• Ray Stevens Defends 'Ahab the Arab' Many Call Racist

    Ray Stevens is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, but he has long maintained his 1962 country hit "Ahab the Arab" is not a political statement. In fact, he has defended the song several times over the years, and he has recently been forced to do so again. The 75-year-old was asked by Nashville Gab if he still gets criticism. "Yeah, only from screaming liberal idiots," he replied, via The Boot. "You know, some guy on MSNBC called me a racist; I doubt if he'd ever heard the song." Stevens explained how the song, about a young Arabian man with a camel named Clyde who secretly courts one of the sultan's women, came to be. "When I was a kid, my mom gave me a book called 'Arabian Nights,' and I wrote the song just from information I learned outta that book," he said. "You know, the book talked about Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and 'Open sesame' and, you know, all the fun stuff that is in that book. And so I thought, I'll write a [song] about this guy, and he's messing around with one of the sultan's girls in the harem. There's nothing racist about it." Here is a sampling of the lyrics: "And he'd say "[alleged Arabic content] "Which is Arabic for, 'Stop, Clyde! "Clyde would say "[alleged Arabic content] "Which is camel for, 'What the heck did he say anyway?'" Stevens sat down with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly in 2010 to discuss the tune. Here was part of the transcript, according to ThinkProgress:

  • 8 Unexpected Michael Jackson Covers

    Today marks the five-year anniversary of Michael Jackson's tragic death, so in honor of the King of Pop, we've compiled a list of his greatest songs that were covered by very unlikely musicians. Here are eight unexpected covers of Michael Jackson songs.
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