Ray Stevens - Shriner’s Convention (1980)
“Shriner’s Convention” is a novelty song written by Ray Stevens.
It is allegedly based on his experiences at a hotel where an actual Shriners convention was being held. It is reported that some real-life Shriners groups are not fond of this song, as it appears to portray Shriners in a poor light; however, many other Shriners have taken the song for the harmless piece of humor that it is, and have even welcomed Stevens’ participation in fundraising activities, as Stevens’ fame attracts attendees to charity events, and Stevens’ presence indicates that Shriners have a sense of humor about themselves, making the group seem more accessible.
The backdrop of the song is the “43rd Annual Convention of the Grand Mystic Royal Order of the Nobles of the Ali Baba Temple of the Shrine”.
The main humor of the song involves a one-sided dialogue, via hotel phone, between two members of the Hahira, Georgia, delegation: leader “Illustrious Potentate” (Bubba), and member “Noble Lumpkin” (Coy). Stevens voices Bubba, while Coy’s voice is unheard, his comments made known only by Bubba’s reactions to them.
Bubba (a strait-laced individual) becomes increasingly upset with Coy’s sophomoric actions during the convention. Despite the fact that the Shriners are supposed to be, as Bubba puts it, “pillars of the community”, Coy has managed to pull off such hijinks as getting his Harley-Davidson motorcycle into his hotel room and on the high diving board of the hotel swimming pool, hanging out in the pool at midnight with the cocktail lounge waitresses, and (despite being purportedly married to a “Charlene”, who apparently did not accompany Coy to the convention) having one of his girlfriends streaking through their banquet yelling out the “secret code”, wearing nothing but Coy’s fez (which Coy tried to deny, only to be reminded that he was the only member whose fez had “a propeller on top”).
Eventually, after repeated attempts to warn Coy about his behavior, Bubba tosses Coy out of the delegation, which has no effect on Coy, who simply revs up his Harley and disconnects the call, after mentioning that he might join the Hells Angels instead. Single by Ray Stevens from the album Shriner’s Convention.
Duration : 0:5:37
June 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I’ve always liked the music video for this song. Ray made this music video in 1995. It’s part of his movie, GET SERIOUS. The song itself as you mentioned dates back to 1980.
There’s no need to question Ray’s inspiration for the song, though, with the word “allegedly” that you used.
Since the time of the song’s debut 29 years ago and on through the present, whenever the song is brought up Ray insists that the song was inspired by a Shriner’s convention at a hotel he was staying at. According to his recollections, there wasn’t anything bad or immoral going on but he did remark in many interviews that he had a sleepless night because of the festivities that were going on well into the night and that he dreamed up the story of the song and used the Shriner’s as the subject matter.
The following is for those who may come across this site and leave something negative about Ray or this song…
I don’t feel that actual Shriners dislike the song…I do know that plenty of people mis-understand the song and the satire that’s applied with all of the Shriner lingo being used like “potentate” and “grand mystic royal order” etc etc.
Some who casually listen to the song simply say he’s making fun of Shriner’s and I don’t feel he is…he’s portraying two character extreme’s: one who’s a serious/straight-laced and the other Shriner being a party guy who by song’s end would rather join the Hell’s Angels instead. A lot of people who belong to the Freemason’s take offense to this song…I really don’t know why; but I’ve seen a lot of people make commentary at You Tube about this video and the majority of the comments are really not about the video or the song but a debate between Shriners and Freemason’s.
Conspiracy theorists also reign in with their comments and bash the song simply because of it’s Shriner connection. It’s completely ludicrous that people get so worked up over a harmless comical song meant clearly as an absurd depiction of two character types who just happen to be Shriner’s…that’s it. There’s no bashing of Shriner’s going on in the song and I feel that real Shriner’s understand it’s just a comical song…it’s those who really don’t understand the song that create a fuss with their ignorant accusations with their “what the song really means” theories.