seats do not offer a dinner, obviously, but you can receive beverages. The presentation is based upon fine dining/casual dining...so you're not going to get a smorgasbord of entree's to choose from or have the opportunity to purchase pounds of fast food style of food and indulge in movie theater kinds of snacks. It's the kind of cuisine carrying the same kind of detailed visuals you might see in an upscale restaurant but without the snooty atmosphere that Ray sings about in 1987's "Gourmet Restaurant". When you click the link you'll notice for the month of May there's only three more concerts left: May 24, 25, and 31. The Wednesday tickets are for the taping of Larry's Country Diner, a television series on RFD-TV. The month of June consists of 10 concerts from Ray: June 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29. So, like most months, there are plenty of days to see Ray in concert at the CabaRay. June is traditionally referred to as Country Music month and with a lot of fans and tourists flocking to the area to take in a lot of exhibits and music performances I'll also suggest the travelers and tourists to take in a concert at the CabaRay when you're in Nashville in early June. The showroom is on 5724 River Road off of Charlotte Pike which you access from I-40. If you have a GPS device, great, but if you don't then obviously MapQuest the address from your starting point for a series of directions to take. Aside from the main performance area there's a piano bar and a gift shop. The showroom is in the Bellevue suburb of Nashville and yesterday the CabaRay had a presence in the Bellevue Community Picnic...a booth promoting the showroom was on display and the CabaRay served as one of the sponsors of the event. Those that stopped by the CabaRay booth were given chances to win tickets to an upcoming concert. I don't think Ray personally appeared at the booth given that Friday night he was busy performing at the CabaRay and on Saturday night he performed there...and so I don't think he was able to squeeze in an appearance at the picnic at any time on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. Again, if he did make an appearance at the CabaRay booth, I'd like to see some photos uploaded on-line. His concerts get underway at 7:30pm but the venue opens it's doors at 5pm.
Many music historians and writers, in general, have noted over the decades is that the year of 1974 is referred to as the year of the streak. The actual concept wasn't exactly brand new but for whatever reason the spring/summer of 1974 consisted of hundreds of news reports of people from all walks of life in various places across the country running naked in public and how the slang expression, 'streaking', was being used to describe a phenomena that quickly became a pop culture fad. The reports that seemed to appear the most originated at a college campus which, in turn, created the image of the phenomena being something attached to young adults and a rebellious sub-culture. Ray Stevens recorded "The Streak" early in 1974...in a previous blog entry in March of this year I mentioned the single's debut on the Hot 100 pop chart. I wrote a lot about the song's history and if I recall correctly I posted images of various single releases of the song in addition to posting an image of the album it originally appeared on, Boogity Boogity. The seemingly endless reports of streaking as well as an unforgettable moment at the nationally televised Academy Awards that year caused the fad to reach a boiling point you might say...and "The Streak" streaked up the Hot 100...and in no time at all it was sitting at the top of the pop charts. It hit number one on May 18, 1974 for it's first of three weeks. The single, as mentioned, debuted late in March and skyrocketed to the top.
The single, obviously, became one of the biggest hits in Ray's career and it was one of the biggest hits of the year but surprisingly it wasn't the top hit of that year. There's been some speculation on my part and I'm sure other fans of Ray Stevens have also speculated that "The Streak" should have been ranked higher on the year-end chart for 1974 given not only how many weeks it spent at the top in the United States but also it's number one finishes internationally (Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand), it's phenomenal performances in Australia and Ireland (peaking in the runner-up position in both countries), as well as the sales figures that were reported throughout the year; numerous sources cite the single as having sold more than five million copies.
"The Streak" ranked among the Top-10 pop hits of the year in 1974...which wasn't unexpected given the evidence I just provided...but the singles that ranked higher than "The Streak" for the year, well, a couple of them could have been ranked a little bit lower in comparison to the overall commercial dominance of "The Streak". So, with that in mind, I'll be ranting a little bit in the next couple of paragraphs. I generally don't advocate combative and bickering overtones but I can't help myself...what I'm ranting about ties into the career of Ray Stevens and I have a feeling a lot of us fans feel the same way:
I know the rankings, generally, break everything down into smaller segments: weeks on the Hot 100, weeks in the Top-40, weeks in the Top-10, sales achievements, award recognition, etc. and so I realize that the year-end charts that Billboard publishes aren't exclusively sales driven. The top song of the year, "The Way We Were", won two Academy Awards (giving the song much more prominence) in addition to it being a million seller and a chart topper for several weeks...and it was on the chart for more than 20 weeks according to research...and so I can see why Billboard chose to bestow the top song of the year to that recording. There's a couple of songs among the Top-10 that I think should have come in under "The Streak" simply based on commercial performance, though. Billboard placed a single called "Come and Get Your Love" in their year-end chart at number four but yet research shows that single sold half a million copies, peaked at number five during it's original chart run, but it spent more than 20 weeks on the Hot 100. So, in this instance, the fourth biggest hit of 1974 claimed that position through strength of it's presence on the charts since it sold less than "The Streak", for example.
