Hello Ray Stevens fans!! When I was driving home from work this morning I heard the news that Mikhail Gorbachev passed away. I only know of him through history books in grade school and for a series of highly publicized summits with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the mid 1980s. My grandparent's were heavy news watchers and so whenever I was at their house they'd have on a cable news channel or they'd have on the local news. TV Guide, of which I once consumed almost religiously, promoted the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings, too. Gorbachev was the Soviet Union leader when the U.S.S.R. officially dissolved in 1991. Although he was definitely a Communist/Socialist, Gorbachev is credited with helping bring an end to the Cold War between the United States and Russia. Reagan set in motion what ultimately took place during the George H.W. Bush Administration: The end of the Cold War (March 1947 - December 1991). The acronym stood for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1988 Ray Stevens recorded a song titled "Surfin' U.S.S.R." from the pen of William Martin. The song was turned into a music video...and that video included some exclusive footage not heard in the audio recording. The video featured Ray doing vocal impressions of Reagan as well as an Americanized Russian accent for Gorbachev. The video featured four actors wearing masks of Ronald and Nancy Reagan as well as Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife. Once the opening to the video with the Reagan/Gorbachev references concluded then the actual song began and the music video properly gets underway.
The song is about a group of Russian sailors who are in a Submarine off the coast of California. The sub crashed when the sonar operator fell asleep. Ray delivers the song, vocally, in a tone similar to Beach Boys member, Mike Love. The song, overall, carries a Beach Boys vibe. The song appeared, originally, on Ray's 1988 comedy album I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. I included the album cover at the top of the blog entry. Ray, on the album cover, is dressed as Will Rogers.
To date I have never seen Ray perform "Surfin' U.S.S.R." on television. I'm sure he performed it on a television show...but yet maybe he never did!? It was Ray's second music video release following 1985's "Santa Claus is Watching You".
Here's the 1988 Ray Stevens music video for "Surfin' U.S.S.R."...
I just finished watching the latest YouTube upload of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. This is Season 2, Episode 1 guest starring Bobby Goldsboro. Ray kicks off the show singing the inspirational ballad, "Never Too Late", from his 2009 One for the Road album. There are a few comical elements within the song but it's mostly an inspirational song. Ray then speaks of Bobby Goldsboro's music and their shared past in recording studios. Ray tells of his experiences as a harmony singer and musician on the recording sessions of numerous artists...Bobby Goldsboro included.
They speak a little bit about "Little Things" which Ray mentions was the first Bobby Goldsboro recording he sang harmony vocals on. Ray mentions that Bobby is also an oil painter...and a brief video of some of his paintings is shown on screen. Bobby remarked that he began painting at age 65 and he's been painting ever since.
There's a brief comedy theater sketch where Ray plays a hospital patient who's being looked over by a group of non-doctors...one of which is a gorilla. Following up the performance of "Little Things" is Bobby's performance of his mega-hit, "Honey". This song, which can still bring a tear to the eye if you find yourself caught up in the performance, falls under the category of tragic ballads. Some may refer to it as tear-jerking, sad songs, or I've heard harsh criticisms of the song coming from people who can't deal with the song's content or how it's musically delivered. Any harsh, rough criticism directed toward the song, in my opinion, is more of a defense mechanism from some people...the type of person who doesn't want to admit to being emotionally impacted by the song will lash out and call it a "terrible, horrible song" but we all know the truth, right?
Although Ray's professional recording debut happened in 1957 both he and Bobby Goldsboro made names for themselves in 1960s pop music and eventually found themselves in the country music market by the early to mid 1970s. Bobby once hosted a top-rated television series as well.
Ray closes the show singing "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor", which is preceded by a clip of Don Cusic talking about the song's inclusion in Ray's 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. This is Episode 1, Season 2. Each season of Ray's TV series consists of 13 episodes.
Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Did any of you happen to hear Ray Stevens on the Opry Country Classics radio show this past Thursday night? Ray made an appearance on August 25th. I knew of this upcoming appearance but I didn't have the time to put together a blog entry promoting the appearance. I thought that the episode would be put in the Archive section of WSM radio's website. There's a section of their webpage called Archives and it lists the various programs that are archived...and Opry Country Classics is one of those archived programs. However, the episode Ray guest starred on has yet to be added to the archives. I'll continue to check their archive section and include a link in a future blog entry. In the meantime, though, several online fans of Ray Stevens that I frequently message back and fourth with were able to hear the show Thursday night while I was away from the house at work. I was given a broad overview of Ray's performance. Opry Country Classics is hosted by Larry Gatlin. It's a seasonal program...meaning that it airs for a couple of months per year. It isn't a weekly series. The program features several guests and one spotlight artist. The spotlight artist is the headliner and so that artist comes on in the final segment and gets to perform more songs, and, given the show's name the spotlight artist will be someone with considerable longevity in the music business. Ray has made guest appearances on this series before and I've heard the previous appearances. Hopefully the latest show will become available on WSM radio's archive page and I'll be able to hear the show for myself and add in more detail. I was informed that Ray performed "Gitarzan", "It's Me Again, Margaret", "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", and "Everything is Beautiful". There wasn't much talk of the CabaRay showroom or any new albums on the horizon according to the other Ray Stevens fans I was in contact with. Given that I haven't heard the performances, yet, I am unable to relate as to whether he changed anything such as lyrical emphasis or if he added or deleted lyrics. I was told that in between the songs he told some of his jokes but I'm unsure which ones...he tells numerous jokes which often lead into the next song he's going to do.
Since this is a re-cap of Ray's appearance on Opry Country Classics I'll close out this blog entry with Ray's marvelous salute to Tennessee. It's a song from 1983 titled "A Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". It originally appeared on his 1983 album, Me, on the Mercury/Polygram label. Another reason I'm adding this video embed is to give the blog entry a bit more interaction instead of it being essay form and nothing else. I know you're going to love seeing this performance again...and if it's new to you you're going to fall in love with the song just as I did. After the performance you're hear Ray talk about the song and the debut of The Nashville Network. This performance is from the launch night of the cable channel in March 1983. The channel went off the air, as a country music outlet, in 1999.
Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I just finished watching the Friday evening YouTube upload of Episode 13, Season 1 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. In this episode the special guest happens to be Billy Dean. Ray opened the show singing the comical "Little By Little" from his 2015 comedy album, Here We Go Again!. If you're familiar with Ray's intro by Bill Cody in each episode you're probably familiar with that phrase. Bill usually says "and now...don't look, Ethel...but here we go again...". The song is comical but it also could be categorized as an inspirational song.
Up next is a clip from Ray's Branson, Missouri years where he does a parody of "Secret Agent Man" in which he sings "Information Man" and incorporates an enlarged cordless phone to speak into. An operator gives Ray a lot of verbal grief and without warning Ray pulls out a gun and shoots the phone's receiver. After this clip ends Ray introduces Billy Dean.
I first heard of Billy Dean in the early 1990s. His breakthrough song, "Only Here For a Little While", provided a little insight into the style of songs he would largely become known for...positive, uplifting story songs. Billy talks about his professional relationship with The Gatlin Brothers and how he and Larry Gatlin teamed up and wrote a song together called "An American with a Remington". Billy tells the story behind the song and how important gun ownership happens to be. Billy remarks that the song's video received more than 16 million views on Facebook within a week's time and the video upload on Larry Gatlin's social media pages as well as his own social media added to that total.
Billy's follow-up performance is "Billy the Kid". Prior to the performance he explains the history behind the real Old West outlaw, Billy the Kid, and makes mention of the outlaw's rabid admirers and how his headstone had been vandalized so much in New Mexico that the cemetery has since placed prison bars over top of the headstone. Billy then remarks that the song's lyrics are actually about his own childhood and how, at that point in time, parents encouraged their kids to 'run out and play' rather than stay in their front or back yards. Billy says that, as a kid, he liked playing Cops and Robbers as well as Cowboys and Indians. "Billy the Kid", the song, details Billy Dean's nostalgic look back on his childhood and in adulthood he wonders whatever happened to his innocence and that he misses his childhood. In the screen cap below it captures Billy in a laughing mood as he and Ray discuss The Gatlin Brothers.
