Ray Stevens: We The People at 10...

First Pressing; April 2010

Welcome to my fan created Ray Stevens blog where I take a look at all aspects of Ray's lengthy career...from it's beginnings to present day. In this blog entry I'm traveling back to 2010 and if you were paying attention to Ray Stevens at that point in time then you're very familiar with his political comedy. It's a phase of his career that you can't overlook given how much of an impact it had on his career going forward. In the years leading up to 2010 Ray was more or less semi-retired and if you read his memoir you'll know that he, briefly, was even contemplated retiring from the road and concert performances altogether. He had returned to Branson and re-opened his former theater for a two season run (2005 and 2006) and he occasionally released CDs on his own record label through his website throughout the middle period of the 2000s. In the latter half of 2009, out of the blue, Ray Stevens issued a music video titled "We The People" on YouTube. He had been issuing his older music videos onto the video hosting site for several months and reaching new audiences in the process. A health care reform bill, officially titled Affordable Care Act, but nicknamed ObamaCare, dominated the news cycle in the latter half of 2019 and Ray's "We The People" music video addressed the bill. The video took off like wildfire in December 2019 and for the next several weeks it kept racking up hundreds of thousands of unique views...eventually the music video surpassed 1,000,000 unique views by late January 2010 and it was all over conservative blog sites and being shared on social media for several months.

The video's rapid rise as an on-line viral video led to Ray being asked to appear on several high profile television shows on the Fox News Channel as well as receiving invitations to be a guest on local talk radio programs to talk about his video and his decision to jump into the political fray. A lot of critics throughout social media found amusement in the fact that usually it's liberal ideology that gets put into songs and yet there was Ray Stevens singing about the importance of conservative and Tea Party ideology. Some critics mistook Ray's music video as a 'joke' but once he began making appearances on Fox News and making the rounds on talk radio it was clear to the critics that this was no joke and that he was serious.

Second Pressing; June 2010

The above image of the We The People album was originally released in what they call an AMRAY case, which as you can see, is identical to your typical DVD. I have the April 2010 release as I wanted to own the collection as soon as it was released through Ray's web store. After the release and massive success of the "We The People" music video the follow-up, "Caribou Barbie", cemented Ray's YouTube success. The song is about Sarah Palin and if you know your Presidential politics she ran as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election. She was the Governor of Alaska and became a lightning rod within the Tea Party/conservative ranks after making a series of campaign speeches. As a result of her meteoric rise on the national political scene it left her open for all kinds of harsh, brutal, and deeply personal attacks from her critics. She was widely parodied and she overshadowed McCain in nearly all of their public appearances. The actress portraying Sarah Palin in the music video is Lori Stegner and she has several speaking roles in the song. Lori would later appear with Ray in an official duet, "Tim-Tay-Shun", in 2014. After the release of "Caribou Barbie" in March 2010, which to date has received over 647,000 unique views, he turned his focus on Congress once more with "Throw the Bums Out" which became something of an unofficial theme song during the 2010 election cycle. The video was released in March...several weeks after "Caribou Barbie". Ray was invited to the 2011 edition of C-PAC and "Throw the Bums Out" was among the songs he performed. The epidemic of illegal immigration along the southern border of the United States had long been a controversial issue but it became the subject matter in one of Ray's most pointed recordings, "Come to the U.S.A.". The video continues to be one of Ray's biggest YouTube smash hits...issued in May 2010 it's gotten well over 10,000,000 unique views. The actions taken by the Obama Administration and his justice department (you all remember Eric Holder, yes?) well, that song fit right in with the public mood at the time and it was an immediate smash hit. Ray's music videos were consistently among the most viewed/most shared during the first half of 2010.

Third Pressing; 2010

The image off to the left is a re-issue of the AMRAY release featuring the bonus DVD of four music videos. As you can see it's in a traditional jewel case. One of the hoaxes that gets all sorts of charitable donations and is placed as a high priority among some political circles is the concept of global warming. I don't believe in global warming and it was fun to hear "The Global Warming Song" poke fun at the whole idea. The music video is filled with all sorts of sight gags. It hit YouTube in June 2010 and it's gotten over a million unique views as of this writing. The song is about a couple of simpletons who invent a 'left handed hammer' and decide to buy property in a frozen wasteland with the idea that once global warming thaws it out they can re-sell it as a tropical island resort. The video's gotten more than a million unique views and it's one of those satirical songs that you really have to listen to in order to appreciate the humor, I think. A lot of the songs on this 2010 CD are in that vein...nearly all of them feature heavy political comedy and quite a few of them require your full attention. Several songs on this CD that were never made into music videos but I thought they should have been: "Fly Over Country" doesn't get anymore direct than that. In that song Ray tells of small town America and how most, if not all, politicians that leave small town America and head for Washington, D.C. forget where they came from...until it's time for re-election. "Fly Over Country" is the area of the United States that make up Middle America...the area between the East and West Coasts...that politicians 'fly over' as they make their way from one coastal town to the other. I also felt that "We Are the Government" should have been a single/video. In the fall of 2010 Ray returned to Branson, Missouri for a series of concerts at The Welk Theater. In early October footage from his concerts emerged on DVD as Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity On Stage...Live and a secondary release, Patriots and Politics, was also released through his web store.

In August of 2010 Ray released a music video addressing the illegal immigration problem along Arizona's border with Mexico. This song wasn't found on We The People and it received high profile mention on Fox News as well. It also broke the formula of comedy...this particular video was serious. "God Save Arizona" defends the actions of the State's Governor at the time, Jan Brewer, as well as Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The Obama Administration is vilified over their decision to take the State of Arizona to court over their illegal immigration policies. Brewer served as Arizona Governor from 2009 until 2015. The Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, remained in office until his 2017 re-election defeat.

Ray followed up We The People the very next year with Spirit of '76...and that is the CD in which "God Save Arizona" would be found. Ray released several more songs from the 2011 CD in video format throughout 2011 and 2012 but then he returned to We The People in July 2012 with the music video release of "Obama Nation". That video's gotten more than a million unique views as of this writing. Ray ultimately released, in 2012, an essay book titled Let's Get Political. The book features the songwriter/publisher credits and the lyrics to all the songs found on We The People and Spirit of '76. In addition it includes Ray's personal commentary about every song. The back of the book's cover features CD images of his 2010 and 2011 releases as well as a photo of Ray and a photo of Buddy Kalb. This overview was just a tip of the iceberg...if you happened to have been following Ray's career from December 2009 through mid 2013 it was quite a whirlwind. You can search the archives here and read every moment of it in case you are new to his career. If you witnessed it first hand as I did go and re-visit that era of his career in the archives. Ray was at something of a crossroads in his career and "We The People" took him into a bold and different direction that's worth revisiting from time to time.

