Ray Stevens: Rex Allen, Jr. sings "Crying in the Chapel"...

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! The days are seemingly flying by...the next thing we'll know it's going to be Saturday September 4th and grand re-opening of the CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. September 1st is next Wednesday. I'll write a couple more blog entries about the CabaRay re-opening the closer we get to September 4th. Meanwhile...

Rex Allen, Jr. was born on this date in 1947. The son of the late cowboy singer/actor, Rex Allen, the son nearly followed in his father's footsteps. The most noticeable difference between father and son is that Rex Allen, Jr. received weekly television exposure for many years on The Statler Brothers Show on The Nashville Network. That television series was the highest rated show on the cable channel during it's entire 7 year run (1991-1998)...and for most of the show's history Rex Allen, Jr. was a featured vocalist. He also hosted the spin-off series, Yesteryear, but returned to The Statler Brothers Show when the spin-off series ended production. He wrote one of the State songs for Arizona titled "Arizona". Rex Allen, Sr., by contrast, achieved the bulk of his visibility in Western movies and was among Hollywood's Silver Screen Cowboys which also featured Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, and Hopalong Cassidy. Rex, Sr. also lent his voice to hundreds of commercials, movies, and documentaries. He narrated a number of Disney movies (The Incredible Journey and Charlotte's Web, just to name two).

When Rex Allen, Jr. guest starred on Ray's CabaRay Nashville series he spoke about Rex, Sr. and he spoke of his own recording career as well as the family's close ties to Arizona. The subject of "Crying in the Chapel" came up...which Rex Allen, Sr. recorded in 1953...long before the song became synonymous as an Elvis Presley gospel song in 1965. Rex, Sr. took the song to the Top-10 on the Country chart as well as the Top-10 on the Pop chart in 1953. 

  

Ray Stevens...Mi Casa Su Casa

Oh yes, the numbers for "God Save Arizona" continue to inch up to a million. If I'm able to help push the video in that direction by discussing it or embedding the video in my blog posts...great!! I always assume that there's somebody out there that may not know that something exists (whether it be a CD or a music video) and so I go ahead and discuss it.

Those numbers for the Arizona video are 999,345!! A couple of days ago it had just entered the 999,000 mark...so there's been an increase of at least 200 unique views since last week. As I touched upon in a recent blog post, the video's been around since the fall of 2010 and if I remember correctly the bulk of it's numbers came during it's first year and a half on-line. It's been steadily gaining numbers since mid 2012 and it's steadily rising to the 1,000,000 mark.

Illegal immigration is at the center of "God Save Arizona" but it also has another subject within it's story.

The opening verse is about the U.S.S. Arizona and it's destruction/sinking during World War Two. The video makes great use of black and white war footage as it shows the Arizona at sea. Later, the song then changes time periods from the 1940s to 2010 as Ray tells of a modern-day social and drug war going on, the profiteering of illegal immigration by American companies, as well as the blind eye of the American Federal Government when it comes to illegal immigration in general. It's a powerful song...one written by Ray and longtime friend, Buddy Kalb.



Right around the time Ray's CD, Spirit of '76, was released in 2011, I mentioned in my review that "God Save Arizona" wasn't the only song on the CD about illegal immigration. Ray and Buddy also supplied a more whimsical sing-a-long called "Mi Casa Su Casa". In that recording Ray's house is literally invaded by illegals and he's on the phone to 9-1-1. It takes the phrase "My house is your house" and applies it to illegal immigration in an effort to spotlight a common belief that many illegal immigrants have as they enter the United States. Once they enter, facts have shown that many of them assume they should have access to our rights, freedoms, and jobs simply due to their being in the United States. Yes, as I discussed a couple of blog posts ago, the illegal immigration issue is a hotly debated topic and highly emotional.

You can purchase the Mp3 of "Mi Casa Su Casa" from Amazon HERE.

The grandfather of illegal immigration songs from Ray Stevens is "Come to the U.S.A". This song and it's video seemingly have a life of their own...it just keeps getting more and more views...it's his biggest You Tube hit to date with more than 7,000,000 unique views!! That song originated on his 2010 CD, We the People.

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part 40...

