Ray Stevens has demonstrated his ability to take a classic and present it in a completely different way (e.g. the Henhouse Five Plus Two version of "In the Mood"). In this case, he took the old classic "Misty" and recast it as a hoedown. When the "violins begin to play," it's fiddles in this version. "Misty" works in this format, and apparently enough of the people who were familiar with the original version liked Stevens' version; this song became a hit, and I believe it won at least one music award.

Probably if you analyze any Ray Stevens song, you'll find both serious and humorous elements in it. Even though one can claim that this isn't a Ray Stevens song - it was originally credited to "Henhouse Five Plus Two" - I believe that this even applies to this hit. After all, this is an arrangement of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood," which even back in the 1970s had been a classic song for decades. The arrangement is mostly faithful to Miller's original arrangement, and is done with the highest quality...well, except for one minor itty bitty little detail. The melody is not played on trumpet, but is clucked by chickens. You have to hear it to believe it. Some people will get tired of it after a few listens, but I argue that this song, because of the high quality, has a longer shelf life than that dumb singing dogs version of "Jingle Bells."

Ray Stevens is sometimes funny, sometimes serious, and sometimes both. On this song he plays it straight and presents a Southern-influenced serious song with a Christian flavor. Perhaps this song isn't as well known as some of his other hits, but I still remember it from my youth and look upon it fondly.

In my view, this is the peak of the "Exciter" album. Like many of the songs on this album, the instrumentals have a continental German Kraftwerk feel to them; unlike their initial Vince-era pop work and their 80s synth rock hits, the music is cerebral, synthetic, serious. The song also contains Gore's best lyrics on the album; building from the premise that two people who are married become one, Gore approaches the subject with dread, bemoaning the fact that "I am you and you are me." Toward the end of the song, the music and lyrics combine in a climatic moment - as Gahan repeats "I am you and you are me" four times, the music builds to a synthetic shriek. (Personally, I compare this to the Huckleberry Finn climax in which Huck exclaims, "All right, I'll go to hell" - but this comparison is a personal one.)

In an interview in which he was hawking the album, Fletch claimed that "Exciter" had songs that represented every stage of Depeche Mode's career. If that's true, I can't hear it. "I Feel Loved" is the only song that sounds like it could have come from an earlier era, and even this "Music for the Masses"/"Violator"-type song has a definite 21st century arrangement (or is it a 1979 arrangement?). A dark dance tune in which Gahan/Gore are somewhat restrained in their vocals, "I Feel Loved" features the harsh instrumental solos that crop up in several places in "Exciter."

P.S. Is it mere coincidence that this song has a title similar to "I Feel Love," the song that reportedly caused Daniel Miller to chuck his unsatisfying career as a continental deejay, return to England, and start a record company?