Ray Stevens: Video Singles...

There's been a pair of video singles tied to the current Ray Stevens CD, Here We Go Again. The first happened to be "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" and the second, "You Didn't Build That". The video's are extreme opposites of each other...the first one deals with the delusions of a man believing Taylor is stalking him because he sees her everywhere that he happens to be. Ray performed the song several times in the spring of 2015 during some of his appearances...one such being a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry...it happened to be the first time he performed it in concert. Those that had no idea who Ray Stevens happened to be didn't know what to make of the video.

A lot of those confused and at a loss being young kids and teenagers (primarily Taylor's fan base) that more or less had been alerted to the video due to it containing Taylor's name in the title. Some of the more humorless didn't care for the song's festive tempo and levity taking place at a fictional mental institution. It's gotten more than 300,000 views, regardless.

The second video single returned Ray to the political comedy field after an extended hiatus of new material for that genre of entertainment. Prior to the release of "You Didn't Build That" a couple of months ago his last political comedy video arrived a year ago this month in the form of "If You Like Your Plan" (September 22, 2014). It's been seen by more than 120,000 people. "You Didn't Build That" has been seen by close to 50,000 people so far.

I stress that this isn't the heat of a political season, yet, and even though Obama can't run for a third term he nevertheless is going to play a major part in the 2016 election cycle by virtue of his policies being attached to whichever Democrat gets the nomination. If it's Joe Biden expect to see a lot of issues that defined the Obama-Biden Administration to be fair game during the campaign trail in 2016.

Even though Ray's foray into political entertainment came as a surprise and a shock to most people late in 2009 nearly all of the political music videos from him that have appeared on YouTube feature a comical presentation to keep the mood lighthearted even though, if you listen carefully, the lyrics are pointed and actually, serious, but masked behind a comical presentation on video. "You Didn't Build That", his current video single, takes a phrase from one of Obama's speeches and it's turned into a song about Obama's twisted attitude about American business.

Not all of Ray's political videos have been visually comical, though. A couple are deeply serious. In the latter category there's "God Save Arizona" (August 4, 2010) and last year's "Nero Fiddled" (October 10, 2014). The 2010 video's focus happened to be the enormous problem of illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border...more specifically the lawsuit that former Attorney General, Eric Holder, issued against the State of Arizona as a result of their enforcement of their immigration laws.

The 2014 video focuses in on Obama's consistent misplaced priorities and his lack of strong leadership in face of real threats...like the real threat of global terrorism. It's a strong message criticizing Obama's Presidency. "If You Like Your Plan" and "Nero Fiddled", at the moment, are available only as video singles on YouTube.

Share these among your on-line friends if you hadn't done so already... "You Didn't Build That", "Nero Fiddled", and "If You Like Your Plan"...

Ray Stevens: YouTube Top-15...

In a night time blog entry I've decided to post the Top-15 YouTube music videos from Ray Stevens based upon unique views. I often do this once in awhile just to periodically check up on older music videos that continue to gather an audience but aren't the most recent uploads. In reverse order here are the Top-15 videos including the most recent capture of unique view totals...

15. Grandpa Voted Democrat: 650,783
14. Santa Claus is Watching You: 793,599
13. Sittin' Up with the Dead: 848,147
12. Everything is Beautiful: 946,509
11. Shriner's Convention: 1,023,848

10. God Save Arizona: 1,055,828
9. Throw the Bums Out!: 1,144,690
8. Obama Nation: 1,227,347
7. It's Me Again, Margaret: 1,511,117
6. Mr. President - Mr. President: 1,648,984

5. Obama Budget Plan: 3,910,972
4. The Streak: 4,852,790
3. Mississippi Squirrel Revival: 5,228,877
2. We The People: 5,286,198
1. Come to the USA: 9,170,419

For those curious his version of "Help Me Make It Through The Night" ranks at #19 with a current total of 557,348 unique views. The music video for "Ahab the Arab" ranks at #17 with 597,766. Unfortunately there had been an unofficial upload of "Ahab the Arab" on YouTube for several years prior to Ray's YouTube channel coming into existence. The unofficial upload has more than a million unique views due to it being available longer...much of the video's impact happened during the first several months of it's unofficial release. Once Ray uploaded the video onto YouTube via his channel, though, I happen to believe that it grabbed a lot of views that would've gone to the unofficial upload instead.

On a related note...the music video for "Too Drunk to Fish" that I posted about in my previous blog entry has indeed gone past the one million mark. Since it isn't part of the RayStevensMusic channel on YouTube it isn't being counted as an official video release on the video hosting site but as of this writing the unique view total is 1,000,253.

A year ago this month Ray Stevens released The Gospel Collection, Volume One. The release is associated with the Gaither Gospel Series and the marketing fell in the hands of the Gaither organization instead of it being under Ray's control. On the back of the CD and on the CD itself there are imprints of the various logos of production companies: Gaither Music Group, Clyde Records, Gaither Gospel Series, and Spring House Productions.

For a period of time Ray made the rounds of various country-gospel outlets and even appeared on the Praise the Lord series on the Trinity Broadcasting Network during the initial publicity for the CD and the main single, "If Jesus is a Stranger". In a video clip from the program, Larry's Country Diner, Ray performs "If Jesus is a Stranger"...

The clip begins in the midst of Ray speaking the opening to the song but that doesn't take away from the overall performance...



A couple of other uploads of Ray performing songs from the gospel CD are next...

Although the version of "Turn Your Radio On" on the gospel CD features the original lyrics from the late 1930s this performance includes the lyrics most commonly associated with the Ray Stevens version...



And "Amazing Grace"...the guitar player is Jimmy Capps (a regular on Larry's series playing the part of a Sheriff but in reality Capps is a legendary session musician).

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 22...

Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans!! The most recent Rayality TV has made it's way onto YouTube!! In this installment The Encore retirement home takes center stage once more...and in one of the sketches we're entertained by several spaced out characters (hippies). There is also a music video added in...the illegal immigration song "Come to the U.S.A." which, to date, has 8.7 million unique views on YouTube!!



I made mention of this a couple of blogs ago so I hope some of you all remembered that Ray Stevens was the special guest over the weekend on Larry's Country Diner. I notice over on the traffic feed that a couple of visits have been made to a blog I published in 2010 about an appearance by Ray on Larry's show. I didn't publish a stand alone blog this time around for Ray's most recent appearance because I no longer get RFD-TV and because of that I found it difficult to gather up the kind of hype/excitement that I get when it comes to any of the other Ray Stevens appearances but I hope those that seen the appearance loved it!!

I looked all over the internet but didn't see any screen caps or commentary about Ray's appearance but I did get some information about the songs Ray performed. The info comes from another fan that happens to still have RFD-TV. On the September 6, 2014 episode of Larry's Country Diner Ray Stevens performed the following songs: "If Jesus is a Stranger", "Amazing Grace", "Turn Your Radio On", and "Nashville". This appearance had been taped a month or two earlier. 

Here's an Amazon LINK to Ray's recording of "If Jesus is a Stranger". Based on sales, it's the most popular digital download from the gospel CD. The physical copy of the CD is currently ranked in sales at #352. It hasn't cracked the Top-100 yet...but I assume at some point if a music video or something comes along that creates more awareness of the CD's availability then the CD may just land in the Top-100 amongst the Amazon best-sellers list.

Ray Stevens: The Super 10...

Hello to August...in my first blog entry of the month I decided to list the 10 biggest music videos on YouTube from Ray Stevens for the years 2009 through 2014. I call it The Super 10. The videos are ranked by unique views, as of August 1, 2014, and in numerical order starting with the smallest to the largest. I must say that all 10 have at least 1,000,000 unique views. The numbers increase as we head to #1.

#10: God Save Arizona (2011)- This ballad has 1,021,656 unique views. The song can be found on his Spirit of '76 CD.

#9: It's Me Again, Margaret (1992/2009)- This classic from 1984 became a music video in 1992 and it made it's debut on YouTube in 2009. It's gotten 1,036,057 unique views so far.

#8: Throw the Bums Out! (2010)- This rallying cry has 1,070,255 views at the moment. The song is from the We the People CD.

#7: Obama Nation (2012)- Debuting in July, this cleverly titled song/video sits at 1,096,261. The song originated on his We the People CD.

#6: Mr. President - Mr. President (2011)- Debuting in September, this video has 1,489,631 unique views. It's a catchy sing-a-long...the video has footage of Obama at a podium and Ray acts as a member of the press asking him pointed questions. The song can be found on his Spirit of '76 CD.

#5: Obama Budget Plan (2011)- From April comes this video all about the President's debt and deficit problems and his consistent proposals for more big spending and higher taxation on people. It's gotten 3,382,891 unique views so far. You can find the song on Ray's Spirit of '76 CD. Notice the increased jump in multi-millions from video #6 and video #5.

#4: The Streak (1992/2009)- This classic from 1974 became a music video in 1992 and it made it's debut on YouTube in 2009. It's gotten 3,614,829 unique views.

#3: Mississippi Squirrel Revival (1992/2009)- This classic from 1984 became a music video in 1992 and it made it's debut on YouTube in 2009. It's obtained 4,047,730 unique views.

#2: We The People (2009)- This modern-day classic from Ray hit in November 2009 and it kick started his phenomenal success on YouTube with political and topical music videos. All about Obamacare, this video has 5,101,505 unique views. It's the title track of his 2010 CD.

#1 Come to the U.S.A. (2010)- This is another modern-day classic from Ray and it's from the We The People CD. The video hit in June of 2010 and it's about illegal immigration. The sarcasm and irony that drips from the lyrics is usually lost on a lot of critics of this song...nonetheless, it's an enormous hit video and it has 8,552,551 unique views...and counting...

Ray Stevens: We The People...4 years Later...

Good late afternoon Ray Stevens fans! It happened to be during the summer of 2010 that Ray's We the People CD became available for purchase all over the internet. It's release date on Amazon was June 8, 2010. It had been available for purchase exclusively on Ray's website store since April of 2010 but it didn't get it's wider release until June.

At the time of the CD's June 2010 release Ray had been experiencing his initial successes on YouTube. He had also been a guest on many political and current events-oriented talk shows on radio and TV. All of it stemmed from the on-line popularity of several music videos. On December 11, 2009 Ray uploaded onto YouTube a music video called "We the People". The video/song dealt with Obamacare...the bill being drafted in Congress overhauling the United States healthcare system. Although the bill's official name is The Affordable Care Act, the nickname Obamacare became it's unofficial moniker. The nickname came from the bill's opponents. The bill became law in early 2010 on a party line vote and ever since then it's been the subject of numerous lawsuits and on-going debates. The actual law itself doesn't really take full effect for several more years but gradual implementation has been going on since 2010 and the more people see it's impact the more unpopular the law is becoming with Independent voters.

The video kicks off with Ray playing a plunger like a guitar (a visual reference to Joe the Plumber). The video's success and everything else that happened for Ray throughout 2010 set the stage for the next several years. He became a frequent performer at several political rallies for Tea Party groups and appeared on several high profile programs on the Fox News Channel multiple times throughout the year. The video, as of July 31st, has gotten 5,101,028 unique views. It obtained more than a million unique views during it's first month on-line.

In March of 2010, a couple of additional music videos surfaced: "Caribou Barbie", a salute to the political opinions of Sarah Palin, debuted on March 11 and a little more than a week later the rallying cry of "Throw the Bums Out!" hit YouTube on March 22. The latter music video has 1,070,046 unique views as of July 31, 2014. The Palin music video has half a million unique views as of July 31, 2014...the exact total is 580,809. You'd think it would've had many more views than that considering the video's subject matter but it never did get the coverage some of his other YouTube videos have gotten. There's millions upon millions of blogs, sites, and video clips of Sarah Palin and those that impersonate her all over the internet and so it's massive competition to say the least. Nevertheless, Ray's video is comical and cute, in places, and it includes impersonator Lori Stegner playing the part of Palin.

