Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 15...

Hello all...

Since an installment didn't get posted this past Friday, Ray Stevens and company have posted webisode 15 of Rayality TV on YouTube today rather than wait until this coming Friday. On his Facebook page he comments that there is to be webisode 16 this coming Friday. In this webisode, titled Return of the Blue Cyclone, the conclusion of "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" music video is presented as is the music video of "Ahab the Arab". I hope more clips from his We ain't Dead Yet sitcom continue to appear (the scenes that take place at The Encore retirement home are lifted from that short-lived on-line series).

But until then...here's webisode 15 of Rayality TV...



I can only identify a couple of people in the bar fight scene in the music video. Aside from Ray there's his friend, Buddy Kalb, as The Blue Cyclone and seated at the tables are the Julio dummy from the "Sex Symbols" song (a 1987 recording by Ray found on his Crackin' Up album), and John Ragsdale (Ray's brother, seated next to the blond woman). I'm sure I'd recognize the names of the others because there are a lot of names associated with Ray's career whose faces I'd not even recognize if I'd see them.

Meanwhile, Ray's 2010 music video, "Come to the U.S.A.", continues to climb in numbers. At the moment it's at 8.3 million unique views. The total at the moment being 8,368,497. This is up almost half a million from a couple of weeks ago...I remember mentioning in a recent blog post that the video had 7.9 million unique views and now it's in the 8.3 range. I may go back and look up that blog post and report a more detailed number of increased unique views that have accumulated in the last couple of weeks. I have a feeling it's at least an increase of more than 300,000.

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 13...

Once more I bring the latest installment of Rayality TV from Ray Stevens! This time around it's ebisode 13 and it spotlights the hysterical music video of "The Blue Cyclone, Part 1". I imagine Part 2 is going to be on next week's installment of Rayality TV. You'll never want to cross paths with The Cyclone...especially not in a darkened parking lot...after he believes you've attacked him from your ringside seat.



Earlier this morning Ray Stevens gave an interview on KMOX radio on The Charlie Brennan Show. Ray had given an interview on this program several years earlier during the TSA body scan scandals. At the time of that interview Ray's current single/video happened to be "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". In this latest interview Ray discusses his book and his upcoming gospel CD. The interview is broken into 2 parts and you can access both of them HERE. Ray also discusses "Ahab the Arab", "The Streak", "Gitarzan", "Misty", and the story behind "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". The thing that's consistently overlooked is the fact that Ray eventually recorded the song a year after it had become a big hit for B.J Thomas. Ray's recording of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" can be found on his Everything Is Beautiful album (1970).

Ray's upcoming gospel project, hich is going to be released in 2 separate Volumes, is going to be marketed by Bill Gaither and associates. Ray mentions in Part 2 of the audio clip that they'll be in complete charge of the project's distribution, marketing, publicity. Earlier I posted a link to the gospel project. Here's the link once more: Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Volume One. The CD isn't to be released until August 19th. I have no idea if this product page is the only place a customer has to place an order or if it'll become available all over the internet in late August.

Ray Stevens and Blue Cyclone...

Good Thursday morning already! It's as if Ray's making up for his down time as not one, not two, but three music videos have been officially uploaded to You Tube. The videos come from a couple of VHS/DVD releases from the early 2000's that the public at large may not be as familiar with. The first video is The Blue Cyclone, Part One and once you watch it click this The Blue Cyclone, Part Two link. Obviously, though, once you open the link to the first video you can easily navigate to part two of the video. "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" came along at a time when wrestling had become enormously popular with a general audience. The concept of wrestling goes way back but it wasn't until the 1980's, the mid '80s specifically, that wrestling had become something of a phenomena. Acronyms like WCW, WWF, and WWE were soon to become as familiar as any number of broadcast networks. Wrestling boasted it's share of stars, too, which you can read about on-line. Hulk Hogan was the big star in wrestling...becoming iconic both physically and in performance...the tearing off of his popular yellow shirt during interviews was but one visual feature that he became famous for and who could ever forget the whole Hulk-a-mania craze? Wrestling, of course, still carries on but it's kind of drifted back into niche programming once more but if you happened to have been a child or teenager in the 1980's then you are well aware of how much wrestling impacted a lot of television programming and how much in the mainstream it was. Hulk Hogan and friends even appeared on their own Saturday morning cartoon show.

