One of the reasons that the tradition of sitting up with the dead started was that yep, sometimes people came back. More to the point, back then it was very hard to tell sometimes whether or not someone WAS dead; someone could slip into a coma, with very slow respiration and heart rate, and be mistaken for dead; you wanted to be as sure as possible before you buried them! In other words, sometimes you needed some signs of decomposition before you could tell for sure...
Truth! It was usually for three days. That is one of the reasons for the flowers was to cover the smell. I also remember my grandmother would cover all the mirrors in the house with cloths for some reason for the whole three days the departed was in the parlor.
Back in the day, in the country, they didn't have morticians or funeral homes. They laid the deceased out in the front room for relatives and friends to come by and pay their respects.
The Mississippi Squirrel Revival will make y'all laugh so hard you will pee your pants. It's Me Again, Margaret is also very funny. Ray Stevens was one of my Grandma's favorite artists. A very talented man.
Having the dead in homes was a thing back in the day. I can remember as a small child going to see my dead great Aunts and Uncles in their homes. Later they started putting them in the churches over night but there would be volunteers to sit with them there. When my husband was 12 his Grandmother, who was a devout Christian, had died and her body was in her home. His family and some of his Aunts and Uncles from out of town were staying in the house. He had to sleep in the livingroom on the couch. He said he woke up and he looked toward the casket and standing at the head of the casket was a huge Angel. He said the Angel had it's arms lifted up and he jumped up and ran and jumped in the bed with one of his Uncles. He didn't say anything to anyone about it until he was a teenager. Don't you know it scared him so bad. Of course he does know that Angel was there for his Grandmother's soul.
Asia & BJ, you'll love his "Everything Is Beautiful" and "The Streak"!! Everything Is Beautiful has church vibes, and The Streak is a fun novelty song!
The woman Asia was thinking of was in a glass coffin, and the people noticed that the glass was fogging up from the inside. So they opened it and it turns out the woman was breathing causing it to fog.
When my Grandmother was young, it was her turn to sit with a dead relative while the adults went to have coffee. All of a sudden, the corpse sat up in the coffin, and Grandma ran screaming from the room!
As others have said, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, The Streak, Everything is Beautiful, and a couple of my personal faves, "It's Me, Margaret" and "Guitarzan". Actually, anything you find of his is amazing.
We sat up with my uncle and grandma. Alabama. My uncle got struck by lightning and had a small hole in his temple. Remember as a child just staring at him!
Ray is the best! My grandad thought he was endlessly hilarious and some of my best childhood memories are of watching Ray Steven VHS tapes with my grandparents and cousins. Can’t wait to see your reaction 😂 You need to hear the Squirrel Revival Song
I think this was from a routine that comedian Lewis Grizzard did back in the 70's. That man was hilarious !!!! He died in 1994 I believe. I read one of his books titled "Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself" and I laughed the whole way thru. I think RUclips still has some of old albums you can listen to
I appreciate y’all doing this song guys, haven’t heard this one in years! You could always count on Ray Stevens & Bobby Bare for some funny songs. ❤️ ✌️
My dear mother-in-law passed away this last April over in the Philippines. The custom there is to keep the body in the home for 10 days before the funeral. All the family and half the neighborhood keeps company over the time. Being in the tropics you can imagine what it's like towards the end of the 10 days.
Hi Asia and BJ I just saw your video on Ray Stevens I just want you to know that the man who played Uncle Fred he's an actor named Bill Byrge he played Bobby in the Ernest franchise I have met him he was at my high school for a whole he's a very sweet man he's retired he played in Ray Stevens videos a lot of country music videos lives in Nashville as a librarian and goes to church if you guys ever do a review on Ernest goes to jail the movie or Ernest saves Christmas or Ernest scared stupid he's in those movies he's in his nineties I want to say this it was an honor and a privilege to meet him and got to know stories and see all the memorabilia that he had of sitting up with the dead they actually use the real chains in the video LOL always your big fan Christopher
when Elvis died, his body was taken back to Graceland until the funeral. People sit up with his body for 2 days, until the funeral(family and friends). One of his best friends James Brown, came the 2nd night, and sat with him for over 4 hours. Some reported they could hear James talking to him until the early hours of the morning.
