Ray Stevens: "Down in Mexico" audio track...

Hello all once again!! If you're a long time Ray Stevens fan then you know how much he idolized the music of The Coasters. Ray has recorded numerous songs over the decades that were originally recorded by the group. Some of those were "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", "Yakety Yak", "Searchin", "Poison Ivy", "Western Movies", and a few others. The group was actually a contemporary of Ray. A lot of people make the assumption that The Coasters were some kind of group that Ray grew up listening to as a kid when in fact The Coasters were hitting, nationally, right around the time Ray was just entering the music industry on a regional level in the 1950s. "Down In Mexico" was, in fact, the first major hit for The Coasters in 1956 and it appeared on their 1957 album, The Coasters. Their rendition features what became synonymous in nearly all of their songs: a raucous saxophone. The song comes from the pen of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...the writers for almost all of the best-known songs released by The Coasters. When "Down in Mexico" was hitting in 1956 for The Coasters Ray was working as a disc jockey on a local radio station in Georgia...and as it turned out he was several months away from recording his debut for Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. 

"Down in Mexico" is more or less a love song...telling the story of a guy who goes down to Mexico and finds himself in a honkytonk where he comes across a piano player, Joe, wearing a purple sash. Throughout the song the line '...in a honkytonk Down in Mexico...' is heard often by backup harmony. In the rendition by The Coasters it's the various members of the group singing the harmony vocals...in the Ray Stevens rendition it's Ray's over-dubbed voice providing the background harmony. A wild dance erupts between a Mexican dancer and the guy that walked into the honkytonk...and all kinds of Mexican flavored instrumentation is heard throughout. Ray plays most of the instruments by way of his synthesizer. Buddy Skipper is credited with playing the tenor saxophone...Ray is credited with baritone sax...but there isn't a saxophone solo like there is with The Coasters rendition. 

One of the major differences in the Ray Stevens rendition besides the advance in music technology and audio advancements is the differences in the fade out. On The Coasters rendition Carl Gardner speaks in a Mexican-American accent as the song fades out. Ray mimics this same approach during the fade out but adds in a whole lot more vocal effects that elaborate on the man's excitement over encountering the obviously vivacious and alluring Mexican dancer. So, then, add this to the list of Coasters songs that Ray Stevens has lovingly brought back...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Poison Ivy"...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! In this blog entry I'm embedding one of the recent uploads on Ray's YouTube channel. The upload is an audio track of his recording of "Poison Ivy"...Ray recorded the song during sessions for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. This box set was released in February of 2012 and so the recording could have taken place anywhere during the latter half of 2009 on into the midway point of 2011. In a lot of Ray's interviews in the first half of 2012 he mentioned that he worked on the box set for two years and so I'd say he began recording the songs at some point late 2009 and all through 2010 and 2011...which if I'm accurate on the time line it obviously means that the box set was being put together simultaneously while he was being discovered by a whole host of people on-line through his politically charged YouTube music videos. In 2010 and 2011 he issued two politically themed CDs: We The People and Spirit of '76. When you see Ray speaking in interviews or read any of the interviews and he makes mention that he's constantly working...it isn't an exaggeration...he's ALWAYS working/recording even if the music won't be publicly heard for several years time. In more recent interviews he's remarked that he has an entire backlog of recordings just waiting to get released...and he'll be in charge of the timing and planning of what music gets unleashed first...and we can't wait. 

The Coasters are one of Ray's all-time favorite music groups...read any professional biography in an assortment of CD liner notes or inside magazines and you're likely to see The Coasters listed as one of his primary influences. Ray had already shown his love of the group in 1969 when he recorded "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", and "Yakety Yak". The Coasters were contemporaries of Ray Stevens...they weren't a group that he grew up hearing on the radio...but Ray nevertheless loved their music and it's interesting to point out that when Ray issued his first single in 1957, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", he was doing his vocal impression of Coasters lead singer, Billy Guy, but that's just my opinion. Ray has never officially stated that he was doing an impression...but I happen to think he was. "Poison Ivy", for The Coasters, was a gigantic hit for them in 1959. It was their third hit...following "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones". By the way, Ray recorded a version of "Charlie Brown", "Searchin'", and other Coasters songs for 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Historians say that while The Coasters were huge with rhythm and blues fans and their music was all over rhythm and blues radio stations, "Poison Ivy" put them into what historians call 'the mainstream' which I take it was their way of saying until "Poison Ivy" came along The Coasters weren't known outside of the rhythm and blues audience. 

Ray overdubs his own voice to make it sound like it's a group singing "Poison Ivy". It's a great rendition in my biased opinion. Here is Ray's audio recording of that song...

Ray Stevens and Company sing "Along Came Jones"...

One of the recent YouTube videos from Ray Stevens is a 1969 clip of "Along Came Jones". The performance is done against a backdrop of a refined, classical music performance showing Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas standing side by side and looking like a performance of "Along Came Jones" is the farthest thing from their minds.

Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas; 1969

Note the studious look of all three legendary entertainers. We see Andy Williams and Danny Thomas, in character, intently looking over their notes while Ray appears eager and ready to get things started. The trio walk out on stage and take their places behind the pedestals. After several seconds of fumbling with their "music sheets" and clearing their throats in a comical fashion there's a fanfare where the trio stand still and then Ray launches into a performance of "Along Came Jones". If you hadn't seen this video clip yet try and guess which one plays Sweet Sue and which one plays Salty Sam. Jimmy Osmond is also part of this video clip, too.

Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas; 1969

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Duane Eddy

Hello out there to all the fans of Ray Stevens! In this blog entry I'll be spotlighting the September 16th episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. The episode, as you can see, aired last weekend but I'd been busy with off-line activity. The guest that night happened to be legendary guitarist, Duane Eddy. Ray opened the show with a highly energetic performance of "Searchin'", a song that should be familiar to most of Ray's fans. The song had originally been a hit recording by one of Ray's favorite groups, The Coasters. Ray recorded a version of the song for his 9-CD box set, Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music (released in 2012).

In the installment of the Comedy Theater we're treated to a clip from Ray's sitcom, We Ain't Dead Yet. The clip features Phil Everly playing the role of William Maurice (a pun on talent agency William Morris). Afterward Ray introduces Duane Eddy and they speak of his upbringing. Duane mentions that be was born in Upstate New York but later the family moved out west to Arizona. The reason given by Duane is that his father got tired of shoveling snow. Duane speaks of his record producer, Lee Hazlewood.

Duane talks of his innovative 'twangy' style of guitar playing and speaks of the mechanism he added to the guitar strings to create that effect. He and Ray perform a duet version of "Forty Miles of Bad Road"...and the performance is something to behold. It was as if the two of them were competing with one another: Duane on the twangy lead guitar and Ray playing piano. The image off to the left is a single release showing Duane as a co-writer. In smaller print the record producers are credited as Sill-Hazlewood, a reference to Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood. Since I wasn't too familiar with the production credits of Duane Eddy recordings I had to look them up and that's how I learned of Lester Sill being one of the producers along with Lee Hazlewood. Upon the conclusion of "Forty Miles of Bad Road" Duane performs another one of his instrumental classics. This time around it's his signature instrumental, "Rebel Rouser". It, too, is performed as a duet. Ray's longtime saxophone session musician, Denis Solee, does his rendition of the instrumental while Duane performs it on the guitar. This performance also carries a kind of competitive presentation, too, with each legendary musician matching note for note on their very different instruments.

This episode seemed to be a bit shorter than the others but maybe it's because the guest happened to be an instrumentalist...or maybe because the episode was peppered with various instrumental performances it just seemed like it had a shorter running time? Whichever the reason this particular episode seemed to fly by...and he closed the show with a performance of "Three Legged Man". He had performed that song in a more recent episode but in that performance he did some vocal effects during the performance. This time around he had his sound effects played over the speaker system. The next episode of the series, which aired tonight (September 23rd), guest starred Angaleena Presley. I'll be doing a re-cap of that episode in a couple minutes so be on the look out for 2 blog entries from me tonight...maybe a third one by early Sunday morning...

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part Four...

As it's been noted for decades by music critics regionally and nationally, Ray had at long last found acclaim for serious work on the previous release in 1968, Even Stevens, only to turn around and issue an all-comedy project in 1969 titled Gitarzan. The album features 11 songs and it was re-issued in CD format in 1996 with three bonus tracks added to the list. I have the vinyl album in my collection. This particular album was largely built around the enormous popularity of "Gitarzan", the novelty single from Ray Stevens spoofing Tarzan and related characters. In Ray's tale, for those not familiar, we hear about a jungle dweller with a love of music. He wants to play the guitar while Jane fancies herself as a singer. Their pet monkey gets into the act by lending his unique verbal skills to the spectacle. The song's title was thought up by Bill Justis. Ray gave him co-writer credit using the musician's birth name, William Everette, even though Ray wrote the lyrics and the music himself. The single reached the Top-10 on the American pop chart and it also became an international smash hit reaching the Top-5 in New Zealand, Australia, and #1 in Canada. Sales were reportedly in the millions...prompting a Gold certification by the RIAA. It was easily Ray's biggest commercial success since 1962's "Ahab the Arab". As far as record producers go, Fred Foster and Ray had been the producer for 1968's Even Stevens. This 1969 comedy album was produced by Fred Foster, Jim Malloy, and Ray. Shelby Singleton had been the producer of Ray's first two studio albums on Mercury.

After the enormous success of "Gitarzan" and all the media publicity it brought, Monument released a second single from the album...it was Ray's cover of "Along Came Jones". Ray, admittedly a long-time fan of The Coasters novelty songs, does an excellent job recreating the melodrama but yet he makes the song his own with the added touches not heard in the original by The Coasters. Ray added the screaming, whining pleas of help from damsel Sweet Sue in addition to the dirty laugh of Salty Sam. The arrangement basically remains the same, though, as the 1959 original. Ray took his 1969 version of the song to the Top-30 in America, the Top-20 in Canada, the Top-10 in Australia, and the Top-5 in New Zealand. There were no other singles released from the album...perhaps because of how enormously successful the two singles had become world-wide that releasing anything else from that album would certainly typecast Ray even further as a singer of nothing but novelty songs once more.

Elsewhere on the album we have his versions of "Yakety Yak", "Little Egypt", "Mr. Custer", and "Alley Oop". Those four recordings, added to the two single releases from the album, totals six. This leaves five recordings not mentioned yet. Two of the remaining five were re-recordings of earlier Mercury hits, "Ahab the Arab" and "Harry the Hairy Ape"; two more were 1966 recordings, "Freddie Feelgood" and "Bagpipes, That's My Bag"; and a fifth was the brand new "Sir Thanks-a-Lot", a wild story about a knight and the damsel in distress being held captive by a fire breathing dragon. The versions of "Ahab the Arab", "Harry the Hairy Ape", and "Freddie Feelgood" that exist on this album have become fixtures on many compilation albums released on Ray Stevens through the decades. The reason being is because the songs that Ray recorded for Monument and the next label he was on soon fell under the distributive ownership of a certain music company that would license Ray's recordings over and over to whichever label wanted to issue a compilation project on Ray. This is why on many compilation albums you get the 1969 versions of his Mercury hits and not the original recordings.

Coming up next in this series is Ray's fifth studio album, 1969's Have a Little Talk With Myself!