Worried About Ray by The Hoosiers

Album: The Trick To Life (2007)

Charted: 5

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

This debut single for the UK band The Hoosiers spent 8 consecutive weeks in the UK Top 10.
Irwin Sparkes says on the thefounder.co.uk website about this song: "At the time we were on the dole, in our mid-20s, and it was all looking a bit uncertain, as we didn't know where the next paycheck was going to come from. It was all a bit dodgy as we were under pressure as we had people saying they wanted big songs, big hits, whereas we were writing the songs that we wanted to. We then realized it didn't work like that and 'Worried About Ray' came from the anxieties and worries about the future due to this. We really liked as well the way in which Arthur Miller writes his plays where there is a smaller meaning and a larger meaning. It is personal but can be stripped down to relate to society as a whole, like in Death Of A Salesman. Everyone can be 'Ray'."
The Hoosiers are Irwin Sparkes (vocals/ guitar), Alphonso Sharland (drums) and Martin Skarendahl (bass). Alfonso and Irwin spent some time in the at the University of Indianapolis in America, and it there they came across the term Hoosiers, meaning a native of Indiana. They loved the name and when they returned to London and got together with Martin Skarendahl, a Swedish ex-fireman who was then working as a recording studio engineer, they adopted it as the name of their band. The band describe their sound as "odd pop."
The 1986 movie Hoosiers about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that won the state championship was voted in December 2004 by the readers of USA Today newspaper as the best sports movie of all time.

Comments: 2

Kamran from London, United KingdomIrwin personally told me that the theme of the song was worrying about the future, not just for them but for anyone.
Raab from Bristol, EnglandPretty cool song. My friend hates it though! XD

see more comments

More Songfacts:

WaterfallsTLC

Cee-Lo Green sang backup on the 1994 TLC hit "Waterfalls."

The CaveMumford & Sons

"The Cave" by Mumford & Sons is based on the philosophy of Plato and his work called "Allegory of the Cave."

Right RoundFlo Rida

An unknown Kesha (known then as Ke$ha) sang on Flo-Rida's #1 hit "Right Round," but refused to appear in the video because she wanted to make a name for herself.

Mrs. RobinsonSimon & Garfunkel

The Simon & Garfunkel song "Mrs. Robinson" was originally called "Mrs. Roosevelt," most likely after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The title was changed when it was considered for use in the film The Graduate, where Anne Bancroft's character is Mrs. Robinson.

The Battle Hymn of the RepublicTraditional

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath got its title from a line in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic": "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."

FireJimi Hendrix

Thirty years after Jimi Hendrix played "Fire" at Woodstock, Red Hot Chili Peppers played it at Woodstock '99, but this time the unruly crowd actually set fires and looted.