From this Ray Stevens fan to all of you other fans of Ray Stevens...Happy July 4th...Happy Independence Day 2021...as I touched on in a previous blog entry the Fourth of July usually brings to mind cook-outs, fireworks, and baseball. That is why I chose to use that particular album photo...1987's Greatest Hits, Volume Two. This compilation album, released on MCA, features 10 songs. The record company decided to make Side One (the first five songs if you have the CD copy) heavy on contemporary recordings from Ray. The songs on Side One in order of appearance are from the years 1987, 1986, 1985, 1979, and 1987: "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" (1987); "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" (1986); "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" (1985); "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" (1979); and a brand new song, "Mama's In the Sky With Elvis" (1987). The songs on Side Two (songs six through ten if you have the CD copy) are heavy on vintage recordings from Ray: 1968, 1985, 1961, 1969, and 1976. "Mr. Businessman" (1968); "The Haircut Song" (1985); "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" (1961); "Freddie Feelgood" (1969); and "In the Mood" (1976). Greatest Hits, Volume Two and Greatest Hits were both combined to form Get The Best of Ray Stevens...and that 2-LP collection was sold over television and became a very popular item through mail order. All three of those collections were Gold and Platinum sellers. Some trivia: the umpire on the album cover is one of Ray's friends, the late Norro Wilson. In country music Norro Wilson was a legendary songwriter and record producer and he had a comical side which shown itself in several projects Ray released over the years. Norro appeared in some of Ray's music videos and was a cast-member of an online sitcom Ray starred in, We Ain't Dead Yet.
Ray wrote a song called "Come on Home to Baseball" and it first appeared on his Thank You album in 2004. The song later appeared on the Box Set from Curb Records in 2006 and Ray performed it on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television show. I've embedded the audio track from the Box Set below...
Ray recorded another sentimental song centered around baseball, family, and nostalgia called "Safe at Home" from the pen of Nick Sibley. Ray recorded it in 2000 and it appeared on his album that year, Ear Candy. The song was then placed on the 2002 album, Osama Yo' Mama. Later that decade, in 2010, "Safe at Home" was placed on the We The People album...from there it became a very popular song in Ray's concerts for the next 3 to 4 years. You can watch Ray sing that song in the embed below...it's from an appearance on Larry's Country Diner. The people at Country Road TV uploaded the performance onto their YouTube channel last year. I'm thinking this performance originated in 2010 or 2011...right around the time Ray was promoting his We The People album. I'm pretty sure this performance is prior to 2014.
In a lot of my blog entries I usually open with the greeting "hello all...", "hello one and all...", or "hello fans of Ray Stevens..." and it's by coincidence that the first line of "The Streak" opens with that kind of a greeting from the fictional Action News reporter: "Hello everyone...". I never really made any sort of connection, though...starting off with the word 'hello' is one of the longest greetings of all-time...but nevertheless "The Streak" was one of the focal points of an on-line interview that took place on internet radio station The Eagle FM. In fact, if you caught an earlier blog entry of mine this weekend, I pointed out that the program that Ray was giving an interview to was spotlighting the Top-20 pop hits of the Fourth of July weekend in 1974. It comes as no surprise but I tuned in for the interview of Ray Stevens. I had missed the first airing on Saturday afternoon (I was asleep...the consequence of being a third shift/overnight worker) but I was determined not to miss the re-airing on Sunday afternoon...but I went into it not knowing if Sunday's episode would be a re-airing of Saturday's show or if it would be an entirely different episode. So, when I clicked the URL of the on-line radio station Sunday afternoon around 2:50pm Eastern, I heard the voice of the disc jockey promoting the upcoming Top-20 countdown with interviews from Ray Stevens, Maria Muldaur, and Andy Kim. I was elated, to say the least, realizing that I didn't miss the interview from Saturday. There is a banner promoting the July 6th episode of this countdown show that appeared on Ray's social media sites. I didn't post the advertisement banner on my early morning blog entry this past Sunday since it had already made the rounds of various social media sites but more specifically I'm always leery at posting imagery that features any likeness of the famed/iconic 'Billboard' with it's unique graphic design and lettering. This is why I never post images of actual Billboard charts that I've come across on-line over the years...I simply quote the information that I find.
