It's raining cats and dogs during the writing of this blog entry. That means I'll be spotlighting several Ray Stevens songs that have something to do with cats and dogs. You'd think that Ray would have recorded a comedy song called "Cats and Dogs" at some point but none such a song exists in his vast catalog. I know a lot of you know that Ray has recorded numerous songs about chickens...including a trio of recordings where he clucked out the entire performance as a chicken: "In the Mood" (1976), "Classical Cluck" (1976), and "Thus Cacked Henrietta" (1985). In addition to the chickens Ray has also sang about a wide range of creatures from rattlesnakes, to sidewinders, butterflies, pigs, and octopus...and I'll make the assumption that you also know that Ray has recorded even more songs about cats and dogs. One of his earliest comedy songs about dogs happens to be "Fred", from his 1984 comedy album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. From the pen of Lee Cheney "Fred" is about a dog that is described as near human. Ray tells us how the dog often takes turn doing the dishes, driving the truck to the grocery store, and is a master of checkers. One of the lines in the song tells us that Fred loves chasing cars, howling at the moon, and this leads to his hooking up with a female dog. It's got a twist ending so be waiting for it.
In 1993 for his Classic Ray Stevens comedy album he recorded a song called "The Higher Education of Ole Blue". The story is rooted in southern folklore about how a dog is enrolled into college...and he apparently develops the ability to do extraordinary things...and one of those things is learning how to read and talk. The son of Ole Blue's owner, who's in college, is pulling a prank on his father...who keeps sending his son a lot of money because he thinks there's a college course that'll teach his hunting dog how to speak and read. So, weeks later, the son arrives without Ole Blue...and the son proceeds to tell the father what appears to be a far fetched story of the dog's death on the train ride home...but the father is relieved to hear this. Jerry Clower and other comedians rooted in the South have told stories of this scenario for years...and it was turned into a song by Buddy Kalb...and Ray recorded it in 1993.
We bring in the cat...and one of Ray's wildest comedy songs starring a feline happens to be 2005's "Kitty Cat's Revenge" found on Box Set. Ray frantically tells the story of a cat that has to be rescued from a drainage pipe. In the song he plays a fireman called to the scene...and once he gets into the sewer pipe that's when the troubles arrive. In a series of unfortunate happenings he forgets how to get out of the pipe and as he's crawling around inside the pipe, in the dark, he makes a turn and slides 30 feet below into an awaiting pool of human waste. I love the frenetic vocal delivery and the banjo plucking away in the background...giving it a downhome, southern vibe.
Staying with the feline we come across "The Cat Song", also from the 2005 Box Set. In this situation we go from Ray singing frantically about a cat in a sewage system to singing about a woman who talks romantic, sweet, and kind to her cat...infuriating the husband...leaving him to wonder why she doesn't talk to him the way she talks to the cat. Talk show host, Mark Steyn, recorded "The Cat Song" a decade later in 2015. On Mark's album the song has an alternate title, "She Only Talks That Way to the Cat". Another Ray Stevens cat song has a Christmas theme. "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)" arrived in 2016 and it appears on Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. The song spotlights a cat's letter to Santa and in the letter he wants new claws for Christmas. His owner declawed him...and he wants Santa to bring him some claws for Christmas. The harmony singers provide a lot of meow vocalization against an up-tempo performance.
On Ray's current album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, Ray adds a new dog song to his catalog with "Old Dog". If you don't feel upbeat and find yourself smiling when you hear this song then I'd say you have no pulse...or you have ice in your veins...one or the other.
Hello fans of Ray Stevens...and to those that stop by here out of curiosity. In the second installment of my Album Time-Line Rewind series I'm spotlighting a project that Ray Stevens issued on May 16, 2005 titled Box Set. The project, initially, was released on Ray's own label, Clyde Records. Box Set contains 3-CD's with 17 songs per disc for a total of 51 recordings. The recordings are all post 1990. The renditions of "The Streak", "Gitarzan", "It's Me Again, Margaret", "Everything is Beautiful", "Misty", and numerous other signature songs are re-recordings by Ray...more specifically they're the audio tracks from his live-action and limited animation music videos. The name of the album is visually emphasized on the album cover as we see Ray Stevens sitting at a table with several boxes in front of him. The original recordings he did for Curb Records in 1990, 1991, and 1993 and the recordings he did for his own Clyde Records label in the early to mid 2000s are part of the Box Set.
