Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 9...

It's Friday...that means another installment of Rayality TV. This time around the spotlight is on the craziness of life and the ordeals people go through. This concept is aided by 2 music videos...the first is one from not too long ago, 2011's "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". This is the song/music video criticizing and mocking the TSA's airport security practices and procedures. It hit You Tube in February 2011 and it's gotten more than 480,000 unique views. "I Used To Be Crazy", the second music video in the webisode, comes from 1995 and had never been officially uploaded onto You Tube in any form by Ray before until today. The music video's origin is the 1995 direct-to-home video movie, Get Serious!. In the music video you'll see little snippets of scenes from the movie.



Ray should be busy filming scenes for Campin' Buddies...today's the day that they're suppose to film a scene that requires lots of extra's on the set. I mentioned this a couple of blog posts ago. Perhaps photo's from today's shooting will become available on-line.

For those curious...there wasn't a Throwback Thursday classic video uploaded yesterday on Ray's You Tube channel. It's become something of a habit for a lot of fans to see a vintage clip from Ray's past on Thursday and then on Friday see the latest Rayality TV installment...but for whatever reason there wasn't a clip uploaded yesterday.

I kept checking his channel at various times throughout the late afternoon and early evening but by the time 6pm rolled around I figured that if an upload hadn't become available by that time then none would. I checked his channel early this morning just to see if a Throwback Thursday clip had been added to his channel in the hours after I left the computer but none had been. Hopefully a classic clip becomes available this coming Thursday. In the meantime enjoy Rayality TV!!

Ray Stevens and those Unfriendly Skies...

Several blogs ago I wrote about an upcoming appearance by Ray Stevens at the CMA Music Fest. This event, known as Fan Fair for decades, is held each June in Nashville, Tennessee. I had hoped that footage of Ray's appearance would surface on-line and it finally has. In the clip below you'll see Ray perform one of his modern-day classics, "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore".

 

I don't have any idea if he performed more songs than just that one...but at the moment it's the only one I came across. At the start of the clip you'll see the emcee make mention of a couple of long awaited CD's from Ray. Although there wasn't any release dates announced, she did make reference to the title of the gospel CD (the first time I'd heard of a possible title for that project!). I hope those CD's arrive this year. He hasn't issued a studio album since the mammoth Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music back in early 2012. 

Ray Stevens: The TSA music video, Part 2...

"The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" has surpassed the 100,000 unique view total and at the moment it's gathered 100,482 views at the 2 week mark. I've noticed that a lot of people have visited my blog page recently via on-line searches of the title of Ray's current music video...this is one of the rare moments where I get visitors based solely on a song title search. I caught a Tweet the other day from a sports radio station...a talk-show host named Chip Howard tweeted that Ray Stevens would be calling in next week (technically this week...now that it's Saturday). I have no idea if the radio host is referring to our Ray Stevens (The Singer) or someone else with the same name. There's a radio DJ who goes by the on-air name Ramblin' Ray Stevens...there's also a couple of athletes with the name of Ray Stevens...so it's difficult to know exactly which 'Ray Stevens' the talk-show host was referring to. Usually whenever I see a tweet from someone at a radio station mention 'Ray Stevens' I automatically assume it's our Ray Stevens...but KZNE radio is sports-driven and so it's wise to try and find out exactly which Ray Stevens will be calling into the station this week. I sent a tweet inquiring about the specifics...as soon as I find out anything I'll of course post about it here.

My Twitter name is also ACcountryFan and a lot of my tweets are about Ray Stevens. I'd say 99.5% of my tweets are built around Ray Stevens...either me tweeting something about him or my re-tweeting something he's tweeted.

Starting with this blog entry, as all of you frequent visitors can tell, I've changed the design/template of the page. I liked the design I'd been using but I decided to change the design...I like how the lettering is much more crisp looking and the information isn't so compact as it appeared in the previous blog design. Also, the pictures that I insert in the various blog entries will look like Polaroid pictures...with a white trim/border fitted around the images to give it an authentic look. That sort of thing was missing in my previous blog design. Also, it's much more clearer reading the labels, the blog date, and the title of the blog entries. I'll stick with this updated look for awhile. I'll probably go with something else later on.

While writing this blog I opened up a separate internet browser and seen that "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" has risen to 100,739 views on You Tube. When I started this blog entry the totals were 100,482. I believe You Tube updates their numbers every half hour or every hour.

Ray Stevens and the TSA, Part 6...

There have been 12,495 You Tube plays for "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", referred to as The TSA Song. In a world where bird dogs get a free pass enjoy the latest from Ray Stevens...



The Spirit of '76 hasn't been given an official release date yet. My guess is it'll get released at some point in March and perhaps it'll be tied in with a future music video of some kind but it's anyone's guess as to what will happen. I'd definitely love to see a music video to the song that he performed at C-PAC earlier this month that I believe is either entitled "Mr. President" or "What Are Ya Gonna Do, Mr. President?".