When I tuned into the on-line broadcast and heard that the countdown was set to get underway at 3pm Eastern I awaited the start of the program. The show featured a lot of sound-bytes from the 1974 and it even had a brief look at the national news headlines from the weekend of July 4th. The show kicked off with the week's number 20 single. This was followed by more banter/commentary from the show's host. "Everything is Beautiful" began playing not too long afterward. Initially I thought it would be played as a snippet and then the host would introduce Ray...but the entire song played...and then the host introduced Ray. One of the first things that the host did was congratulate Ray on his recent election to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ray spoke of his YouTube videos and the host referred to the showroom as the Cob-a-Ray. I assume that was just a pronunciation quirk on the part of the host...like some people pronounce the word, tomato, as ta-may-ta instead of toe-may-toe; some pronounce Casablanca as Cass-a-Blonk-a instead of Cass-a-Blank-a; or some may refer to Cincinnati as Sense-a-Gnat-a just as Del Reeves did in his recording, "Philadelphia Fillies". Ray explained the origin of the showroom's title, CabaRay, but said the host was in good company with the pronunciation because when he guest starred on Mike Huckabee's series, Huckabee, Ray remarked that Huckabee had also referred to the showroom as Cob-a-Ray.
The host asked about Ray's television series and Ray stated that it's officially known as Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and that it airs in local syndication on PBS as well as nationally broadcast on RFD-TV.
Ray spoke about the process of recording "Everything is Beautiful" and how the children singing at the beginning of the song was edited into the recording and that his daughter's were part of the choir of children heard on the recording. The host remarks how active Ray continues to be and asks if anything's on the horizon as far as music goes. Ray makes mention of the much-anticipated bluegrass project he's been working on for awhile...titled Melancholy Fescue...a project that was first hinted at in 2013! His bluegrass rendering of "Unchained Melody" was released as a YouTube music video in the fall of 2013 (October 2, 2013 to be specific) but there wasn't a follow-up of any kind...but right around the time of the music video's debut, give or take a few weeks, he had made a guest appearance on the Opry and not only performed that song but also a bluegrass take on "Pretty Woman"...but we're now in 2019...and in this internet radio interview the host made mention of "MacArthur Park" being transformed into a bluegrass number by Ray. As far as I know Ray seemed genuinely surprised/shocked when he remarked something along the lines of: "Where in the world did you hear that?" and the host, teasingly, remarked: "Oh, a little birdie told me".
The conversation turned to his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, and he discussed his start in the music business and his upbringing. He tells of how his mother insisted he take piano lessons even though, initially, he wanted nothing to do with it as he was more interested in playing outside (typically baseball) but the piano lessons remained and he eventually became proficient on the piano as we all know. Ray speaks about working with the likes of Jerry Reed, Joe South, Billy Joe Royal, and Tommy Roe in Georgia and the tutelage of Bill Lowery. The host brings up "Misty" and Ray speaks of how it came into being...the host mentions that it won Ray his second Grammy award. Afterward the host plays "Misty". He is asked of his music influences and he explains that he's always been a fan of comedy and he gravitated toward comedy songs. He brings up The Coasters and Spike Jones. The subject is brought up regarding Ray's 1970 television series and he explained how he was selected to host a summer television program for Andy Williams (taped in Canada). In that era the broadcast networks didn't want to air reruns of their variety programs and so when the star of the show took the summer off a guest host would fill-in during the summer break. NBC was the network airing Andy's television program. Ray mentioned some of the cast-members of the summer show and how, looking back, he can't believe the kinds of clothes "...they had me wearing". Ray speaks of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and how his loyalty to the song caused him to pass up the chance of recording "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". He spoke highly of B.J. Thomas and his recording of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and remarked how, in hindsight, he didn't have the image to sell "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" the way Johnny Cash did...but he said he was happy for the success that the song eventually brought to it's writer, Kris (referring to songwriter-singer Kris Kristofferson).
