Ray Stevens: Vintage Visuals...mid 1990s...

Hello once again!! In this installment of the vintage visuals series I take a look at the mid 1990s era in the career of Ray Stevens. The decade was one of change, experimentation, and major successes. I already spotlighted the early 1990s era of his career several blog entries ago and this one zeroes in on 1994, 1995, and 1996.

The Ray Stevens movie, Get Serious!, came along in the latter half of 1995...late summer/early fall. The direct-to-VHS movie was in a lot of ways the climax of Ray's meteoric rise in the world of VHS and direct marketing which got underway a couple of years earlier in 1992. Ray released four home video projects, in total, during 1992-1993. Two of the projects (Amazing Rolling Revue and More Ray Stevens Live!) were sold through his fan club and in the gift shop at his former venue in Branson, Missouri while the other two (Comedy Video Classics and Ray Stevens Live!) were sold over television and in newspaper advertisements. I made mention of those projects in my blog entry where I focused on the early 1990s era of his career. By 1994 Ray had left Branson, Missouri after three seasons (1991, 1992, and 1993) of concert performances at his former theater. On several of his television appearances in 1994 he mentioned that he was in the process of selling the theater...in his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he wrote about selling the venue to a company who, in turn, staged the 'Country Tonight' revue at the venue for ten consecutive years (1994-2003) but hard times fell upon the organization by 2003 and they asked if Ray would take back the theater and they would pay the remainder of their debt in the form of rent. So, as Ray put it, he took back the theater at the end of the 2003 summer concert season and spent a year and a half on redecoration and refurbishment and then had a grand re-opening in the summer of 2005. Ray headlined his old Branson, Missouri theater during the summer and fall months of 2005 and 2006 before selling the venue, for good, to the executives of RFD-TV. But let's back up a decade...we're suppose to be focusing on the mid 1990s...

As I started off saying...in several of Ray's interviews in 1994 he spoke of his goal of taking a much needed vacation after the Branson experience. In the summer of 1994 he won his 10th consecutive Comedian of the Year award from the fan-voted publication, Music City News. This publication would eventually go out of business after more than 30 years in print...largely overshadowed by a newer publication, Country Weekly, and their reader-voted Country Pick awards. Country Weekly, however, benefited from it's availability at the checkout stands in nearly every retail/grocery store in America whereas Music City News remained heavily subscription based and was rarely, if ever, widely distributed.

Ray was named Favorite Comedian by the readers of Country Weekly and received a Golden Pick award during the awards gala in 1995. While Ray appeared on the cover of Music City News a couple of times and his name shown up on the cover of many issues as a form of advertisement for a featured article within it's pages, strangely enough, he never appeared on the cover of any issue of Country Weekly during it's 24 years of print publication (1994-2016). His name appeared on the cover a few times and he had his share of appearances/interviews within the pages of Country Weekly but for the most part much of the attention given by Country Weekly, as far as country comedy, went to performers who were stand-up comedians in the traditional sense whose material catered largely to a southern audience (specifically the audience advertisers crave: 18-39 year olds).

The filming of Get Serious!, as mentioned, took place in the winter months of 1994 and early 1995. I was a member of his fan club from 1995 until it closed down in 2002 and in some of the earliest newsletters I have there were updates on the movie's progress and film schedule. The staff of his fan club referred to the film by an acronym. If memory serves me correct the film was referred to as LFSDMCV. The letters stood for: Long Form Story Driven Music Comedy Video. Now, I might have a couple of the letters in the wrong place. It could be LFSDCMV: Long Form Story Driven Comedy Music Video...but I think the first acronym is correct because Ray's emphasis was on the music and the overall execution of the film rather than emphasizing the comedy aspects...so I think LFSDMCV is the correct acronym. I'd have to literally dig through piles of archived papers in a storage bin to find those mid 1990s fan club newsletters...let's just stick to LFSDMCV. An article in Billboard magazine from November 1994, as far as I know, was the first news release concerning Ray in the process of filming a movie. 