On May 13, 2010 Ray released the music video, "Come to the U.S.A." onto YouTube! This one, about illegal immigration and the problems of non-assimilation, has recently caught fire again. It originally hit during the height of the Arizona border security crisis and the controversies that erupted throughout the remainder of 2010-2011 surrounding illegal immigration, deportation, and a Federal Government unwilling to enforce it's immigration laws. In terms of unique views it's his biggest video hit...currently sitting at 8,544,298! A couple of days ago (July 28) the video had 8,499,676. The totals indicate a pick-up of 44,622 unique views in three days time.

A month after the release of "Come to the U.S.A.", the topical "Global Warming Song" hit YouTube on June 29, 2010. It was the fifth music video from a song found on the 2010 We the People CD. The music video's gotten 438,377 unique views. If the topic ever becomes a national issue once again the video should get more attention than it has.

A sixth music video from that 2010 CD surfaced on July 23, 2012 (to date the last music video to come from a song found on We the People). The music video titled "Obama Nation" became another million view hit...as of today it's got 1,095,849 unique views. Sandwiched between that 2012 video release and "The Global Warming Song" in June of 2010 was a Christmas music video in 2010 and other political videos of songs later to be found on the 2012 CD, Spirit of '76. Those particular videos started hitting YouTube in 2011.

Those interested can purchase the 2010 CD on Amazon. There's an Mp3 version also available for those that don't want the CD format. Once you click the link above you can click the Mp3 link on the Amazon page.

But, of course, 2010's "Come to the U.S.A." is the music video receiving a major resurgence at the moment and here it is...

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 16...

Hello all...I didn't have much time to be on the computer the last couple of days but in keeping with my tradition I've decided to embed the latest installment of Rayality TV from Ray Stevens...



This particular installment features the Reverend Ray character of fictional P.R.A.Y TV spreading the word about animals running wild in a couple of churches. The music videos spotlighted are "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat".

In other happenings...yes, Ray's 2010 music video about illegal immigration, "Come to the U.S.A.", continues to rack up new unique views. It's approaching 8.5 million at the moment. The detailed total is 8,499,273!

For those that missed it or didn't make it there in person, the Country Music Hall of Fame's website has Ray's July 19th appearance at the Ford Theater embedded on their site. You can see the video and interview by clicking HERE. I don't know how long the video will be on-line, though...so watch it while you can. It runs about an hour.

One of the LP's from Ray Stevens that has never, to date, been issued on CD or become available as an Mp3 is 1969's Have a Little Talk with Myself. It's anyone's guess as to the reasons but it's probably due to the fact that most of the songs on it are Ray's versions of then-current pop songs and maybe some sort of music rights/publishing conflict is keeping that particular LP from making it's conversion to the digital age. The songs, with the exception of the title track that Ray penned, haven't become readily available on compilation projects either and so chances are the only place you're going to hear Ray's versions of "Hey Jude", "Aquarius", "Help", and others is to seek out the LP on eBay. Yes, in case you're asking yourselves, there are songs that have been lifted from the LP that have appeared elsewhere: "Hair", "Games People Play", and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" have appeared on compilation projects released on Ray Stevens...with "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" (Ray's first single to reach the country music charts) being the most readily available of the three. A lot has been made of Ray's version of that particular song. Ray recorded it first and released it in 1969. In spite of the great performance and production it's a case of public image vs. lyrics. Ray had never cultivated the image of being a hell-raiser or one routinely coping with a hangover. The song became enormous a year later in 1970 by Johnny Cash.

This is one of my favorite LP covers. It's an image that I've had in my favorites for years. I've never came across the LP in any flea market...it's often for sale on eBay and other on-line auction sites at a less than reasonable selling price. As you can tell, it's a 2-LP set...20 songs altogether. It became available in 1979 on a label called Imperial House and it's filled with songs from Ray spanning the years of 1968 through 1975...and the one exception being his current hit single at the time, 1979's "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". The LP collection closes with that recording...the only recording representing his four year stay at Warner Brothers (1976-1979) to make the collection. Apparently the collection's purpose was to spotlight early recordings from Ray and deliberately finish it off with his current hit at the time. If I had been putting the project together I would've closed with his 1968 recording of "Isn't it Lonely Together" and had "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" as track 18 but I understand the reason for closing the collection with the 1979 hit...and it has a big finish and is perfect to close out a collection, too...but the aching and despair heard in Ray's vocals on the 1968 recording could also work as an LP closer, too.

This television performance, from 1979, is great. It lacks some of the instrumentation used in the studio recording, most notably the horn section, but nonetheless it's still fabulous. You might have to raise your volume...the audio isn't as crisp and sharp as it once was. To mirror this 2-LP collection, I'm closing this blog post with "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow"...

Ray Stevens Gospel Collection...

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens! Yes, it's an early blog post today...I happened to come from Amazon several minutes ago and noticed that the product page for the Ray Stevens Gospel Collection CD has been updated. The page no contains a picture of the CD...but in the small print it still lists the artist as Ryan Stevens in spite of the CD's title on full display indicating the actual artist. You can see the Amazon page HERE and if you're a member you can place a pre-order if you desire. The CD's release date is August 19, 2014. Amazon doesn't have a song list but you can check the other on-line sites for a song list. In my previous blog post (you can access it off to the right in the archives) I provided links to several on-line retail stores that have the CD and it's track list on their product page. Whichever on-line store you ultimately choose to purchase your copy make sure you look for that CD image. There are several gospel projects already on the market that have been released on Ray Stevens on a variety of different record labels and those projects are filled with the gospel songs he recorded in the early '70s for his Turn Your Radio On album. This project has the Gaither Gospel Series stamp on the top left side of the CD picture sleeve and some of the songs on this upcoming 2014 CD are "Dry Bones", "If Jesus Is a Stranger" and "Onward Christian Soldiers".

"Come to the U.S.A." did indeed vault past the 8.4 million mark in unique views. Yesterday morning the video had 8,393,797 unique views and this morning it has 8,421,039 for a pick up of 27,242.

Ray Stevens: July Songwriter Session Pictures...