"The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" tells the story of an encounter with a wrestler during a chaotic chain of events at a wrestling match. In the song Ray plays the part of a man who gets beaten up by The Blue Cyclone, one half of a tag-team wrestling combo. Ray's at the matches with a friend...the friend instigates the fight but he disappears before the Cyclone can come over and take action. Part 1 ends as Ray's being taken to a hospital. Throughout Part 2 Ray seeks revenge and he enlists the help of his fickle friend who in turn enlists the help of two weight lifters. Ray and the guys track down the Cyclone at a wrestling club/bar and history repeats itself as Ray's friends vanish while he's threatening the much stronger and violent Blue Cyclone with bodily harm. I'll go ahead and stop there...you all can watch the videos to see all the hilarity for yourselves.

Ray's comedy recording, released as a single in 1986, reached the Top-50 on the Country music charts. The single release edited the full two part story into a concise and compact story. The edited version appears on the 1987 Greatest Hits, Volume Two collection. The full 2-part version appeared originally on 1985's I Have Returned.

Speaking of that LP, the music video of "The Haircut Song" was uploaded on You Tube around the same time as "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" the other day. Whereas the Cyclone video detailed both parts of the story, "The Haircut Song" spotlights the single release which edited out the second barber visit. In the video we have Ray visiting a Montana barber who sees himself as a macho man and this is followed by a visit to a barber down south that cuts hair inside a shop that looks like a church. The part of the song that was edited out featured a visit to a Los Angeles barber who dressed in Gothic attire. This barber was into punk rock and according to the song gave Ray a wild haircut but also stuck safety pins in his face. It would've been wildly hilarious if this section of the song was part of the music video but it isn't. You can watch "The Haircut Song" HERE.

A music video uploaded hours ago, "Erik the Awful", originally was part of an experimental home video where live action Ray performed in front of illustrated backgrounds. Two music videos with this same style became huge on You Tube: "Osama Yo' Mama" and "Hello Mama"; but the "Erik the Awful" video hadn't been released on-line by Ray until now. Isn't it ironic, as it was pointed out in the You Tube comment section for this video, that we currently have a professionally awful Attorney General that shares the same name as our Viking? Anyway, here's "Erik the Awful"...

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part 22...

Welcome to Part 22 of the Golden LP Series. In this installment we take a look at the twenty-second studio album from Ray Stevens, 1985's I Have Returned.

To put it bluntly, this is a very funny LP. It is also one of the more adventurous in that it contains quite a few long comical tales...there are at least three recordings that have a run time of more than 5 minutes and yet there is one recording that's just a little over 1 minute believe it or not. This brief recording, "Thus Cacked Henrietta", revives the chickens that appeared on 1976's "In the Mood". This time around instead of performing a jazzy clucker of a recording the chickens do an about face and cackle the familiar strains of the opening to a classical piece known as Also Sprach Zarathustra, heard by millions as the theme song in the late '60s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. After the chickens and their friends finish up their opening performance we hear Ray sing about "Hugo the Human Cannonball". In this song Ray sings about a circus performer based on real life human cannonball, Hugo Zacchini, and an exaggerated tale of the extreme highs and lows in the life of any human cannonball. The song uses dark humor as it depicts the down side of human cannonballs and the notion of what could happen if the trajectory is wrong and instead of hitting the net the performer hits...well...you'd have to hear the song to find out more! "Vacation Bible School" is about the mischief kids can get into while away during a bible school retreat. The main crux of the song deals with the aftermath of a preacher who, during a sweltering summer day, fills himself up on lemonade that he doesn't know is spiked.