Curb Records took over distribution of the Box Set beginning on February 28, 2006. Clyde Records handled the direct marketing/mail-order side of Ray's career and had no in-store distribution. The 3-CD collection, upon wider release, did gather some criticism for the absence of original recordings of songs he'd recorded prior to 1990...but other online reviewers weren't as upset. Sprinkled throughout the collection were 5 exclusives, 1 recording that was previously only available as a single-release, and 1 recording that was previously only available on a music video. The 5 all new songs were: "The Cat Song", "Driver's Education", "Family Funeral Fight", "Kitty Cat's Revenge", and "When The Kids Are Gone". The song that was previously released as a single-only: 2003's "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way"; and previously available as a music video-only, 2002's "Hello Mama", the audio track appeared on Box Set. Here's a bit of trivia: "The Cat Song" would later be recorded by radio talk show host, Mark Steyn.
I'm going to embed several of the songs from the Box Set that were exclusive at the time. The first one is "Family Funeral Fight". There's a nice piece of banjo accompaniment with a lot of sound effects as Ray tells a comical tale of a divided family and their brawl at a funeral in Ducktown, Tennessee when it was revealed the recently deceased was having affairs. The fight, as Ray sings: "...started in the afternoon and lasted half the night...".
Wasn't that hilarious? It's anyone's guess why Ray didn't or hasn't, to date, turned any of these songs into comedy music videos. In "Kitty Cat's Revenge", another song with banjo accompaniment, Ray tells about attempting to rescue an Ocelot from a drainage pipe and getting attacked not only by the wildcat but a swarm of bees. Ray and the wildcat end up floating through the pipe and out into a pond of waste. Box Set, as mentioned, was released initially in May 2005...then Curb Records released it in February 2006...and the audio tracks were uploaded onto YouTube by Curb Records in March 2018.
The third audio track I'm embedding is "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way". The song begins softly and Ray tells us about the optimism and desires of having a baby the natural way...with no hospital help, drugs, or anything else. In the song Ray plays the role of the husband and future father who's very supportive of the idea of having their baby born at home...going through training classes on delivering, etc. However, the soon-to-be parents are talked into enlisting the help of the hospital...and while there the wife goes into labor. The rest of the song is filled with descriptions of the wife giving birth and all the pain...at one point in the song the wife demands more drugs in a exorcist-like voice.
Hello once again!! Earlier today on the Ray Stevens social media sites there came a video upload of an interview with Ray from 2005. This is the year that Ray returned to his former theater in Branson, Missouri. He performed at the theatre, originally, in 1991, 1992, and 1993. He leased the theater to a group that presented a program called Country Tonite and they performed concerts there for nearly ten years. He took back the theater in 2004 at the request of the management of Country Tonite and, according to his memoir, spent the remainder of 2004 having the interior redecorated and plants re-planted and turning it back into 'The Ray Stevens Theatre'. He marked his return to concerts at the theater in 2005 and he spent two seasons there (2005 and 2006) before selling the theatre to the RFD-TV network. The interview was conducted in the summer of 2005...exactly 15 years ago. I love the shirt Ray is wearing throughout the interview...it's a dark Hawaiian type of shirt as you can see in the photo above and in the photo below in video. Ray's voice is the one you'll hear doing the introduction at the theater. He discusses "The Streak", "Ahab the Arab", and "Everything is Beautiful" in addition to his history in Branson, Missouri up to that point.