The total number of weeks on the Hot 100 also holds true for an instrumental, "Love's Theme". It was on the Hot 100 for more than 20 weeks...reaching the top for one week...it reached the Hot 100 late in 1973 and peaked in February of 1974. It was certified a Gold record (half a million in sales). "Dancing Machine" was kept out of the number one spot, ironically, by "The Streak". In the year-end chart for 1974 "Dancing Machine" ranks higher, though, because it was charted longer. I'm not picking on those songs or the acts that recorded them nor am I trying to start any sort of flame war I'm merely pointing out that the biggest selling single of the year, "The Streak", didn't rank among the Top-5 and how several singles that sold less, or didn't even claim a number one peak during their chart run, ranked higher than "The Streak" in the year-end look back. Oh yes I'm coming across as a nit-picker, perhaps, quibbling over year-end chart placement. I've spent several paragraphs agonizing about the singles that ranked higher than "The Streak" in the year-end review...but I hadn't mentioned the singles that ranked lower. Ray's single was on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks...and it came in one spot higher than Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" for the year. Talk about quibbling...Elton's hit was charted 18 weeks...but because it was number one for a single week it ranked one spot lower than "The Streak" for the year.
However, weeks at number one didn't necessarily mean you'd receive a higher year-end finish. A Paul Anka recording, in particular, was a number one hit for three weeks in the fall of 1974 and was certified a Gold record but the year-end ranking for that single was 28. I should point out that the year-end rankings consist of 100 songs...and so finishing in the Top-10 of the year is outstanding...and I also realize that the longer a single's been available the chances are it'll have larger sales and chart statistics by the end of a year. Anyway...thanks for enduring my rantings about the year-end chart for 1974 as it pertains to "The Streak". A recent YouTube video upload surfaced of Ray performing the song a decade later, in 1984, on a country music television series...
The thing one has to know when it comes to stage performances of "The Streak" from Ray Stevens is that they generally feature an elaborate, self-satirical performance. The delivery of this performance is a mainstay of his concerts dating back to the mid 1970s. Ray would mock the critics of the song by performing a 'culturally sophisticated' rendition to please their ears, for laughs obviously. In this video clip the first part is missing (where Ray, as the reporter, announces that they're on the scene at the supermarket) but in performance Ray would launch into the song and after performing the opening verse, which takes place at the supermarket, he would stop the performance and make the announcement of how despised the song is by music critics worldwide (in earlier years resulting in a shower of boos from the audience) but in order to smooth things over and get on their favorite lists again he reveals that he's re-arranged the song; after which he'd launch into the rendition you hear at the beginning of the video clip.
If you have his VHS, Ray Stevens Live!, released in 1993, you'll see an even more elaborate performance of the song. A 1975 appearance on Pop! Goes the Country features one of the earliest deliveries of the 'culturally sophisticated' arrangement. The song itself isn't performed but Ralph Emery, the show's host, refers to a new version of "The Streak" in conversation and Ray demonstrates how he performs a verse of the song in concerts.
One of the priceless items I have in my Ray Stevens collection is his memoir from 2014 which is titled Ray Stevens' Nashville. The memoir was released five years ago. I own a softcover version of the book and I purchased my copy in March of 2014. I wrote a review of the book on this blog and I copied and pasted it onto Amazon. I can't remember exactly what day the book arrived in the mail but the Amazon customer review is dated April 16, 2014. I also discovered that of the 33 customer reviews on Amazon only three of them are designated paperback (a/k/a: softcover). I wrote one of the paperback/softcover reviews while a couple of other customers provided reviews for that format as well. The remainder of the customer reviews are for the hardcover and Kindle formats. Is that something that's necessarily a tidbit of information that's
worthy of pointing out...probably not...but it's something that caught
my eye nevertheless. The softcover edition was released on Amazon on March 5, 2014. The Kindle version was released on March 17, 2014. The hardcover became available on Amazon on August 25, 2014. After the release of the memoir Ray went on a book signing tour...a lot of the appearances were inside shopping malls at chain book stores and were mainly confined to Tennessee as well as a couple of book stores in Kentucky as well as Southern Indiana. In my blog entries during the first half of 2014 I provided much more detailed information as to where Ray was signing copies of his book. One of the special moments occurred at the Nashville Public Library where Ralph Emery interviewed Ray about the memoir followed by a book signing. I did some research and found the exact day of that interview and it took place on a Sunday and the date was June 22, 2014. The Tennessean newspaper published an article (June 18, 2014) promoting Ray's memoir and the upcoming book signing at the library and near the end of the article the author remarked that Ray is pondering the idea of building a venue in West Nashville.
By the way you can read my Amazon review of Ray's memoir by clicking HERE.
