Blue Harvest has been one of my favorite Star Wars podcasts, and I haven’t missed an episode over the last seven years. Hosts Hawes Burkhardt and Will Whitten have a friendship that radiates through your speakers, and it has always made me feel like I’m part of a discussion with my pals talking Star Wars.
Sure, it took me a while to catch onto the bits — and, let me tell you, there are a lot of bits — but once I caught on, I was hooked.
As I was listening to a recent episode, Hawes mentioned famed racist 1970s singing comedian Ray Stevens, and I nearly did a spit take.
But, then I thought about it a little longer. Of course, two guys from the South that are similar ages to me would know about Ray Stevens.
I knew at that moment that I would finally write my first email into the show. Here it is in it’s entirety.
Hey Hawes and Will,
I found Blue Harvest prior to The Last Jedi and have been listening to y’all ever since. While I still listen to a few other Star Wars podcasts, Blue Harvest remains my favorite to this day thanks to the friendship that resonates between y’all. Every time I listen, it feels like I’m talking to two of my friends about some fucking space wizards. It rules.
However, I am not here to talk about Star Wars today. We’re here to talk about Ray Stevens, and I’m sorry in advance for how long this is.
When you brought him up a few weeks ago, I burst out laughing, because I know you have to be of a certain age and have lived in a certain part of the country to even know who Ray Stevens is let alone know how popular that guy was with a certain demographic.
I’m 36 years old and grew up in eastern North Carolina before moving out to Kansas City about a decade ago. My hometown of Goldsboro used to run a “Crime Stoppers Telethon” once a year that aired on public access, during which you could call in, make a small donation, and request a music video be played. That money would go toward the local police department.
Now, Hawes and Will, the thing about these music videos is that they weren’t out here playing the hits of the 80s and 90s. Oh no no no no. The videos that would be played were made by local businesses. And, I think you’re catching on here, but who do you think middle-age white folks were all about in eastern North Carolina during that time period?
I regret to inform you that they loved some Ray goddamn Stevens.
There were no less than FIVE Ray Stevens centric videos that would air every single year. There was The Streak. There was It’s Me Again Margaret. And, there was one that featured your boy Phil called The Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
Unfortunately, I have absolutely zero recollection of actually making this video for my dad’s company (he’s the ‘narrator’ telling the story in the video), but I don’t know if that’s because I was too young or have repressed the memory into the deepest, darkest part of my mind.
Still, I remember my dad would call in every single year to make a donation and request that they play the Mississippi Squirrel Revival, and y’all know what happened? To this day, I know every single word to that fucking monstrosity.
And I know this sounds too insane to be true, but I recently did some googling and found a video on YouTube from 2008, which was apparently the last year that they did the telethon. Wouldn’t you know it? All five of the Ray Stevens songs lead the video. I wish I was making this up.
I’ll link the video below (the one featuring me starts at 7:50), but it must truly be seen to be believed. If any of the listeners want to torture themselves, just search “2008 Goldsboro Wayne County Crimestoppers Telethon” on YouTube.
Keep it clean, fellas. Phil.