It's me once more!! In the last installment I made mention of several releases from Ray Stevens and in hindsight it all may have come across confusing or rushed. Well, more confusing than rushed, as I just finished reading bits and pieces of Part 21. The VHS you see off to the left was released in 2003 on Clyde Records. Greatest Video Hits is a compilation of music videos from Ray which made their debuts in the early and mid 1990s. The VHS contains 11 music videos altogether...the 11th is singled out as a bonus video, "Thank You". Ray appears as kind of an emcee on this VHS introducing each of the videos and often commenting on the song's inspiration/history. The set list includes seven of the eight music videos found on 1992's Comedy Video Classics, three music videos from 1995's Get Serious!, and the bonus video which was brand new in 2003, "Thank You". The VHS photo, as you can see off to the left, is Ray in performance of "It's Me Again, Margaret"; advertisements for this collection of music videos appeared in numerous publications (direct mail). Curb Records as well as Asylum Records joined forces and issued a CD single of "Thank You" backed with the very comical "When The Kids Are Gone" in 2003. You can sometimes find that promo CD single for sale on-line. The CD has "Thank You" as the second song on the disc...meant to be referred to as it's B-side...given Ray's reputation for comedy songs even though, in reality, "Thank You" was the song being pushed and talked about in his concerts and given the music video treatment. Ray co-wrote the song with Larry McCoy and in 2004 a studio album was issued on Clyde Records titled Thank You. The album's photo shows a painting of an eagle holding a banner that reads: Thank You!. The liner notes credit the illustration to an artist named John Sylvester. The lyrics to all of the songs are contained in a fold-out cover. Ray wrote or co-wrote eight of the eleven songs on the CD! It's one of his first albums in a number of years to contain largely self-written material.
This 2004 CD is chock full of, mostly, patriotic ballads centered around the events of 9/11 but there's also a number of love ballads added to the mix...enabling it to become Ray's first all-serious studio album since 1983. As if to slyly make reference to this fact Ray includes a re-recorded version of the love ballad with the comical title, "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out", which was originally found on his 1983 Me album (his final all-serious studio album until 2004's Thank You). Ray also updates his 1978 release, "Be Your Own Best Friend", for this 2004 album. Ray wrote/co-wrote the following songs found on this CD: "Thank You", "Come on Home to Baseball", "Blue Angel", "Let's Roll", "Be Your Own Best Friend", "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out", "When I Get Over You", and "Stand Up". The songs on the CD that he didn't write are: "Pledging My Love", "It Won't Be Easy", and the instrumental to close out the CD, "Boogie Woogie". A couple of months prior to the CD release of Thank You in July 2004 Ray had made a return to Branson, Missouri. He had taken back his theater following the closure of the country music production that had occupied the venue since 1994, titled Country Tonite. The re-opening of Ray's theater, after several months of re-decoration and aesthetic changes, occurred in May 2004. If I'm not mistaken it's at the theater where his recording of "Pledging My Love" from the Thank You album was recorded. There's a bagpipe solo heard in Ray's version of "Pledging My Love" credited in the liner notes to Jay Dawson. The "Thank You" song, by the way, is a salute to America's military...all branches. The inspiration for the song came from how the anti-war protestors and those that dislike the military have been allowed to taint the image of the military as some sort of barbaric gang of ruthless killers...enabled by a national news media all too eager to help conjure up that image...and so the song gives thanks to all branches of the military.
In 2005 Ray unleashed a 3-disc collection called Box Set. The project was not a career overview in the traditional sense. It included a lot of previously released songs...but most of the songs were re-recordings that he did for music video soundtracks in the 1990s during his Curb Records era...meaning that all of the most widely known songs appearing on this release were not the original recordings from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. The collection did feature a heavy dose of original recordings from his 1990s and early 2000s albums as well as exclusive recordings for the Box Set but signature songs like "Ahab the Arab", "Gitarzan", "The Streak", or "It's Me Again, Margaret" for example are recordings he did in the early 1990s. The exclusive songs at that time were: "Driver's Education", "Family Funeral Fight", "We're Havin' a Baby the Natural Way", "Kitty Cat's Revenge", and "The Cat Song"; both "Hello Mama" and "When the Kids Are Gone" appear on a full-length CD for the first time after each having only been available as CD single releases. In November of 2005 Ray closed down his Branson Missouri theater after a successful two season run.