The 40th studio album from Ray Stevens arrived in 2011 and like several of his recent CD's it had two separate release times. The first release was in April 2011 as an exclusive offer at his web-store while the national release didn't happen until August 2011. This is why you'll come across bloggers writing of this CD in the spring of 2011 and other on-line sites commenting on the CD in the fall of 2011 and in either case the writers refer to it as a 'just released' CD and technically it's an accurate statement.

The title of the project, Spirit of '76, features a CD cover photo showing Ray's face super-imposed on a previously illustrated body from the famed painting of the same name. The project contains 11 songs and the first two single/video releases occurred months before the CD's actual release. The first single release came about in August 2010 titled "God Save Arizona". It was made into a music video as well. This was a departure from his recent video releases whereas this one features an all-serious approach vocally and visually. The song criticized the illegal immigration problem but it went even farther than that and criticized the Federal Government, too, specifically the Attorney General, for the passive and weak policies centering around the problem. The video's gotten more than 900,000 on-line views since it's release.

When the TSA was making national headlines in the latter part of 2010 and into early 2011 due to their aggressive and invasive security methods at airports all across the country Ray emerged with "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" in February 2011. In the song Ray sings about the goings-on at an airport where he and his fictional wife are groped and patted down by an employee of the TSA. In a comical twist, the wife can't get enough of the body screenings and pat downs. The topic was based on a heated issue that was one of the most talked about for a period of several months and the music video seemed to mirror the national shelf life of the topic as well as it's been in the mid 300,000 view total range for nearly a year. Then again the follow-up music video, released in April 2011, returned Ray to the arena of hard hitting politics and this could have played a factor in why the TSA video was ultimately overshadowed.

When the Spirit of '76 became available at Ray's web-store in April, a few weeks later a new music video emerged in the form of the "Obama Budget Plan". This song utilized some of the same melodies heard in the previous TSA recording and it told the further story of Ray, his fictional wife, and now a fictional son was brought into the picture. In the song Ray tells the story of emulating the massive printing of money in Washington, D.C. by operating his very own printing machine in his basement. The song points out all of the practices and policies currently in place under the umbrella of the Federal Government and how private citizens do not have the luxury of printing their money and having spending sprees like they do in Washington, D.C.

By video's end we see a sight gag where a newspaper headline shows that Ray and his family have been arrested for emulating the practices of the Federal Government...and yet lawmakers continue to go about their merry way authorizing and setting forth spending sprees in their own interests rather than in the interest of the nation as a whole. The budget heavy lyrics and catchphrases associated with the debt and deficit played a role in the video catching on with a debt/deficit weary public. A tie-in appearance on several programs on the Fox Business Network aided in the publicity of the video. As of now the video's gotten 1.9 million on-line views. The actual tally at last look is 1,998,556 total unique views and so it's close to 2,000,000 unique views at the moment. There has not been a budget passed in Congress during the entire first four years of the Obama Administration and who's to say that there's going to be one in the second four years?

In September 2011 Ray issued the "Mr. President - Mr. President" music video. Ray had previewed this song at a C-PAC event in February 2011 a few months before Spirit of '76 was released. I couldn't wait to get a copy of the song and when the Spirit of '76 became available in April I purchased it right away in it's Mp3 form since at the time the Mp3 was the only available format for purchase. I don't own the physical CD which is why you don't see a picture of me showing it off.

Anyway, "Mr. President - Mr. President" asks a series of questions of the President and we get fictionalized responses from Ray based upon how the President should answer but in reality never will. The video uses pics of Obama as well as a live action eye blinking Obama lifted from, I assume, one of the very few press conferences he's given. Ray incorporates some scat-singing in the middle of the song and at the end while the music video at various times uses camera tricks to show three separate images of Ray side by side. Ray is dressed up as the traditional news reporter with the suit and tie, fedora hat, and handy with the pen and paper. Total on-line views as of now sit at 810,752.

In part 39 of this series I commented that Ray went back and forth between his 2010 and 2011 projects for a few months. This scenario was first played out in late July of 2012 when a song from 2010's We the People became a new music video, "Obama Nation". In this song Ray explains the far left-of-center progressive direction that the President wants to take the country in with the aid of an unsuspecting and largely uninformed general public. The song's title is obviously based on the word, 'abomination', but a clever pun in the title of "Obama Nation" seems so natural. Total on-line views for the video as of now sit at 747,530.