Ray's movie was sold through direct marketing throughout the fall of 1995 and into mid 1996. The television commercials for the movie aired on many television stations...most of the time the commercials were airing on cable television stations rather than broadcast television. In the world of television communications the term broadcast networks are used to describe local channels which originate from a local television studio in a viewer's market but carry a daytime and prime-time line-up mandated by a broadcast network whereas cable television networks originate from anywhere, air whatever content they choose, and, usually, are part of every television channel line-up all over the country. CBS is a broadcast network and they have local affiliates all over the country whereas TBS is a cable network, for example, and is provided to cable television providers. If you did not have cable television but still wanted to watch television you were only going to get the basic broadcast networks (FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC plus whatever the local PBS affiliate happens to be) and the reception would not be that great. In an episode of Crook and Chase's former interview program, Music City Tonight, Ray made mention of Get Serious! having reached Platinum status through direct marketing. The program had earlier presented a Get Serious! night after the VHS had become available. That particular episode featured not only Ray but several of the people who had cameo appearances in the movie: Chet Atkins, Johnny Russell, Williams and Ree, James Gregory, and George Lindsey. Jerry Clower also appeared in the movie but not in a cameo role. He was more or less a supporting player given that he had several appearances scattered throughout the film playing the part of Ray's manager. He, too, also appeared on Get Serious! night. The VHS was released to retail stores in the latter half of 1996 by MCA Records. In the case of two of the early '90s VHS tapes the retail distribution was handled by Curb Records (in 1993 and 1994) but after Ray signed with MCA in 1996 the retail distribution was handled by that label. It was their first product on Ray Stevens since 1989. He recorded for the label during a five year period, 1984-1989, prior to his signing to the Curb label in 1990. In an appearance on Primetime Country in 1996, originally hosted by Tom Wopat, Ray mentioned that Get Serious! was Double-Platinum. Gary Chapman later took over hosting the show for the remainder of it's time in production.

A companion VHS, which you see above, was made available to fan club members in 1995. It's a documentary/behind-the-scenes of the movie's production with a lot of footage that didn't make the final cut and of course numerous bloopers are featured. The 1995 movie marked the music video debuts of "Ahab the Arab" as well as "Gitarzan", "Shriner's Convention", "The Dooright Family", "The Woogie Boogie", and several more. Ray appeared in costume as "Gitarzan" during his performance of the song on Get Serious! night in 1995 on Music City Tonight. After the performance, still in the costume, he went over to the interview couch and conducted the first segment of the show in his costume and spoke about the movie and the fact that during the opening performance of "Gitarzan" Jane had a beard. Ray joked that it was due to Jane abusing hormone injections but, of course, it was Buddy Kalb in drag...miming the words of Jane as Ray was singing them. The camera panned out into the audience where Buddy, as Jane, was positioned and as we heard Ray singing the lines Buddy/Jane was lip-syncing. In keeping with the spirit of the jungle motif and as a visual tie-in with caveman, "Alley Oop", Buddy/Jane 'sang' into a replica of a large leg bone rather than a microphone. It was a fun-filled episode and a great kick-off for the movie.

After a commercial break (one of those commercials being an ad for the VHS) Ray was in regular clothes and seated on the couch. Charlie Chase, one half of the Crook and Chase duo, provided the voice-over for the television commercial. One of the commercials, which aired on cable channel TNT, was uploaded onto YouTube...



The free cassette tape offer wasn't part of the direct mail advertisements during the course of the entire ad campaign. When I became a member of his fan club I purchased his products directly from their catalog and therefore the free cassette offer wasn't part of the sale. I eventually purchased the cassette tape being spoken of in the commercial for an incredibly low discounted price from his on-line store in the early 2000s. They only had a handful left. The cassette features a full performance of the song, "We Don't Take Nothin' Off Nobody", whereas the movie features the opening verse and chorus. Now, as a result of Ray's phenomenal success with direct marketing his VHS tapes, a compilation was inevitably on the horizon. Latest and Greatest was issued in 1996 on VHS and it featured 10 music videos. It was comprised of 4 music videos from 1992's Comedy Video Classics and 6 music videos from Get Serious!.