I was I kid in the 50s, my grandfather was a preacher in little towns west of the Mississippi. People certainly were laid out at home. I've been to several funerals held right the in home of the dead. For boy it was a bit eerie. Ray Stevens has many stories someone else on hear named a few, I'd like to add The Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
It was a very common practice for people to bring their dead home, approximately 50 yrs. ago! They even sat up with them during my lifetime. I remember my own father sitting up with the dead. Sometimes they were not even related to you! Of course they were embalmed, and in coffins, but it was not a small town thing! It happened all across the United States, NO JOKE! Do some research on bringing the dead home! It was a very common practice...as I said earlier! ❤
Mississippi Squirrel Revival by Ray Stevens. Y'all love it. The Streak pretty good as well. Seen Ray Stevens when he had a theater in Branson Missouri back in 1992
Hi guys. Ray's stuff is really funny, but he has written some beautiful songs as well. You need to check the official video of Ray's song Mississippi Squirrel Revival. Too funny.
This sort of thing did occasionally happen back before they embalmed people. It was usually a muscular reaction. But there have been cases of people being mistakenly being pronounced dead. It still happens every once in a while in a morgue or in underdeveloped countries where they do not embalm everybody. Sometimes even doctors miss the fact that a person is not really dead.
Back then way back in the country there was no embalming. They put them in a homemade casket and set it up in the biggest room. Someone always stayed up with room. I remember my grandmother and her sisters talking about home funerals. Ray Stevens has been around country and pop music since the late 50’s. He’s best known for his comedic songs, but his singing voice on is amazing. I’ve always loved his lyrical music. You should also listen to his hit song Everything is Beautiful. He won a Grammy for this song.
My Grandmothers house was an old southern mansion built in the 1850s. It had an octagonal shaped room in the front of the house that used to be used for funerals right up until my mother was a child. When I would visit my grandmother in the 1950s & 60s us kids would have to sleep in the funeral room because it was one of the few rooms in the house that had A/C added.....It always scared the crap out of me. My cousin actually lived in that old farm house until 2017 when while undergoing a major restoration project it sadly burned to the ground.
when I was growing up, we had the folks in our front room. yes, back in the days , this was normal... in fact, where I am right now is the room where we kept my grandpa.
Check out "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and "I'm My Own Grandpa". What he didn't say was, one of the reasons for sitting up with the dead was to keep rodents from attacking the body. Before the practice of embalming, there were cases of people waking up from a deep coma.
In my grandmother's day they sat up with the dead on the eve of the funeral. This was especially done in the mountains of KY. My granny had some weird stories. lol
Ray is known for his comedy, and he is a great comedian, however he is also an excellent pianist, and a very good singer. Ray is a great patriot, and an American treasure.
My ancestral grandfather woke up in a mortuary. A civil-veteran, no one knows what contributed most to his later mental illness, waking up from the dead or fighting in intense battles. We found a news article to validate this though we had heard stories passed down.
You may have heard folks refer to a room in old houses as a "parlor" and that room almost always had double doors leading into it. The purpose for the double doors was to make room for caskets, so folks could have a wake or a viewing right there at home. Was quite common way back when before commercial funeral homes.
Yes. BJ! Every heard of a Bell Ringer, like, “damn, that was a bell ringer!”? Back in the day they used to put a bell at the top of the grave connected to a string that ran all the way down inside the coffin so that if they woke up in a coffin, bc it happened a lot, they could pull the string and ring the bell and they’d dig them up. That’s where the term “bell ringer,” comes from.
In small towns across America for the longest time sitting up with the dead was common. When my great great grandfather passed when I was 3 my father's family took turns sitting up with him for the three days before his burial. As for what Asia was talking about before embalming people would rush a funeral due to not wanting a rotting corpse to be on display. This led not only to people who were not dead waking up during the funeral but also waking up in a coffin after already having been buried. For a very long time it was common for bells to be hung on tombstones so if someone woke in the coffin they could pull the bell string and let people know they were alive. The second advantage to this was that the pipe the bell rope was in allowed air in so the person did not suffocate before being rescued.
Ray Stevens has been doing funny videos since the 1960's you should consider reacting to more of them. Most of them will make you laugh so hard your sides will hurt. His most recent song is entitled "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me."
If you want to get an idea of the vocal range of Ray Stevens, check out his song "Funny Man"... Ironically, it is one of his serious songs. Also, "Party People" (Also a serious song) showcases his vocals as well. His rendition of "Misty" won him a Grammy. Some other serious songs he did were "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" or "Turn Your Radio On", or "Butterfly inside a Coupe Deville". He also does patriotic songs like "Thank You" and "May There Always be a Star Spangled Banner". Some funny songs he did... "Power Tools", or "Shriners Convention", or "Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat", or "Surfin' U.S.S.R.", or "Osama, Yo Mama", or "Booger Man" or "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens".