The vinyl version of I Have Returned came into my possession in the summer of 2006. I bought it at a local flea market. I had the cassette copy for years but it was fun coming across the vinyl copy...most people don't realize that vinyl albums would have the main cover shot on the front but then on the back of a vinyl album you may have a secondary picture of the artist that typically doesn't get much publicity and so it becomes almost exclusive to the vinyl album. I'll post an image of what the back of the vinyl album looks like further down the blog entry for those who don't own a copy. Earlier I mentioned that several songs ran more than 5 minutes. "The Haircut Song" is one of those recordings. The song is about a man who has several run in's with barbers who end up giving him terrible haircuts. The idea behind the song came from a stand up comic named Mike Neun who received co-writer credit. The album version features Ray's adventures with three barbers while the single release cuts out the second barber visit entirely. Apparently the running time was a bit too long for radio stations. The single hit in September 1985 and eventually made it's way into the Country Top-50. A month later, I Have Returned hit the Country Album chart. Although not released as a single, "The Pirate Song" would be discovered in the following years and it would become one of his popular recordings as a result. That particular song was a parody on Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance with Ray performing the roles of the pirate captain and a feminine pirate who detests the pirate lifestyle entirely. The song is officially titled "The Pirate Song (I Want to Sing and Dance)".

The back of the LP shows Ray, in his General MacArthur attire, looking at a map and trying to figure out exactly where he's "returned" to. The front of the album as you see above shows a serious pose of Ray and company wading through the water in a tableau reminiscent of the famed image of MacArthur and his army arriving off the shores of Leyte in the Philippines during World War Two. The back cover shows that the army waded ashore to a well populated modern-day beach. The credits state that the photography took place in Gulfport, Mississippi. There were other pictures taken during the photo shoot and some of them appear on a photo web-page devoted to the images taken by Slick Lawson. If you're familiar with album credits then you'll recognize Lawson's name as it appeared on just about every Ray Stevens album for at least 2 decades. Here's one of those images. A second single release, an updated recording of "Santa Claus Is Watching You", came along in the winter months of 1985. The single came complete with a picture sleeve of Ray, dressed as Santa, peaking from behind a Christmas tree. The song would be made into a music video...it was Ray's first music video production. The song had originally been released as a single in the early '60s and was along the lines of a children's song. Ray retained the song's title and it's chorus but rewrote the verses entirely. Instead of it being a children's song it now carried a more adult flavor as Ray warns his wife to not be unfaithful since Santa's watching and knows who's being good or bad. The music video takes it a step farther by having the wife's other man turn out to be, you guessed it, Santa Claus! Ray contributed a second holiday song to the music world the same year...he wrote and performed "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz" and it was included on a various artist's collection of Christmas music titled Tennessee Christmas that MCA released.

A third single release arrived in January 1986, the hilarious story of a wrestler and the unfortunate encounter Ray has with him. "The Blue Cyclone" had been around awhile, first recorded by Glenn Sutton, one of the song's writers, and it was issued as a b-side on one of his singles in early 1979, but it's Ray's recording that became the most widely known by far. Timing plays an important role in comedy, any comic will tell you that, and when you marry topical comedy with music a very different kind of timing is even more vital. 1985 had been considered the year of the wrestlers. It was the year the Wrestle Mania event was first put together and so what better way to comment on the wrestling phenomenon than with a laugh out loud, cartoonish story of a hulk of a wrestler who literally beats a person senseless not once, but twice! So, in this case, the timing played a critical role and "The Blue Cyclone" climbed it's way into the Country Top-50 in the early months of 1986. Earlier I mentioned that radio stations wanted a shorter version of "The Haircut Song"...well, "The Blue Cyclone" in it's original form ran at least 10 minutes!! It was broken into two parts on the album. Obviously this recording was way too long and so an edited copy was made for radio stations which trimmed down those 10 minutes or so into a compacted recording that ended up being a little more than 6 minutes. This was still much longer than the average country music recording but yet if you were to cut more out of the song then you'd lose even more of it's humor and so I suppose that's why it remained the way it was and it didn't get edited down further.

The edited copy left out a lot of the detailed information surrounding the build up to the encounter with the wrestler. There were additional lyrics added in to perhaps retain some of the timing of the story. The edited copy would appear in an upcoming compilation album from MCA while the full length recording would continue to be found only on I Have Returned. Other songs found on this LP include "Armchair Quarterback", "Kiss a Pig", and "Punk Country Love".

