YMMV / Ray Stevens

• Anvilicious:
  • "We the People" hammers the listener over the head with Stevens' conservative Christian views, to the point that even if one agrees with the overall message, it's still pretty irritating.
  • This is nothing new. Witness "America, Communicate with Me" from the early 1970s. Though that one’s criticism of Black-and-White Morality helps make up for its bluntness.
• Covered Up:
  • Robert Knight (best known for the original "Everlasting Love") had the hit version of "Isn't It Lonely Together."
  • He was the first artist to release "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", which would later become a big hit for Johnny Cash.
  • "It's Me Again, Margaret" was originally cut by its writer, Paul Craft.
• Fridge Logic: In "Too Drunk To Fish", why did the protagonist bring a shotgun on a fishing trip? It wasn't the drunk that brought it either, considering the line says "grabbed my shotgun"?
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: "Bridget the Midget" was just a minor hit in America in 1971 (peaking at #50 on the Hot 100), but it was inexplicably huge in the UK, climbing all the way to #2. "Misty", while a fairly good-sized American hit (#14 pop, #3 country), also reached #2 in the UK.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is commonly assumed to be called "The Day the Squirrel Went Berserk" (the first line of the chorus).
• Second Verse Curse: The last verse of "Ahab, the Arab" (beginning with "All of a sudden, the Sultan walked in") is usually cut out. As a result, almost no lyric sites include it.
• Special Effects Failure: The Laugh Track skips at one point in "The Streak".
• Tearjerker: Ray Stevens recording a tearjerker? More likely than you think.
  • You'll hear one of his downright heart-wrenchers with his 1969 single "Isn't It Lonely Togther," where a young man regrets his decision to have sex with a young woman, gets her pregnant and then resolves the only way to atone is to marry her, even though they both know they are clearly incompatible with each other ... but is resigned to a lonely life despite their being married, all for the sake of the child. (Incidentally, the song's follow-up single was one of his goofiest: "Gitarzan.")
  • Also off the same album is "Funny Man," a song of a man seen as a joker and is laughed at when he asks a woman out.
• Unintentional Period Piece: He is partial to making songs about topical events, so he has got a ton of them.
  • "America, Communicate with Me", mentions the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, as well as the societal turmoils of the late 60s-early 70s. It even opens with snippets of interviews of contemporary protesters.
  • "The Streak": Streaking is still done now and then because Naked People Are Funny, but the craze was the most popular in the 1970s.
  • "The People's Court": A 1986 parody of, well, The People's Court, referencing original judge Joseph Wapner (who left the show in 1993).
  • "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" clearly came from the late 1980s with its attacks on televangelism.
  • "Working for the Japanese": A mocking (and uncharacteristically vicious) look at the invasion of Japanese-made products in America in The '90s.
  • "Osama — Yo' Mama": Obviously, a post-9/11 mockery of you-know-who.
  • His more politically charged music released in The New '10s were fairly obviously made during the Barack Obama administration.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Many of his songs that rely on racial stereotypes certainly wouldn't play as well today. Some like "Ahab, the Arab" aren’t too bad and are too ridiculous to take seriously, but some like "Workin' for the Japanese" are much more uncomfortable.
  • "Bridget the Midget" due to "midget" now considered an offensive term for those with dwarfism.
• Values Resonance:
  • "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" came out at a time when corruptness in televangelism was still a novel concept. While no longer shocking and new, his derision of hypocrisy in televangelism ("Askin' me for $20 with $10,000 on his arm") still holds up against modern "prosperity gospel" preachers like Joel Osteen who are often derided for much the same reasons.
  • "America, Communicate with Me" decries Black-and-White Morality and people becoming splintered due to petty political disagreements. Despite the lyrical references to assassinated leaders, it's otherwise aged well in what it stands up against.

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