Isn't it fascinating when you go back and read articles or interviews featuring the goings-on in the career of Ray Stevens and pick up on things in hindsight? For example...in my review of his memoir I misunderstood a passage in one section. I pointed out, in my review, that Ray remarked that Fred Foster never got the chance to produce recording sessions on him...and yet Fred is credited as a producer on two of the albums Ray recorded at Monument. My mistake is that Ray's comment was part of a dare but I completely misread that sentence. Fred had objected to issuing "Gitarzan" as a single believing it couldn't be a hit...but Ray countered Fred's skepticism by saying something along the lines of: "release it...and if it's not a hit you can produce the rest of my sessions from now on". Ray commented in the book that "Gitarzan" became an enormous hit single in practically every English-speaking country in the world and "so Fred never got the chance to produce me". When I originally read that line back in March/April of 2014 it always baffled me but months later I discovered that I simply misread what Ray was explaining but I left my review intact and didn't edit or change anything. Gitarzan, the album, was all-comedy and the production team consisted of Ray, Fred Foster, and Jim Malloy. Ray's follow-up album to Gitarzan arrived later on in 1969, also on Monument, and not surprisingly the production credits on Have a Little Talk with Myself show only Ray Stevens and Jim Malloy...due to Fred 'losing' the bet regarding the fate of "Gitarzan". Another example of picking up on things in hindsight is the remark in the 2014 Tennessean article about Ray pondering the idea of opening a venue in West Nashville.
At the time I was under the impression that he'd purchase an existing facility, remodel/restore it, and open it up as some sort of performance theater. Little did we know in 2014 that Ray would supervise from the ground up the construction of a sprawling performance venue on River Road in West Nashville which ultimately was given the name, CabaRay. Also, little did we know in 2014 that Ray was planning on hosting a music-driven television series which was originally titled Ray Stevens' Nashville (making it's television debut in November 2015).
When Ray and company thought the CabaRay would be opening in the latter half of 2017 they changed the name of the television show to Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville beginning in early January of that year. The showroom finally opened for business, however, in January 2018 after nearly a year and a half construction process. The building permit took months to receive...obviously delaying the original plans of when the venue was to open...from a late summer/early fall 2017 anticipation to the eventual January 2018 grand opening. The showroom holds 750 audience members in the main concert area. There's a gift shop as well and also not to be overlooked is his trophy case upstairs as well as the piano bar which can seat quite a few customers. He signs autographs in the piano bar after the concerts. It's also a dinner theater...those who select a dinner option are seated at tables and in booths on the main floor while balcony seating is for non-dinner customers.
Hello once more...I've been on kind of a blog entry spree of late...I can't remember when I've written as many blog entries in such a short span of time. A month ago I wrote about the final moments that Ray Stevens and his office staff spent inside his recording studio on Grand Avenue in downtown Nashville. Ray had posted some photos on his social media sites of a small send-off party from inside the recording studio. I titled the blog entry '45 Grand (Avenue) Years' due to the fact that it opened in 1974 and it closed this year, 2019. You can read that blog entry by clicking HERE.
Several days ago a local television station in Nashville aired a report on the changes taking place on Music Row and the reporter delivered her story in front of Ray's partially demolished former recording studio. Her report was taped in the evening/night hours and so you couldn't see the background too well but within her report they aired footage taken during daylight hours.
The Music Row projects that have been taking place over the last several years, as I touched upon in several blog entries late last year and earlier this year, have polarizing impact. The preservationists get enraged and disgusted whenever a building that carries historical value is demolished whereas those that want modern facilities, which they argue carry a potential of luring business to the area, feel the older buildings turn off investors and entrepreneurs from attempting to do business in downtown Nashville.
The report that aired on WKRN carried more of a slant toward the preservationists and I only say that because the story featured commentary from a preservationist without offering commentary from someone involved in the construction of any of the new property. There's a video clip and there's also a transcript of the report. I couldn't get the video clip to play on the WKRN webpage but what I did was right click over the video and copy the incredibly lengthy URL code for that particular video clip. I pasted the code in an e-mail I sent to myself and was able to watch the video without a problem. Once you click the link check and see if you're able to watch the video...if it plays without a problem then it was a technical issue/glitch associated with my laptop.
The only thing I would change in her report if I had the ability to is for her to mention that she's standing in front of the partially demolished former recording studio and headquarters of Ray Stevens. In her report she says that the recently demolished studio was a building "where icons like Ray Stevens worked"...but in reality it was Ray's studio on Grand Avenue and he was the only recording artist that worked there. The photo below is a visual glimpse at what the recording studio looked like on the corner of 17th Avenue and Grand. In fact the recording studio took up most of the area but this is just a small thumbnail image. The studio sat on the corner of 17th Avenue South and Grand Avenue. It's a series of one way streets, though. Music Square West turns into 17th Avenue South depending on which direction you're traveling and Grand Avenue intersects with Music Square West. The entrance on 1707 Grand Avenue featured a business sign next to the front door that read Ray Stevens Music. A small alley is next to that former entrance. An entrance on 17th Avenue had a larger sign which sat on the lawn that read Ray Stevens Group. In fact, I'll post an image showing a wider shot of this side of the building later on.