The follow-up music video, this time from Spirit of '76, titled "Grandpa Voted Democrat", hit a day before the 2012 election this past November. The video, in hindsight, should have been issued a couple weeks earlier as a build-up to Election Day with this reminder of voter fraud but instead it became available on Election Eve 2012, November 3rd. The video has managed to obtain 163,763 unique views during it's first month of on-line availability but I don't look for this video to create a lot of media hype or any major increase in views until the next election cycle rolls around unless there's some kind of voter fraud story that breaks nationally.

Observant readers might be wondering why there was a nearly year long gap between music video releases by Ray Stevens during the latter half of 2011 into the late summer of 2012. "Mr. President - Mr. President" had been released as a music video in September 2011 but it didn't receive a follow-up until July 2012 with the release of "Obama Nation". You may be asking yourselves: what in the world was going on in the career of Ray Stevens from late 2011 through the first half of 2012? Well, in late 2011, Ray was in the final stages of an upcoming project that he had been working on since around 2009. The massive popularity of his political music videos from December 2009 onward had pretty much took priority with studio albums 39 and 40 devoted to political and social commentary songs but he remained working on this soon to be released project nevertheless. Finally, after a couple of years of brief mentions of the project in several interviews, this long-awaited project saw it's release in February 2012...and it was well worth the wait...an incredible project Ray referred to as a labor of love. Details will be forthcoming in my final installment of the Golden LP Series!

Ray Stevens and Political Music...

I wrote about this a few blogs ago but I never wrote any follow-up blog entries due to the fact that The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music was brand new and that took up a lot of my blog entries the last several months. The 9-CD box set will reach 3 months old this coming May 28th. It has yet to appear for sale on Amazon but I have a feeling that it won't become available for purchase there anytime soon but then again it may show up for sale there sooner rather than later.

Anyway, the Ray Stevens Book that I wrote about a few blogs ago is titled Let's Get Political. The link will take you to the product page at Ray's web-site. He's advertising what he's calling a Tea Party Special which includes We The  People, The Spirit of '76, and the Let's Get Political book. However, you can still purchase the items separately...and since I already have the CD's that are being offered I obviously purchased the book by itself. I highly recommend the book for those who already have the CD's. I also highly recommend the book for those who discovered Ray Stevens on You Tube and had no idea of who he was beforehand. The book will introduce you to the essays of Ray Stevens and Buddy Kalb as they offer commentary on the songs found on We The People and The Spirit of '76.

The CD's feature an abundance of political and patriotic songs. Before anyone can ask...Ray does realize that there are people who have not been too happy or supportive of his decision to incorporate political feelings into his music but those are the opinions of a minority. In fact, since December 2009, the response has actually been 90% positive. There's a small amount of criticism and flack that comes from a vocal 10% but the fact remains that a majority of Ray's fan-base either share similar feelings or have the exact same feelings about the issues of the day as he does. If anyone thought that Ray was a far-left liberal progressive at any point in time then you were mistaken and it's easy to see why.

You can be a conservative and still want peace, love, and prosperity...but the means in which to achieve it are vastly different based upon political ideology.

A song like "Everything Is Beautiful", released by Ray in 1970, has long been described as a song championing a liberal cause while a more recent song, such as "Thank You", honors the soldiers in the military who voluntarily join the Armed Forces without knowing if they will be sent overseas or not. Extremists on the left side of the political spectrum can say that the 1970 song fits their agenda while extremists on the right can latch onto the sentiments in "Thank You".

However, a general audience should be able to enjoy both songs for what they are...without having to apply a political undertone or overtone in their decisions to like or not like either song. I love a lot of the well-done protest songs of the late '60s but that doesn't make me some sort of anti-war zealot...I like a lot of military songs, too, but that doesn't make me some sort of military zealot. I like several styles of music but Ray Stevens is the one I'm the biggest fan of. Music critics and radio programmers, especially, love to pigeonhole radio listeners into only being tolerable of specific sounds or certain artists, which is why critics labeled Ray's "Everything Is Beautiful" as a sentiment for the liberal point of view...never realizing that anyone, of all political points of view, may enjoy the song as well.

