Ray Stevens is best known for his prodigious output of comic songs, a few of which were actually worth a chuckle. He also had a big hit with “Everything Is Beautiful,” which is as treacly as it sounds, and to ensure his place in the pantheon of uncool, he built his own theater in Bronson, Mo., at the height of that town’s country music mania.
But the same Christian faith and all-American values that made Stevens so square also led him to record one of the most scathing condemnations of materialism to come out of the ’60s. It was quite a departure from “Ahab the Arab” and “Guitarzan” and only made it up to No. 22 in Billboard, but it got Stevens lots of TV air time. Here he is performing it live for the BBC.