The property had been for sale for a couple of years. When my brother and I went to Nashville last year (March 2018) we drove through Music Row and I went by Ray's recording studio and we saw the For Sale sign in the yard. To this day I wish I would've had him pull the car off to the side so he could get my picture taken in front of the studio but I was too scared. Why? It's because I didn't want someone from inside the studio to perhaps run out and say "what's going on here??" and I turn around, look, and see Ray Stevens or Buddy Kalb, or both of them, standing there!!! I'd be paralyzed with fear if that would've ever happened. So, I never had my brother take a photo...but of course there's photos of his former studio on-line and I saved a couple of the images months ago because I knew it would be torn down at some point to make way for the new multi-story development.
The photo above is what the studio looked like from the angle of 17th Avenue South/Music Square West and Grand Avenue. Research shows that Ray previously owned a number of other buildings in the area along 17th Avenue and Grand which were part of the recent sale a couple of months ago. I knew he owned numerous buildings in and around Nashville but I didn't realize most of them were situated on Music Row. Anyway, a company known as Hall Emery purchased all of the property Ray owned. The sale occurred in the latter half of March 2019 and last week it was demolished. The 1707 Grand Avenue property was purchased in 1973...but wasn't used until 1974. The property, like most of the buildings, resemble houses that were converted into recording studios and publishing companies. Ray added onto the property buy purchasing adjacent and neighboring property so that half of the block turned into Ray's recording studio and offices...and then, as I learned, he purchased numerous other properties either alone or in partnership with Chet Atkins.
Hidden behind some leaves on a tree is the address and business placard of Ray's former 1707 Grand Avenue property. My guess is once Ray purchased several other buildings nearby he had them remodeled or torn down because the property that was connected to the 1707 address doesn't resemble housing. The structure in the photo on the right is dark and, as mentioned, resembles a house whereas the extensions were tan/light colored and looked nothing like a house (as you can see in the two photos above). In addition to the photos I've posted and the street addresses I've mentioned there is a facility located on 17th Avenue South which on-line reports state is the location of Ray Stevens Productions. If I'm not mistaken that's the building where he tapes his YouTube music videos...even though I had thought that his video recording studio was located within the Grand Avenue location as well. It turns out that the company began in 1999 and all of the music video productions from Ray Stevens that have emerged since that studio opened were taped at the 17th Avenue South location...including almost all of the episodes of his television series before production moved to the CabaRay showroom on River Road in the early half of 2018. When you see an image of the 1210 17th Avenue location you wouldn't guess it housed the production facilities of Ray's video and television projects. It's so unassuming. I knew his television series wasn't taped at the Grand Avenue location and I knew there was a company called Ray Stevens Productions but I never thought to look up it's address until earlier this morning. There's an Instagram page with numerous photos from recording sessions of the television series. My guess is the summer of 2017 was the last time production took place on Ray's television series at the 17th Avenue studio and then after the CabaRay opened in January 2018 additional episodes were recorded there in February. I suspect additional episodes are to be put into production at some point this calendar year given that the series has returned to national television via cable and satellite on RFD-TV.
Later this year (September) will mark the 15th anniversary of a DVD titled The Complete Comedy Video Collection. This familiar DVD originally surfaced in 2004 on Clyde Records...by familiar I'm referring to the fact that it appears in search results for Ray Stevens image searches given how widely distributed the product happens to be all over the internet.
The original release on Clyde Records from 2004 had this information on the back of the DVD case. The first disc featured the music videos from a previously released 2003 VHS, Greatest Video Hits. As a bonus music video on disc one there's "Thank You", a newly released music video at the time. This was a number of years before the launch/creation of the video hosting site, YouTube, and this collection was the only place to see that particular music video. Disc two featured the music videos that appeared on Funniest Video Characters, a VHS release from 2000. The bonus music video on disc two is "Hello Mama", a sequel to "Osama Yo' Mama". In my previous blog entry I listed some comedy songs about mothers since this is Mother's Day but I never mentioned those two songs because in my way of thinking the subject matter is on a dramatically different emotional level but then again I should have listed those two songs anyway because they're definitely about a mother...albeit a fictionalized interpretation...but getting back to the theme of this blog entry the Clyde Records release of The Complete Comedy Video Collection in 2004 contains 20 music videos if you count both parts of "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" on disc two. Funniest Video Characters opens with part one of the song and it closes with part two of the song. In between those music videos are six additional videos as you can see in the photo above. The photo that appears on Funniest Video Characters has Ray, in character, battling The Blue Cyclone (played by Buddy Kalb). In the blog archives you can find an earlier blog post where I single out a lot of the VHS and DVD releases from Ray of his music videos. In a blog post from July 14, 2011 titled 'Comedy Video King' I examine the music video projects. You can search the archives for that blog entry or simply Google 'Ray Stevens Comedy Video King' and it'll be among the first batch of search results.
If you look closely above the bar code you'll see a courtesy given to Curb Records. Although Clyde Records is a label owned by Ray he was technically signed to Curb Records in the early to mid 2000s where he released a couple of CD's and several music video DVDs before exiting the label at some point in 2006. Curb Records distributed The Complete Comedy Video Collection DVD to retail stores and a wide variety of on-line shopping stores. The art work, graphics, and other aesthetic aspects of the DVD remained the same during the Curb Records distribution of the title but there were a couple of subtle differences on the back of the DVD.