A couple of months ago Ray uploaded the music video, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", onto YouTube. This isn't to be confused with another song with the same title from the 1940s by Louis Jordan. The song featured in Ray's 1995 movie is an entirely different song. Ray wrote this same-titled song for the Get Serious! movie and it's a duet with his co-star, Connie Freeman...she played the role of Charlene MacKenzie. You'll see another co-star, Tim Hubbard, in the role of Coy. The movie is available on DVD for those that may be wondering. It isn't on Blu-Ray, though. I don't even own a Blu-Ray player, believe it or not, so I'm still a customer of DVD. You can get your copy of the movie by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: Symphonic Chickens...

Good early Sunday morning...being a night-owl on the weekends due to my third shift work schedule through the week it's long been a habit of mine of being awake at night. So, technically, I'm not up with the roosters. I don't think they start to make their noise for another half an hour anyway. Poultry has long been a side dish in the career of Ray Stevens...now, to be specific, it's not something that's a constant but poultry nevertheless has a place in his career.

I guess it all goes back to late 1976...Ray had joined the Warner Brothers label in the latter half of 1975 and his debut album for the label, Just For the Record, arrived early in 1976. The album included a couple of Top-40 country singles in the form of "You Are So Beautiful" and "Honky Tonk Waltz". Ray had been on a serious, non-comedic streak ever since the early period of 1975, a period which followed his massive worldwide success of "The Streak" a year earlier. He closed out 1974 with a non-comedic Top-40 country hit single, "Everybody Needs a Rainbow". He had released a mostly covers album in 1975 titled Misty and named after one of his hit singles that year. The success of "Misty" led to an album filled with, mostly, his versions of pop music standards of the '30s and '40s. "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Young Love" were released as singles during 1975 with "Mockingbird Hill" issued early in 1976, I suppose to fill out some kind of contractual agreement with Barnaby Records, considering that Ray had by that time joined Warner Brothers. Later on Barnaby also issued "Lady of Spain" as a single and it Bubbled Under the Hot 100 in the summer of 1976 well after Ray had joined Warner Brothers. So, in essence, you had Barnaby Records issuing five commercial singles from the Misty album altogether. Anyway...in late 1976 Warner Brothers released "In the Mood"...a chicken-clucking performance by Ray and issued as The Hen House Five Plus Too. Ray, in interviews, often remarked that the song was only meant to be an inside joke among him and the band but somehow along the way executives at Warner Brothers heard the 'joke' and insisted that it be released as a single and that's exactly what happened.

Ray phonetically clucked "In the Mood" (previously a gigantic instrumental hit for Glen Miller in 1939) with the smallest of music accompaniment. I think Ray only used a piano, bass guitar, and a saxophone. The B-side of the single was "Classical Cluck", another chicken clucking recital, this time staged in a classical music presentation rather than a small, jazzy combo. The photo above, by the way, accompanied the single release in the Netherlands. The photo off to the right is the single release in America. In some parts of the world the single release of "In the Mood" was issued under Ray's name while a majority of the releases featured the fictional Hen House Five Plus Too credit. The single became a Top-40 country and Top-40 pop hit early in 1977...and it became a Top-40 hit in the United Kingdom as well. "In the Mood" marked quite a departure for Ray as you could guess. The idea of clucking an entire song like a chicken was too irresistible for music consumers to pass up...so it became a hit...quite a feather in his cap...and, of course, Ray's reputation as a 'singer of novelty songs' continued to grow with each successive novelty song success. The single wasn't placed on any forthcoming studio albums by Ray for Warner Brothers. I don't know if that was by design or if they simply wanted the song to remain a single-only release. Ray would visit the chicken theme several more times in his career. "Thus Cacked Henrietta", from 1985, was a brief clucking interpretation of the first minute and a half of an instrumental (referred to as a fanfare) called "Also Sprach Zarathustra" which can be heard in the opening credits of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The half hour long instrumental originates from 1896 from the pen of Richard Strauss. Henrietta's interpretation is superb...and she receives background accompaniment from a sheep and a cow...a rooster brings the curtain down over the barn when he lets loose a mighty crow signaling the climax of the performance. "Thus Cacked Henrietta" can be found on Ray's 1985 album, I Have Returned. You can also find an audio track of it on YouTube. It's a very funny track...and you'll recognize the melody right away.