The LP hit the Country Album chart in mid October of 1985. The album climbed up the chart briskly but it didn't fly up the chart by any stretch of the imagination. The album continued to climb up the charts week after week throughout the rest of 1985 and into 1986. It would make it's way into the Top-10...it would continue to climb up the Top-10 until for one week in March of 1986 it held the #1 spot on the Country Album chart!! After it's one week stay at #1 it would remain on the charts until the fall of '86...in total it spent almost 1 full year on the Country Album chart, October 1985 through September 1986.

In the summer of 1986 Ray was selected by the readers of Music City News as Comedian of the Year. Without a doubt, Ray's decision to go ahead and market himself as a novelty singer in 1984 was paying off big time. Nobody, including critics and fans alike, could have predicted that he'd have back to back Top-5 Country Albums devoted entirely to novelty songs, with one of those albums going all the way to #1, but yet that's what happened. Sales of his albums had increased...he'd charted frequently with his albums but he was much more of a singles artist...but the move to MCA in 1984 changed all of that. It seemed as if there was more emphasis on album sales. His inventive photo shots were a visual hook on his first series of albums for MCA.

Studio album twenty-three arrived in the late summer of 1986...and we'll take a look at this comedy album in the next Golden LP Series installment. Have your swords and lances ready!!

Ray Stevens: 45's at 45...

Several singles from Ray Stevens reach 45 this year...as most people who visit this fan blog are aware I have several continuing blog titles. Often I like to play on the numbers such as "45 at 20" or "45 at 30", etc. etc. and today's blog is no different. Released on Monument Records in 1966 were a trio of 45's by Ray Stevens that turn 45 this year: "A-B-C", "Devil May Care", and "Freddie Feelgood". I like all of those songs (not a big surprise!) and I also like the B-sides, too: "Party People", "Make a Few Memories", and "There's One In Every Crowd". Ray is at his throatiest in several of these songs...and let's see how many people can resist not tapping your foot in rhythm while Ray, in song, insists to the woman that it's best to "Make a Few Memories" before they end their relationship.

"A-B-C" is your typical pop love song of the era while it's B-side, "Party People", has another one of those irresistible melodies. "Devil May Care" has an arrangement nearly similar to "Down in the Boondocks" which isn't too surprising considering both songs were written by Joe South. In fact, South wrote several of the songs that Ray recorded during 1966-1967. South is credited as the songwriter on not only "Devil May Care" but also "Party People" and "Make a Few Memories". Ray wrote "A-B-C", "Freddie Feelgood", and "There's One In Every Crowd". Also, for those who don't know, out of those six recordings that were issued in 1966, only one of them was a pure novelty song as evidenced by it's eye-catching title: "Freddie Feelgood". The full title is actually "Freddie Feelgood and His Funky Little Five Piece Band". The song illustrates the love of small R&B/jazz combo's that Ray has always said he has a fondness for. This is why you rarely hear a stone-cold country music recording from Ray...unless he's intentionally arranging a song to sound country. A lot of the time Ray performed what's been described as bluesy-country. When Ray started to navigate toward country music in the late '70s he was no stranger to country music audiences...and the non-comical recordings that he put out in the late '70s and early '80s were chock full of bluesy sounding arrangements.

Decades later, in 2000, "Freddie Feelgood" was made into a music video. In the video Ray plays all members of the band. In one scene all five of them appear on screen together playing the instruments. Obviously this is achieved through camera tricks and other video techniques allowing Ray to appear on screen multiple times. To refresh the memories of the readers out there: Freddie played trumpet; Yum-Yum played the drums; Ace played the bass; Tyrone played trombone; Percy played piano. Those who want to see the music video look no further than Ray's own web-store. A link to one of the store's pages is located below.

The 2000 home video, Funniest Video Characters, has long been out of print but you can find the "Freddie Feelgood" music video in a DVD compilation called Complete Comedy Video Collection located here at Ray's web-store. The DVD features a total of 20 music videos. It collects 7 music videos from 1992's Comedy Video Classics; 3 music videos from 1995's Get Serious! direct-to-video movie; all 8 music videos from 2000's Funniest Video Characters; plus 2 additional bonus music videos from 2002 and 2004 respectively.

