Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 4

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! We only have 11 more days left in the month of March and so in this installment of love songs from Ray Stevens we pick up in the year 1977. Ray was no stranger to love ballads but during his years at Warner Brothers (1976-1979) and RCA (1980-1982) there were a whole lot more love ballads per album than at any other time. Well, that's not an official stat but it certainly seems like Ray was singing more love songs than ever.

Here we have the great Ray Stevens, in performance, in 1977 belting out one of those love songs. Completely lost in the song as anyone can see from looking at the photo. The album released that particular year was almost completely written by Ray. There were 10 songs on the album and Ray wrote 9 of them. Feel the Music, the name of the album, also features an unusual album photo. On the front of the album there's an illustration of a stereo speaker. On the back of the album there's an illustration of the back of a stereo speaker. The idea behind the album's cover art ties into the title track, "Feel the Music", literally. I come across a music critic's review of the 1977 album a couple of years ago while browsing online. The critic described Ray's style as bluesy-country. "Feel the Music", production wise, is marvelous as practically every Ray Stevens production is. The song has a catchy melody and at various moments Ray sounds as if he's totally in the spirit as the production takes on a gospel vibe. It's an inspirational song. Some of the love ballads on the 1977 album happen to be the exquisite "Road Widow", a song about a traveling musician constantly on the road but constantly thinking of the wife waiting at home. I'd never heard the expression, road widow, before but it's a neat song title for this kind of lonely, road weary song. How many of you are familiar with the phrase 'cheery sad song'? There shouldn't be hardly anyone familiar with the phrase since I just made it up. The phrase describes a sad love song with an up-tempo sing-a-long arrangement. A great example of this happens to be "Alone With You". When you see the title of the song while reading the track list on the album you'd think a song with a title like that would be a full-on, heavy romantic ballad. Well, it isn't.

"Alone With You" is a sad song about a couple who have lost the spark they once had and that the love is all gone and he sings "I'm all alone with you". The music arrangement is up-tempo and bouncy, as mentioned. Now, staying in the same vein, we have the mid-tempo bluesy "Blues Love Affair". That particular song is about a guy who's more or less unlucky in love and all his relationships cause him to be down in the dumps.. causing him to feel as if his love life is just a love affair with misery and the blues. The bluesy-country flavor continues with "Junkie for You", where Ray uses a man's intense desires for a woman as something comparable to an addict. It's a song that only Ray could've come up with.

Ray issued two albums in 1978. The first release was his salute/tribute to the music of the 1950s and 1960s. It was specifically rhythm and blues songs that crossed over to the pop chart. The album title, There is Something On Your Mind, is named for the album's closing number. It's a classic that's narrated frenetically. Ray provides commentary on both the front and the back of the album cover. He explains his reasons for recording the album. Then, on the back of the album, commentary from Ray appears underneath each track explaining his decision for recording it and giving some history behind each song. Every track on the album is a love song. It includes his renditions of "One Mint Julep", "Money Honey", plus several medley performances "Dance Trilogy", "Old Faithful Trilogy", and "Banned in Boston Trilogy". The latter features abbreviated performances of "Sixty Minute Man"/ "Work With Me, Annie"/ "Annie Had a Baby". The second album of 1978 was the more conventional album. Titled Be Your Own Best Friend it centers around love ballads, for the most part, and most of the love songs are performed in a soft-rock/Easy-Listening flavor. The one that features this touch the most is the inspirational "With a Smile". 

The love songs found on the album are "You're Magic" (one of my all-time favorites), a soft re-recording of "You've Got the Music Inside", and the majestic "L'amour". That recording is another of my all-time favorites. It also has a neat backstory. Ray mentioned in an interview in the early 1990s that while he was on tour overseas he had heard one of the most beautiful melodies but couldn't understand the lyrics because the singer was French. Ray eventually found out the French recording artist's name and the title of the song. The singer/writer was Gilbert Becaud. Ray got permission to use the melody and he wrote English lyrics to it. "L'amour" is fabulous.. the music and Ray's singing.. it's heavenly. The album credits both Gilbert Becaud and Ray Stevens as the writers. There are a couple of sad love songs on the 1978 album and those are "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right", more of a song of reconciliation, but we're not told if the pair patched things up or not. "Comeback" is a fast tempo song where Ray pleads and begs for the woman to comeback and don't hesitate. "The Feeling's Not Right Again" would become the name of Ray's 1979 compilation album on Warner Brothers but it made it's debut on Be Your Own Best Friend. The song deals with a man who can't seem to find his soul mate since every time he gets into a relationship it just doesn't have much feeling to it. 

In the latter half of 1979 Ray moved to the RCA label. His first project for the label happened to be his first comedy album since 1974. Shriner's Convention hit early in 1980, the first all-comedy studio album from Ray since Boogity Boogity. The album featured the hit title track and a couple of other recordings became fan favorites. As far as love songs go there happened to be a couple of bizarre ones with it being a comedy album after all. One of the most clever love songs is "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". The women in their southern accents pronounce the word, tamper, as tampa. So, when Ray hears all the women he encounters during Spring Break say that he's never going to tampa with them it confuses him...considering he wasn't planning on going to Tampa anyway. The song doubles as a neat tribute to Florida, though, as Ray name drops quite a lot of famed beaches and cities. 

"The Last Laugh" has Ray singing about multiple ways he'll end his life as a result of being treated badly by a former lover. "Rita's Letter" is a song about a woman that receives a letter from her second husband telling her that he'd be in the neighborhood and would she like to reunite. Eventually they come face to face and she learns that he's changed his name from Beauregard to Nirvana and is part of a religious cult wearing a robe and pony tail. In "The Watch Song" Ray tells the story of being in a bar room fight. In the song Ray's accused of being the other man in a woman's life and her husband wants to fight. They fight and the guy breaks Ray's wristwatch and it causes him to snap. Ray beats the man up, too much it seems, because the guy dies. Ray's character finds himself headed to life in prison and an eventual death sentence. Throughout the song Ray wonders aloud and prays John Cameron Swayze will help him get out of prison and off death row.