Since I don't live in the state of Tennessee or in the southern region of the United States I was never exposed to the television commercials that Ray Stevens appeared in. I've known of his involvement in commercials (particularly for Flav-o-Rich) and of course I knew of the nationally aired commercials for his home videos in the 1990s but that was it...and until a couple of weeks ago I had never seen one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials. Ray recently uploaded a video clip of one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials from the 1980s. I didn't know he did a regional commercial for McDonald's until this clip appeared on YouTube...the commercial is from 1989 and it was uploaded onto YouTube back in January of this year. I'm embedding it because of it's subject matter...Ray's singing about the franchise's latest item, the country style McChicken... 



In 1991 the chickens mounted a comeback in "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", inspired by the ninja superhero turtles of Saturday morning television. In 2015 Ray recorded "Pickin' on the Chicken", a song from a chicken's point of view and the negative slang expressions derived from the chicken, and you can hear it on his Here We Go Again! comedy album.

A recording in 1995, however, is the featured attraction of this blog entry. The recording originated in his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!, and it's a duet (a rare occurrence in his career). "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" is performed as an elaborate song-and-dance between Ray and co-star Connie Freeman. The performance takes place on the farm of the Three Legged Chicken ranch owned by Charlene's family (Connie was portraying the role of Charlene MacKenzie in the movie). Ray and Charlene are on the run from patrolman Dudley Dorite and Deputy Coy among others and they hide out, in this part of the movie, at the ranch. Deputy Coy (Tim Hubbard) thinks he sees some prowling in the chicken coop and so he goes to investigate. The small chicken coop comically houses a sprawling performance area for a lot of singing and dancing not only from Ray and Charlene but a chorus of dancing girls that appear from behind the row of chicken nests. All of the performers, as you'll see in the music video, wear chicken outfits. Coy is wearing a chicken themed hat he found hanging inside the coop.



Also something to keep in mind is the song's title. "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" was actually a catchphrase and it was eventually turned into a song and it became a hit in the 1940s for the recording artist, Louis Jordan. The hit song helped re-introduce the phrase and it became a slang expression all over again. Ray's song uses the same title but it contains entirely different melody and lyrics than the Louis Jordan recording. I say that because in the comment section for Ray's video someone erroneously stated that the song had been recorded earlier by Louis Jordan. The person making the comment apparently based his opinion entirely on the song's title and making the assumption that Ray was doing a cover version of Louis Jordan's hit...which obviously means that the person hadn't even heard Louis Jordan's recording or else he/she would've known they're two different songs with the same title. Oh well, a couple of days ago I left a comment over there anyhow and pointed out the small error.

The video was uploaded onto YouTube back on May 14th but I hadn't embedded it into a blog entry until now. It's gotten over 9,000 unique views as of this writing. Also, as of this writing, one of the menu items at Ray's CabaRay showroom in West Nashville is Airline Chicken Breast.

When you purchase CabaRay tickets you'll have the option of selecting a dinner from their menu if you choose floor seating. The balcony seats do not offer a dinner, obviously, but you can receive beverages. The presentation is based upon fine dining/casual dining...so you're not going to get a smorgasbord of entree's to choose from or have the opportunity to purchase pounds of fast food style of food and indulge in movie theater kinds of snacks. It's the kind of cuisine carrying the same kind of detailed visuals you might see in an upscale restaurant but without the snooty atmosphere that Ray sings about in 1987's "Gourmet Restaurant". When you click the link you'll notice for the month of May there's only three more concerts left: May 24, 25, and 31. The Wednesday tickets are for the taping of Larry's Country Diner, a television series on RFD-TV. The month of June consists of 10 concerts from Ray: June 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29. So, like most months, there are plenty of days to see Ray in concert at the CabaRay. June is traditionally referred to as Country Music month and with a lot of fans and tourists flocking to the area to take in a lot of exhibits and music performances I'll also suggest the travelers and tourists to take in a concert at the CabaRay when you're in Nashville in early June. The showroom is on 5724 River Road off of Charlotte Pike which you access from I-40. If you have a GPS device, great, but if you don't then obviously MapQuest the address from your starting point for a series of directions to take. Aside from the main performance area there's a piano bar and a gift shop. The showroom is in the Bellevue suburb of Nashville and yesterday the CabaRay had a presence in the Bellevue Community Picnic...a booth promoting the showroom was on display and the CabaRay served as one of the sponsors of the event. Those that stopped by the CabaRay booth were given chances to win tickets to an upcoming concert. I don't think Ray personally appeared at the booth given that Friday night he was busy performing at the CabaRay and on Saturday night he performed there...and so I don't think he was able to squeeze in an appearance at the picnic at any time on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. Again, if he did make an appearance at the CabaRay booth, I'd like to see some photos uploaded on-line. His concerts get underway at 7:30pm but the venue opens it's doors at 5pm.