Exquisite may be the best word to describe 1966's "Party People". Admittedly, I'm not a party hound, so this song became an instant favorite the moment I heard it for the first time. There was a CD re-issue of Ray's 1968 album, Even Stevens, during the mid '90s and as one of the bonus tracks was a song called "Party People". That CD re-issue is where I heard this song for the first time. Spoiler alert: There's a bit of irony within the song as Ray laments that even though he's lost the woman due to the allure of the party life he finds himself falling victim to the very same lifestyle he admonished the woman for. For him, having the woman was his own kind of party...but now that she's gone he finds himself becoming one of those "Party People" that he seemingly has an equal understanding and disgust for. At least that's my interpretation of the song...others may come away with a completely different interpretation.

Let's Discuss Ray Stevens, Part 20...

One of the things that has puzzled me for awhile are why a lot of the compilations that have been issued on Ray Stevens...why a lot of them don't credit each and every year that a song selection was taken from. This is just one example. This is the flip-side of the Collection CD that MCA released back in 1993. There are 14 tracks and they're listed at the end of this blog entry. The credits show that the music on the CD comes from the years of 1984 through 1989. However, why doesn't it give credit to the years of 1980, 1974, 1970, and 1969? Also, it credits the year, 1986, even though there isn't any song on this collection from that year. It's inclusion in the credit list is baffling to me. This isn't something that just happens on Ray Stevens compilations, though. I've noticed that it happens on other artists as well. It's not a question that I must have an immediate answer to but it's something I've always been curious about. There are also compilations that don't even offer copyright years except for the current year of release.

A compilation from the past entitled Collector's Series was issued on Ray in 1985. RCA is the label that issued the collection and nowhere in the credits does it indicate when the material was recorded...it only shows that the collection was released in 1985. Fortunately being a big Ray Stevens fan I know the years of each of the eight songs on that collection...but if I weren't as knowledgeable about his music I wouldn't have a clue when the material was recorded. I know this isn't something that's a big deal for a lot of people but I'm just quirky enough to have those kinds of curiosities about the music I buy. On the Collection CD they include a couple of later MCA recordings that seldom get spotlighted: "Surfin' U.S.S.R." and "I Saw Elvis in a UFO". Each recording is from 1988 and 1989 respectively. "Gitarzan" is from 1969 as is the version of "Ahab the Arab". "Everything Is Beautiful" is from 1970 and "The Streak" is from 1974.

1. The Streak; 1974
2. Shriner's Convention; 1980
3. Mississippi Squirrel Revival; 1984
4. Gitarzan; 1969
5. Ahab the Arab; 1969 (re-recording of his 1962 hit)
6. It's Me Again, Margaret; 1984
7. Santa Claus Is Watching You; 1985
8. The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone; 1985 (radio edit version)
9. Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?; 1987
10. Freddie Feelgood; 1966
11. Surfin' U.S.S.R.; 1988
12. I Saw Elvis In a UFO; 1989
13. The Haircut Song; 1985
14. Everything Is Beautiful; 1970

In a Ray Stevens Mood...

On today's music journey we take a glimpse at the continued success of Ray Stevens' latest video hit, "God Save Arizona". As of this writing the video is sitting at 169,519 hits on You Tube. The places where you can purchase the song is Ray's web-site store, Amazon, and or Itunes. The song isn't on Ray's current album, We The People, and so the only way to get the song legally is through Ray's web-site and the other sites I mentioned. The song has yet to be pushed/publicized in any aggressive manner...for now Ray must be content with the hundreds of thousands of hits the video has gotten on You Tube with hardly any publicity outside the word of mouth through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets. In a way it's like an advertiser's dream...a lot of publicity without really having to push the song and pay for advertising spots. I'm pretty sure this song will be a big hit when Ray returns to the concert stage this fall...don't forget he returns to Branson, Missouri for a series of concerts at the Welk Theater. The shows kick off later this month! You can check his web-site for touring information.

The title of the blog is a reference to "In the Mood" which Ray recorded in 1976 and released it under the pseudonym of The Henhouse Five Plus Too. As you can tell from that false group's name "In the Mood" was clucked like a cackling choir of chickens. The b-side of this cluckin' classic was "Classical Cluck" in which the choir of chickens regal us with a refined performance. "In the Mood" became a Top-40 novelty single in early 1977 both in America and in England. The overseas release was issued as Ray Stevens...whereas in America it was issued as The Henhouse Five Plus Too. You can see several picture sleeves of the recording in the time-line off to the right.

