Dreaming of the Masters

And now for something completely different.

Pre-Arkestra Sun Ra, recording as Sun Ra and the Cosmic Rays, in 1954, the year I was born.

I once thought I knew Sun Ra.  I had seen him on many numerous occasions back in the 70s and 80s, had a lot of vinyl LPs by him and the Arkestra, and had even run into him on the street on a couple of occasions.  But as I mentioned in a previous post, one day back in the pre-digital mid-90s, I was searching through the bins of a record store and came across a 3-CD set called Sun Ra - The Singles. While I knew the El Saturn label produced all manners of LPs, EPs and even singles, many of which were only sold at shows, I had never even considered that a collection of the single-format songs might even exist.  I bought the set and took it home for a listen.

I. Had. No. Idea.  The anthology traces the evolution of Sun Ra's music from his earliest days as an R&B and doo-wop producer to the astro-infinity bandleader of the redoubtable Intergalactic Solar Arkestra.

Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie isn't the earliest song in the collection or the most, for lack of a better term, earthbound, but it's probably the best of the early output.  I could completely see this song becoming a hit back in its day if only it had better publicity and support.