SUN RA Nuclear War 12" Single jazz psych space RARE

$

53

SUN RA Nuclear War 12" Single jazz psych space RARE

Sun Ra - Nuclear War b/w Sometimes I’m Happy  Y Records RA-1  1983 UK issue

-------------------

Condition - Like new

---------------------------------


In 1982, Sun Ra thought he had a hit on his hands. He went to Columbia Records with a bizarre nearly eight minute recording called "Nuclear War", featuring a piano trio over playing some lilting jazz over which SUn Ra intoned lyrics rife with vulgarity ("nuclear war / it's a motherf***** / don't you know / if they push that button / your a** got to go") in a time before gangsta rap made it commercially acceptable to do so. Of course, Columbia rejected it and Ra went with an indie British label.  -Michael Stack (Chelmsford, MA USA)



---------------------------------------------------------------
arguably to the ‘80s what "Space Is The Place" was to the ‘70s – Ra’s anthem for the decade, a piece that perfectly reflected certain apocalyptic aspects of his philosophy and his underlying quest for a better future. But it’s a sermon like call-and-response rap (a common Ra format since the late ‘60s) with what John Szwed refers to in his Ra biography as "a rare antitechnological moment" inspired by the Three Mile Island disaster, an event that occured, as Szwed points out, rather close to the Germantown Arkestra headquarters. "If they push that button, your a** gotta go," warns Ra. "Now whatcha gonna do without your a**?"

 Ra thought very highly of this recording. He personally approached Columbia Records, certain that it was a winner, and when they didn’t opt to issue it he reportedly became depressed and bitter. (To be fair, we should remember that this was the early ‘80s, long before gangsta rap had made it desirable for a major record label to issue a song with repeated use of the term "motherf#@##.") Eventually, Ra sold the music to an outfit called Y Records. Y was a very interesting British independent label whose catalogue included important post-punk LPs by the Pop Group and the Slits, some outstanding reggae and a couple of records of improvised music. In London at the beginning of the ‘80s, musical worlds were colliding, and people like Steve Beresford and David Toop actively crossed all kinds of genre borders, confusing rock and dub and jazz and noise. Free improvisor Tristan Honsinger even played cello on a Pop Group single released on Y at the time.

 Y Records producer Dick O’Dell first put out "Nuclear War" as a 12-inch single – the idea of Ra on an extended play disco plate was, in its own way, sheer brilliance! – b/w the glorious June Tyson vehicle "Sometimes I’m Happy,"  – John Corbett, Chicago, May 2001



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR AND IN DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE COSMOLOGY OF SUN RA, CHECK THIS OUT

The Cosmic-Myth Equations of Sun Ra
by
David A. Martinelli


"Sun Ra seeks to elevate humanity beyond their current earthbound state, tied to outmoded conceptions of life and death when the potential future of immortality awaits them." - David Martinelli


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Record located in Connecticut*

---------------------------------------------------------------------

*Regarding combined shipping. Some of my records are in Hawaii and some in Connecticut. I will gladly combine shipping on records from one or the other, but can't from both. Please see item description for location of the records. It will be at the end of the description of the record.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See my other auctions.