Track Listing

1. Osama - Yo' Mama
2. Hang Up And Drive
3. Safe At Home
4. Freudian Slip
5. Deerslayer
6. Bon Temps Roulette
7. The Hustler
8. The Lady On The Radio
9. Gone For Good
10. United We Stand

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46395 in Music
• Released on: 2002-02-12
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Ray Stevens come-back CD
When Ray came out with his first success back in 1961 (Jeremiah
Peabody's....etc.) who could have predicted that 41 years later
he would still score hits on the charts. The title of his come-
back CD "Osama-Yo' Mama" (2002)reminds us of that terrible day.
Besides the intro song, there's another patriotic ode called
"United We Stand". The rest of this CD is typical Ray Stevens'
type of doing things since 1961: a lot of fun and all kinds of
musical styles. The best song without any doubt is "Bon Temps
Roulette" a mixture of honky-tonk, rhythm & blues, rock & roll
with a cajun stomp touch! "Gone for Good" is hilarious with a
country pickin' rural background. Also nice are The Hustler,
Deerslayer and Freudian Slip. Six nice songs out of ten ain't
bad, although compared to previous Ray Stevens CD's, this come-
back "only" deserves 3 stars.

Here We Go Again
Ray Stevens has been an integral part of music listening habits since I was 12 when I was given a tape for Christmas called " He Thinks He's Ray Stevens " . From track 1 to 10 I loved every note of what I heard because laughter is an important part of all of our lives . Ray year after year through the 80's kept raising the bar and on his brand of country comedy / novelty songs but in the 90's fumbled when he realized there was a market for video albums and concentrated alot on that forum rather than recording for audio releases . He also returned to what he has always done in Nashville and that was be the driving force in Nashville composing , producing , arranging and publishing music for other artists that seldom took a credit under the name we all know so well . Ray can be found documented all the way back to Kate Bush's hit " Such A Night " which he wrote 5 decades ago under his birth name Harold Ragsdale ( no wonder he went with Ray Stevens , huh ? ) LOL ....

But with that said , this album is Ray's home coming in many respects as a performer . He shows us a serious side on songs like " United We Stand " which basically refers to all of the things our country has been founded on and people seem to have forgotten means some thing . It was not just a thought , it was a philosophy and many of us DO NOT live up to it anymore . He exclaims a common problem we are all guilty of but hate when we see others do in a song that I am not so sure was meant for laughs as much as meant to be taken literally on " Hang Up And Drive " . " Freudian Slip " and " Bon Temps Roulette " , I did not find either to be bad songs or unworthy of a listen but , I deffinitely do not pay attention when those 2 are up on my CD player . " The Hustler " has a title that well telegraphs what the song is and what it is about and shows Ray in one of his Parody versions which in his overall portfolio of work is rare for him to do a parody . The title track is good but not great . It has a patriotic feel to it BUT it drags on after the first chorus . " Gone For Good " is one of the most Hilarious songs he has released and almost come up to parr of his work in the 80's and early 90's . " Deerslayer " is the story of a business man coming home late one night and running over a deer being chased by a pack of hunting dogs and slipping the deer into his car thinking up a maco tale for the wife at home when the deersuddenly regains consciousness and tears up his car and get's the business man in a butt load of problems with the wild life commission . The timing on the song is all wrong for the type of story it tells though . My personal favorite song on this CD however is one that barely gets mentioned called " The Lady On The Radio " . It is a tale of a bumbling fool who's wife calls in to a call in radio show and blurts out every detail of less than perfect relationship and then confesses to having an affair on him with his best friend . The whole thing ends in a firendly divorce where once the dust has all settled he gets the best of one of my favorite subjects .... revenge as he calls into the same radio show and tells all about everything SHE did .

Ray's work has suffered but so has he , he established Clyde Records , and owns 5 Music Publishing Houses under BMI and ASCAP , has been composing music for stage and screen as well as producing , won a battle with prostrate cancer and now he even owns his own video production co. and has had a recording studio he updates regularly since the late 60's . With all that on your plate , you won't be up to parr but then again , as high as he raised the standard it is impossible even for Ray Stevens tp reach it anymore .

yeah, we got yo' terror right here...
the hook lines abound on "Osama Yo' Mama" and the material on the CD is his standard satire and country comedy. "The Hustler" is even better than what it spoofs, "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers. "Bon Temps Roulette" is beyond description but it has a nice Cajun feel to it. "Deerslayer" is hilarious and i don't care about it's melody sounding similar to "The Blue Cyclone". I listen to the words anyway and it's a funny story of a hapless man who has what he thinks is a dead deer wake up and go wild in the back of his car! "The Lady on the Radio" is a satire on call-in shows and "Gone For Good" is demented. It's interesting that this CD (on CURB Records) was released to showcase the hilarious "Osama Yo' Mama" single but what many people don't know is that seven of the ten tracks actually appeared two years earlier on his 2000 CD on his own record label, CLYDE. That CD, entitled 'Ear Candy', also featured the hilarious attack on the legal system, "No Lawyers in Heaven", left off from the 2002 CURB album primarily because of it's offensive satire...which would look rather odd on 'Osama Yo Mama' which closes with the majestic lets love one another ballad "United We Stand".