In the last segment of the interview the host brings up the spotlight song, "The Streak", considering the countdown program was reflecting on 1974. Ray's recollection referred to reading about streaking in the back of a weekly magazine and that he made notes about a possible song about streakers but before long streaking and streakers were all over the news and he completed his song and released it to the public in the early spring of 1974. Ray remarked that he felt such a rush to get the single out on the market that even during the recording of the song he'd have to stop because he'd come up with something more to add and the process of recording would have to restart...and yet, when you hear it, the song doesn't come across as something that was rush released.
The single streaked up the Hot 100 and hit the top for the week ending May 18, 1974. It remained at the top for three consecutive weeks...being dislodged from the top spot on June 8th by "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings. The host thanked Ray for being part of the broadcast and closed Ray's portion of the show with "The Streak". On The Eagle FM's website there's a section designated for interviews. I don't know if any of the interviews from the July 6th episode are going to become available as podcasts or not. It looks as if the website is selective in which interviews they post on their podcast page, though. I'll periodically check and see if Ray's interview makes an appearance on their podcast page. If it does then I'll blog about it.
Hello one and all!! I'm quite certain many of you have already seen the neat CabaRay advertisement on wheels that appeared on the Ray Stevens social pages a couple of days ago. The advertisement was made possible by the company, Old Town Trolley Tours of Nashville.
Now, for those not familiar, this happens to be the back of the trolley/bus. I did some research and found out that the company provides tours of Nashville but I don't know if the tours include an actual stop at the CabaRay itself or not. The company's hours are on their social media pages and they're open 9am to 5pm...so, as you can see, they're closing for the day just as the CabaRay starts up for the night. So, as far as I know, the trolley is meant just to advertise the showroom as it's making it's way all over Nashville. It may drive by the CabaRay so tourists will be able to see it but I don't think it'll be delivering a load of tourists at the CabaRay for a concert unless he may do some sort of special matinee but I highly doubt it. As far as the showroom specifics: The Piano Bar and gift shop open prior to the 6pm dinner. The concert gets underway at 7:30pm. As long time readers should know the usual nights for concerts at the CabaRay are both Friday and Saturday...and sometimes Thursday...but this week Ray is performing the Friday and Saturday concerts and they're being advertised as a Fourth of July Weekend. The reason being is due to the fact that almost every business, if a holiday falls on a Thursday or a Friday, well, it's celebrated for the rest of the work week and into the weekend. Ray uploaded a brief YouTube advertisement for the upcoming CabaRay concerts July 5th and July 6th. When you watch the video clip you'll hear his chicken clucking rendition of "In the Mood" as the information appears on the screen.
Do you have a favorite Ray Stevens song saluting the military or saluting our country? If you're like I am you love it all...everything he's recorded is a favorite...I'll just name off several patriotic/military songs from the legend: A ballad from 1970 titled "Loving You On Paper"...it's a song from the point of view of a soldier writing a letter to home. The same year he recorded "America, Communicate With Me". It's not necessarily a military or patriotic song but it's a song that examines America during that 1969-1970 time frame and Ray taking the position of an Independent wondering how things are going to get solved with two extreme political ideologies refusing to compromise.
1989's "There's a Star Spangled Banner" is a fantastic recording, too...there are two versions of this song in case you all didn't know. There is the 1989 recording in which Ray sings about a P.O.W. in Beirut and then there's an entirely different recording in which Ray sings about the American Flag and all of the battles that it's fought and won. This later recording can be found on a Curb Records release from 1991 titled Greatest Hits. The 1989 and 1991 recordings retain the same arrangement and chorus but the lyrics in each performance are different. In 2003 he emerged with "Thank You"...which resulted in a CD release of serious songs...the effects of 9/11 are many and "Thank You" saluted all branches of the Armed Forces less than 2 years after the September 11th terror attacks. The reason for the military and the concept behind the American Flag is all tied into America's Independence and that's something that deserves celebration, in my opinion, but yet there are those that think celebrating the Fourth of July is a "waste of taxpayer money". That's a recent collective quote from those that oppose the current President of the United States. America affords neanderthals the luxury of speaking their mind...regardless of how crass, cynical, and heartless an opinion such as the one I quoted happens to be.