Anyway, that sort of assumption by critics, for example, paved the way for the splintering of the Top-40 format in the 1980's as every musical style under the sun seemingly got it's own special popularity chart and radio frequency but that's an entirely different discussion!

Are you one of the more than half a million or so that have watched Ray's hilarious "Mr. President - Mr. President" music video? A recently updated total shows that 563,459 people have viewed the video. Multiple views aren't counted and so it's safe to say that the video's been watched over a million times because it's only natural that a music video that people like will be watched multiple times. Even if people only watch a video twice you can multiply the video's current unique view total by 2 and get an estimated total of real-time views. If all 563,459 people were to watch the video just 1 additional time the total would technically be 1.1 million real-time views. If all those people watch the video 6 times throughout the course of a week the total of real-time views would be 3.3 million, etc. etc.

So, yes, while You Tube prevents the tallying of multiple views when they report on a video's view count, in an effort to stop skewed numbers ratcheted up by rabid fan bases, the fact remains that a lot of times, especially for music-related video content, people watch a video more than once so the real-time numbers will never come to light since multiple views aren't counted. Enjoy this clever song and video...it speaks volumes...

Let's Discuss Ray Stevens, Part 28...

Good Friday evening all Ray Stevens fans!! One thing is for sure...some topics come and go while other topics seem to dig in and grow. The topic of Arizona has certainly become enmeshed with Ray Stevens for nearly a year now. In May 2010 Ray issued his illegal immigration music video, "Come to the USA", on You Tube. The video was released during a time when the Arizona border wars were becoming a national issue once again due to the illegal immigration bill that was being written in the Arizona State Government...ultimately signed into law by Jan Brewer. The video quickly became a major internet hit...surpassing the unique views of "We The People", a video Ray issued late in 2009 about ObamaCare which had by May 2010 amassed 3,000,000 unique views. To date, "Come to the USA" has gotten 4,982,169 unique views in 10 months time. May 2011 will mark the video's 1 year anniversary and by that time the totals will perhaps be more than 5,000,000!!

Several months later, in contrast to the humorous "Come to the USA", Ray delivered the stark, serious "God Save Arizona". This video was in response to the Federal Government's intrusion into State matters. The video plays like a documentary...recalling events from World War Two (The U.S.S. Arizona sinking of 1941) and using footage from war news reels as well as images of Eric Holder and other faces of the Arizona debate. The video's gotten 665,619 unique views during the last 7 months. It was uploaded in August 2010.

"The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", the current Ray Stevens music video spoofing the TSA, now has 109,449 views. This is an increase of 3,202 unique views over the last three days. This video puts a humorous spin on a lot of the security procedures that the non-flying public may not be aware of. The video also speaks to the non-flyer in that, through exaggeration and humor, we're told of the experiences of a couple brand new to flying. Airport security and the TSA probably doesn't register with those who don't even step foot into an airport...but I'm sure people are exposed to security and scanners as they walk through their work place. I'm sure people, at times, may be approached by security or greeters in shopping stores if an alarm goes off due to some sort of malfunction where an item wasn't appropriately scanned at check-out. Although the video specifically spoofs airport security and the pat-downs that take place at airports I feel there's something to take away from the video if you happen to be a recipient of over-the-top security procedures at your own work place.

The times we live in require a lot of security...but when that security becomes invasive and infringing on a person's dignity it's impossible to remain easy-going and go "oh well, that's the price we pay to be safe.". If people adopt a passive response to a lot of stuff then how can a free society recognize when their Government has gone too far? I'm sure a lot of people feel the way I do in that we feel the Government takes advantage of a person's fears (and anxieties) in an effort to ultimately control a person's livelihood. The real threat of terrorism and the threats that come almost daily from terrorist organizations provides cover for a lot of unnecessary liberty-stripping policies.

Ray Stevens and ObamaCare...One Year Later...