Ray Stevens has many funny songs, but at the same time he is a talented musician. I hope you react to some of his other songs. To Name a few: "Brick Layers Song" "Haircut Song" "Great Mississippi Squirrel Revival"
Ray Stevens is an awful deep hole to go down. Well worth the journey. Try some of these. A-Hab the A-Rab. Erik the Awful. Guitarzan. I'm kissing you goodbye. The haircut song.
Loved this song. I was raised in southeast Texas and I remember as a kid sitting up with kin folk who passed and having a ball because we kids were allowed to stay up way after our regular bedtime. Y'all need to check out these other songs by Ray Stevens, The Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat and The Haircut Song
Asia is correct! Mostly in the old days they would think someone was dead and they really were not. That's why for awhile they would put a bell over the graves with a string going into the casket so if they came to they could ring the bell and people would get them out. My mom would talk about having one of her dead relatives in their casket in the living room until the funeral.
Did this back in the days even hint the (north)before funeral homes had viewing rooms, family had the body at home in the parlor. People came to the home. Did it for my husband's grandmother
I live in SC. When my grandmother died in '77, we had her visitation at the home of my aunt (one of her daughters). So, of course, my grandmother's body was at the home. My cousins and I all slept in the room with her the night before the funeral. I was in my mid-teens then. To us, it was perfectly normal, but folks just don't do that much anymore.
My uncle witnessed something similar. One of our distant cousins died and my uncle was among the people who were sitting up with the dead when the "dead" cousin awoke from a coma and sat up in the coffin. My uncle was the only one left. Everyone said he was SO brave but my uncle told me that he was too scared to move. Apparently way out in the country way before the internet and modern conveniences it wasn't unheard of for people in deep coma's to be misdiagnosed as dead. Edgar Allan Poe's greatest fear was to be buried alive. Up until the late 1800's many people were buried with a bell in their coffin. The term "graveyard shift" actually refers to a time when men were hired to walk the cemetery at night and listen for the bells which would mean that someone was buried alive and had woke up.
It is a real thing. The method to determine death from coma was not discovered yet and they literally put strings on folks declared deceased that lead to a bell above the grave just in case the person came to and they could bring them back up.
That actually could've happened way back when. People couldn't always afford to have their loved ones embalmed. And the ability to embalm hasn't always been in use.
Sitting up with the dead is an old Southern tradition that you don't really see a lot any more. The story of the dead uncle sitting up in his casket is an old urban legend/folktale/joke that Ray Stevens adapted into this song. The late, great Georgia humorist Lewis Grizzard put a version into one of his newspaper articles that was included in one of his books. Like most such things, there are a million minor variations and dozens of people famous for retelling it.
The tradition for sitting up with the dead was to make Sure they were dead. Then it changed to giving the family a time to say goodbye. Then sometime in the 1970s the wakes were moved to the funeral homes.
I remember when my great granddaddy died they had the coffin at my great aunts house and that's where the visitation was. LOL, and people used to take pictures of the deceased, I never understood why. Grandpaw had a hunch back. Thank God he didn't set up 🙌
The dead wont hurt you, it's the live ones that want to do bad to you. I love Ray. You should listen to more from him. Everyone will tell you about the bigger ones, but I like "Freddie Feelgood", "Along Came Jones", and "Shriner's Convention". Have you ever heard "Wildwood Weed"? Great reaction.
In the early 60s people did sometimes have the viewing at home even in 1968 when one of the girls in my school died in a tragic accident her family had the viewing at home. As far as people waking up at the funeral that is impossible because body's are embombed now. This is one of the funniest song. 😂
Wife here..., "Hey Guys.."..Country people really did use sit up with the dead...WOW..Asia and BJ..You know wayyyh back they also put a bell on your grave in case you were accidentally buried alive..Because it use to happen some in the "ole days"!!..Yeah BJ ..the bearded guy was on those commercials back in the day!!
The deaddo sometimes have muscle contractions and will sit up or have leg movements. I sat up with friends with a dead relative we heard a noise outside and went out to investigate and tried to go back in only to find all the doors and windows locked.
I'm My Own Grandpa: It's Me Again Margaret and The Mississippi Squirrel Revival are just three more songs displaying the silly side of Ray Stevens, he also has an extensive catalogue of beautiful songs including Misty And Everything is Beautiful.
At one point in time the fear of a premature burial was a somewhat legitimate concern. This lead to the creation of "safety coffins". Coffins were made with windows or some with bells so that it was easier to tell if someone was buried alive. As far the funeral arrangements go it's still somewhat common in the Appalachian mountains to have everything from death to burial happen in the same house. The Appalachians are covered in family burial grounds where the dead are buried on family owned property instead of a regular cemetery.