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 3...

It's that time once again...time to embed the latest webisode from Ray Stevens. Today's upload if you're keeping track is Webisode 3. It keeps the chicken theme from the previous week but spotlights several beloved scenes from the early-mid '90s. If you're familiar with Ray's direct-to-video movie from 1995, Get Serious!, then you're in for a treat as a certain performance from that movie is inserted into this week's webisode. The memories that is brings back!!! I have the movie, yes, but it's fun to see performances from the movie inserted into a different setting.



Don't forget about the 9-CD box set sale...you all have 16 more days to get your order placed to ensure a price of $39.99! The regular price for the box set is $79.95 but you'll be getting it for $40.00 less until April 20th. As I pointed out in my previous blog entry this is perhaps going to be your only chance to get this incredible collection at such a low price.

Ray recorded more than 60 songs exclusively for the box set...his versions of classic novelty songs ranging from the 1930s through the 1980s and he even did a cover of Toby Keith's song, "I Wanna Talk About Me". The only place to find it is on the 9-CD box set. Some of the other songs that Ray recorded include a couple of Roger Miller classics "Chug a Lug", "Kansas City Star", and "Dang Me" plus his renditions on Spike Jones classics...he does additional recordings of many of The Coasters songs, too, and even tackles the funky half-sung, half-spoken classics of Phil Harris ("The Preacher and the Bear", "That's What I Like about the South", and several more).

A lot of the novelty songs predate the mid '50s and a lot of the time 'novelty song' simply meant 'unusual' or 'offbeat' rather than exclusively 'humorous' or 'laugh out loud hysterical'. Over the course of the last 30+ years, 'novelty songs' have come to be synonymous with any recording meant to entice laughter and so the original concept of the 'novelty song' has become murky and muddled over time.

Here's a link to the 9-CD novelty song extravaganza once more...

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set Sale

Ray Stevens asks about Love...

In the last week or so Ray Stevens has uploaded several music videos from his 1995 movie, Get Serious!. I've mentioned/included some of the videos in the last couple of blogs. I'm sure most of you have seen this on the actual movie and I'm sure, by now, you've come across it on-line if you've watched any number of his other music videos. This happens to be the official music video of "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". It's a love song with comical overtones. The video itself features Ray in several roles...and for those who aren't aware of why he's wearing a chicken costume that means you hadn't seen the movie.



That particular song, like most of the songs on the 1995 movie, come from Ray's vast catalog of recordings. "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" originally came along in 1986, a full nine years before the music video made it's debut.

Ray's uploaded a couple of other clips from the 1995 movie since my previous blog entry. This time around the clips include a little bit more footage from the movie rather than a stand alone music video. A music video of "The Woogie Boogie", a song from 1989, was filmed for the project and it's featured below...



A scene between Ray and fictional Damien Darth was also uploaded. This scene sets up the overall storyline of the entire movie. It begins with a cameo appearance by Chet Atkins (one of several cameo appearances by Ray's music industry friends). Ray enters the scene dressed as Gitarzan as he had just wrapped up shooting the 'music video'...



Get Serious!, for those who didn't know, included the official music video of "Ahab the Arab" which Ray uploaded on You Tube a few years ago. The 1995 music video can be seen HERE. It's obtained more than 260,000 views since it's You Tube debut in July 2009. The description states that the video could be found on the DVD project titled The Complete Comedy Video Collection. At the time, Get Serious! was still only available on VHS and out of print. "Ahab the Arab" closes out the Get Serious! movie. For those who want to add Get Serious! to your collections it's available at the moment at Ray's web-store. Simply visit his web page, www.raystevens.com, and click the Store section.