The run of concerts had been a success but, as Ray pointed out more than a decade later, the times had changed since the early 1990s and the town had changed and become over populated with local talent and very few nationally known headliners...meaning that there wasn't a throng of tourists or bus tours bringing in people from all over the region given the small number of nationally known performers still performing there. Ray sold the theater to the RFD-TV company in 2006 and that organization staged a lot of performances there beginning in 2007. The cable channel has since sold the venue within the last couple of years and it's now under new ownership. It was after his wrap-up of concerts in Branson, Missouri that Ray, according to his memoir from a couple of years ago, contemplated retiring. He had shut down his fan club several years earlier (2002) after a 15 year run and had scaled back his television appearances as well as his time in the recording studio. In Part 20 I said that I'd make mention of Ray's self-administered thoughts of retiring in Part 21 but I got ahead of myself, obviously! The thoughts of retiring didn't begin to surface until 2006.
As a fan I could tell that he was slowing down and many times I myself wondered if he was ever going to release new recordings or new music videos. In my next installment I'll pick things up in 2006 as we march closer to 2009...a pivotal year in the career of Ray Stevens and one that shaped the direction of his career for the next several years...needless to say his thoughts of retirement were very short-lived, thankfully, as brand new music began surfacing...and more on this in Part Twenty-Three!!
Hello once again...an early Sunday morning has me looking at a couple of food related music clips from recently elected Country Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF) member, Ray Stevens. There's been something of a food topic over the last several blog entries...the previous blog entry focused on a mid 1980s television commercial for ice cream that Ray Stevens did for the Flav-O-Rich company. Prior to that I wrote about a 2013 music video from Ray titled "Red Hot Chili Cook Off" which was also being highlighted on Episode 8 of Rayality TV. When I watched the music video I took note of the unique view total and at that time (April 28th) it had 955,945 unique views...a day later it increased to 956,436. As of this writing the six year old music video is sitting at 961,377. Now, that is an increase of 5,432 unique views in a week's time (going back to April 28th)...I think it's quite an achievement for a six year old on-line music video to obtain over five thousand unique views. Now, of course, given that the video had been showcased on Rayality TV on April 26th that, too, more than likely caused RFD-TV viewers to search for the video on YouTube after having seen it on Ray's clip-filled series...so I'm not going to take full credit for the music video's 5,000-plus increase in unique views but speaking of his clip-filled television series...
This past Friday (May 3rd) Episode 9 of Rayality TV aired on RFD-TV (airtime is 1:30pm Central, 2:30pm Eastern). Ray's promo for that episode is below...
Also taking place on May 3rd was the uploading of "Barbeque", a live performance of the song from an episode of CabaRay Nashville, which guest starred Lee Roy Parnell. In the performance of the song Lee Roy is playing the guitar. It may have been deliberate or coincidental but when Ray recorded the song for his 1990 album, Lend Me Your Ears, Lee Roy Parnell was among the studio musicians on that project...and so, chances are, given his guest appearance on Ray's show that's why he was seen playing the guitar with the rest of Ray's band during "Barbeque". A limited animation music video of the song emerged on DVD in 2005 but has since been uploaded onto YouTube. The video used the 1990 audio recording. Ray's CabaRay 2018 performance of "Barbeque" could be the first time he sang it on television since 1990. I recall seeing Ray perform the song on an episode of Nashville Now right around the time Lend Me Your Ears was brand new. The song was never pushed as an actual single in 1990...that distinction fell upon two songs that became much more popular as music videos: "Sittin' Up With the Dead" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...but nevertheless "Barbeque" was one of those great Ray Stevens comedy songs that took on a life of it's own with fans over the decades. Ray, as far as I know, doesn't perform the song as part of his concert set-list, neither, so this may be the only time you'll see him perform the song on stage for quite some time...
Hello once more to the fan-created blog focusing on the music and goings-on in the world of Ray Stevens. In my previous blog entry I mentioned the sale of one of Ray's DVDs, Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. The sale runs until the end of this month. You can visit the product page HERE and purchase your copy. This DVD has only been available exclusively on Ray's website since 2012 and offered at the merchandise table at concerts. It's never been the object of television advertising and so the general public is probably not aware of it's existence and it's not been officially marketed for sale on Amazon even though consumers often offer copies of it for sale in the Marketplace area. The concert footage comes from performances at The Welk Theatre and Resort in Branson, Missouri.