Its me again Margret, and The Streak, and Mississippi Squirrel Revival, just to name a few from Ray. He's a comedic legend still performing I believe in Branson Missouri.
It was rather common and not ONLY in the country, unless NYC is the Country. That was one of the uses for the Parlor, Guests would be arriving at all hours cuz they may have driven straight through to pay their last respects. It usually lasted about 3 Days, to make sure Uncle Bob was really not gonna wake up. Started declining post WWII with modern Medicine & interstate highways - but recall a few in the '60's & 70's although rarer.
Yep- I also remember sitting with the dead when I was younger. Fortunately, none of THEM sat up, although I had been told it could happen. Also, there was the possibility of odd sounds as the chemicals in the body "settled". SO glad when people stopped doing it in their homes...
The dead uncle in this video is the guy from the Ernest movies with Jim Varney. Home Free just did a cover to Ray Stevens “Mississippi Squirrel Revival”.
It’s true, after the undertaker was finished embalming, they brought your loved one to your home ( to the parlor, that’s where funeral parlor came from). They stayed there until the funeral. Also my great grandmother told me stories of grave robbers that founded that people were actually buried alive. That’s when they started burying people with bells. And someone sat up with a shovel. That’s where the graveyard shift came from
You should dig in to more of Ray Stevens, he has alot of funny songs (Pirate Song) but some are beautiful, "Everything is Beautiful." "It's Me Again, Margaret."
I'm 65 when I was 10 my cousin died and was in his house when he died and there were people at his house at night. During those years there were several dinners that did songs that were funny like this.
Folks still done this when I was young. I remember my grandfather was kept in state his frontroom. If folks elected to keep the deceased in a funeral home or church someone stayed with em overnight.
It was common for people to stay with the body especially it the body was at home. My two brothers stayed at the funeral home at night when my mom passed in in 1970.
It was customary for the family to stay at the funeral home as long as their love one was there. It doesn't happen as often anymore but we still have some families in Louisiana that will stay all night.
My grandmother woke up in the morgue at a hospital in Memphis in the 1940s and my florist friend fell into a open grave one time. Strange things do happen.
One of the reasons that the tradition of sitting up with the dead started was that yep, sometimes people came back. More to the point, back then it was very hard to tell sometimes whether or not someone WAS dead; someone could slip into a coma, with very slow respiration and heart rate, and be mistaken for dead; you wanted to be as sure as possible before you buried them! In other words, sometimes you needed some signs of decomposition before you could tell for sure...
Truth! It was usually for three days. That is one of the reasons for the flowers was to cover the smell. I also remember my grandmother would cover all the mirrors in the house with cloths for some reason for the whole three days the departed was in the parlor.
Back in the day, in the country, they didn't have morticians or funeral homes. They laid the deceased out in the front room for relatives and friends to come by and pay their respects.
Ray Stevens has his own dinner theater in Nashville and is still performing. He's over 80 is puts on a great show!
The Mississippi Squirrel Revival will make y'all laugh so hard you will pee your pants. It's Me Again, Margaret is also very funny. Ray Stevens was one of my Grandma's favorite artists. A very talented man.
It will! My favorite!
This and "The streak".
I remember Juke Boxes on the table and looking for him. My dad would take us to lunch on weekends. "Ahab the Arab" was also pretty funny.
So true. Misisippi squirrel revival is definitely one of his funniest songs. And doctor doctor have mercy on me is also amazing.
That squirrel started a revival!
Having the dead in homes was a thing back in the day. I can remember as a small child going to see my dead great Aunts and Uncles in their homes. Later they started putting them in the churches over night but there would be volunteers to sit with them there. When my husband was 12 his Grandmother, who was a devout Christian, had died and her body was in her home. His family and some of his Aunts and Uncles from out of town were staying in the house. He had to sleep in the livingroom on the couch. He said he woke up and he looked toward the casket and standing at the head of the casket was a huge Angel. He said the Angel had it's arms lifted up and he jumped up and ran and jumped in the bed with one of his Uncles. He didn't say anything to anyone about it until he was a teenager. Don't you know it scared him so bad. Of course he does know that Angel was there for his Grandmother's soul.
I love this song. I grew up in south Louisiana and it was customary for us to sit up at the funeral home with family members who had passed.
Last we sat up all night I believe was in 1997......
Eastern Kentucky, I remember having a time closest relative
Staying up in the church (with the body) 24 hours a day for three days.
Same in Missouri. We covered all the mirrors with black and all of the lights off...only candle lights.