Ray Stevens: Get Serious! on DVD...

I've written several blogs over the last several years about Ray's 1995 movie, Get Serious!, and I saw that one of the blogs I wrote back in 2010 has gotten quite a lot of traffic lately. That particular year happened to be the 15th anniversary of the home video's release and I'm sure that's why I wrote that blog entry. I didn't go back and read what I had written, though, but I'm sure the reason I wrote that particular entry was due to the movie's anniversary.

The movie had long been out of print...and the only available copies that shown up for sale were in VHS format. This is great if you still have a VCR in working condition. I have a VCR that's in pretty good shape and almost all of my VHS tapes are in good to great shape as well but of course I also have a DVD player and a boatload of DVD's...but I still have the VHS tapes I bought. I purchased the VHS copy of Get Serious! when it was still a brand new release in the latter half of 1995. I've posted images of my showing off the VHS tape before...I may have posted images of it in the 2010 blog entry I made a reference to in the opening paragraph.

The movie, Get Serious!, is the story of a maniacal music executive who envisions comedy artist Ray Stevens as a master at opera and Broadway (which goes against his commercial successes). When Ray refuses to go along with the executive's plan, the executive throws a fit and plot's Ray's downfall by labeling him 'politically incorrect'. As all of this is going on Ray attempts to make his way through a sea of protesters. Jerry Clower, in a supporting role as Ray's manager, helps Ray move through the crowd. This scene is in super slow motion. Ray, perhaps in a nod to Vaudeville and classic comedy in general, slips on a banana peel and passes out. He wakes up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The first thing he sees is an overly zealous Calcutta Indian rug seller (played by Ray) and this encounter eventually leads into the movie's second music video, "The Woogie Boogie". The movie's first music video, "Gitarzan", opened up the movie as we see a flashback sequence of a young Ray practicing the piano and his instructor warning a young Ray to be serious with his music.

Ray, along with several others, play multiple roles in the movie.

The movie is a blend of music, adventure, fantasy, satire, and mockery. The music is a crucial part of the film as two plots against Ray play out independently of one another but merge toward the end of the movie with comical results.

One plot revolves around the music executive and his group of yes-men on a nationwide manhunt for Ray. He walked out on his contractual obligations when objecting to going serious. Another plot revolves around the fictional characters from Ray's comedy songs turning out to really exist and they are on an entirely different kind of pursuit. The satirical elements in the movie come from the messages about the music business and political correctness that are sprinkled throughout the movie. Obviously the adventure aspect comes from Ray and a former lover, Charlene MacKenzie, on the run from Tennessee to Florida. They take to the road with a yellow car given to Ray (in the movie) by the Shriners as a thank you for his charitable work and creating awareness for their hospitals. Charlene MacKenzie is portrayed by Connie Freeman while the overly enthusiastic and pompous music executive, Damien Darth, is portrayed by Michael Airington. The vocals of Airington are based on Paul Lynde...you'll notice it right away.  

Anyway...I plan on purchasing the Get Serious! DVD in the not too distant future. I have no idea if the DVD will include, as a bonus feature, the companion documentary titled Ray Stevens Made a Movie?? Get Serious!!. Once I purchase it and it arrives I'll be able to answer that a lot more accurately. However, based on the DVD's description located HERE it doesn't indicate that the documentary is part of the release. That link takes you to the DVD item page at Ray's web-store.

Ray Stevens 1995 home video Documentary...

This home video was released 15 years ago when Ray Stevens had just released his direct-to-video movie, GET SERIOUS. The movie itself was sold through direct mail originally, in the late summer/fall of 1995, and it sold several hundred thousand copies in the process and then it was released to retail stores late in 1996. The movie became a Top-5 best seller on Billboard's video chart. This home video takes you backstage and gives a person a glimpse into how the movie was made. Ray narrates the documentary and runs through a list of people involved...several scenes are shot inside Ray's office. On a counter behind him in his office are a row of Music City News awards. Those awards were voted on by the fans of country music/readers of Music City News and Ray won 10 awards as Comedian of the Year from 1986 through 1994. Along the way there's footage of bloopers...those are abundant throughout...and we have comical snippets of Ray's co-stars and stage crew offering their comical opinion of Ray as it relates to the question: Is Ray Stevens guilty? This question is asked because the movie is all about Ray being on the run from the law...in addition to being accused of being politically incorrect by a fictional record executive whose launched an all-out public relations war on Ray for showing him up and refusing to "get serious".