Good morning all...if you've done a recent Google image search for Ray Stevens then you'll be aware that several new pictures of him have been showing up during the search results. Those pictures come from his July 19th appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame's Ford Theatre during the Songwriter Session series. There are more than 30 pictures captured from the event...from both backstage, during the performance and interview, and several from the Nashville book signing afterward.

You can see all of those pictures HERE.

Speaking of the book...you can purchase your copy on AMAZON. That link takes you to the paperback version. There is a Kindle version available, too. I seldom post a link to the Kindle because I'm biased...I prefer people buy the actual physical copy of the book. Of course, I know that once a person clicks the Amazon link to the paperback copy of Nashville they can easily click the link for the Kindle edition. No matter which format you choose it's a great story/history of Nashville from the experiences of Ray Stevens. The book should start to become available at his on-line store in a couple of months.

In the meantime...

The totals for the illegal immigration music video, "Come to the U.S.A.", have obtained more than 20,000 unique views since my previous blog post yesterday. The total, as of now, is 8,393,797. I'm sure it'll make it into the 8.4 million range some point today.

Around this same time next month Volume One of Ray's gospel CD should be making the headlines among the social media sites. It's to be released on August 19 and the marketing is to be handled by the Gaither company but it should be available at all the on-line music stores. The title of the CD is Ray Stevens Gospel Collection Volume One.

At the moment I've seen it up for Pre-Order on the Best Buy site. You can see their product page HERE. You will need to become a member of their on-line site to place a pre-order. There is also has a product page, but no Pre-Order availability at the moment, at this SITE from Capitol Christian Distribution. A third page I come across offering a Pre-Order of the gospel CD is this one from a site called Family Christian. As is the case with the other music stores, you'll have to register to become a member and create an account at the Family Christian site before purchasing items.

Is Amazon offering a pre-order? Well, if you type "Ray Stevens Gospel Collection" at Amazon a CD shows up in the search results with that title indicating the release is to be August 19, 2014 but inexplicably the site has the artist name listed as 'Ryan Stevens' instead of 'Ray Stevens' even though the name of the CD clearly states it's Ray Stevens. I sent an e-mail to the appropriate department several weeks ago informing them of their spelling mistake but the typo has never been corrected and it still lists the recording artist for the CD as 'Ryan Stevens' even though Ray's name is clearly part of the CD's title. Amazon doesn't have a picture of the CD unlike the other music stores.

You can see for yourselves HERE.

Ray Stevens and the Topical Comedy...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! If you've been reading much of the posts about Ray over on the social network sites you'll undoubtedly be aware that his illegal immigration mega-hit music video, "Come to the U.S.A." , has grabbed a lot of new viewers. The video had long since been a fixture on various sites and blogs that favor border security but in the last several days/weeks the refugee problem has sort of put some new life into this familiar music video. The music video, originally, came about during the early months of the illegal immigration battle and the eventual court case between the state of Arizona and the Federal Government several years ago.

It's important to point out, though, that there's a slight difference between a refugee and an illegal immigrant. A refugee is typically defined as someone that flees their country due to circumstances beyond their control. There has to be proof that a crisis is going on in order to classify one as a refugee. An illegal immigrant is typically defined as someone that flees their home country for their own personal reasons rather than any real threat taking place in their home country. Also, illegal immigration usually carries a sense of secrecy due to the fact that the immigrants are residing in America illegally and didn't get proper paperwork. Unfortunately, though, too many refugee's pose the same problem as too many illegal immigrants and it ends up being a societal and economic mess.



Both the humorous "Come to the U.S.A." (which has seen an obvious spike in unique views and has 7.9 million to date) and the pointed "God Save Arizona" are two songs from Ray Stevens that go in two very different directions. As you can see, "Come to the U.S.A." uses humor and sarcasm to point out the preposterous policies on illegal immigration in America compared to the illegal immigration policies of other nations around the globe.

"God Save Arizona" (1,013,997 unique views) is the complete opposite. It is very direct and pointed in it's message regarding the Federal Government and it's oppressive dealings with the State of Arizona on the issue of border security.

  

Don't forget, this coming Saturday, Ray Stevens is going to take part in a Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame. A couple of days ago I made mention of this in a blog post and I included detailed information surrounding the event. Here's the LINK to my previous blog entry.

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.

This Week in Ray Stevens History: 2011

As I as looking through some of the music videos from Ray Stevens I came across a favorite from 2010 that is almost nearing the 1,000,000 plateau in unique views. The music video comes from August 2010 and it tackles the controversial subject matter of illegal immigration. "God Save Arizona" can be taken as a highly topical song considering that much of the national headlines throughout much of 2010 centered around border security. It can also be taken as a rallying cry for those fed up with the illegal immigration problems in the border states. Arizona stands out from the other states that border Mexico and some say it's because the state has the worst illegal immigration problem and some say it's because Arizona has the loudest public officials on the subject and therefore the state receives more national attention because of it.

The music video, released on You Tube, created a frenzy of sorts...if I recall correctly it had 2 debuts. The first upload mysteriously vanished from the site several hours after making it's national debut. I believe I even mentioned that fact in one of my blog entries of that time period (feel free to look through the August 2010 archives). Later on the music video re-emerged on You Tube. It's dramatic visuals and serious tone was in sharp contrast to the political music videos Ray had been uploading onto You Tube since late 2009. Although the illegal immigration issue has continued to dominate much of Arizona's local and state headlines, nationally it's not reported on with such fervor as it happened to be in 2009, 2010, and into 2011.

This week in April 2011, Ray Stevens issued the Spirit of '76 as a digital release exclusive. The Mp3 became available for sale on April 1, 2011 and then later on that year (August 9th to be exact) the physical CD became available for sale. I purchased the Mp3 (of course!) but I didn't get around to purchasing a physical copy of the CD until a year or so later (??). I have several blog entries scattered throughout 2011 about the project, it's Mp3 release, and it's eventual CD release...and my eventual purchase of the CD copy.

The CD features 11 songs.

By the time the CD copy arrived in August 2011 several of the songs had already been turned into music video hits on You Tube. "God Save Arizona" is track 3 and it hit You Tube in August 2010. The opening 2 numbers are "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" (The TSA Song) and "Mr. President - Mr. President". A music video for track 1 debuted in February 2011 while track 2 had a music video debut in September 2011.