Not too long ago, back in 2016, Ray Stevens released this music video...the majestic "Dear America". The video itself is in a letterbox format, actually...not your typical YouTube 'look'...and as a result of re-sizing the video so it would fit the margins of the blog you're going to see two thick black bars above and below the video clip. It's not too distracting...you'll love the song and the video. I don't know if he'll be performing this at the CabaRay this weekend or not. He might!
Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans out there. I hesitated, at first, to start my blog entry with one of the late Paul Harvey's catchphrases given this being 4th of July weekend but I didn't. Is it just me or does it feel a bit strange that a July 4th holiday falls on a Monday...it seems more at home on a Saturday or even a Sunday. It falling on a Monday, of course, extends the weekend for some people but not everyone.
Did anyone catch Ray Stevens on the Grand Ole Opry this past week, either in person or over the radio? He made a guest appearance during the final half hour portion back on Wednesday (June 29th) and sang several songs...he sang "Misty", "Safe at Home", and "The Streak". I listened to it on the radio as I made my way to my workplace.
He posted a video clip of his appearance and it's on his Facebook page. It isn't on YouTube. You can see the appearance by clicking HERE. Make sure you click the X next to the image of the speaker. For some reason the clip automatically starts playing in mute. You'll have to click the X to open up the speaker in order to hear the audio. I say that because there's going to be some people out there that click the video and wonder why they can't hear anything and then assume something's wrong with the upload.
This is just me but I prefer the YouTube style of embedded video clips that don't automatically start playing once they came into screen view. I prefer a person having to click the play arrow before a video begins to play but on Facebook, for some reason, if it isn't a video embed from YouTube then the video starts to automatically play when it comes in view...but on to the main theme of this blog entry...
Throughout the career of Ray Stevens he's recorded or performed several patriotic songs. If you're any kind of serious fan of Ray Stevens then you'll know that a majority of those America/patriotic songs have come within the last 6 years but if you take a glance at some of his albums over the decades you'll find some patriotic stand-alone songs hidden away on LP's. Can you guess what may have been Ray's first ever patriotic song? I'm sure he's recorded or wrote several that weren't released and so I'm only referring to songs that have been commercially released either on albums or as singles and in recent years, on-line video.
Independence Day, or the 4th of July, is largely a time of America celebration and of cook-outs and fireworks. Patriotic, pro-America songs are almost universally accepted as appropriate songs for July 4th. Although Ray has not recorded a song, to my knowledge, dealing in the actual events that led up to Independence Day (July 4, 1776) the fact remains that any song celebrating America's values and ideals or songs about the American flag are sort of lumped into the category of Independence Day songs even if they're not, technically, about the Revolutionary War.
During his involvement/association with Andy Williams (primarily 1969-1971) Ray performed several songs about America on Andy's television series and on the 1970 summer program that Ray hosted for Andy. Although the songs Ray performed were not necessarily dripping in pro-America fervor they were largely middle of the road and filled with the 'everyday person' point of view on the issues of the day (namely the Vietnam War) and they largely side-stepped the contempt and cynicism of the typical protest song of the era. The big song from Ray during this point in time dealing with the issues facing America is "America, Communicate with Me". It's such a great song...excellent recording...a lot of production went into it and it's a great middle of the road message decrying extreme points of view from both political parties and how the concept of one party trying to one-up the other is more or less going to be the nation's undoing.
The song attempted to bridge the gap between two extreme points of view
raging on in America. Protests of the Vietnam War had began during the
latter half of the Lyndon Johnson administration but it happened to be
the Richard Nixon administration that felt the brunt of the protests,
sit-in's, anti-war rallies, and the Assassinations of several political
figures. Ray Stevens made mention of those assassinations in his
recording...but didn't name the victims. As a listener we can safely assume that he's referring to John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.. Due to the song not taking a strong stance either for or against the Nixon Administration or the Vietnam War it didn't receive a lot of positive publicity among the Top-40 audience and radio disc jockeys of the era. In fact it didn't really receive that much publicity in the printed press...most of it's exposure came via his television performances and the support from Adult-Contemporary radio stations across the country. On the Hot 100 pop chart the single peaked a couple notches short of the Top-40 portion...but the Adult-Contemporary chart (called Easy-Listening in 1970) ranked the song in their Top-20. The song originally could be found on his studio album, Unreal, in which several other topical, social-commentary songs existed: this single's B-side, "Monkey See, Monkey Do", "Can We Get To That", "Come Around", "Loving You on Paper", and "Talking".