The mystery behind the Three Legged Chickens are explored in this home video and we're shown how they were designed and put together. The dungeon wall and the actors playing in that scene are highlighted. The movie director, Rod Thompson, is featured at various times throughout the documentary as are Ray's brother, John Ragsdale, and Ray's co-writer friend, Buddy Kalb. Toward the end of the documentary Ray gives his views on political correctness circa 1995. Thankfully his thoughts on that matter haven't changed over the last 15 years.

This is by no means a thorough description of this home video but I wanted to highlight just a few things from it for those who come across this home video on-line. It's a must-have for fans of Ray Stevens that's for sure!

The movie was shot throughout 1994 and according to Ray's narration the editing process began in January 1995 and the finished project wasn't released until the summer of 1995. Those familiar with the movie will get a kick out of this behind the scenes documentary. The official title of this home video is Ray Stevens Made a Movie?? Get Serious!!

Ray Stevens: Get Serious!

I touched upon this direct-to-video movie a few blog entries ago when I was discussing 1995 in the time-line of Ray Stevens. It's been 15 years since this project was brand new and as far as I know it's never been issued as a DVD. The music videos that are contained in this movie, though, have been lifted and placed on several compilations and some of the music videos have appeared on You Tube. The most widely distributed music video from the movie is "Ahab the Arab". That music video appears as the final scene in the movie, by the way. This music video was highlighted a few days ago on The O'Reilly Factor. You can tell that Get Serious isn't widely known because some people wondered if the "Ahab the Arab" music video was new or if it was something from the 1980's. It's funny how when people think of Ray Stevens they usually connect him to the 1970's or the 1980's as if he wasn't active during the 1990's or the first 10 years of this millennium. Readers of this blog, though, become well aware of how active Ray Stevens remained in spite of limited publicity among the mainstream.

The movie runs about 110 minutes...1 hour and 40 minutes in other words. It's a fast-paced movie...several scenes come off in the tradition of the Smokey and the Bandit series. The movie's first scene is set in the mid to late 1940's where we see an actor portraying Ray as a kid taking piano lessons. We see how Ray, even at a young age, had more interest in the jazzy and boogie-woogie style of piano playing than the strict classical style approach. Ray provides a voice-over during this scene and also appears from the waste down speaking in German-Austrian dialect as the strict music professor warning the kid to stop playing that jazzy boogie-woogie stuff and to "GET SERIOUS!!!". A key-word is monkey business...which by then the movie has shifted from the mid 1940's to the present day and the opening music video, "Gitarzan", begins to air.

The movie, as I was mentioning in a previous blog, features cameo appearances by several country music personalities. The one who'd be considered a supporting player is Jerry Clower. He played the part of Ray's manager, named the Colonel, who'd pop up several times in the movie relaying to Ray all the latest show dates he'd secured and consistently remind him to not forget about Florida.

After the "Gitarzan" music video, Ray, still dressed in the jungle man outfit, goes to meet his new boss at Integrity Records where he's informed that the company's policies have changed and they no longer will be supporting a comedy act. The music executive has plans of turning Ray into the Pavarotti of country music. After an encounter/argument with the executive, Ray exits the office and later we see a short scene of "Ahab the Arab" in the process of being made into a music video. The music executive, now on Ray's enemy list, plots to ruin Ray's career by staging fake protests. These protesters claim that Ray's songs are politically incorrect and offensive to just about everyone. After Ray and Jerry Clower witness this protest from afar, Clower proceeds to wade through the raucous crowd. In slow motion Clower and Ray wade through the people while someone unseen throws a banana peel onto the street. Yes...you guessed it...Ray slips on it, much like in a cartoon, and he falls backward and it fades to black. Seconds later Ray opens his eyes and he finds himself in a tent...an India carpet seller with a thick accent, also played by Ray, welcomes him to Chattanooga. These scenes build up to the eventual music video, "The Woogie Boogie".