Ray made the rounds of various talk radio programs that had conservative/Tea Party friendly hosts and in some appearances he promoted "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". Track 9, "Obama Budget Plan", had it's music video debut on You Tube in late April 2011. It's the song that, as you can see, became the focal point during the Mp3 April debut of Spirit of '76.

Although both "God Save Arizona" and "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" preceded "Obama Budget Plan" in video release chronology, "Obama Budget Plan" became the main song that started getting performed and spoken about heavily by Ray on talk shows and in interviews. By the time late April 2011 rolled around the national topic had changed from the embarrassing airport security practices of The TSA to the budget battles in Congress and the huge spending demands of Obama.

Politics can become very predictable and obviously cyclical (if one studies it to some degree in their lives you'll find out it's true, too) and most of these songs had been written and recorded well in advance and call it good luck on Ray's part that national events lent themselves perfectly to the songs that found their way into music video form on You Tube. A fifth music video hit come from Spirit of '76 later in 2011...the voter fraud tale of how "Grandpa Voted Democrat".

That particular music video received a huge amount of plays...but for just a couple of days. It was uploaded on November 3, 2012...the nation, at the time, was in election mode...and the video had a good run leading up to the 2012 elections as the topic hit home with a lot of voters, too...but then after the 2012 elections the video's play dwindled. The midterm elections are coming up this year and let's see if the music video makes a comeback. I'll embed the video at that point in time.

The message of the song is timely and timeless. It's gotten a little more than 400,000 unique views so far. I'd take a guess and say that more than half of those views came during November 2012!

In the meantime, "God Save Arizona", as I started off this blog discussing, can be seen here...



I highly encourage you all to purchase Spirit of '76, too, if you hadn't done so already...

Spirit of '76 CD

Ray Stevens and the Politics of Comedy, Part 2...

How is this for irony? I wrote a blog entry this morning about Ray's most recent video upload on You Tube, Politically Speaking: Obama Budget Plan, and within that entry I mentioned that it was the last thing that had been made available on Ray's You Tube channel. I returned to the internet and found out that an hour ago something new had been uploaded to his channel...a follow-up commentary. This time around the commentary centers around his most popular video upload, "Come to the U.S.A.", the illegal immigration song. Like the previous installment, this one is 31 seconds in length as well.

Ray Stevens speaks of Illegal Immigration...

Good late afternoon fans of Ray Stevens! I just now came across a fairly recent interview that Ray gave regarding the subject of illegal immigration. The interview is about three and a half minutes in length, commercial free of course, and you'll be able to hear Ray give his thoughts on illegal immigration and more specifically "Come to the U.S.A.". The web-page has an embed of the music video for those out there who still haven't seen it yet. To date the video's gotten 6.3 million unique views during it's 3 year life span on You Tube. I've embedded the video once more, too.

You can listen to the interview HERE. If that link doesn't open up to the audio clip then you can always visit the site's main page HERE.



For those who frequent eBay there have been a few obscure items come up for sale on Ray Stevens lately. I've got most of the items but I sometimes like to point out if something becomes available that I've written about. The cassette tape of his 1980 album, Shriner's Convention, is once again being offered for sale. You can read about it HERE. From the same year, 1980, comes a magazine called Country Song Roundup. I've written about this before but it's become available again on eBay. The issue features Ray on the cover with a story tease about how he's more than meets the ear. You can find out about this HERE. Staying in this same time frame we have the LP version of Collector's Series. This project was released on RCA and featured just 8 selections (4 per side).

Ray's RCA catalog, as I've mentioned numerous times, is tragically under-rated and with the exception of at least songs the music's been out of print for more than 2 decades. The LP spotlights the years of 1980, 1981, and 1982 and can be found HERE. The two songs from Ray's RCA period that often show up on compilation releases are "Shriner's Convention" and "The Dooright Family", both from 1980.

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: Golden LP Series, Part 39...

Welcome again to the Golden LP Series. Studio album 39 in the career of Ray Stevens is on the agenda this time around. All of these installments of the Golden LP Series have been wonderful to put together and this one is no different. In January 2010 the Ray Stevens music video, "We the People", and the single of the same name were riding a wave of popularity which shown the single consistently place among the Top-5 on Amazon's various best-seller lists. The music video was nearing 2,000,000 unique views by the middle of the month and just prior to that a clip of the video was shown on the Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor. This spotlight, which featured a clip of the video and alerted viewers to check out Ray's web-site for more information, caused Ray's web-site as well as his You Tube channel to crash momentarily.

National talk radio programs as well as local talk radio programs featured interviews with Ray Stevens throughout the first half of 2010 as "We the People" continued to garner hundreds of thousands of on-line views weekly. Bloggers, from both sides of the political fence, all featured Ray's music video. The theme in a lot of the blogs of that time period all seemed to follow the same line of thinking that Ray had come out of retirement to musically challenge the Obama Administration. There were other bloggers who had assumed that Ray had died years ago and so to see him all over the news programs certainly startled quite a few people. Oh yes, believe it or not, there were some out there who thought this video was from a Ray Stevens impostor because the sudden political overtone was something "the real Ray Stevens" wasn't known for.

Ray gave a boatload of radio and print interviews, as mentioned, during the first half of 2010 and one of those interviews can be found HERE. If you Google Ray's name and the song's title chances are you'll still find a lot of the various interviews and commentaries from 2010 that featured Ray's song as a centerpiece. You'll also find a lot of my earlier blog entries from that time period where I chronicle all the interviews and appearances Ray was a part of if you look in the archives.

Ray's birthday is January 24th and he had several interviews and articles that popped up all over the internet focusing on political issues that very day. The thrilling events had culminated in a mid January 2010 appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, the very program that caused his web-site to crash. Ray appeared via satellite and thanked O'Reilly for helping the site crash and for all the attention the song and video were getting as a result. It was in this interview where the two of them spoke of the bygone days where people weren't so easily offended as they seem to be today. A clip of "Ahab the Arab" was played during this point of the interview. In April an Mp3 digital album, We the People, was released. This was studio album 39 in the career of Ray Stevens. The collection featured a mixture of brand new political songs and a few patriotic recordings with a small dose of some previously recorded songs that fit the overall theme of the project. Two additional music videos emerged in the aftermath of "We the People" and those were "Caribou Barbie", a song about Sarah Palin in which the video employs a professional Palin impersonator to play the part of the former Governor and it also visually spoofs cable news personalities on liberal leaning newscasts. The follow-up music video, "Throw the Bums Out!", is a protest of Congress in general and it served as one of the rallying cries of the 2010 midterm elections that coming November. 