A performance by Ray Stevens from his 1970 summer program...he's singing "Save the Country" and is joined by some of his cast-members (namely Mama Cass and Lulu) and then, solo, he sings "America, Communicate with Me"...
The next major recording that Ray did involving America and it's politics and policies came at the end of the 1980s in a stirring performance called "There's a Star Spangled Banner". This is another one of those hidden away songs because the 1989 album it appeared on, Beside Myself, is largely remembered by Ray Stevens fans for the comical songs "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.", "I Used to Be Crazy", and "The Woogie Boogie". The album itself presented a blend of serious and comical songs from Ray. Side One consisted of serious ballads and Side Two consisted of comical songs. "There's a Star Spangled Banner" tells the story of an American P.O.W in Beirut and his optimism that he'll one day be free thanks to his faith in America, the meaning of the Flag, and our Military. Ray re-recorded "There's a Star Spangled Banner" during the Gulf War. The re-recorded version, keeping the same musical arrangement and chorus, features an entirely different set of verses. In the re-recorded version Ray sings about the American flag itself and describes, in song, various historical battles that have taken place. This special re-recording can be found on the 1991 compilation album from Curb Records titled Greatest Hits.
Ray returned to the American military theme for 2004's "Thank You". As you can tell from the year of release this patriotic song came during the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom which got underway in early 2003 and it lasted until December 2011. Tied into the quest to at long last free Iraq from the Saddam Hussein regime on the belief he had an enormous supply of chemical/biological weapons that he would use on his people was Hussein's overall support of Terrorism (especially terrorism aimed at U.S. interests). The countries that support terrorists, largely in the Middle East, obviously became the target in the American-led coalition...but in the earliest months/years the prime target happened to be a fanatic named Osama bin Laden. Ray Stevens, in fact, satirized bin Laden in a couple of novelty songs...the first being December 2001's "Osama Yo' Mama" (a Gold selling single) and the next being it's sequel, "Hello Mama". "Thank You", in the meantime, honors all branches of the American military. The music video is emotional as one could expect. The song became the title track of a CD that Ray issued in 2004. Ray co-wrote the song with a man named Larry McCoy.
The CD contains a song that Ray wrote called "Let's Roll". The title was inspired by Todd Beamer...a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001 after it had been hijacked by four terrorists. Beamer had been in a conversation on a phone located in the airplane...telling a customer service representative about the hijacking taking place and that he and some other passengers were planning to overtake the hijackers but things ended tragically instead. The last words from Beamer heard by the representative happened to include the "Let's Roll" command to some of his fellow passengers. You can purchase the song as an Mp3 on Amazon by clicking HERE. The song has appeared on 2004's Thank You, 2005's Box Set, and 2010's We The People.
Speaking of that 2010 CD...as I mentioned earlier in this blog entry political songs that promote a Pro-America message tend to be lumped in with patriotic songs. In the latter half of 2009 and into the next several years the music of Ray Stevens received a tremendous boost via YouTube. The on-line popularity of a certain music video, "We the People", sent hundreds of thousands of people onto Ray's official website and onto his YouTube channel. Through on-line sharing the music video soon eclipsed a million unique views in a month's time. This kind of viral video experience literally changed the direction of Ray's career overnight. He happened to be winding down and reducing his workload by 2008 and in the pages of his 2014 memoir admitted that he had contemplated retiring altogether from concerts and other personal appearances around the time he sold his Branson, Missouri theater to RFD-TV in 2006. By 2006 his CD releases had also gotten sporadic. During the span of January 2000 to December 2006 Ray Stevens released a grand total of 3 studio albums in that 6 year time frame: 2000's Ear Candy, 2002's Osama Yo' Mama, and 2004's Thank You. One could argue that the 2002 CD wasn't necessarily a traditional studio album because it consisted largely of recordings that had already been released on the 2000 CD. The 2002 CD contained 7 songs that had appeared on Ear Candy in addition to 2001's single release, "Osama Yo' Mama" and it's B-side, "United We Stand". The one song on the 2002 not previously released happened to be "Freudian Slip". To date the 2002 CD is the only place to find that song.