I had been noticing the increasing number of unique views of Ray's "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" video and it passed the 300,000 mark earlier this morning.
One of the more bizarre things in entertainment news is the recent flap over the criticism of a current song from Taylor Swift by Miley Cyrus. I read the original commentary and the point Cyrus happened to be making about double standards, ageism, and sexism. Although this isn't the place for any kind of argue and debate, especially about non-Ray Stevens subject matter, I brought it up because half of the subject matter ties into Ray's music video. The current total of unique views for that particular video are 300,222. The song/music video had been heavily promoted by Ray through appearances on a couple of radio talk shows and a couple of appearances at the Grand Ole Opry...all of it leading up to the release of his current CD, Here We Go Again! in late March.
The CD spawned the current mini-tour he's been on...his next concert appearance is scheduled for September 12th at The Andy Williams Theatre in Branson, Missouri. Tickets to this concert became available awhile back and so it may be sold-out or a near sell-out. You'll have to call 1-800-MOON-094 to find out any information. I'd posted about this concert several months ago...several times...but now it's only a calendar month away from taking place. The tickets happened to go on sale back on May 18th. Click the upcoming link and you'll be able to read much more information about the appearance via this PRESS RELEASE. It contains a local number to call in case you're in the general area.
On September 19th he'll be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at The Alabama Theatre. You can click HERE for information. If you're like me you'll like the advertisement for his appearance...the image from the Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Volume One is being used as a publicity photo.
On September 26th Ray appears for the third time this year as a guest on the Grand Ole Opry. I can't recall any other year that Ray's made as many guest appearances at the members-only Grand Ole Opry. In addition to that third Opry guest appearance Ray had also appeared on the Opry Country Classics radio series hosted by Larry Gatlin several months ago. Ray's never been a member of the Grand Ole Opry...can't understand why he's never become a member by now...he lives in Nashville, too...but nevertheless he'll make another guest appearance next month.
In addition to the current CD and the music videos, "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" and "You Didn't Build That", let's remember that Ray has a memoir on the market titled Ray Stevens' Nashville. The book can be purchased on several sites but I often supply a link to my Amazon review located HERE. Once there you'll see the Add to Cart button over on the right hand side of the page.
Here's a Ray Stevens 50 year time capsule in 6 lines:
1965: Mercury Records releases the novelty single "Rockin' Teenage Mummies".
1975: Barnaby Records releases the single, "Misty", and it takes home a Grammy.
1985: MCA Records album He Thinks He's Ray Stevens is certified Gold.
1995: Direct-to-Home Video movie, Get Serious!, is released.
2005: Records the novelty single "We're Having a Baby (The Natural Way)".
2015: Releases 2 comedy music videos and the CD Here We Go Again!
Of course that's just a generic time capsule and nothing incredibly detailed at all and it only covers the previous 50 years, in 10 year increments, dating back to 1965...and we all know Ray's music career dates back to 1957. I thought it rather amusing to compress 50 years into 6 lines...it can be seen as a satiric look at modern day biographers, too, because of this lack of detail and depth I purposely gave the time capsule. If I wanted to get detailed I could've pointed out activity in Ray's career in every single year from 1965 through the present but I chose not to...this blog entry is long enough as it is...but there's some other things I want to highlight and so the blog entry is going to become longer...
In the 50+ year of Ray Stevens the re-releasing of studio albums is a part of the cycle. Record companies and their subsidiaries and independent labels getting license to issue previously recorded songs is commonplace. In 1997 Ray Stevens released a comedy album for MCA titled Hum It. The album features Ray on the cover as a referee in a picture frame next to a visual parody of Whister's Mother (also Ray Stevens). Curb Records reissued the 1997 CD in 2011...accompanied by a slightly different visual appearance in cover art...