Get in the Spirit with Ray Stevens...

A quick blog entry for this evening finds me making some commentary about Ray's appearance at C-PAC Thursday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the appearance and it was great seeing Ray perform with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm. Ray always has a lot of enthusiasm in his performances but because the music was political and it was a political event you could really see the magnetism in the air...at least that's how I interpreted the appearance.

Ray was having a great time at the podium delivering a few one-liners, talking about You Tube, and of course performing three songs: "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", "We the People", and a song that'll be on an upcoming CD, "Mr. President, What Are You Gonna Do?". The upcoming CD will be titled The Spirit of '76. Ray was introduced to the audience by Tucker Carlson of the Fox News Channel. Those who want to see the video of Ray's appearance can click this link. Once there, scroll down to February 10th 7:30pm and click on Ray's name.

What a lot of us are waiting on is either a music video release of the TSA song or a release of The Spirit of '76. As of now, according to his web-site, the CD will either be released by itself or be included in a Deluxe Edition re-release of We The People. The latter features 22 songs and if the Spirit of '76 is released in a Deluxe Edition of some kind that'll mean the overall project will have 33 songs! I hope the Spirit of '76 CD is released by itself but then later on combine it with We The People for a Deluxe Edition collector's item. That would be my way of marketing it.

Let's Discuss Ray Stevens, Part 24...

Ray Stevens has certainly been busy as he crisscrosses the radio dial doing telephone interviews and in a lot of cases taking phone calls from listeners. As of now he's did radio interviews with KMOX, WICH, KWEL, WDRC-AM, and on Monday as I touched upon in a previous blog entry he'll be featured on a couple of other talk programs. A lot of the radio call-in appearances take place on conservative talk radio stations which offer a platform. Modern-day music radio, by and large, attempts to stay away from politics. True, patriotic music can often be heard on country radio, but you won't hear songs that clearly align with one political party over another.

In the past, though, Top-40 pop radio didn't hesitate to play what have been called protest songs. These songs almost always had a much more liberal point of view and spoke out against conservative values and America pride...the antithesis of songs that held conservative values and displayed pride in America which were heard much more on country radio. Nowadays, though, you rarely hear songs with political overtones on music radio...and this is a big reason, I think, why Ray is doing these talk radio call-in's and by-passing music radio interviews for the most part.

Today a blogger for U.S. News and World Report, Paul Bedard, did a write-up of Ray's recent song "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". The write-up comes across as friendly and pro-Ray Stevens and the blogger sub-titled it as the "I Hate the TSA Song".

This was picked up by others and his blog was spread around on Twitter earlier this afternoon with the unofficial song title as a reference. So far there's not been a music video release or a single release...I'm assuming something will be released soon with either a music video or Mp3 single being offered. There's a demand already underway for the song judging by the commentary from the listeners of the radio stations he's given interviews to and the comments from those who visit blogs wondering why there isn't a single or a music video available yet.

On Sunday February 13, 2011 the song "Bad Angel" will be in the running for a Grammy in the Best Country Collaboration with Vocals category. The song is performed by Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, and Jamey Johnson. The song is written by Verlon Thompson and Suzi Ragsdale. The song had previously been nominated for a CMA Award in the Vocal Event category in 2010. Suzi, for those who don't know, is the daughter of Ray Stevens and this particular recording is co-published by Ray's company.

Ray Stevens latest Radio interview...

In my first blog entry of February I come with an additional radio station link. Ray Stevens gave an interview on a Texas radio station, KWEL, on February 2. A link to the interview can be found here. Once you open this page you will need to scroll down to where it shows Ray's name prior to the date 2-2-11. A little sideways triangle in a green shaded box is located off to the right...click that and the audio clip will start to play. There's also a download option in front of the audio clip. I downloaded the audio in addition to playing it. In the interview Ray discusses the political direction of his musical career and talks about his current recordings. The host of the show asks about the reception of his political affiliations and Ray offers some commentary about it. He comments about his various appearances on the Fox News Channel and an upcoming appearance at CPAC later this month.

"Ahab the Arab" is also brought up.

Something which has become commonplace in many interviews with Ray is the topic of political correctness and the radio host asked Ray if he felt that "Ahab the Arab" would get airplay in 2011 if released today and if the song's still being played somewhere. Ray commented that since the song was originally out in 1962 he didn't think it was still being played with any degree of regularity but he defended the song, as he should, when explaining how unfair it is that some people out there attach the politically incorrect label on practically everything they have an objection to...regardless of original intent by a singer, writer, author, etc. etc. This may have been his way of saying he doesn't think the song would have a chance of widespread radio success in 2011 as it did in 1962.

However, not everyone is thin-skinned and balks at anything remotely deemed politically incorrect...the music video of the song is still getting video play on You Tube...