Max T. Barnes wrote "Throw the Bums Out!" in addition to "We the People" and "Solar Powered Song"; he co-wrote "Caribou Barbie" with Matt Cline.

In June the CD copy of We the People became available. It came with a DVD extra featuring four music video releases that had been big hits on You Tube: "We the People", "Caribou Barbie", "Throw the Bums Out!", and the military salute entitled "Thank You". It was around the time of the CD's June release that a new music video from Ray was creating quite the stir on-line. "Come to the U.S.A.", from the pen of Buddy Kalb and Matt Cline, hit right around the time the Arizona illegal immigration topic was all over the news, both locally and nationally, in the summer of 2010. The news centered around a bill that was ultimately signed into law by the state's Governor, Jan Brewer. The song had been recorded months before the Arizona illegal immigration issue had dominated national newscasts but the timing couldn't have been more wonderful. Illegal immigration isn't anything new and it isn't confined only to Arizona but that's the state reportedly having the highest crime rates and drug trafficking as a result of illegal immigration from Mexico and so Arizona gets more media focus than other border states. In this particular song Ray addresses the illegal immigration issue in his own special kind of way...and in the music video he has some fun while addressing the serious issue. The underlying theme of this project, as I took it, was having the seriousness of the topics handled with a hefty dose of humor in an attempt to get over certain points of view without being heavy handed about it. The music video repeated the same pattern as "We the People". It became a million view success story, too. Today "We the People" has more than 4.5 million views while "Come to the U.S.A." has more than 6,000,000.

Given the fact that this project contains 22 songs there was some considerable longevity and future music video releases mined from it. I call this a political music gold mine. Basically, each Ray Stevens album is a pot of gold but it's up to the consumer to dig around for all the hidden gems that do not become commercially released or widely known. Following the illegal immigration video Ray moved on to the topic of global warming. "The Global Warming Song", from the pen of Matt Cline, tells the whimsical tale of two brothers who buy a frozen wasteland cheap in the hopes that global warming will turn it into a tropical paradise. Cline plays one of the brothers in the video. In the previously recorded offerings list we have "Let's Roll" and "Stand Up", both from the 2004 limited release Thank You project and there is "Sucking Sound" from 2008. "Thank You" is a re-recording. The nostalgic "Safe at Home" is featured on here as is the brand new, "Dear Andy Griffith". Each of those songs, written by Nick Sibley, paint memories of rural America and the idealistic simpler days. Ray often performs "Safe at Home" at his concerts and he performed it during an appearance on Larry's Country Diner, which airs on the RFD-TV channel. Ray gives us some updated recordings of "Kings and Queens" and "If 10% Is Good Enough for Jesus".

There are two songs on here that I'm surprised were never made into music videos and those are "We Are the Government" and "Solar Powered Song". The former is a song about an ever-growing Government that takes over people's daily lives, a hardcore fact that a lot of voters seemed to overlook or not care about in the recent elections. It's also a comment on Congressional hypocrisy where bills become drafted and ultimately signed into law by the President and yet those very people who create and enforce laws are immune from having to follow the very laws they create. The latter is a whimsical song about solar power and it's usage in a recording studio.

As of this writing the last song to be lifted from this project and turned into a music video was "Obama Nation" in July of this year...two years after the 22 song We the People project was released. In the meantime, Ray had released studio album 40 in 2011, and for awhile he was going back and fourth between We the People and the 2011 project when it came to publicity and marketing.

Return to this blog next time as we take a look at studio album 40 in the career of Ray Stevens...it'll lift your spirits most definitely!!

Ray Stevens hits another Milestone...

Good afternoon all Ray Stevens fans. I've been waiting to make this kind of announcement for several days and now that it's happened it's an announcement I can make...Ray Stevens obtained another million today when his anti-illegal immigration music video, "Come to the USA", surpassed the five million unique view mark. As of now the total is 5,000,074!! The music video was uploaded on You Tube in May 2010 and late last year it had crossed the 4 million mark...making it the highest viewed music video from Ray Stevens...a close second being "We The People". Eventually "We The People" crossed the 4 million mark and currently sits with 4,258,625 unique views but, as you can see, "Come to the USA" had an even stronger impact and has now crossed the 5 million mark. When I checked the play count for "Come to the USA" earlier this morning it was sitting on the brink of 5 million with 4,999,070 views and so I knew it was only a matter of hours before it would reach the 5 million milestone. Doing the math we can see the video got 1,004 views in a little under 4 hours time. Meanwhile, his current TSA music video, "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", has gotten 114,040 unique views.

Those wanting to hear some Irish-inspired songs from Ray Stevens on this St. Patrick's Day look no further than a couple of comedy songs from his past. First there's "The Day That Clancy Drowned" from 1987...a comical tale of a man who works at a brewery but meets his end in a most bizarre fashion. There's no reference to the words Irish or Ireland but Clancy, the name, is of Irish origin. Also, Ray does an Irish vocal impression while playing the part of the preacher at the funeral. The second Irish enhanced song from Ray is 1993's "The Bricklayer's Song", a comical performance which was also recorded by Noel Murphy as well as The Corries in addition to it's writer, Pat Cooksey. In this song Ray recounts the story of an Irishman who had bad luck while laying bricks on a multistory building. In previous recordings by other artists the song was always performed as if it were first-hand recollections of what went on but in Ray's version he plays the part of the storyteller instead of the victim (although in the descriptive lyrics it allows Ray to comically agonize the pain and suffering taking place between the bricklayer, the rope, and that barrel.)

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 Arizona...It's no Laughing Matter...

I happen to believe that a lot of things in the music business are cyclical. There is abundant proof currently on display when it comes to Ray Stevens. Ray burst onto the scene in the late '50s performing love ballads rooted in R&B and early rock music. However, he didn't get any mainstream attention until he joined Mercury Records in 1961...following a 1960 single on the NRC label entitled "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", one of his very first comedy recordings. The comical approach told Ray that it would get him some attention...and during 1961-1963 Ray wrote and recorded a steady stream of comical songs and love ballads. The comical songs made the most impression on the various pop music charts of the era...and suddenly Ray found himself being labeled a novelty artist. This comical image was difficult to overcome no matter how many fine, serious recordings Ray made during the mid 1960's.