As you can see, the information on the back of the Curb Records version of the DVD doesn't mention that the music video selections are from a couple of previously released VHS projects. Also of note, on disc one "Santa Claus is Watching You", which had appeared on the Clyde Records release, is replaced on the Curb Records release with "Power Tools". I'm guessing the reason for that is the fact that Ray originally recorded "Power Tools" for Curb Records in 1991 and so it more or less made sense to include it as something of an exclusive to the Curb Records version of the DVD. On disc two there's an additional bonus music video. Originally "Hello Mama" was the only bonus music video on disc two but "Osama Yo' Mama" was added as extra bonus music video for the Curb Records release. The front of the DVD contains a photo of Ray in a red suit and here's some trivia: the origin of the photo dates back several years prior to the release of this DVD in 2004. If you remember a publication called Country Music Magazine there used to be a feature in each issue called 20 Questions. The magazine was informative and featured plenty of photos and interviews and essays/opinions from the writing staff. It wasn't what you'd call a fan-friendly publication and as a result you could find yourself at odds with some of the editorials and opinions (as I sometimes did). Anyway, Ray Stevens was given the 20 Questions spotlight in one of their issues and the photo of Ray that they used is the same one that graces the cover of The Complete Comedy Video Collection. I did some on-line searching since I don't have the issue with me at the moment (it's in a storage room at my grandparent's house) but I wanted to provide information on that particular issue and it's the May/June 1997 issue of Country Music Magazine. The artist on the cover of that issue is Patty Loveless.
The title of this DVD has inadvertently led to a lot of on-line confusion and a lot of it stems from poor research on the part of many who routinely offer this product for sale on various on-line stores. Amazon, for example, offers the Curb Records version of the 2004 DVD but in the consumer/customer review area quite a lot of people have complained that they received items not matching the product page. The confusion also stems from a similarly named DVD released in the United Kingdom in 2009 titled The Complete Comedy Collection and so that particular release is 10 years old this year. Amazon also has a habit of consolidating customer reviews and because both of these DVD releases have similar titles and the fact that Clyde Records as well as Curb Records issued versions of The Complete Comedy Video Collection it's created, as you could guess, one big messy scenario of customer comments where some customers refer to "Power Tools" being on the DVD when they were expecting "Santa Claus is Watching You" or some other customer thinking "Osama Yo' Mama" would be a bonus video but the copy they received didn't feature it. I don't own the 2009 release because I've always figured that it's not playable on American made DVD players. The coding on the discs is PAL format and even though the product page on Amazon states that it's playable in All Regions I've never had the desire to purchase it given how limited my knowledge is when it comes to DVD playback. I don't even know if the DVD player I have is multi-region or not...I'd like to own the UK project because I like the graphics/art work. This is the back of the UK released DVD...
The 2009 DVD features 15 music videos at random. Some of the music videos are animation only...those particular videos come from the pair of projects he released on Curb Records in the mid 2000s of limited animation music videos. The titles of those DVD releases were Gourmet Restaurant and Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens. As you can see they used the photo of Ray from the 2004 DVD on the back of the 2009 DVD. This Complete Comedy Collection project wasn't released on Clyde Records as it was strictly a UK originated release but yet there's a Clyde Records logo further down the back cover of the DVD case. I didn't include the bottom half of the DVD but you can do an image search for the collection if you're curious to see the technical information (year of release, label, manufacturer, etc.). There's an image of the globe with a large Zero in the center. I looked up that image and it refers to the DVD being Region Free. That led me to look up what Region Free means. Supposedly it means the discs can be played in any DVD player all over the world...but I'm still skeptical. Anyway, the main reason I decided to use a smaller image is because I prefer not to take up a lot of text space on my blog entries with images. Some bloggers, and I was guilty of this when I first started blogging in 2008, choose to display large and in some cases super large images on their blogs and for the reader it pushes the text of the blog off to the side of the page...the results look aesthetically poor to me...and so I almost always choose to post medium or smaller sized images to eliminate any sort of major interference with the text. I do the same thing with video embeds. I reduce the original size of the videos so they don't interfere with the overall look of the blog entry. If you look at some of my very early blog entries you'll see how I didn't properly snip and crop images or reduce the size of videos and the results show. I'm not going to edit those posts to correct their visual appearance, though. I've come across blogs over the years in which the blogger hadn't resized the video...simply copied and pasted the default embed code...and the video took up most of the blog space leaving little room for much of anything else. Large photos and large video embeds also interfere with the loading of the page, too.
Some computers load faster than others...and for those on slower loading computers the appearance of any great big photo or video embed is a nightmare for them because of a slower webpage load time. I used to be on a device called Web-TV, on dial-up no less, and so I know what it was like to try and surf the internet and the slow load time whenever a page contained large graphics and videos. I got on-line via a Web-TV back in 2002...graduated to a desktop computer a couple of years later...then graduated to this laptop computer I'm on now. Oh, I still don't own a Blu-Ray player nor do I use what they call an I-phone or I-tablet or smart phone (assuming those are completely different things).