"The Blue Cyclone" is a particular comical song from Ray Stevens that made it's debut on the comical album, I Have Returned. The recording is one of the longest...maybe the longest...in Ray's career. The album version is broken into two parts...each part is around six or seven minutes in length. This means that Parts One and Two clock in somewhere between thirteen and fourteen minutes. The single shown here is the radio version which is edited severely...it's still a funny recording but it's nowhere near the "adventure" of the full length recording. The single version clocks in just under five minutes at four minutes, fifty-nine seconds. The Cyclone is one part of a tag-team duo who Ray and a drinking buddy go watch wrestle at a local venue. The hilarity is hearing Ray describe everything he sees...and then the turning point in the song comes when Ray's friend throws a chair into the ring. The friend disappears leaving the Cyclone to mistakenly think Ray's the culprit. We're given a punch by punch, kick by kick, groan by groan account of Ray's entanglement with the wrestler...sending Ray into the hospital! However, the irony builds as Ray seeks revenge on the Cyclone and he enlists his friend's help. Naturally this leads to even more hilarity as Ray picks a fight with the Cyclone...feeling quite confident now that his friends are with him...but are they? I'll stop there...just in case you all hadn't heard the story of "The Blue Cyclone" I don't want to spoil the entire thing. The song, believe it or not, typically draws the biggest laughs from men who hear it...and I suppose it's because the song carries a touch of machismo and braggadocio which often overtakes most men when they find themselves in a bar or at a sporting event of some kind.

Ray Stevens: 45 at 25

One of the songs that is associated with Ray Stevens, as far as the 1980's are concerned, is this funny tale of two friends and their experiences with a wrestler named Blue Cyclone. Recorded in 1985 as a two-part ballad it originally appeared on I Have Returned, a comedy album from Ray that would eventually hit #1 and be certified Gold. "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" as it's officially titled in hindsight hasn't appeared on very many compilations. As far as I know it's only appeared on three collections: 1985's I Have Returned; 1987's Greatest Hits, Volume Two; and 1993's Collection release. The song also appeared on Get The Best of Ray Stevens which was in reality a combination of the two Greatest Hits albums that MCA had issued on Ray in 1987. Yet, other than that, the song hasn't really been widely distributed but it remains one of his popular recordings and a good reason for this is the sheer silliness of the situation at hand, Ray's delightful narration of it, and it's connection with the everyday man who may see himself as able to take on anyone if provoked...regardless of the reality of the situation.

As mentioned, the song was originally broken into two parts but because that kind of thing wasn't very likely to see airplay, MCA released a radio edit of the song which was also released commercially as a 45. This blue 45 wasn't a commercial copy single, though. It was a promo copy sent to radio stations and I don't even think the promo copy was for playing anyway...a lot of times color vinyl was released for their potential value amongst the public/collector's in the future. The thing about this 45 was that it was a promo copy...available only to radio stations. The blue vinyl obviously was a visual tie-in with the song's title. The promo copy singles of course have worked their way into the public domain and often show up on-line at auction sites.

The radio edit of the song is what appears on the 1987 and 1993 compilation releases as well as the 45 RPM. The full two-part version of the song appears only on I Have Returned.

In 2000, 15 years after the song had been recorded, Ray made a music video of it...broken into two parts. The music video appeared on a collection called Funniest Video Characters. The song was the focal point of the home video and Ray appeared in character along side the Blue Cyclone on the picture sleeve. The Cyclone was played by Ray's long-time songwriting and business partner, C.W. Kalb, Jr. The original 2000 release is not in print anymore. When the fan club was up and running they issued a catalog that year and naturally the picture that appears on the catalog's cover is the same one you see here of Ray in a headlock. I purchased the home video the year it was released and loved seeing all of the music videos. I didn't see any TV commercials promoting the collection as I had the previous home videos during the 1990's and so I assume that it wasn't advertised on television nationally. A CD was issued featuring the audio versions of the music videos. That collection was called Funniest Characters and it included two additional songs that weren't part of the music video companion series: "Erik the Awful" and "Power Tools".