As a trivial note, Ray once recorded a song which featured a Billy Dean co-writer credit called "Meanwhile". The song appears on Ray's 1993 Curb Records studio album, Classic Ray Stevens, but there's no discussion of that recording. Billy co-wrote it with radio personalities/songwriters Gerry House and Devon O'Day.
Ray closed the show singing the rousing iconic novelty song, "The Preacher and the Bear". Don Cusic gave a brief history of the song and mentioned Phil Harris popularizing it...and then Ray started into the song and given the religious overtone he was in character and even intentionally dropped a lot of letters off his words to give them a more southern twang...emulating the Phil Harris style.
This happens to be the final episode of Season One of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Ray produced 13 episodes of his TV series per season. It's my guess that Episode One, Season Two will air this coming Friday on YouTube.
Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! Several days ago Ray's performance of "Strangers in the Night" was uploaded to YouTube. The song, originally by Frank Sinatra, is part of Ray's Sinatra salute album from 2008, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. The album's comical title is a reference to Ray's image with the general public...a public that continually thinks of him as a singer of comedy/novelty songs and nothing else. Originally released on Ray's Clyde Records label Curb Records distributed the album the following year. As you can see, Ray is dressed in the pop crooner attire typical for the time period of most of these Sinatra songs. In fact, I believe it was Sinatra that started the pop culture trend of wearing a Fedora but, of course, that's just an assumption. As I've mentioned in many former blog entries when discussion centers around this album I like to point out the clothing and the art design. It features a duplication of Ray's signature. The microphone hanging down from a ceiling also adds to the atmosphere. Ray could've easily did half a dozen or so album cover concepts but this is the one he chose. In this performance from Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series you'll be treated to his rendition of "All the Way". Ray uploaded this performance last year on his Facebook page but it hadn't been on YouTube until now. If you follow Ray on social media, as I do, you'll notice that some videos are uploaded on YouTube and then months later they show up on Facebook...or the reverse happens. Also, other social media platforms eventually receive Ray's video uploads, too. My guess is there's research showing that some of Ray's fans virtually congregate at specific social media platforms and, therefore, may not be aware of a video upload if they only visit one or two platforms regularly. Like practically everything in life people have their preferred TV stations, radio stations, types of clothes, types of music, car manufacture or make, favorite food and beverages, and this extends to social media platforms, too. As far as audio content most people prefer Spotify...but yet there's Itunes, Facebook, and YouTube as well. The same holds true for video content, too. So, then, here's the YouTube upload of Ray's rendition of "All the Way"...you'll love it...
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A couple of days ago Ray uploaded a performance he gave of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" from his former theatre in Branson, Missouri. The performance is from 1992. Ray taped a complete concert at his former theatre in 1992 and split it in half and sold it in two separate VHS tapes: Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!. Those VHS tapes were released in 1993. The performance of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" appears on More Ray Stevens Live!. Ray never released that particular VHS through television direct marketing...it was only sold at his theatre's gift shop and through his former fan club...so it wasn't as widely known as Ray Stevens Live! at the time. You'll see not only Ray perform the song but you'll see the big video screen above the stage playing snippets of the music video. This video screen and the insertion of music video content is what Ray said inspired him to begin releasing VHS tapes of his songs. In the beginning there was a VHS release only sold at his theatre called Ray Stevens Video Hits. This led to the extended edition, in 1992, of Comedy Video Classics which became a blockbuster VHS for two years in the Home Video market. The 1992 release featured five of the music videos from the Video Hits release with three all new music video productions bringing the overall total to eight music videos. One of those newest music video productions for Comedy Video Classics was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and you'll see it playing as Ray sings the song at his former Branson, Missouri theatre...