It was around this time one year ago that Ray Stevens emerged with the ObamaCare song, "We The People". The news of the song was released in November of 2009 and this ultimately led to an Mp3 availability not long afterward. The breakthrough came in December when a music video was released on You Tube and then a CD single and Mp3 became available on Amazon and other on-line music stores. The music video quickly obtained over a million hits by the end of December and during the next two months of early 2010 the video steadily continued to climb. The sensation crossed over into the blogs and cable TV...appearances on a variety of radio and TV programs followed. Given that the song has a political overtone...speaking out against ObamaCare...it's to nobody's surprise that the radio and TV programs requesting Ray as a guest were by and large conservative programs. The lone exception was The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel which gives a forum to all opinions. Ray appeared on that particular program a second time, later in 2010, when "Come to the USA" hit.

The fact that Ray's song was embraced by various Tea Party groups and that it was publicized on various Fox News programs gave the political left-leaning blogs and pundits ammunition(?) to marginalize the music video's success and the song's message, too. Throughout the early half of 2010 the "We The People" music video, and Ray Stevens in particular, were vilified by the political left to such extremes that those who'd never even heard of Ray Stevens before were following the lead of various high-ranking liberal blog sites and taking pot-shots at him. The attacks and smear tactics were something new to this Ray Stevens fan. I had never experienced reading awful things being written about my favorite singer before.

I had always knew that not everyone's a fan of Ray but I hadn't really read anything too sinister from non-fans until I saw the comments on-line pertaining to "We The People". Prior to the release of this song the only times I had read anything borderline negative about Ray were by those hyper-sensitive political correct advocates...and given their position on life their criticisms weren't a surprise. But those criticisms pale in comparison to the vilification that came on the heels of "We The People"...and to a large extent that vilification from left-leaning bloggers continues.

Now, following the release of "We The People", Ray gave us a variety of songs aimed at specific aspects of the sociopolitical spectrum. "Caribou Barbie" is a Pro-Sarah Palin song which has fun with her public image; "Throw the Bums Out!" is a more pointed commentary on the heels of ObamaCare being signed into law; "Come to the USA" takes on illegal immigration; "The Global Warming Song" pokes fun at environmentalist extremists; and "God Save Arizona" takes on the Federal Government's stance on illegal immigration and it's lawsuit against the State of Arizona.

Following the November 2010 mid-term elections there was a seismic power shift in the House of Representatives and a modest power shift in the Senate. Republicans gained even more seats in the Senate while in the House they gained a large majority. I don't have the official numbers in front of me. The sentiments/views expressed in the series of topical Ray Stevens music videos proved to the naysayers that Ray really is speaking to the majority of the general public. We, the fans, never really needed any convincing, though...but it's wonderful to see a national midterm election turn out the way we all had hoped and anticipated.

Ray Stevens and those Music Video Hits...

"God Save Arizona" is currently sitting at 183,920 hits on You Tube. The video has officially been available for 1 month...except for several days when it was off-line. It looks to top the 200,000 mark relatively soon...it's 16,080 hits away from reaching that milestone. Currently this video is the 9th most popular among the music video uploads that Ray has issued on You Tube. I suspect the ranking will go higher as it gets more hits. Here's an overview of his music video hit list along with their most up to date hit counts...in bold print are the music videos released on You Tube within the last 9 months...

1. Come to the USA: 3,598,135 hits
2. We The People: 3,531,156 hits
3. Osama Yo' Mama: 529,077 hits
4. Throw the Bums Out!: 451,234 hits
5. The Mississippi Squirrel Revival: 421,579 hits
6. The Streak: 321,879 hits
7. Caribou Barbie: 231,333 hits
8. Thank You: 229,296 hits
9. God Save Arizona: 183,920 hits
10. Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills: 135,987 hits
11. Everything Is Beautiful: 131,018 hits
12. Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens: 95,412 hits
13. Shriner's Convention: 63,217 hits
14. Ahab the Arab: 58,983 hits
15. The Global Warming Song: 46,253 hits
16. It's Me Again, Margaret: 42,663 hits
17. Santa Claus Is Watching You: 41,559 hits
18. Sittin' Up With the Dead: 36,534 hits
19. Misty: 31,302 hits

A 20th upload is the television commercial for Ray's We The People collection. The commercial has 44,843 hits so far.

Let's discuss Ray Stevens...