An early Sunday morning begins...a couple of hours before sunrise on Mother's Day. A couple of days ago a video clip was posted on Ray's Facebook page which pointed out the seldom publicized group rates for the CabaRay showroom. Group rates, of course, are self-explanatory and given it's early May and the weather is turning for the better it's become customary for businesses to begin promoting travel and tourism to Nashville, TN and the CabaRay is no exception.
Nashville radio personality Bill Cody is seen in the video clip delivering the information about the group rates. Bill also does the announcing on Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. He makes mention of calling the box office, of course, so you can arrange/finalize the concerts in which your group wants to attend a concert. The box office number can be seen in the video and you can also visit the CabaRaywebpage and find the information, too...but the video clip is designed to reach a maximum number of people who may not have the time to explore the webpage and give it a thorough going over. I'm not embedding the clip because of how it impacts the look of the blog entry. I had the video code pasted here and after I previewed the page and how it would appear there was a long gap underneath the video clip and the start of the next paragraph...and I don't think that sort of thing looks too good on a blog page...and so I'm providing a link to the video's Facebook appearance. You can see it by clicking HERE.
In my opening commentary I mentioned that the group rate offer is seldom publicized and I believe the reason for this is due to most of the feedback that shows up on-line revolves around individual experiences at the showroom and a lot of that feedback includes photos and it outnumbers the feedback supplied from those that attended a concert as part of a larger group. There have been instances where feedback from people that have been part of a tourist group has surfaced on the internet...so it isn't like that sort of feedback never happens. I have to often remind myself that not all of Ray's fans, whether they attend a concert as part of a larger group or not, some of the fans aren't internet driven which means they do not feel the desire or the need to jump onto the internet and post their comments/thoughts or photos from their Ray Stevens CabaRay experience.
However, having said that, there happen to be a lot of photos of Ray with those that have attended concerts at the showroom. Inside the piano bar after the show Ray meets and greets those that have attended and he signs autographs and so there's definitely an atmosphere of fan-artist interaction and, as mentioned earlier, it's those very photos that make up a large percentage of feedback on social media. The photos reinforce the family-friendly atmosphere and the photos offer an overview of the multi-generations of fans that appreciate his music and brand of entertainment...at a Ray Stevens concert it isn't unusual to see people from all ages in attendance...and if you happen to be a part of a group or club and want to attend a concert at the CabaRay call their box office for the group rates.
I still do not know when the Country Music Hall of Fame medallion ceremony is to take place. I don't think the information is released publicly, though. It's a private gala, anyway, but once the ceremony has taken place each newly elected member of the CMHOF will receive their plaque. Photos from the gala as well as video clips almost always appear on-line after the ceremony concludes but the actual ceremony itself has never been streamed live. The plaques, as many of you know, are put on display in the rotunda of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame this year...the announcement was made on March 18th...but his plaque won't be on display at the Hall of Fame until after the medallion ceremony has taken place.
Prior to the creation of the medallion ceremony each newly elected member of the Country Music Hall of Fame would receive their plaque on national television at the annual CMA Awards; typically to the surprise of the artist being given the honor because it was kept secret until the revelation at the awards show.
The reason I come across eager and anxious for the medallion ceremony is because after it concludes Ray's place in the Hall of Fame will become official...at the moment he's referred to as a Member-Elect (much like politicians who've been elected but haven't taken office yet). So, in a way, the medallion ceremony is like Inauguration Day...and once the medallion process is completed the recipient officially becomes a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame with the unveiling of their plaque during the medallion ceremony...which later goes on permanent display in the rotunda at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In the lengthy career of Ray Stevens, and this ties in with Mother's Day, he's recorded a few songs about mom but I can't think of any song that traditionally fits the emotional, heartwarming feelings of Mother's Day. In several of his comedy songs he's sang about some wacky wives. In comedy songs in which Ray sings of being the father there's often comical situations revolving around the mom and the kids...a few examples being "The Camping Trip" (1986), "Juanita and the Kids" (1991), "The All-American Two Week Summer Family Vacation" (1993), "We're Having a Baby the Natural Way" (2004), "When the Kids Are Gone" (2005), and "The Cure" (2008).
Let's also recall some other mother references that have appeared in some Ray Stevens comedy songs: "The Dooright Family" (1980) tells the comical story of a traveling gospel show in which Mama Dooright memorably plays piano; "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis" (1987) is a comedy song featuring what's referred to as dark humor...the song is about a wife and mother who happened to have been a fan of Elvis but has since passed away in one of the most bizarre ways imaginable; "Mama Sang Bass" (1997), which I wrote about in previous blog entries (including the one preceding this), is a song in which Ray recalls how his fictional parents both worked at a pharmaceutical factory and how exposure to chemicals and fumes caused Mama and Daddy to switch traditional roles (Mama eventually started growing facial hair) and then on Sunday in church their voices had also began changing which caused Mama to sing bass and Daddy to sing tenor. Ray would do a cover version of "Mother-in-Law" in 2012 for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. If you're familiar with the song you'll know it plays into the 'mother-in-law joke'...detailing how inferior a mother views her daughter's husband.
