Ray Stevens: Vintage Performance Photo...

This Ray Stevens photo is a new one for me. It appeared earlier today on his social media. I cropped the photo so that it would focus more on Ray instead of the background. As you can see he's wearing a top hat with CAT written across the front. Yes, you guessed correctly, he's performing "The Streak" and given his appearance I'd say it's from anywhere between the years 1974 and 1977...I'd strongly suggest it's from 1977 but it's difficult to tell, actually. I don't know at what point Ray incorporated the top hat into the performance...meaning that I don't know if it's something he's done since the song was released in 1974 or if it's something he decided to do to garner more laughs as the years went by. The idea of having the CAT brand on a top hat is comical. The yellow CAT hat is something he's often used as a visual during "The Streak" but, as mentioned, I don't know at what point in time he began putting on the CAT top hat. The unedited photo has a background indicating the sponsor of the concert and part of the word, Palomino, is visible. Once I seen this I began thinking that this must be a performance at The Palomino Club...a venue that used to exist in Los Angeles. It was notable for being one of the few nightclubs on the West Coast centering around country music in the '50s, '60s, and '70s before country began to see much more broad acceptance beginning in the mid and late '80s. The venue closed in 1995 simply because so many other country music clubs and performance venues began popping up...creating a lot of competition that previously didn't exist. An audio clip of "The Streak" is below...