Several days ago word got out through a social networking site that Ray Stevens had appeared at the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Louisville, Kentucky and put on a concert for the group. This appearance went under the radar and the reason behind it was perhaps the venue where Ray performed wasn't open to the public...that is...it wasn't your typical concert where anyone can walk-up to a box office and buy a ticket. My guess is had this appearance been more widely known there would have been hundreds of people showing up becoming members of the Eagles organization just to have the chance to see the concert. In my opinion that is why the appearance was kept quiet...because of the Eagles being a members-only organization it wouldn't have made any sense to announce his appearance "to the public at large". I wonder if he performed "Shriner's Convention"...given that the song is all about a convention of Shriners, a members-only organization, and at one point in the song Ray mentions the Knights of Columbus.

In the world of You Tube music videos Ray has officially gone beyond the hundred thousand mark with his latest song/video, "God Save Arizona". The music video has obtained 103,605 hits since being uploaded almost two weeks ago. This kind of pace usually means that Ray is in for another hugely successful video. As of this writing the song is only available for purchase at Ray's web-site store. I had been wondering if the Mp3 would become available elsewhere but for now it's still exclusively available at Ray's web-site. You can get an Mp3 digital download at Ray's web-site store. It's a wonderful song and I'm sure most of you who frequent this blog have watched the video already as I've embedded it in a couple of my previous blogs. To find those you can search the archives on the right side of the screen. Also there's a visual time-line that stretches from 1957 up through the current year that runs along the right side of the blog as well. I spent a lot of time on that time-line when I was putting this blog page together two years ago and I often add images from time to time.

"God Save Arizona" is NOT available on this CD. This collection is Ray's most recent CD release and it does feature "We The People", "Thank You", "Caribou Barbie", "Throw the Bums Out!", "Come to the USA", "The Global Warming Song", and a lot of other political and patriotic songs...however, "God Save Arizona" came along several months after this CD was released as to why you won't be able to find the song on the CD. As mentioned earlier the only way to get "God Save Arizona" as of this writing is through Ray's web-site store. The We The People CD is still a must-have purchase because it features all of the songs that have become major hits on You Tube during the last half a year. Yes, it's hard to believe that this coming December marks the first year anniversary of "We The People" becoming a You Tube sensation. The video was uploaded on December 11, 2009! As of this writing that music video has obtained 3.4 million hits. The actual total is 3,483,817 hits. "Come to the USA", uploaded on You Tube not too long ago on May 13, 2010 has enjoyed 3,346,220 hits.

Ray Stevens...God Save Arizona

Congratulations are in order as Ray Stevens' latest music video, "God Save Arizona", is nearing 50,000 hits on You Tube. The song has struck a chord with the pros and cons as his previous string of songs all have. In other words...it's shaping up to be another polarizing music video. You'd think by now the liberal left in this country would get over the whole racism argument but yet that's apparently all they know how to do is call people racists. The latest silliness from the left-wing is to charge this video with being racially motivated...once again, as they did with Ray's illegal immigration video, "Come To the USA", they've resorted to their tried and true formula of deflecting the real message by labeling it racist. The real message in this latest song, "God Save Arizona", is a genuine concern from a large majority of people who oppose the amnesty-driven, passive stance on illegal immigration that's been adopted by both political parties to a large extent until recently. The song comes right out and asks God to help save Arizona from the federal Government.

The use of World War Two and the U.S.S. Arizona as a metaphor in describing the war-like atmosphere on the Arizona border is the hook of the song...there's nothing racist about the song or the video...but without fail because Mexico borders Arizona you have all these left-wing nuts crying "racism" and all kinds of other nonsense. It seems like to me that they cry racism at the first opportunity. I won't hold my breath expecting the far left liberals out there to change their tune or pass up the opportunity to play the race card...it's in their blood, I think.