The original release, from March 1997, tickled the funny bones of most of the music critics. A lot of attention tended to be given to the cover art...some mistakenly thinking that Ray appeared as Mother Bates instead of Whistler's Mother on the cover. I believe it took place in an interview with Crook and Chase but Ray was eventually asked why he dressed up as Norman Bates' mother on the CD cover and that led him to explain the concept behind the cover art. Ray explained that the album's title is based on the idea that Whistler's Mother is tired of whistling and from now on she'll just 'hum it' instead of whistling. The Ray referee in the picture blowing a whistle right next to the "mother" suddenly made a lot of sense to those that couldn't originally understand the concept behind the cover art. Once this little bit of curiosity was solved the focus became the music. One of the highlights of the album is "Mama Sang Bass"...it represents a rare time in the career of Ray Stevens that he performs a duet...but not in the conventional sense. In this case J.D. Sumner, famed bass singer, appears on the recording as Mama. Ray plays the part of Daddy in a high, tenor voice. The song's story takes place in a church setting, mostly, as Ray tells about a couple that work in factories that ultimately impact their chemical structure. Mama worked in a plant that made steroids and Daddy worked in a plant that manufactured birth control pills. As time goes by Mama seems to be developing attributes conventionally applied to men. Daddy, meanwhile, sees a reversal too...each going so far as to change habits. Daddy becomes family cook and Mama finds herself needing to shave her face. Ray performed this song only once on television...J.D. Sumner himself appeared on the program and had a lot of fun playing Mama. Ray promoted a couple of other songs from the album, though, in music video format: "Virgil and the Moonshot" and "Too Drunk To Fish". This being 1997 and years before the creation of YouTube and social media as we know it the videos didn't get the kind of exposure they currently do via social media. An audience of more than 64,000 have seen the video of Virgil's adventure in outer space. On the other hand an audience of almost a million have seen "Too Drunk To Fish". The current total number of unique vies for that video are 999,983!! The video needs 17 more discoveries to reach a million. Please note that the video's uploaded by a channel called RayStevensVEVO and not the usual RayStevensMusic. However, this music video's long been available on-line and it'll be nice to see it crack the million mark...the embed closes out the blog entry.
Curb Records, as mentioned, reissued this CD in 2011. If you glance back up at the 1997 release the background color is a bit more green and this one is much darker. Also the lettering is changed. Instead of Ray's name appearing across the top of the cover it appears beneath the photo of the referee and the title appears in bigger letters underneath his name. Also the color of the lettering has changed from yellow to white. Also, the color is so dark that one can't see the chair as you can in the 1997 release. In addition to the songs I mentioned the rest of the CD features songs ranging from amusing to charming. One of the amusing is "She Loves Elvis Better Than Me"...a tale of a guy whose wife has a flirtation with the late King of Rock and Roll. The album opens up with a rollicking tale of family fun in an "R.V." that seems to create more chaos than comfort. On the charming level is "I'll Be In Atlanta". I love that song!! It's got a great arrangement/melody steeped in Dixieland and it's fun to listen to Ray incorporate imagery and characters from Gone with The Wind. Even though it's never explicitly stated that he's doing so you can't help but think of the film as he name drops the likes of Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Prissy, Mammy, and the plantation house of Tara. Ray performed this song a couple of times on television appearances in the mid 1990s. Did I forget to mention I love the Dixieland arrangement??
I've come across several on-line music sites and other web-sites pertaining to discographies, etc. etc. and mostly all of them are inaccurate about a few of the CD's from Ray Stevens. The reviews of a couple of his CD's from the early '90s incorrectly label the projects as compilation, rather than studio, albums. The first CD I came across that has an inaccuracy is titled #1 With a Bullet, from 1991. The review makes it appear that the CD features previously recorded material. Not only does the review make it appear that the CD is a compilation release it also incorrectly states that Ray recorded for Curb Records in the late '80s and early '90s. Ray began his association with Curb in 1990 and remained represented by that label through 1995. He returned to MCA in 1996, after having recorded for them first during the 1984-1989 time frame, and he remained with MCA through 1998. He returned to Curb Records in the following decade, starting in late 2001, and released various projects for the label during the next 3-4 years. His own label, Clyde Records, had been a part of Ray's career dating back to the late '80s but the label didn't have it's first big success until the 1992 release of Comedy Video Classics and from that point onward, his Clyde Records became the major distributive outlet for his home videos and later, DVD's, and now his CD's.
