Jul 252007
(Rundgren tunes not included)
It’s been a stressful few days at Rock Town Hall. Heads have butted in the best of spirits, but it still takes a toll. Following is a healing mix of songs from Boston to wherever it is in the solar system that Sun Ra lived. Enjoy.
Black Moth Super Rainbow, “Lost, Picking Flowers In the Woods”
The Pretty Things, “Cries from the Midnight Circus”
J. Geils Band, “I’m Looking for a Love”
Mr. Mod, I’m guessing that stress this week hasn’t solely come from Rocktown; at least, I hope not. Peace, my friend, peace. I have been listening this week to the minor, quite beautiful songs on The White Album with much enjoyment.
For the final stretch of years before he returned to Venus, Sun Ra lived somewhere in the Philadelphia area (though not when this song was recorded). Don’t you guys make pilgrimages to the Arkestra house?
Mwall, the stress has come solely from Rock Town Hall, but that’s OK. That’s part of what we’re here for. I’m a better man for it, and I’d venture to bet you are too.
BigSteve, I’ve found Sun Ra’s releases so spotty the few times I’ve tried to get into him – and that otherworldly thing is a real turn-off to my east coast, reality-based way of thinking, that I’ve never made a pilgrimage to his Philly digs. I’m sure Townsman Buskirk’s made the jaunt. He could probably help us sort through the guy’s vast output.
Sun Ra lived in Germantown, when my band Junior mints had a house there. ca. 1981-1984. We would go by and hear things, but never felt it was ok to barge in. Just toots and honks from the street.
Rufus Harley lived in the area as well, and you couldn’t stop from running into *him.* Nice fellow.
Wasn’t Rufus Harley the black jazz bagpipe player?
Sun Ra’s regular albums are indeed spotty, but there’s an excellent comp called Greatest Hits – Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel that I recommend highly. Also I may have recommended before that double CD called Singles, which looks like it’s still in print, and I bet it can easily be obtained used. Ra really did issue small runs of singles, and this comp collects them — spotty but in a good way. There’s doo-wop and R&B mixed in with the spacey and atonal stuff.
I would put in a plug for “Other Planes of There” and “Atlantis” as essential Sun Ra albums in a catalog that can indeed be tough to sift through–I’ve certainly never done it, although I know people who have.
But as to which of us on this list have Another Plane of There in our souls, well, that’s an open question.
Speaking of recommendations, 2K put your hands behind your head and step slowly away from the Fall back catalogue. It’s too vast and too variable in quality. There’s a fine retrospective called 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong which is well-selected and pretty strong all the way through. Unless you’re willing to make a major committment (look at what happened to Matt and be very afraid), be happy with a sampler. I speak from experience.
sun ra was in philly from the late 60s until he died.
his quote on my town, “to save the planet, I had to go to the worst spot on Earth,” is dear to me…really resonates with me. this is the worst — and therefore the best — place on earth.
i can feel philadelphia’s shit, scum, and beauty in every chaotic note of the arkestra. and when i listen with all of myself, there’s very little i don’t like.
but that’s a hard place to get to, so i can see why anyone would call his output spotty: when you’re channeling the vibes of the universe as they’re broadcast around here, you’re bound to make sounds that people don’t like.
philly’s a junkyard for every variety of cosmic debris, ruin, and damage that you can think of. a bail bond office for karma.
here, the more down to earth you are, the more cosmic you get.
when somebody criticized sun ra within earshot of theolonious monk, he objected: “but it swings”.
Ornette Coleman – man, Now I’m sad, too. And it’s my day off and I was happy. But not now. I may crawl back into bed.
Sun Ra – I read a big interview in Goldmine with him once. His music is less weird than I thought it would be but it needs more distortion for me. At least I don’t want to crawl into bed anymore.
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Sounds like Styx meets the Creature from the Trance Lagoon. With some extra added pot and pan clanging. Very scary.
Big Dipper – How did I miss this party? I must have been trying to decide whether or not the Stones Tuscaloosa 72 tape or Kansas City 72 was the worst recording ever created of a great show (it’s very difficult to decide when the music is that hard to hear). But that’s great. Now I’m not sad at all!
Pretty Things – Very cool. I’m on the verge of happy.
J. Geils – Remeber Sparkomatic car speakers? Wow, they sounded like crap. I knew a guy that only played Blow Your Face Out, all the time, on his crappy Sparkomatic speakers. That is, when he wasn’t beating up someone smaller than him. I’m mad at that guy and his friends for liking a band I probably would have liked (hell, that should be my kinda thing, let’s make that LOVED) by making me think their fans were jerks. Getting into a fight at a J. Geils show didn’t help matters (it was a festival, they were like band three or something). Now I’m not quite sad, but I’m not as happy as I was.
But thanks for putting up some stuff I never heard. That’s always worthwile.
You aren’t kidding there’s a lot to choose from! Thanks for the warning, I’ll be extra careful in that pond.
Sun Ra is “the gift that keeps giving” around these parts, I’m like a Deadhead doofus when it comes to enjoying something about every single live bootleg I hear. He’s so much the “Anti-Mr. Mod” aesthetically i was hoping somehow Mr. Mod would be super into him; alas. Like Ellington, each recording has its own personal agenda, either he’s emphasizing a part of the band or he has some grand concept going on. I love the chanting and female vocalists (June Tyson!) as well, a way to break up the endlessly instrumental world that jazz is.
The success of the Evidence series, with it’s emphasis of the band band and noise elements of the group have obscured the scope of their achievements. The Art Yard label has begun to reissue the band’s records from the early eighties, when a more pronounced R and B and funk element cropped up. i think these records would probably have more of a relevance to younger listeners than the Evidence 70’s stuff.
And he’s been dead for years and yet there always seems to be more! Recent reissues have revealed an out-and-out disco tune, a solo pipe organ performance, his concert under the pyramids and Ra himself “playing” the world’s squeakiest door for ten minutes (with added percussion by Marshall Allen). Sun Ra joins just a handful of others, Ellington, Tim Buckley, Sinatra, Alice Coltrane, the Sir Douglas Quintet, Nat Cole, who are cornerstone hi-fi dwellers in this man’s castle (please don’t tell my wife I used this phrase).
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Sun Ra – LANQUIDITY
Good stuff, Townspeople. Townsman Buskirk, the album I posted a track from is promising. Until this point, I’ve never heard one album that I could get my head around as much. I’ve owned that Atlantis album for years. I expected it to be the holy grail, but it just sounds weird to me…in a weird way. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I always keep an open mind. Usually.
right on, dan!
people don’t realize how diverse sun ra’s output is. i have a set of early stuff is also not noise, but is a sort of orchestral set of grooves that do with analog instruments something like what stereolab would do with electronic ones. the songs very much stay home and don’t go into chaotic territory.
then there’s the “we travel the spaceways” stuff with all of its chanting.
i haven’t gotten to the Art Yard stuff yet, but i’m really looking forward to it.
Making sure to remain as obscure as possible, the Art Yard stuff is out on premium vinyl only, costing about 25 bucks each. I’ve become annoyed at this sort of marketing (all those “New Weird America” acts think I want to spend $30 to $50 for their records and they’re wrong) but the Art Yard releases are the only vinyl series I’m collecting these days. The pressings are fine (though I wish everyone would print up their discs like late 60’s Columbia pressings) and they do give you illustrated liner notes and inner sleeves. There are about six or seven out now and they’ve convinced me that the early to mid-eighties period is my favorite (maybe this ties in to my irrational love of rock music from that period too).
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Bootsy Collins – Stretchin’ Out With the Rubber Band