From time to time, Turntabling goes on a bughunt for some strange or sought-after vinyl…today I’m on the hunt for a VG++ or better copy of the Sun Ra picture disc edition of Nothing Is.
If you have one for sale, please drop me a line via orders@turntabling.net and include price, condition, and location plus shipping information.
Any contact about this disc is greatly appreciated!
–Joe Wallace
Of all the vinyl finds I’ve had lately, one of the most surreal has to be this French repressing of this Batman and Robin album, complete with the Batman theme.
Re-issued by Klimt Records years ago in France, this record brought in some serious firepower as session musicians, namely members of the Al Kooper Blues Project and the Sun Ra Arkestra including Sun Ra himself on the Hammond B3. The original album gives no clue to the super-session nature of the album, but Klimt sets the record straight with a complete roster of players on the back cover.
That roster included Sun Ra, Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allan, Danny Kalb and others.
According to blogger Ryan Masteller at Critical Masses, at least one of those players truly hated doing the sessions. Maybe they were underpaid, or had an angry martinet type running the show, or perhaps they were forced to do the music wearing tights and cowls? We may never know.
I’d never heard of this until I spotted it in the bins a few weeks ago. I was so amazed that I had to grab one. The album is a cash-in, made during the Adam West Batman period.
What’s really funny about that to me, at least where the actual Batman theme song is concerned, is that when you watch the end credits of any Batman episode, when they get to the music portion, there is a LYRICS credit.
Yes, somebody actually got paid to come up with “Batmaaaan. Da-da da-da- da-da-da….(repeat until your face falls off)…BAT MAAAAAAANNNNNNN”
But back to the record. The musicians are credited on the cover as “Dan and Dale”. On the flip side, the French pressing reveals that it’s actually Sun Ra and various other names (something not found on the original, heh).
All things considered, this is one super-oddball find and while some uber-collectors are no doubt tapping their foot and clucking at me finding this only years after the fact, collectors be damned. You take the weirdness where you can find it. I was quite pleased to score this and nominate it for “most mind-bending vinyl find of the month”. Sun Ra and Batman. It doesn’t come any further out of left field than that.
(Side note–I do have a copy of the Sun Ra Plays Batman & Robin on auction at eBay. When it’s gone, it’s gone!)
–Joe Wallace
Sun Ra is automatically of interest round here…but THIS takes the cake. This vinyl LP re-issue of Space Is The Place is the soundtrack to the film of the same name starring Sun Ra in all his controversial, afro-futurist glory. There’s little that can be said to prepare you for this film or the album. You’re either along for the ride or you’re left standing on the sidelines hopelessly trying to figure out WTF is going on.
From the opening cries about the end of the world, “Don’t you know that yet?!” to the free jazz freakouts that make Space Is The Place the mad, utterly unique sonic Jackson Pollock masterpiece that it is, you absolutely positively can NOT live without hearing this album OR seeing the film. In the words of the late, great Sun Ra, “Teleport the whole planet here…through music.”
This already sought-after vinyl LP edition of Space Is The Place is a glorious double album gatefold LP pressed on 180-gram vinyl. This will NOT be around long if rumors are any indication. Grab your copy of Space Is The Place while you can…this is one of the finest vinyl releases of 2010 so far.
Space Is The Place is a brand new, sealed double LP. Buy it now from Turntabling for $26.00 plus shipping.