In SC we still call visitation and stuff before the funeral the "sitting up"
Many different traditions exist with several slightly different variations.
Asia & BJ, you'll love his "Everything Is Beautiful" and "The Streak"!!
Everything Is Beautiful has church vibes, and The Streak is a fun novelty song!
His song The Mississippi Squirrel Revival has church vibes too LOL
The woman Asia was thinking of was in a glass coffin, and the people noticed that the glass was fogging up from the inside. So they opened it and it turns out the woman was breathing causing it to fog.
When my Grandmother was young, it was her turn to sit with a dead relative while the adults went to have coffee. All of a sudden, the corpse sat up in the coffin, and Grandma ran screaming from the room!
Years ago alot of people had their family at home like that
His Mississippi squirrel song is amazing. A great laugh. Great reaction
This is a classic! Ray Steven’s had so many great, hilarious songs.
As others have said, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, The Streak, Everything is Beautiful, and a couple of my personal faves, "It's Me, Margaret" and "Guitarzan". Actually, anything you find of his is amazing.
Around 1962 he did "Ahab The A Rab, the Shiek of the Desert Sand". The camel's name was Clyde.
I sat up with the dead when a great aunt passed away …. I was just 6 my momma made it fun and told stories of Aunt Susie made the night go by easy .
We sat up with my uncle and grandma. Alabama. My uncle got struck by lightning and had a small hole in his temple. Remember as a child just staring at him!
Love Ray. He also had a big hit with a serious song, Everything is Beautiful
The Haircut Song, Shriner's Convention, and It's Me Again Margaret are also great songs of his too. And the Streak is a classic.
Ray is the best! My grandad thought he was endlessly hilarious and some of my best childhood memories are of watching Ray Steven VHS tapes with my grandparents and cousins. Can’t wait to see your reaction 😂 You need to hear the Squirrel Revival Song
I think this was from a routine that comedian Lewis Grizzard did back in the 70's. That man was hilarious !!!! He died in 1994 I believe. I read one of his books titled "Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself" and I laughed the whole way thru. I think RUclips still has some of old albums you can listen to
I appreciate y’all doing this song guys, haven’t heard this one in years! You could always count on Ray Stevens & Bobby Bare for some funny songs. ❤️ ✌️
Don't forget Jim Stafford!
@@allenwhitmer8192 Do you like spiders and snakes
@@ricksurratt9034 Actually, I do, along with Wildwood Flower, Cow Patty, My Girl Bill, and my favorite is Swamp Witch
@@allenwhitmer8192 Wildwood flower is a must. We just sat there smiling sitting on them sacks of seeds.
@@ricksurratt9034 😊
My dear mother-in-law passed away this last April over in the Philippines. The custom there is to keep the body in the home for 10 days before the funeral. All the family and half the neighborhood keeps company over the time. Being in the tropics you can imagine what it's like towards the end of the 10 days.
The dead uncle is played by Bill Byrge best known for playing Bobby on all the Ernest movies.
Yup 😂
Ray Stevens's "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is hilarious. One of his best ever.
So many fun songs by Ray. Hit more of them for some really funny stuff.
Hi Asia and BJ I just saw your video on Ray Stevens I just want you to know that the man who played Uncle Fred he's an actor named Bill Byrge he played Bobby in the Ernest franchise I have met him he was at my high school for a whole he's a very sweet man he's retired he played in Ray Stevens videos a lot of country music videos lives in Nashville as a librarian and goes to church if you guys ever do a review on Ernest goes to jail the movie or Ernest saves Christmas or Ernest scared stupid he's in those movies he's in his nineties I want to say this it was an honor and a privilege to meet him and got to know stories and see all the memorabilia that he had of sitting up with the dead they actually use the real chains in the video LOL always your big fan Christopher
when Elvis died, his body was taken back to Graceland until the funeral. People sit up with his body for 2 days, until the funeral(family and friends). One of his best friends James Brown, came the 2nd night, and sat with him for over 4 hours. Some reported they could hear James talking to him until the early hours of the morning.
I was I kid in the 50s, my grandfather was a preacher in little towns west of the Mississippi. People certainly were laid out at home. I've been to several funerals held right the in home of the dead. For boy it was a bit eerie. Ray Stevens has many stories someone else on hear named a few, I'd like to add The Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
I'm 76 and from northeast Louisiana. I remember very well family sitting up with my dead grandmother in her home in 1953.
I'm glad to see ya'll goin' down the Ray Stevens rabbit hole. He has a lot of funny songs.