But going back to the CD review of #1 With a Bullet...the review apparently was picked up and shared all over the internet because I've seen quite a few places list this 1991 studio album in the compilation section rather than in the studio album section of web-site discographies. Elsewhere in the write-up, the reviewer laments that fact that the 'compilation' album doesn't contain any of Ray's songs from the '60s and '70s...which is one more example of the confusion that existed by the reviewer in not knowing that the CD was a studio album. The CD's title is based on any artist's hope that their album will hit the #1 spot on the album charts...and the album's cover art depicts the title literally...showing Ray, holding up a giant bullet, with his index finger pointing in the air (referencing, of course, the #1 in the CD's title).
Another CD that's long been publicized on-line as a compilation is 1993's Classic Ray Stevens. This particular CD features 10 songs that were all brand new at the time of release...well, the only cover song on the collection was his version of "The Bricklayer's Song" that had long been associated with Irish artists..but even that was brand new to Ray's career. Anyway, the CD was one of his studio albums for Curb Records but due to it's title you have modern-day reviewers who apparently didn't do their homework because they routinely label the CD as a "collection of previously released songs" when, in reality, all the songs were new to Ray's career at the time. The album's title is based upon the classical music cover art...showing a bust of Ray atop a piano in a Beethoven-like reference. The sheet music at the piano is titled Concerto for Cornball. Nevertheless, Classic Ray Stevens was indeed a studio album and not a compilation of re-recorded songs as referred to in the many reviews of the CD that appear on-line. Basically, each of the reviews make each of the CD's appear as low-budget compilations rather than impeccably produced and recorded studio albums of their day. 1991's #1 With a Bullet and 1993's Classic Ray Stevens are two of Ray's studio albums for Curb Records. His other studio album for the label was his 1990 release, Lend Me Your Ears. Ray issued a couple of music videos for some songs from the 1990 release: "Sittin' Up With the Dead" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Those two music videos would later surface on 1992's Comedy Video Classics along side his mid '80s music video of "Santa Claus Is Watching You" and his 1988 music video for "Surfin' U.S.S.R.". Four additional music videos were shot to compile the award winning #1 home video.
Ray only recorded three studio albums for Curb Records. The label issued several legitimate compilation projects on Ray during the 1990's: Greatest Hits (1991), 20 Comedy Hits (1995), and Great Gospel Songs (1996). #1 With a Bullet and Lend Me Your Ears, ironically, were both re-issued on CD in 2005...and I believe the 2005 re-issue is where the bulk of the more contemporary reviews of #1 With a Bullet have come from. It was during Ray's association with Curb Records that he became famous for his home video releases and his Branson, Missouri concerts...first as a popular guest at other venues and then as a headliner himself at The Ray Stevens Theatre which was in business for three consecutive seasons: 1991, 1992, and 1993. This activity, the home video productions and the Branson concerts, may have played a big part in why his audio output during the 1990's was low by comparison to the decade before. During 1990 through 1999 Ray Stevens released only five studio albums...3 for Curb Records, 2 for MCA Records...the rest of the time was spent on music video creations and concert engagements. The home video releases from Ray during the 1990's were Amazing Rolling Revue, Comedy Video Classics, Ray Stevens Live!, More Ray Stevens Live!, and the direct-to-home video movie, Get Serious!. It's interesting to note that 1992's Comedy Video Classics was inspired by the success of a similar home video that was sold exclusively at his Branson, Missouri theater. The concept was expanded on in the form of Comedy Video Classics and Ray went on to sell millions of copies of the home video through direct marketing and retail during a very prolific 2 year period, 1992-1994, which saw Ray become a leader in home video sales.