Hello once again...I just finished watching Episode 12 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. It made it's YouTube debut this past Friday. Something that is new to me are a couple of YouTube ad inserts that popped up while I was watching the show. I've uploaded all previous episodes and this is the first episode to feature random ad breaks from YouTube. They're random because they happen while Ray is either singing or the guest is singing...you'll be watching and then you'll see an ad alert show up in the bottom right hand side of the YouTube video box. A couple of the ads were skippable but others were 4 to 5 seconds in length. To say it was an annoyance is an understatement but I'm still going to embed each episode of Ray's show once it makes it's YouTube debut. I hope the presence of these YouTube ads is something short-lived...if not it's something we'll have to get used to.
On Episode 12 Ray kicked off the show singing "Kiss a Pig" to a rousing audience. The first special guest was stand-up comedian James Gregory. He's naturally very funny...and he has that ability to say things in a funny way and you'll find yourself laughing. A lot of it has to do with his accent but much more of it has to do with his observational humor and how he can look at things mundane and find something ironic or hilarious to point out. His nickname is 'The Funniest Man in America'. He had a brief role in Ray's 1995 direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!, as lawyer Harold P. Cheatham. The fictional law firm he worked for was Robb, Cheatham, and Steele. It was Cheatham's character that insisted that Ray pay each person offended at his comedy $27,000,000 each. In this CabaRay Nashville episode James Gregory does a stand-up routine and he has a brief comical exchange with Ray.
Upon conclusion of the James Gregory segment Ray brought out the Helen Highwater String Band. This group consists of Shad Cobb, Mike Compton, Missy Raines, and David Grier. If you pay attention to the musician credits on some of Ray's recent albums you should be aware of Shad Cobb's name. He's often the fiddle player on Ray's albums. The group sings "Cryin' and Singin'". A brief clip from Ray's 1993 VHS, Ray Stevens Live!, shows up...the clip of Ray spoofing James Bond. In the 1993 VHS, that clip aired before Ray sang a spoof of "Secret Agent Man" titled "Information Man". Professor Cusic appeared and gave a history lesson of "Splish, Splash" and Bobby Darin. Ray recorded the song for his 2012 Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and it's the song Ray closed the show with in this episode.
Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Have you seen the most recent YouTube upload of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville? I'll be writing a blog entry about that episode when I get home from work later tonight but for now I'm writing about a performance of "Strangers in the Night" at the CabaRay showroom by Ray Stevens. Ray recorded a salute to the songs of Frank Sinatra and titled it Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. It was released on Ray's own Clyde Records in 2008 and then it was distributed later by Curb Records. The CD contains numerous Sinatra standards and several songs that other pop artists popularized but just happened to have also been recorded by Sinatra in his career. One of those songs is "Young at Heart". That song was recorded by dozens of pop artists...I first heard of it through a Bing Crosby recording and I also know Jimmy Durante sang it, too. I was not aware of it's connection to Frank Sinatra until this CD came along and I did some research on the song itself.
Ray also recorded "All The Way", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "High Hopes", "That's Life", "Witchcraft", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Night and Day", "The Tender Trap"...and, as mentioned, "Strangers in the Night". It's a 10 track album. Some may wonder why Ray didn't also do renditions of "New York, New York", "My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)", "A Very Good Year", "My Way", or "Love and Marriage". I wondered the same thing myself back when the CD was released and my guess then, as now, is those particular songs are just too well established (music arrangements) in the general public's mind that it would appear nearly impossible to change the presentation of those particular songs. "New York, New York" has that world famous intro that it's impossible to hear the song without that kick off...the same holds true for the intro to "Love and Marriage". I assume Ray could've come up with different instrumentation for that song if he would've chosen to to a rendition of it but it's tied to the sitcom, Married...With Children, so much now that to change the arrangement would more or less baffle some people who probably think Sinatra recorded the song specifically for that sitcom. But here's the legendary Ray Stevens singing "Strangers in the Night"...if you don't have the Sinatra salute CD you can look it up on YouTube or online music sites.