On a more serious side of things there's "A Mama and a Papa" (1972) which originally appeared on Ray's gospel album, Turn Your Radio On. As one could imagine it's a song dealing with the importance of having a mother and a father figure in a child's life. Earlier than that Ray recorded "The Little Woman" (1969) and this is a song about a man who comes across an attractive woman who apparently shows interest in him...but loyalty to his wife and children prevent him from going down an adulterous path. It's a lyrically powerful song in my opinion. The politically correct zealots of today as well as feminists have long since defined the slang expression 'the little woman' as being a degrading and condescending phrase but as usual their over-reaction to phrases and words is just that: hysterical over-reaction. "The Little Woman" and "A Mama and a Papa", as far as I know, are the only songs Ray has recorded that fit the traditional formula of a sentimental, traditional Mother's Day song. If any of you can think of any other feel free to let me know.
Hello all...I was going through the acres of archives here on my fan created Ray Stevens blog page and I was skimming through some of my blog titles from 2012. I was refreshing my memory as to what I was writing back then and that's the year I did a series of blog entries called The Golden LP series. The blog entries under that title spotlighted a different Ray Stevens album from every year beginning in 1962 up through the then-current year of 2012. That particular year happened to be the 50th anniversary of Ray's move to Nashville in 1962 and the eventual recording and release of "Ahab the Arab"...and so I decided to create a series of blog entries to honor that 50th year golden milestone. 2012 also marked the 15th anniversary of a particular Ray Stevens studio album titled Hum It which was released in early 1997 on MCA.
The comedy album features 10 recordings...two of which were turned into music videos: "Virgil and the Moonshot" and "Too Drunk To Fish". Those two songs, given their music video treatment, have become classics on the internet. When Ray and his associates created various social media pages (YouTube, specifically) those two music videos became just as viral as the earlier music videos from the 1992 Comedy Video Classics VHS (which had also been uploaded onto YouTube). Ray uploaded the 1997 music video of "Virgil and the Moonshot" onto YouTube in 2012 and since then it's received over 120,000 unique views. "Too Drunk to Fish", on the other hand, was uploaded onto YouTube the same year and it's gotten more than 2,000,000 unique views. Those were the only songs on Hum It that were turned into music videos even though several other songs would have made great music videos, too. "R.V." paints the picture of a couple seeing the country from the comforts of their brand new "R.V."...but things don't go as smoothly as they had hoped...look out for those overpasses!! The wonderful and clever "I'll Be In Atlanta" is so good...it has a catchy Dixieland sound playing along in the background as Ray sings about the part of the country where he was raised. Lyrical cleverness is abundant during the song where names and locales from the classic movie, Gone With the Wind, are mentioned. A couple more songs on Hum It could also have made good music videos: The album's closing number is very funny and satirical even though a lot of people may not relate to it personally. "How Much Does it Cost To Fly To Albuquerque?" is the fictional story of Ray calling up an airline and asking that simple question but the travel agent on the other end of the phone gives Ray a lot of grief and headache inquiring about all kinds of promotional coupons, inquiring if it's Coach, if a rental car is needed, how much luggage is expected, etc. even though all Ray was wanting to know is how much a ticket costs. "Mama Sang Bass" is a parody of "Daddy Sang Bass", a classic from Johnny Cash. Ray's recording, however, examines a role reversal and what might happen if Mama and Daddy both work at a pharmaceutical factory but over the course of time the two slowly experience emotional chaos based on where they've been assigned at the factory. In the song Mama works on body building steroids while Daddy helps manufacture birth control pills. Mama's been exposed to so many steroid fumes and chemicals while Daddy's been breathing in chemicals from birth control pills that it caused each other to change slightly...and now when they're in church Mama sings bass while Daddy sings tenor. It's hysterical...the famed bass, J.D. Sumner, sang the part of Mama...and I always wish it would have been made into a music video.
The ten songs on the album are: "R.V.", "I'll Be In Atlanta", "Virgil and the Moonshot", "She Loves Elvis Better Than Me", "Sunday Morning", "Too Drunk To Fish", "Mama Sang Bass", "My Neighbor", "It Ain't Over Till It's Over", "How Much Does It Cost to Fly to Albuquerque?".
Curb Records re-issued Hum It in 2009...peculiar given that the album had been recorded for MCA and previously released by them in 1997. It's a rare occurrence when a record label re-issues an album that had been recorded and previously released on another label...but yet that's what happened. The graphics and coloring were the only thing different between the 1997 and 2009 Hum It releases. The Curb release has a darker background with Ray's name and the album title underneath the photo. Ray is dressed as a basketball referee whistling in the photo...and he's dressed as Whistler's Mother...in the foreground. The idea behind the album's title was the mother tired of hearing her son 'whistling' all the time and for him to just Hum It instead. Ray explained the album cover during appearances on several television shows in 1997 which is how I know the backstory of the cover art. Ray explained the cover art in a lot of his television appearances and in interviews because a lot of people mistakenly thought he was dressed up as Norman's mother from the Psycho movies.