One of the CD's from the Entertaining Ray Stevens is New Orleans Moon, a collection released in 2007 which features marvelous recordings from Ray centering on all things Louisiana...specifically New Orleans and it's music/culture. I've written about this big easy CD several times so I won't spend a lot going over what I've already covered. I'll supply a link to Ray's web-store for those who want to purchase a copy of the CD. On Sunday Night Football the New Orleans Saints clobbered the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 62-7! In reflection of that I decided to highlight Ray's New Orleans CD from a few years ago once again. I remember quite well when this CD was released...and I remember the confusion I felt when very little hype/publicity came for the CD outside of the New Orleans area. I don't know if Ray did any concerts in the Southern states or not that year...but the CD deserves to be known by more people than just the dedicated fans. The collection features the one new song, the title track "New Orleans Moon", and the rest are his versions of songs associated with Louisiana. The song was written by Ray and Chuck Redden. Those who pay attention to songwriter credits will recognize Chuck's name on several other songs that Ray's recorded within the last several years. Chuck wrote "Midnight in Baghdad", a song found on Ray's We The People CD from last year. On Spirit of '76, Ray's CD from early this year, Chuck co-wrote "November Storm" with Ray and Buddy Kalb. On the Hurricane CD that Ray released in 2008 Chuck wrote "Down Home Beach" and co-wrote "Bubba, The Wine Connoisseur" with Ray and Buddy Kalb. Ray and Buddy rewrote a lot of the lyrics of Chuck Redden's "The Real Battle of New Orleans" in 2005. Ray released it as a CD single under the alternate title "The New Battle of New Orleans".
Here's the link to Ray's web-store where you can see a track list for the New Orleans Moon CD.
From the sounds of New Orleans we travel back to the sounds of screams...1965's spooky novelty single from Ray Stevens titled "Mr. Baker, the Undertaker". It's Halloween week all across the country...climaxing on Halloween night: October 31st. A lot of towns celebrate Halloween on the actual holiday...but a lot of other towns do the annual Halloween thing on the Thursday preceding the holiday. On October 27th it will be what's called Beggar's Night around here...where people dress up in costumes and go door to door getting candy. As mentioned, other places do this Beggar's Night on the actual Halloween night. I have no idea why Beggar's Night has always been on Thursdays in my area but that's the way it's been for decades upon decades. "Mr. Baker, the Undertaker" tells the story of a mortician's love for his work. It's filled with a lot of mortician jokes and funeral home references as one could imagine. The song features a repetitious background choir of voices singing the title of the song after almost every line. You'll be able to tell that the choir of voices is Ray who often over-dubbed his own voice to create a harmony effect. He doesn't do this a lot these days but once upon a time he did.
In addition to "Mr. Baker, the Undertaker" Ray's also recorded other Halloween-style songs. "Laughing Over My Grave" is currently available as an Mp3 on Amazon. It became available in August and I mentioned it a few blogs ago. The song isn't comical in the same way Mr. Baker is but it has it's funny moments. It's more or less a love song about a woman who's had enough of a man's lying and cheating and she's out for justice. The comical aspect comes from how Ray delivers some of the lines when he's playing the part of the fearful husband and what his wife may be capable of doing to him. You can purchase the Mp3 for only 99 cents at Amazon's Mp3 store.
It was around this same era when Ray recorded the "Rockin' Teenage Mummies" as well. That particular novelty song dealt with a group of mummies that make it big as rock singers...eventually leading to an appearance on Ed Sullivan's show. It wouldn't be until 1988 that a Halloween theme found it's way into a Ray Stevens song and it was accomplished with "The Booger Man", a bluesy comical song describing the legend of many people's nightmares. The song is on his 1988 album, I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like, which is out of print. The CD version was released in 1990...which has long been out of print. There has never been an Mp3 reissue and so a lot of people's best bet is to track down the album on eBay and invest in a record player as I did several years ago. In 1990 Ray recorded "Sittin' Up With the Dead" and to date that's been the last song he's recorded that could fit in with the overall Halloween concept of scary stories, ghosts, graveyards, etc. etc. He made a music video of the song in 1990 and given that it's been kept in print you can easily find an Mp3 of the song on Amazon. The video that Ray shot in 1990 and uploaded onto You Tube in 2009 is located below. Those familiar with 1992's Comedy Video Classics will know right away where this video was lifted from.