Of course, you all don't need me to warn you of the on-coming attacks and name calling being passed Ray Stevens' way. One of the things that the race baiting liberals like to do is zero in on the ethnicity of a person...because Mexico borders Arizona chances are 99.9% of the illegals are going to be Mexican. Liberals need to wake up and thicken their skin a little bit and accept the fact that Mexico borders Arizona...and they need to stop accusing everyone of being racists simply because we wish the illegal immigration madness would end. YES, the Mexican illegal immigrants...they illegally cross the border from Mexico into Arizona. YES, they're Mexican...they're ILLEGAL...it doesn't get anymore crystal clear than that. But, again, you have these liberals who want to deflect the real problem and dress it up as some sort of backhanded racism. In a liberal's mind we're all anti-Mexican. They fail to see the difference between crossing the border legally and illegally. Don't even get me started on those who use emotion to trump common sense...there are people out there who take the attitude "oh those poor immigrants...they just want a better life". BALONEY!! If they want a better life they should go through the proper channels instead of slipping across the border illegally.

Lastly...amidst all of the race talk and race baiting that seems to take place in the liberal blogs let's not forget what "God Save Arizona" is all about. In the lyrics we hear that Arizona can handle the illegals and all of the protests from the progressives but the state needs help from some higher place to save it from the wrath of the federal Government. That's the whole song in a nut-shell.

God Save Arizona...Mp3 from Ray Stevens...

Hello all the Ray Stevens fans out there...I suppose many of you out there are already aware of this but I hadn't written a blog about it yet...until now! Those out there wanting their own personal copy of "God Save Arizona" can purchase an Mp3 digital single at Ray's music store. The store, for those unaware, is located at his web-site. Once you visit his web-site it's very easy to find the store. You go all the way over to the right side of the page and click "Buy" and then "official store". Once inside you can search for the product. I've bought things from there before...once you purchase the Mp3 it'll automatically download onto whatever music program you have on your computer. I'll more than likely make my purchase this coming Friday. In the meantime I'd like to say how disappointed I was a few weekend's ago when Ray Stevens didn't appear on the Crook and Chase television program on RFD-TV. The program guide on my television clearly shown that the evening's scheduled guests were Ray Stevens and a couple of other artists. The episode originally aired in 2008 and I was looking forward to seeing it...finally!! However, the program guide was wrong and the 2008 episode with Ray Stevens didn't air. Who knows when I'll be able to see that 2008 episode!?

Ray Stevens visits Fox News Channel...

Ray Stevens brings in the new month of June in a big way! What a way to kick off a new month...

June 1, 2010...this was the day that "Come to the USA" was given exposure on America Live, a program that airs on the Fox News Channel, hosted by Megyn Kelly. Even more than the exposure that the song/music video achieved was the extra bonus of Ray Stevens himself being interviewed. Most people will remember that Ray's previous appearance was on The O'Reilly Factor. He and Bill O'Reilly talked about "We The People" and the over sensitivity of some who wish to control what society views as humorous. In other words some of their discussion was about the smothering of political correctness onto society in general...enabling harmless comical songs and movies to become deemed politically incorrect nowadays.

This time around Ray and Megyn spoke of illegal immigration and she remarked that Ray's latest videos have become super-viral...citing "We The People" having hits of over 3,000,000 and "Come to the USA" approaching 2,000,000 hits. Ray gives his opinions on illegal immigration and states that he's all for legal immigration but he doesn't stand for anything illegal. Ray talks about his latest CD, We The People, and mentions his web-site a couple of times.

As of right now Fox News has uploaded the interview onto You Tube and I'm embedding that interview below so you all can see it...



As always I shrink the height and width on any video I embed because I don't want the video to run over into the right side of the screen and jumble up anything that's written over there.

"Come to the USA" is sitting at 1.8 million hits on You Tube and climbing...in a previous blog I mentioned the video was at 1.5 million and that was just a couple of days ago. The actual hits so far for the music video is 1,866,007 and given this is June 1st it certainly appears that Ray will indeed reach 2,000,000 You Tube hits in a month's time: May 13-June 13.

Ray Stevens on Illegal Immigration!

Welcome one and all to my latest fan-created blog entry on Ray Stevens. I couldn't think of a title for this blog entry...I already used a couple of similar sounding titles already when writing about Ray's illegal immigration song. At this very moment the fire's raging and Ray is reaping the rewards of his latest smash hit music video, "Come to the USA". I did a general overview of Ray's music at Amazon's web-site and quite a few of Ray's CD's from the past have risen high among best-sellers in the "comedy music" area. No doubt the exposure of Ray's current music video is fueling that fire...also, the on-going success of his previous four music videos continue to help promote his CD's. I'm going to throw some numbers at you all so you'll be able to get a glimpse of how hot Ray Stevens is at the moment...

