I was already a Sun Ra fan before I heard this compilation and that was why I was so surprised when I first heard it. In a nutshell, these discs span his career of released 45's on his Saturn label from the fifties through the late seventies but here's the catch, its mainly R&B! I use that label loosely. We kick off in the doo-wop world with songs about love, foggy london towns, and the Christmas holidays, then on to some pseudo Screamin' Jay Hawkins R&B numbers about somebodies' fetish for big, ugly women, some Phil Spector style girl group action, some raw roadhouse blues numbers and eventually land in solo synth pieces. All of this with sprinkles of Sun Ra's signature "Supersonic Jazz" compositions and vocal pieces about his adoration for the cosmos dispersed through out this collection. A must have for any Sun Ra head.