It was a very common practice for people to bring their dead home, approximately 50 yrs. ago! They even sat up with them during my lifetime. I remember my own father sitting up with the dead. Sometimes they were not even related to you! Of course they were embalmed, and in coffins, but it was not a small town thing! It happened all across the United States, NO JOKE! Do some research on bringing the dead home! It was a very common practice...as I said earlier! ❤
Another funny song is "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival".
Mississippi Squirrel Revival by Ray Stevens. Y'all love it. The Streak pretty good as well. Seen Ray Stevens when he had a theater in Branson Missouri back in 1992
Hi guys. Ray's stuff is really funny, but he has written some beautiful songs as well. You need to check the official video of Ray's song Mississippi Squirrel Revival. Too funny.
This sort of thing did occasionally happen back before they embalmed people. It was usually a muscular reaction. But there have been cases of people being mistakenly being pronounced dead. It still happens every once in a while in a morgue or in underdeveloped countries where they do not embalm everybody. Sometimes even doctors miss the fact that a person is not really dead.
Back then way back in the country there was no embalming. They put them in a homemade casket and set it up in the biggest room. Someone always stayed up with room. I remember my grandmother and her sisters talking about home funerals. Ray Stevens has been around country and pop music since the late 50’s. He’s best known for his comedic songs, but his singing voice on is amazing. I’ve always loved his lyrical music. You should also listen to his hit song Everything is Beautiful. He won a Grammy for this song.
My Grandmothers house was an old southern mansion built in the 1850s. It had an octagonal shaped room in the front of the house that used to be used for funerals right up until my mother was a child. When I would visit my grandmother in the 1950s & 60s us kids would have to sleep in the funeral room because it was one of the few rooms in the house that had A/C added.....It always scared the crap out of me. My cousin actually lived in that old farm house until 2017 when while undergoing a major restoration project it sadly burned to the ground.
when I was growing up, we had the folks in our front room. yes, back in the days , this was normal... in fact, where I am right now is the room where we kept my grandpa.
Check out "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and "I'm My Own Grandpa". What he didn't say was, one of the reasons for sitting up with the dead was to keep rodents from attacking the body. Before the practice of embalming, there were cases of people waking up from a deep coma.
Makes me wonder how many folks have been embalmed while in a deep coma.
In my grandmother's day they sat up with the dead on the eve of the funeral. This was especially done in the mountains of KY. My granny had some weird stories. lol
Y’all ..watching and hearing his song “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” is a MUST ! Lol My favorite of his and many others- 🤣
Ray is known for his comedy, and he is a great comedian, however he is also an excellent pianist, and a very good singer. Ray is a great patriot, and an American treasure.
My ancestral grandfather woke up in a mortuary. A civil-veteran, no one knows what contributed most to his later mental illness, waking up from the dead or fighting in intense battles. We found a news article to validate this though we had heard stories passed down.
You may have heard folks refer to a room in old houses as a "parlor" and that room almost always had double doors leading into it. The purpose for the double doors was to make room for caskets, so folks could have a wake or a viewing right there at home. Was quite common way back when before commercial funeral homes.
Yes. BJ! Every heard of a Bell Ringer, like, “damn, that was a bell ringer!”? Back in the day they used to put a bell at the top of the grave connected to a string that ran all the way down inside the coffin so that if they woke up in a coffin, bc it happened a lot, they could pull the string and ring the bell and they’d dig them up. That’s where the term “bell ringer,” comes from.
Ray was one of a kind. Check out "Gitarzan". I still have the 45 around here somewhere. Thanks guys.
In small towns across America for the longest time sitting up with the dead was common. When my great great grandfather passed when I was 3 my father's family took turns sitting up with him for the three days before his burial.
As for what Asia was talking about before embalming people would rush a funeral due to not wanting a rotting corpse to be on display. This led not only to people who were not dead waking up during the funeral but also waking up in a coffin after already having been buried. For a very long time it was common for bells to be hung on tombstones so if someone woke in the coffin they could pull the bell string and let people know they were alive. The second advantage to this was that the pipe the bell rope was in allowed air in so the person did not suffocate before being rescued.
Ray Stevens has been doing funny videos since the 1960's you should consider reacting to more of them. Most of them will make you laugh so hard your sides will hurt. His most recent song is entitled "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me."
If you want to get an idea of the vocal range of Ray Stevens, check out his song "Funny Man"... Ironically, it is one of his serious songs. Also, "Party People" (Also a serious song) showcases his vocals as well. His rendition of "Misty" won him a Grammy. Some other serious songs he did were "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" or "Turn Your Radio On", or "Butterfly inside a Coupe Deville". He also does patriotic songs like "Thank You" and "May There Always be a Star Spangled Banner".