The 1995 music video of the song, which Ray uploaded onto You Tube in 2009, has gotten over 100,000 hits. Another upload of the video by someone else has gotten over 650,000 hits. This upload was available nearly a year before Ray's people decided to upload it, too, which accounts for why the earlier upload by a You Tube member has way more hits than the official upload from Ray. The point is the music video's been seen by over 700,000 people when you combine both hit totals on You Tube and so even nearly 50 years after the song was released it's still getting attention from those who love the song and from those who can't stand it. The host asked him to do the camel impression and while I thought it was good Ray insisted that it was too early in the morning to sufficiently mimic a camel.

Toward the end of the interview Ray talks about his most recent release, "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", about the TSA and airport security. He also commented about the encyclopedia of the greatest novelty songs he's been working on and offered a few examples of some of the songs that'll be on it.

In the meantime, this link provides information about a radio tour that Ray's currently embarking on. It started with KMOX, then it migrated to WICH, and yesterday he was heard on KWEL. He's scheduled to conduct interviews with a wide variety of other morning radio programs...two upcoming interviews according to the link above are The KTLF morning show and a syndicated Atlanta, Georgia program hosted by Martha Zoller. Each program will air/become available on February 7th. I'm sure Ray will be heard in interviews on other radio stations, too, as the year progresses.

Ray Stevens and the TSA...

Hello all the Ray Stevens fans!! This is hot off the presses...well, 5 hours ago...but it's still very recent. It's an interview that Ray gave earlier today on KMOX radio in St. Louis promoting his latest song. I found out about it through Twitter and then I Googled "KMOX + Ray Stevens" and among the results was a link to a radio interview held today with Charlie Brennan.

I happened to enjoy the interview...Ray talked about some of his past recordings and his stay in Branson, Missouri. Political correctness was brought up which often becomes a topic of conversation in Ray's interviews given how some out there want to label some of his songs as being "politically incorrect" when there's no malice or vicious intentions behind any of his song's origins. The fact that "Ahab the Arab" is comical and an Arab is the focal point enrages some people. Also, the pronunciation of Arab as "ay-rab" instead of "air-ub" also enrages some people out there. Let's get real, though...Ahab and "ay-rab" rhyme...Ahab doesn't rhyme with "air-ub"...case closed, end of controversy.

Meanwhile, back to the interview...at the 4 minute 19 second mark, Ray and the host begin to talk about "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", the brand new Ray Stevens song about airport security and the TSA. The audio may stop, since it did for me, and if that happens you'll of course have to replay it and fast-forward to the point where it stopped so pay attention to the time clock in the lower right side of the clip. The interview includes phone calls to Ray and all of it is sandwiched between roughly 18-19 minutes.

The host, Charlie Brennan, plays the song during the interview. At the time of this writing the single hasn't been made available for purchase yet...but Ray mentioned that it'll become available on his web-site and other places on-line in the near future. My guess is it'll become available next week but that's just my guess. A lot of us were hoping that Ray would have a musical response to the TSA and the invasive security practices that are going on in the airports nationwide and in this song he delivers a home-spun tale of a couple who experience hands-on airport security. The link indicates that this song is on his latest collection, We The People, but it isn't part of that particular collection. Nonetheless for those who don't have the We The People CD you should get it because it's chock full of political and patriotic material including his latest string of music video hits: "We The People", "Caribou Barbie", "Throw the Bums Out!", "Come to the USA", "The Global Warming Song", and an earlier song, the patriotic "Thank You". In addition to those songs there's "The Fallen Ones", "Fly Over Country", "We Are the Government", "The Solar Powered Song", and "Dear Andy Griffith" among many more.

As I mentioned, there's not been a release date set for "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore".

The song is so new that I don't have any information on who wrote it and if it'll be on any future collection of songs. Once again, the brand new Ray Stevens song is called "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". The Ray Stevens interview will be the third audio clip in the following link.

FYI: Ray skewered political correctness in his direct-to-video movie, Get Serious, in 1995. It often comes up for sale on eBay. It's hilarious! For those who've never seen the movie it's 110 minutes...1 hour, 50 minutes...and it's an actual movie but there's music videos inserted throughout as the story moves along. In the link I provided there's a close-up of his video, the front and back cover, and on the back there's screen-caps on a role of film. We see Ray in character as Gitarzan chatting with Jerry Clower; Ray dressed as Ahab the Arab; Ray as psychiatrist Sickmind Fraud decked out in Napoleon attire; Ray as a Calcutta rug salesman; and Ray as a Woogie Indian (a fictional tribe, of course!). I'm sure that eBay link will expire at some point once the item is either bought or the seller takes it off the market and if that happens you can always Google the video or look it up on eBay by other seller's. Ironically there's not a DVD version...so for now the only way to see the movie is on VHS.