Hello all...I've made mention a couple of blog entries ago about the new items being offered at the Ray Stevens online store. Once you visit the store there are several sections to choose from in the form of tabs along the computer screen. There's sections that focus on Music (CDs), DVDs, Apparel, Extras (mugs, trinkets, and obscure items), and one called CabaRay. Some of the merchandise spills over into the various sections but the purpose for the sections is to help customers navigate more quicker. If it's Music you're more interested in you'd click the Music tab. If it's Apparel you'd click that tab...it's the section with T-shirts. The CabaRay tab features ball caps and other items that have the CabaRay graphic written on it. I put in an order for a few items this past Friday and I'm awaiting their arrival in the mail. I purchased a couple of the new items and an item that's not brand new but it hasn't been available for awhile, either. In the past I was never a trinket purchaser...but now I find myself being a lot more open to what I purchase. Since the online store opened and the CabaRay items were brought in I've purchased magnets, keychains, and at some point I plan on purchasing some of the shot glasses and perhaps another ballcap. I saw a glitter bag and was tempted to purchase it but I don't exactly know what a glitter bag is...the last thing I want is to buy something that'll get glitter all over my hands if I touch it. Yes, I may be thinking in the literal sense when I see 'glitter bag' written in the online store. I'll have to do an internet search for glitter bag and find out what they are. Maybe it's a carrying case made of plastic but it has art work that makes it look as if it's made of glitter?! I've never professed to be in the know about fashions and carrying cases or stuff like that. I know the size of my clothes and shoes, thankfully, and I know what fun music is and that's Ray Stevens! You can visit the store by clicking this LINK.
Here it is August 6th and this is my first blog entry of the month!! As I mentioned in a previous blog entry my work hours have changed which doesn't leave me a lot of extra time but I'll squeeze in a blog entry when I get the time. Today we're going to be looking at Episode 11, Season 1 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The special guest this time around happens to be classic country music icon Gene Watson. Ray opens the show singing "Power Tools" to a rousing audience. Snippets of the limited animation music video plays along side Ray's performance. The song originated in 1991 and can be found on the album #1 With a Bullet.
Ray brings out Gene Watson and they discuss music; Gene talks about his start in the music industry and how one of Ray's harmony singers once worked for George Jones (Sherri Smith). Gene speaks of touring with George all over the U.S. and Canada. One of the stops Gene made during one of his tours in the 1980's was at Jones Country, the music park George Jones owned for a little more than 6 years in Colmesneil, Texas (1983-1989).
Gene tells a brief history of "Farewell Party" and how he first heard the song on a Waylon Jennings album. He says that Waylon's recording is way different than his own. The song had also been recorded by Little Jimmy Dickens as an up-tempo sing-a-long. Gene remarked that they recorded "Farewell Party" in one take and within half an hour. Gene's second song is "Fourteen Karat Mind". That particular 1981 single was Gene's only #1 country hit in the United States. He had hit #1 on the country chart in Canada several years earlier with "Paper Rosie", which peaked within the Top-5 in the United States in 1977 but fell short of #1. Gene's breakthrough single arrived in 1975, "Love in the Hot Afternoon".
Inserted a couple of times throughout the episode is a sketch from Ray's 1991 Amazing Rolling Revue television pilot. It's the sketch of Ray as a captured man insisting that he's oblivious to pain and nothing hurts him...but all it takes is a gentle tap on the face from an empty glove to start Ray divulging plans and revealing the hiding places of the enemy.
Ray closes the show singing "Mr. Businessman". That song goes back to 1968 and was originally found on the album, Even Stevens. When I saw him in concert he performed this song in all of the concerts I've been to, so far. I've seen him a couple of times in Renfro Valley, Kentucky; once in Nashville, Indiana; and once at the CabaRay in Nashville, Tennessee. Since he doesn't tour anymore I'd have to make a return trip to Nashville, Tennessee in order to see him in concert once again.