After Ray's video had reached over a million unique views in a month's time he began making appearances on numerous high profile television programs that aired on the Fox News Channel. In the song he name drops personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck. "We The People" spoke out against Obama-Care (the nickname for the President's health care plan). To show you the power of high profile publicity Ray's website crashed after O'Reilly mentioned Ray's video and played a short snippet of it in a broadcast. Several days later Ray appeared on the program, via video hook-up, and thanked O'Reilly for causing the site to crash because it was a sign of instant heavy traffic in search of Ray's recording/video. The video has gotten more than 5 million unique views.
Highly topical it visually presented itself comically but took aim at Congress very seriously by warning them that if they pass Obama's health care plan then they'll be voted out come the next election cycle. The prophetic lyrics rang true...the 2010 election season seen the rise of the Tea Party movement (a faction of voters fed up with both political parties but sided mostly with the Conservative wing of the Republican party). This movement ultimately led to a dramatic resurgence of Republicans being voted into Congress that November as a direct result of Obama and the Democrat-led Congress shoving Obama-Care down people's throats and voting the bill into law in the middle of the night. The Republican party took over the House of Representatives and nearly took over the Senate. A lot of vulnerable Democrats ended up either losing or deciding to not run or retire rather than face defeat. From 2010 until early 2013 Ray racked up some impressive numbers on the YouTube site...a lot of his older music videos that had nothing to do with patriotism or politics were being discovered by this newer audience that found Ray Stevens as a result of the "We The People" music video and other videos that followed...namely the enormously successful "Come to the U.S.A." which deals with the problems of illegal immigration. To date that video's been seen by more than 9 million!
2011 saw the release of the Spirit of '76. The CD, as you can see in the collage, features a photo of Ray superimposed into a Spirit of '76 painting. The project was largely built around a couple of songs that had become successful music videos on YouTube prior to the CD's release. "God Save Arizona" spoke out against Obama and Eric Holder in their lack of support of Arizona during a highly contentious period of time involving an unusually high number of illegal immigrants crossing into the country from Mexico. Not only did Obama and the Holder justice department refuse to offer support to the state's Governor and various local police departments but ultimately the Holder justice department sued the State of Arizona for not "following Federal law and it's mandates" when it comes to illegal immigration. The sorry state of events inspired "God Save Arizona". A clever tie-in to the U.S.S. Arizona battle ship provides a neat lead-off. One of the songs that didn't become a music video but it nevertheless is a good patriotic song is "My Uncle Sam". It's track five on the CD. It's a song which begins literally about an uncle named Sam in which Ray describes as set in his ways and can often be misunderstood but it turns into a testimonial about how America has grown, evolved, and is still the greatest nation on Earth in spite of flaws that pop up every so often.
Another popular music video, "Obama Budget Plan", hit big during the bitter battle between Obama and his opponents in the House of Representatives and the Senate over the ever increasing budget and federal deficit. The video has gotten more than 4 million views. The Spirit of '76 CD features 11 songs and of those recordings 5 are YouTube music video smash hits: "Obama Budget Plan", "Mr. President - Mr. President", "God Save Arizona", "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", and "Grandpa Voted Democrat". Song four is about airport security and the T.S.A. and song five is about voter fraud (it became a video right around the November 2012 election cycle).
Just recently Ray performed the National Anthem at the CMA Music Fest. I posted a video of his performance a couple of blogs ago but here's a LINK to the clip. The musical arrangement with the keyboard being the lead instrument is based on the recording he did for the 2010 We The People CD.
It's been a rather lengthy blog entry today but I wanted to try and touch base on nearly all of the major recordings from Ray Stevens that have a patriotic and political overtone. I think I succeeded but later today I'll more or less remember something that slipped my mind and I'll have to edit it into the text at a later date.