Some funny songs he did... "Power Tools", or "Shriners Convention", or "Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat", or "Surfin' U.S.S.R.", or "Osama, Yo Mama", or "Booger Man" or "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens".
Oh the streak is a must
"Don't look Ethel!!" Lol
“Everything is beautiful” was a beautiful song!
Ray Stevens has many funny songs, but at the same time he is a talented musician. I hope you react to some of his other songs. To Name a few:
"Brick Layers Song"
"Haircut Song"
"Great Mississippi Squirrel Revival"
Ray Stevens is an awful deep hole to go down. Well worth the journey. Try some of these. A-Hab the A-Rab. Erik the Awful. Guitarzan. I'm kissing you goodbye. The haircut song.
I grew up on Ray Stevens, used to have his Greatest Hits music videos, on VHS tape growing up
Loved this song. I was raised in southeast Texas and I remember as a kid sitting up with kin folk who passed and having a ball because we kids were allowed to stay up way after our regular bedtime. Y'all need to check out these other songs by Ray Stevens, The Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat and The Haircut Song
Asia is correct! Mostly in the old days they would think someone was dead and they really were not. That's why for awhile they would put a bell over the graves with a string going into the casket so if they came to they could ring the bell and people would get them out. My mom would talk about having one of her dead relatives in their casket in the living room until the funeral.
Yes it use to happen long time ago. Especially in the mountain people time
Did this back in the days even hint the (north)before funeral homes had viewing rooms, family had the body at home in the parlor. People came to the home. Did it for my husband's grandmother
My dad and uncles sat up with my maternal grandmother at the funeral home, per her request. This was in the 1960’s.
I live in SC. When my grandmother died in '77, we had her visitation at the home of my aunt (one of her daughters). So, of course, my grandmother's body was at the home. My cousins and I all slept in the room with her the night before the funeral. I was in my mid-teens then. To us, it was perfectly normal, but folks just don't do that much anymore.
My uncle witnessed something similar. One of our distant cousins died and my uncle was among the people who were sitting up with the dead when the "dead" cousin awoke from a coma and sat up in the coffin. My uncle was the only one left. Everyone said he was SO brave but my uncle told me that he was too scared to move. Apparently way out in the country way before the internet and modern conveniences it wasn't unheard of for people in deep coma's to be misdiagnosed as dead. Edgar Allan Poe's greatest fear was to be buried alive. Up until the late 1800's many people were buried with a bell in their coffin. The term "graveyard shift" actually refers to a time when men were hired to walk the cemetery at night and listen for the bells which would mean that someone was buried alive and had woke up.
Thats where the expression dead ringer comes from
It is a real thing. The method to determine death from coma was not discovered yet and they literally put strings on folks declared deceased that lead to a bell above the grave just in case the person came to and they could bring them back up.
In the olden days, some places put a bell on a string that went out of the grave so the "not dead" could ring it to get out, so I've heard.
This actually happened to my ma and her sisters at a funeral when she was nine. They ALL screamed, peed, and had nightmares for months.
That actually could've happened way back when. People couldn't always afford to have their loved ones embalmed. And the ability to embalm hasn't always been in use.
Sitting up with the dead is an old Southern tradition that you don't really see a lot any more. The story of the dead uncle sitting up in his casket is an old urban legend/folktale/joke that Ray Stevens adapted into this song. The late, great Georgia humorist Lewis Grizzard put a version into one of his newspaper articles that was included in one of his books. Like most such things, there are a million minor variations and dozens of people famous for retelling it.
Truth. I am 71 and this is what we did back in the day
Ray Stevens is a Treasure. Very Good. Go Red America 🙏🇺🇸🪖.
"But I did" My dad quoted that so much to me over the years! 😂
Ray Stevens is a great comedic singer. Has a lot of great funny songs.
When I was young and so terrified of ghosts, my mama told me that they couldn't hurt me but they could damn well make me hurt myself.
The tradition for sitting up with the dead was to make Sure they were dead. Then it changed to giving the family a time to say goodbye. Then sometime in the 1970s the wakes were moved to the funeral homes.
I remember when my great granddaddy died they had the coffin at my great aunts house and that's where the visitation was. LOL, and people used to take pictures of the deceased, I never understood why. Grandpaw had a hunch back. Thank God he didn't set up 🙌
The dead wont hurt you, it's the live ones that want to do bad to you. I love Ray. You should listen to more from him. Everyone will tell you about the bigger ones, but I like "Freddie Feelgood", "Along Came Jones", and "Shriner's Convention". Have you ever heard "Wildwood Weed"? Great reaction.