Ray's 1990 album, Lend Me Your Ears, is charting in the Top-60 of the country comedy list at Amazon. That 1990 album was re-released in CD format in 2005. Doing even better than that, on that same list, is the CD version of Ray's 1987 album titled Crackin' Up. That particular release is in the Top-10 among best sellers. Ray's 1993 release, Classic Ray Stevens, is sitting in the Top-20 among best sellers in the country comedy format. The Box Set collection from 2006 is sitting way high...#3 among country comedy releases. It's also ranked in the Top-30 best sellers when it comes to box set collections of all formats.

Here's some other Ray Stevens titles that are among the Top-100 best sellers of country comedy at Amazon: His All Time Greatest Comic Hits, 1997's The Best of Ray Stevens on the Rhino label, 1987's Greatest Hits, and several more.

The current Ray Stevens album, We The People, is charting in the Top-20 of comedy Mp3 albums. The CD counterpart earlier today was in the Top-100.

As if all of those stats weren't eye-popping enough it's with great pleasure to relay to all of you that his current music video, "Come to the USA", has obtained a whopping 148,116 hits in nearly a week's time on You Tube. The video was uploaded on May 13th. Some of the other activity from Ray's other music videos are as follows...and as you can see, "Come to the USA" has already surpassed "Throw the Bums Out!" in viewer hits in nearly a week's time. The numbers will continue to grow but here's a glimpse...

Throw the Bums Out!: 116,755 hits

Caribou Barbie: 83,964 hits

Thank You: 118,150 hits

We The People: 3,054,962 hits

The illegal immigration debate continues to be a hot item and Ray's hit music video captures all of the frustration and annoyance a lot of us have when it comes to America's reluctance to secure it's borders from illegal immigrants who want to come here not to "find work" or "find a better life", that's the liberal argument. Instead, statistics show the majority of those who come into America illegally by crossing the United States-Mexico border enter the country for illegal behavior...most common is drug smuggling and some say anti-American sentiment spawned from envy to full-blown insane jealousy of our way of life is another reason why the borders should be much more secure.

As Ray Stevens points out at the end of the music video...there's nothing wrong with immigration...just as long as it's done legally...

Here's that blazing hot "Come to the USA" music video one more time...

"Come To the USA" suggests Ray Stevens, Volume Two...

As I had hoped and championed for several weeks now, Ray Stevens has emerged with a new music video focusing on the illegal immigration topic that's been a hot news item for a little less than a month. I had written an earlier blog entry with a similar title...that was when I first heard this song on the We The People album. When I heard it I loved it...and then a few weeks later illegal immigration is all over the news in a big way and several of us wished that this song would become a You Tube music video and sure enough it has!!



In the music video, Ray offers a lot of sight gags...especially the name of the airline when he sings about Arabia. This is also a music video that allows Ray to get even more visually creative as he uses the split screen camera trick by having three images of himself on-screen singing/scat-singing at the same time. He did a similar thing on his "Freddy Feelgood" music video from 1999 where five images of himself all appeared at the same time on screen, interacting with one another

Illegal immigration isn't a new phenomenon but the fact that Arizona passed a law combating the problem opened the flood gates for a barrage of protests, boycotts, racial insinuations, racial accusations, and all around chaos in southern Arizona and in other places across the country who have decided to make political statements concerning the State law. Rational thinkers don't play the race card but nevertheless there's a fear among quite a few that police will go rogue and break the law and start racial profiling any chance they get. Talk about faith in the police! Wow!

The bottom line is the liberals and the progressives are fanning the flames based upon an unproven fear of what could happen if, for example, a lone cop acts on his own and decides to play Mr Enforcer without any regard for the Arizona law. If anything, the Arizona law has caused the Federal Government to tackle illegal immigration whether they want to or not. News of other states following Arizona's example are popping up as well...what will happen with those states is anybody's guess, though. Hindsight is easy...if the Arizona law proves to be a success and not a law mired in racial profiling I bet other states will gladly follow Arizona. However, in the worst case scenario, you can believe that no other state will tackle the subject again.