Search - Ray Stevens :: #1 With a Bullet

Pearl Harbor and other things

Jerry McDaniel | 03/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1991 was the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The last two songs on this hilarious album deal with the Japanese in some fashion. On "A Little Blue Haired Lady", Ray tells the story of a guy who goes nuts on an interstate because he was stuck behind you guessed it: a little blue haired lady who was doin' 20 MPH on the interstate! the killer verse comes at the end when Ray tells us the reason why the Japanese didn't warn us about Pearl Harbor was because the driver was stuck in traffic behind you guessed it!! Ray's Japanese singing, while playing the part of the Japanese ambassador, is hilarious. The last song "Workin' For The Japanese" is more a satire on the economy and how at the time it seemed that all of our jobs were going to Japan. The rest of the album is your standard Ray Stevens novelty songs. "Power Tools" is written in the formula of "Shriners Convention" but it's target is macho men who work for theirself instead of letting a professional do the work. It wasn't going to be a single, as i've often heard, but the fall premiere of Tim Allen's comedy show in 1991 sort of inspired Ray and CURB to issue "Power Tools" as a parody of the do-it-yourself type despite the bad results of his klutziness. "Power Tools" and "Workin' For The Japanese" were the two singles. The first one hit #72 in early 1992 while the Japanese single did better, peaking at #62 in the fall of 1991 as America was gearing up for Pearl Harbor memorials in December. Lunacy describes what's left. "Tabloid News", "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", and "Juanita and the Kids" go beyond silly...they're what the novelty fans might praise as "demented". In "Juanita and the Kids", Ray orders a doll from Korea but it comes with a certificate of birth! The IRS gets wind of Ray, Juania, and their 14 kids and immediately file an audit on them...only to learn that Ray's character is a nut-case who sleeps with a plastic doll and buys cabbage patch dolls through the mail as his "children" !! only Ray Stevens could perform a song like that with such conviction!! "You Gotta Have a Hat" is a satire on country music singers. check out this CD if you can get your hands on it. it's full of demented and wacky songs."