Sun Ra - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

Anyone who says that they don’t recognize their birth name and claim that it’s “an imaginary person that doesn’t exist” is OK with us at Lost Tunes. Way beyond Kevin Spacey’s spooky alien in K-Pax, Sun Ra was nothing less than obliquely different. Claiming to be from the angel race of Saturn and not of the earth this legendary jazz band leader was certainly out there and his music mirrored his eccentric persona as he’d flit from intense arrangements into the standards often baffling his band. Add to that some cosmic philosophies and general all round zaniness and you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a child of the ‘60s lost in the cultural upheaval and a few jazz woodbines. That Ra began his journey to the stars in the 1940s and continued over a staggering 200 albums goes to prove what a major force in outsider music he is. Throughout his name changing career and the steering of his Arkestra, Sun Ra wove a unique path through sound and, eccentric garb and head dresses aside, produced some truly wonderful and deeply exotic and provocative sounds. Once heard, his euphoric music always delivered outspoken responses. As MC5’s Wayne Kramer realized when he exclaimed: "FUCK THE GHETTO! Look to space!" on hearing Sun Ra’s conceptual pieces. Who can argue with that? Sun Ra - Space Is The Place