Sun Ra Arkestra
Nuclear War
1982, Y Records
It's sort of hard to know where to begin on this one. This is a record that maybe a lot of people know because of it's title track -- Ra's 'big hit' in the 1980's, featuring a rare example of his vocal stylings. So then. I guess I'll begin with the title track. "Nuclear War" is a super-tight and ridiculously funky diatribe against nuclear war. It's so slick and smooth, that you almost don't realize that yr nodding along IN AGREEMENT to lines like "it's a motherfucker / don't you know / when they push that button / your ass gotta go" and "what'cha gonna do??? / without your asssssss?" It's a devastatingly brilliant song that while stylistically seems a million billion lightyears away from the 1980's in America, it's actually a fine assessment of the times (made of course, by a Martian). I'm a long time collector of Sun Ra, and have dipped into many factets of his work, but if someone said to me "where do I start with Sun Ra", I guess I'd tell them to hear this single. It just seems so anthemic. So representative even while it is sort of a niche piece. [*plus the lyrics are quoted in BASKET CASE, one of the finest pieces of American 80's sleeze cinema.]
But it's not just the opening number that's essential. This album is incredible. Ra's playing is brilliant throughout, and it would appear that a lot of this material was aimed at a wider audience than he had in his living years. The pieces are consice, and to the point, but always wonderful. Ra stretches time and space on "Retrospect" and then flips a fantastic standard ("Drop Me Off In Harlem") before recruiting a wonderful vocalizer-ette on standout (and b-side to the "Nuclear War" single) "Sometimes I'm Happy".
Like I said, Ra had many different versions of a sound that he touched over his long career. And this is just one of those versions. In fact, even though he uses the F-word a ton of times on the opening track, this is a pretty straight forward piano jazz album. But that shouldn't detract anyone. Because perfect a perfect jazz album is... well... perfect. And this is one of them.