Hello all...I woke up about half an hour ago and decided to check the internet...and I came across a mini-flurry of activity on various Ray Stevens social media pages surrounding a remembrance of the birth of Sigmund Freud, the famed Austrian Psychologist.
The first bit of activity I came across was on his Facebook page where a video clip was added. The clip edited together the brief sketches of Ray as Sicmind Fraud from his 1992 home video, Amazing Rolling Revue. The footage had been taped at some point in 1991 or perhaps earlier but it was never issued commercially until 1992. I'd say the footage was recorded in 1991, though, because the VHS contains a sketch involving characters from "Tabloid News", a song Ray recorded for his 1991 album. In case some hadn't made the connection Sicmind Fraud is a parody of Sigmund Freud...and Ray uses a gloriously exaggerated Austrian accent while playing the character. Buddy Kalb, clean-shaven, appears as the first patient in the video clip. I do not know the identities of the other two. You can watch the Facebook video when you click HERE.
The second bit of activity I came across was this YouTube clip titled "Sicmind Fraud Revisited". It's a presentation of several pseudo-psychoanalysis bits with the character which originated on episodes of his Rayality TV series. The patients include Ralph Emery, Norro Wilson, and Sabrina. Buddy Kalb appears in character as policeman Dudley Dorite.
If you're a long time fan of Ray as I happen to be then you should be
very familiar with the Austrian accent Ray has often used. The very
first time I'd heard it was in a 1984 recording, "The Monkees", a spoof of the theme song of the pop group, The Monkees, originally found on He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. In that song he uses the accent as one half of the duo, Wolfgang and Fritzi. Later on I heard the accent on a song Ray recorded called "Put It In Your Ear". I first heard that song on an RCA release titled Collector's Series. This was in the early 1990s...quite a few years before I was able to build my personal collection of Ray Stevens vinyl albums. I eventually found out "Put It In Your Ear" originated in 1980 on the Shriner's Convention album.
Anyway...Sicmind Fraud came along as a visual character in the 1992 Amazing Rolling Revue release but then re-emerged in 1995 for Ray's direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!. We find out that Sicmind Fraud, in the movie, is dressed as Napoleon...and so that's who Ray is dressed up as on the Get Serious! VHS cover. There were 10 music video productions throughout the movie and one of the music videos happened to be "I Used To Be Crazy" (a song from his 1989 album, Beside Myself). Ray appears as Sicmind Fraud in the movie, first seen sitting on top of a mechanical horse, and later appears in the "I Used To Be Crazy" music video. There is a lot of split-screen special effects and quick editing...one scene has Ray standing side by side as Sicmind Fraud dressed in the Napoleon uniform and as Sicmind Fraud dressed in regular attire (similar attire from the YouTube video clip).
Early Monday morning...the start of another work week...and although being an overnight worker as I am (my work week begins in the evening hours and it lasts most of the overnight hours), but yet even with that work schedule, it's still a Monday!
A couple of days ago the CabaRay showroom received some spotlight from a local television station in Nashville, Channel 5 (WTVF). The showroom was selected as Heritage Bank USA's small business of the month in a series referred to as Banking on Business. I came across the video clip late yesterday afternoon but I didn't compose a blog entry focusing on it. A social media message from the bank's CEO mentioned that the segment aired on CBS newscasts as well as the local Channel 5 television station in Nashville. The bank is headquartered in Hopkinsville, KY and it serves several surrounding cities in Kentucky as well as several cities in Tennessee.
Now, for those that aren't too sure what exactly defines a 'small business' and a 'big business', well, an explanation is in order. Even though the CabaRay is a sprawling sight to behold (in pictures and even better in person) and it takes in a lot of revenue it's economically defined in the small business category because it meets the criteria of the small business model as opposed to the big business model. It's also important to remember that the descriptive labels 'small' and 'big' aren't meant to be taken as one business is better or more successful than the other or that a small business is somehow inferior to a big business. That kind of thinking is laced with ignorance.
A successful small business turns a profit just as a successful big business does. The most recognizable difference being that small business has much more of a hands-on, personal involvement from the owner/President of the business (rather than pushing those duties onto several subordinate managers, for example) and the employee roster is usually under a thousand in a small business. Also, a small business is generally not at the mercy of a gaggle of creditors or stockholders dictating how the business should operate.
Ray Stevens CabaRay
5724 River Road
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
(615) 327-4630
Ray will be performing concerts at the CabaRay every Friday and Saturday evening during the month of May and tickets can be purchased by either calling the number above or clicking HERE. On Wednesday nights the showroom is operated by the cast and crew of the RFD-TV series, Larry's Country Diner. Episodes of that series are being taped at the CabaRay every Wednesday. The show has taped at the CabaRay during several previous production periods and so, I think, the CabaRay will be the facility in which Larry's series continues to originate from.