Ray and company are dressed in full Indian attire but by the time the music video is over, he's been found out, and on the run he goes again. Later on he finds himself in a hotel where George Lindsay, dressed as a Shriner, confronts Ray in the lobby. Lindsay and other Shriner's inform him that they aren't offended by the song and in fact they've decided to make him the Grand Marshall of their parade...which leads into the "Shriner's Convention" music video. After the music video Ray is at a luncheon where he's given a gift...a yellow dune buggy that's been dubbed the Mone Mobile. Somewhere along the way the characters from Ray's comedy songs are shown to be real people...and they form a posse, led by Dudley Dorite. The music video for "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" is shown around this time.

The music executive, upset that his plans to control Ray's image and music are being foiled, catches the protests on television of Sister Bertha, Clyde, Harv Newland, Ethel, Coy, and Dudley Dorite. He is stunned to realize that the people are "real" and he hatches an even more elaborate plan of getting even with Ray by using the real people to make the case that Ray used real people's names in songs, without permission, and as a result of how much of a laughing stock they'd become, it ruined the individual's reputations. By now Ray had become reunited with a former lover, Charlene MacKenzie, who was hard of hearing. I don't want to give away the entire plot or every little scene but for a movie that's 1 hour and 40 minutes there is a lot of action and scenes to enjoy. I hadn't even barely scratched the surface about what all is in the movie!! If you look on the film strip you'll see screen shots from different scenes in the movie. The top scene is Ray in costume as the India rug seller. The next is Ray in Indian attire during "The Woogie Boogie" music video. The third shot shows Ray and an actress in the roles of Ahab and Fatima. They wore some kind of powder make-up to lighten their skin because some scenes in the "Ahab the Arab" music video were shot in black and white as if it was 1921...an indirect reference to The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino. The fourth shot is Ray dressed as psychiatrist Sickmind Fraud liking what he see's in his assistant. Sickmind didn't hide his sexual appetite and he'd groan and lust and leer at his nurse several times during his scenes. He rode a toy horse and acted crazy...but yet he was considered to be a brilliant mind at understanding human behavior. The satire drips heavy in these scenes with the doctor. Ray, in Sickmind's German-American dialect, sang "I Used To Be Crazy". Sickmind Fraud, of course, is a parody of Sigmund Freud.

The final screen shot in that film strip is Ray in his jungle man costume having a conversation with his manager, The Colonel, played by Jerry Clower in stereotypical Southern attire from the Civil War. In one scene in the film we see The Colonel lounging pool side sipping on what could be a mint julep.

After this home video movie was released, sold through television commercials mostly on The Nashville Network with little exposure on network television, but after the home video was released, Ray, along with those who made cameo appearances in the movie, all appeared on Music City Tonight. This television show aired on the former Nashville Network during the mid 1990's. It was hosted by Crook and Chase. The entire episode was devoted to Ray and his movie. The show ran 90 minutes...and Ray sang several songs from the movie and a lot of clips were played. The sales were consistent...earning Double-Platinum certifications based upon the direct-mail qualifications. Something like 200,000 give or take a few hundred home videos were sold throughout 1995 and into 1996 which qualifies for a Double-Platinum certification. Home videos, and now DVDs, don't have to sell half a million or more than a million to obtain Gold or Platinum or Multi-Platinum recognition. Due to it not being a quote, "million seller", it didn't achieve the mainstream recognition or hype that his 1992 and 1993 home videos acquired. By comparison, Get Serious! wasn't advertised much at all outside of The Nashville Network. As most people know, The Nashville Network ceased to air country music programs after 2000. The network had been on the air since 1983. Eventually the name changed to The National Network after 2000 and I believe it's called Spike TV now!?!

If any of you want to see the movie based upon my short synopsis you can find VHS copies of it at on-line auction sites. There is no DVD version as far as I know. The VHS version is sold-out at Ray's web-site store.