Then something happened...by 1968 Ray found himself gaining some momentum on the pop charts with a non-comical song for the first time in his career. "Unwind" would peak just below the Top-50...by doing so it became his most successful non-comical recording to date. The song was his fifth single release on Monument Records...and the sixth single release later in 1968 became his major breakthrough non-comical song. The song in question? It's none other than "Mr. Businessman". It was a social commentary song putting on trial the average businessman's reputation. Ray's album that year, Even Stevens, shown a much more serious overtone than his previous albums. Also, his voice had by this time deepened...causing him to sound completely different than he did throughout the bulk of the '60s. Ray would continue to issue comical material off and on during the 1969-1974 time frame but 90% of the material was non-comical. This serious approach to material enabled Ray to build a fan base that preferred the serious, non-comical recordings he was making in this era.

1970's "Everything Is Beautiful" was and continues to be his biggest non-comical hit song. It reached #1 and was a million seller...a year earlier he emerged with an all-comedy album, Gitarzan, featuring the million selling title track. He flip-flopped from comedy to serious material often and in early 1971 "Bridget the Midget, The Queen of the Blues" became a smash comedy single in England. Ray would continue to release the occasional comedy song or full length comedy album but the bulk of his commercial singles happened to be serious love ballads. Ray had his biggest selling hit single, "The Streak", during the streaking fad of 1974...it was a million selling comedy song and hit #1 in a little over a month's time on the pop chart.

What all of this boils down to is Ray's career can be described as somewhat cyclical due to the flip-flopping of serious and comedy recordings...not to forget the flips from pop to country to R&B to gospel. Throughout the mid '80s and on through the next two decades of the '90s and 2000's Ray had firmly established himself as a country comedian...and it's that image and it's those comical recordings that typecast him once and for all as a singer of comedy songs. Also, several generations of audiences grew up on this comical version of Ray Stevens...and much like the audiences of the late '60s through the mid '70s preferred the much more serious Ray Stevens, the audiences of the '80s through the '90s were much more familiar with the zany and comical Ray Stevens and that's what the general public wanted to see. "God Save Arizona" and his recent video hits on You Tube carrying political overtones is something foreign to the generations who grew up with the image of Ray Stevens singing and prancing around a stage playing characters-in-song and joking around with the audience and his band members. This brings us back to that cyclical phrase once again. Anytime an artist chooses to shift gears it's bound to ruffle some feathers and make some uncomfortable. Ray Stevens "going political", as some refer to it, is something new and different from an artist who up until late last year rarely talked politics in such a public way.

The very idea of a "comedy singer" having anything "serious" to say, especially about politics, tickled a lot of people's funny bones and gained Ray a lot of attention. There were some who misunderstood "We The People" and took it to mean something completely out of context. Some thought Ray was spoofing the Tea Party, for example, but in reality he was supporting them through his style of humor. In "Come to the USA", you had people out there whining and crying and accusing Ray of being racist. "God Save Arizona", the latest hit video, created a similar misunderstanding when some accused Ray of being a borderline fascist who wishes to see the Federal Government over-thrown. I'm sure at some point Ray will return to the non-political songs...cyclical time indicates things often return again...but let none of you out there forget that it is a business after all. Ray's having some of the most talked-about songs of his career and they're finding audiences on You Tube...and the exposure translates into potential sales for the music. Like in time's past once something isn't successful anymore you move on to something else that'll hopefully grab people's attention. Meanwhile his political music videos of late are grabbing people's attention...and the idea of getting attention is what any singer hopes to do with everything they release.

Anyway...enjoy Ray's current You Tube video hit...

Ray Stevens hits the Top-5...

Last week Ray Stevens' latest CD, We The People, made it's debut in the Top-10 on Billboard's Comedy Album chart. This week the CD moved upward and is now among the Top-5 most popular comedy CD's in the country. This week also marked the CD's debut on Billboard's Top Country Albums list. The CD charted more modestly on the country album list due, perhaps, to it being a comedy CD but more importantly due to it being overly political and not hyped much among country music circles. It also charted lower on the country album list simply because of it's sales that week in comparison to the other CD's in the country Top-75. Whatever the reason for it's modest country album debut the CD's appearance in the Top-10 and then the Top-5 on the Comedy Album chart allows Ray to lay claim to having Top-10 success in six decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 00's, and now this decade. What was his Top-10 success last decade you all may be wondering? It was the success during 2002-2003 of his single, "Osama Yo' Mama". The single became a big selling hit and remained on Billboard's Country Single Sales list for almost a year, usually charting in the Top-3, and sold half a million copies. This particular chart was discontinued in 2005 due to the lack of commercial singles being manufactured.

The single didn't cross over into the mainstream and so the public at large was largely unaware of it's existence. The album that Curb Records released in 2002 on Ray, titled Osama Yo' Mama, became a Top-30 hit on the Country Album chart, his highest charted audio album since 1987. Ray's Top-10 success during the '90s had to do with his home video releases. Comedy Video Classics and Ray Stevens Live! became million selling Top-5 home videos in the early '90s, specifically during the years of 1993-1995. Comedy Video Classics went on to sell over two million copies after having sold over a million copies through mail-order in 1992. Obviously, Billboard named that home video it's Video of the Year in their year-end rankings. His other major home video release that decade, Get Serious, remained on Billboard's Top Video chart for nearly half a year reaching the Top-5 in early 1997. So, there you have it. If anyone out there may have been wondering what Ray's successes were during the '90s and last decade now you know. I also supply this information for those who still think Ray hadn't been active since the 1980's. The time-line on the right side of the page gives an almost year by year breakdown of Ray's activity since the late 1950's. Some years aren't mentioned simply because Ray didn't release any music or any project those years.

You Tube update! "Come to the USA" has continued to obtain strong hits and as of this writing the music video has obtained 2,657,847 hits. The video was uploaded on May 13th and so in a couple of weeks it'll be two months old. The illegal immigration battle continues to rage on even though a couple of other news items have replaced it as a top headliner but nevertheless it's still a hot topic.