If you were alive in America in the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond, you had to hear scads of Ray Stevens more than 100 hits, especially on the radio (if you can remember what that is)...

Just a sampling of his stuff includes the following titles to jog your memories

-The streak
-The Haircut Song
-Alley Oop
-Gitarzan
-Freddie Feelgood & His Funky Little 5-piece Band
-Oh Lonesome Me
-Lady of Spain
Mockingbird Hill
-Fish, Eat, Sleep
-Too drunk to fish
-Moonlight Special
-Mr. Business Man
-Along Came Jones
Turn Your Radio On
-Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?
Jeremiah Peabody's Poly-Unsaturated, Quick Dissolving, Pleasant Tasting Green & Purple Pills
-If 10% is Good Enough for Jesus it Ought to Be Good Enough for Uncle Sam
-I'm My Own Grandpa
-The Flies of Texas Are Upon You
-The Ballad of The Blue Cyclone
and of course there are many, many more.

SO, THE TOUGH QUESTION - If you had to pick just three of his songs out of all those he ever recorded, which would they be?

I think mine might be
- Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?
-The Streak
-Mr. Business Man
-Along Came Jones
-Gitarzan
-Freddy Feelgood & His funky Little 5-piece band

DANG!-That's not 3, it's 6. Oh well, I had trouble getting down to my favorite 12. Hope you can do better than I can but if not, that's the way the Mercedes Bends.

I vote for Alley Oop.

Jim

This was good for a laugh - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhjYWfHwFHM

Everybody back then also thought "Ahab" was pretty funny. If you were out cruising back in the day you heard it a lot on your car radio.

I always figured Ray was somewhat carrying on the tradition of Dave Gardner.

Brother Dave as he was known did several real popular comedy routines that some of us had on records in the '50s. We knew the lines by heart.

He also did one non comedy song that has remained a big personal favorite of mine throughout the years - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WFElWN6MPQ.

Iz you gon' be heah, when JOHN gits heah?

"Misty","Turn your Radio On", and my favorite " Everything is Beautiful". Ray has a wonderful voice and I love his gospel works. We listened to his comedic songs as kids and loved them too.

Ahab
10%
the streak -- "ETHYL !!!"

Started watching Shack's link and remembered some old ones and found a new one.

Oldies:

squirrel in the church
Shriners' Convention -- "Meanwhile back at the MO-TEL" "We've already seen the little red-head". Hilarious.

And a new one:

Obama Nation. Worth watching for everyone, especially patriotic Americans.

After turning on the youtube link + got sucked into all the others.There went the last 2 hours.Thanks.

You know what guys like Ray Stevens and Brother Dave are don't you. They're humor, Southern style.

They're others. Andy Griffith for one. And Jerry Clower and Justin Wilson.

And I include Sam The Sham too. Take a look at his "Lit'l Red Riding Hood" on YT. Wolfman Jack had a lot of that in him also, probably from his time spent in the South.

Anyway, here was my local favorite comic of that day (Halloween style) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsHbu91PvQQ

It has that same bluesy jazzy New Orleans flavor typical of the South. The kind that reminds of the lyrics, "it takes a cool cat to blow a horn".

..btw, "Sivad" is "Davis" spelled backwards...

I had an NormanC experience. I went to YouTube to get caught-up on Ray Stevens and spent an hour with Rodney Carrington. My sides hurt from laughing. Not a bad view either.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFBpgElJSZU

Yeh...one reason I'm posting all these musical questions is the memories they bring back...what America once was when it was truly the best place in the world to live.

That music (by any and every body) takes us to a world not even imagined by "gangsta rap").

Too bad we can't take our whole country back there long enough for them to learn what could be if modern folks were less interested in the big money and status...and more interested in each other and the comedy which is life.

quote:

Too bad we can't take our whole country back there long enough for them to learn what could be if modern folks were less interested in the big money and status...and more interested in each other and the comedy which is life.

I remember those days. The '50s were the best of all times. The '60s were fine too up til '65.

There were so many things that were better then. Especially culturally.

The biggest knocks on those older times were the lack of modern medical advancements and modern communications.

And the big knocks on today are socialism and human overcrowding, the former being a function of the latter, and the consequent lack of sense of belonging to a community.

Being as honest as possible, I think on balance what came before was a better country and world. And life was sure a lot more fun.

Glad I got to experience it.

How may city dwellers even know their neighbor's names anymore? Our entire culture seems to be based solely on television, the Internet, and social media.

It is still possible to get a glimpse of that bygone era, but you have to go to Australia or New Zealand to see it.

10-4 Kensco. Last time I was in NZ I loved it for that exact reason.

I could do without modern communications. Alexander Graham Bell in retirement stipulated no telephone would be installed in his home. I think he was on to something....

Medical advancements since the '50s are the big advantage of modern times. But modern communications cuts both ways.

Some things about older communications I miss. I thought for instance Morse Code was real interesting to learn and I enjoyed international short wave. The equipment you used for that was pretty cool, with lots of dials and toggle switches and backlighted analog meters. And tuning in at night on the AM to far away stations and figuring out where from was fun. And I enjoyed the old typewriters. And as a child I had a hobby interest in collecting stamps. All that is gone or nearly gone now.

But I don't miss the cost of postage today or the delays in waiting for a response to a letter. I also don't miss in an office setting having to dictate everything for a secretary to type up when and if she got around to it. Today you do it yourself on a computer and it gets done like you want without a lot of mistakes and in a timely way. You can't beat that.

Anyhow, I've been wondering if the relative cost of communications is more or less today. For instance, you save on the postage and for calling directory assistance and for long distance calling, but you pay for the internet to do those, which is not cheap even in today's dollars. In yesterday's dollars you couldn't afford it. And you pay extra for cable, whereas the non cable TVs then cost nothing, but they had enough to satisfy us.

One thing definitely better back then, you didn't have the deluge of daily scam telemarketer phone calls...