Catching Up With Ray Stevens. God Bless the Man! (part two)

All right, so what was I saying... oh, yeah.  "The Streak".  I think I played this single way too much back in 1974, so much that I'm pretty sure it irritated my mom and dad.  But I loved to play things over and over like a mental patient back then.  Even though the song was on my transistor radio twice an hour, I still had to hear it on my turntable.  Here is the original 45 the way it sounded when I played it on my GE record player:

 

So, back to Ray Stevens.  The seventies were good to him, but in 1976, he switched labels to Warner Brothers, where he stayed for four years.  He actually moved around a lot, label-wise.  In the beginning of 1977, I had just discovered Dr. Demento, who was broadcasting on KMET here in Los Angeles.  His listeners would request his songs all the time, so I knew I wasn't the one who liked his stuff!  After 1980, Ray flew gracefully under the radar, charting almost exclusively on the U.S. Country radio stations for 11 years.  He put out several releases with RCA, Mercury and MCA Records during this time.  It was in 1991 that he would open his theater in Branson, Missouri only to sell it too quickly.  But the next year would bring him new-found success.   Using a late-night television direct marketing campaign -- the kind you used before websites and social media -- Ray put together his best material in video form, and ended up selling well over three million copies of those tapes.  This continues to be his music marketing niche to this day; of course today it's DVD's and downloads.  He's achieved pretty impressive numbers, considering his last 13 songs haven't hit on the charts at all, but there was an exception.  Shortly after September 11th, his CD single "Osama - Yo' Mama" hit #48 on Billboard's Country chart.  Now he runs his own label and puts out songs and video on the web whenever he can.
I'm trying to resist writing an obituary for the guy, because he's not dead yet! But he crossed my mind lately when my mother sent a youtube link to his latest tune, "Come To the U.S.A."  The song, like some of his recent work, used satire to spotlight the current controversy over the passing of Arizona's senate bill 1070 regarding illegal immigration.  Even though he's recorded songs in the past that had interwoven social commentary (i.e. "Mr. Businessman"), he never really struck me as a political animal in his songwriting.  If he wasn't one before 9-11, he sure seems to be one now.  That's fine by me, though.  It seems to be a comfortable fit, given that he isn't trying to force himself to be relevant; he comes off as natural and honest.  And his fans, including the new ones, have responded.  I wasn't shocked, but I was disenchanted by what I read in the comments section of the Youtube page.  It was mostly filled with praise for him and his new tune but inevitably laced with lowbrow ignorant written attacks .  I see that kind of stuff all the time on web -- but for Ray Stevens??  Maybe he's a throwback in today's music world, but God bless the man!  I find it very cool that at age 71, he's still putting out good stuff.  
Oh, yeah.  After giving my wife a few clues, she remembers him after all.  I hope the country always will.

Be good out there,

Dean