In the early 60s people did sometimes have the viewing at home even in 1968 when one of the girls in my school died in a tragic accident her family had the viewing at home. As far as people waking up at the funeral that is impossible because body's are embombed now. This is one of the funniest song. 😂
Wife here..., "Hey Guys.."..Country people really did use sit up with the dead...WOW..Asia and BJ..You know wayyyh back they also put a bell on your grave in case you were accidentally buried alive..Because it use to happen some in the "ole days"!!..Yeah BJ ..the bearded guy was on those commercials back in the day!!
Yep with the bell if it rang it was called a dead ringer .
@@VintageWanderer WOW... Didn't know that's where that term come from!
The deaddo sometimes have muscle contractions and will sit up or have leg movements.
I sat up with friends with a dead relative we heard a noise outside and went out to investigate and tried to go back in only to find all the doors and windows locked.
I'm My Own Grandpa: It's Me Again Margaret and The Mississippi Squirrel Revival are just three more songs displaying the silly side of Ray Stevens, he also has an extensive catalogue of beautiful songs including Misty And Everything is Beautiful.
so funny. love ray stevens
At one point in time the fear of a premature burial was a somewhat legitimate concern. This lead to the creation of "safety coffins". Coffins were made with windows or some with bells so that it was easier to tell if someone was buried alive.
As far the funeral arrangements go it's still somewhat common in the Appalachian mountains to have everything from death to burial happen in the same house. The Appalachians are covered in family burial grounds where the dead are buried on family owned property instead of a regular cemetery.
Its me again Margret, and The Streak, and Mississippi Squirrel Revival, just to name a few from Ray. He's a comedic legend still performing I believe in Branson Missouri.
His theater, "Caba Ray" is in Nashville.
@@js3599 I thought he was in Branson for a while to
As a RN yes sitting up and noise of air and body fluids escaping. Not often but it does. I've seen it twice in 30 yrs.😮😮😢😢
It was rather common and not ONLY in the country, unless NYC is the Country.
That was one of the uses for the Parlor, Guests would be arriving at all hours cuz they may have driven straight through to pay their last respects. It usually lasted about 3 Days, to make sure Uncle Bob was really not gonna wake up. Started declining post WWII with modern Medicine & interstate highways - but recall a few in the '60's & 70's although rarer.
You also might want to check out his "Mississippi Squirrel Revival."
Yep- I also remember sitting with the dead when I was younger. Fortunately, none of THEM sat up, although I had been told it could happen. Also, there was the possibility of odd sounds as the chemicals in the body "settled". SO glad when people stopped doing it in their homes...
The dead uncle in this video is the guy from the Ernest movies with Jim Varney. Home Free just did a cover to Ray Stevens “Mississippi Squirrel Revival”.
It's called a "Wake".
In 1958 at 7 years old I sat up with my grandmother in her living room.
It’s true, after the undertaker was finished embalming, they brought your loved one to your home ( to the parlor, that’s where funeral parlor came from). They stayed there until the funeral.
Also my great grandmother told me stories of grave robbers that founded that people were actually buried alive. That’s when they started burying people with bells. And someone sat up with a shovel. That’s where the graveyard shift came from
You should dig in to more of Ray Stevens, he has alot of funny songs (Pirate Song) but some are beautiful, "Everything is Beautiful." "It's Me Again, Margaret."
That happen to a friend uncle, he sat up during the funeral. Jim
I'm 65 when I was 10 my cousin died and was in his house when he died and there were people at his house at night.
During those years there were several dinners that did songs that were funny like this.
I remember in the’80’s we had a viewing of my relative..I believe it was great grandma at her house…I was really young so I barely remember it tho
Another novelty song that is a parody of Tarzan, Jane, and Cheetah called Gitarzan. You might like it.
Folks still done this when I was young. I remember my grandfather was kept in state his frontroom. If folks elected to keep the deceased in a funeral home or church someone stayed with em overnight.
Mississippi Squirrel Revival and The Streak and It’s Me Again Margaret and The Shriner’s Convention. All hilarious.
It was common for people to stay with the body especially it the body was at home. My two brothers stayed at the funeral home at night when my mom passed in in 1970.
It was customary for the family to stay at the funeral home as long as their love one was there. It doesn't happen as often anymore but we still have some families in Louisiana that will stay all night.
Check out his Mississippi Squirrel Revival and Shriner's Convention! Comedy gold!
My grandmother woke up in the morgue at a hospital in Memphis in the 1940s and my florist friend fell into a open grave one time. Strange things do happen.