Ted Lucas
self-titled ("The Om Album")
scum stats: limited quantities (400?) on green vinyl. the rest on black. should be in print for all eternity
Ten years of emails and phone calls, contractual negotiations, in person meet-ups, the physical relocation of a mess of tapes and probably a bunch of shit I'm forgetting. This is what it took to get Ted Lucas released on Third Man. And for me, spiritually, it was absolutely worth it.
There is so much I could write about this record, but at the moment it feels best to point you to an interview I did with local NPR station WNXP....
There's audio of me flapping my gums as well as fairly insightful text excerpts of said gum-flapping at that link. If I can further belabor maybe just two points touched on in the interview there, it's as follows:
- there is SO MUCH more Ted Lucas music to sift through and to share. LIke, it might be more that 100 reels worth of material. Across every and all iterations of bands and styles that Ted embodied, from commercial jingles he wrote on spec all the way down to field recordings and answering machine tapes, Ted chronicled and saved just about everything. And film footage? You better believe it. Thank god.
- the digital bonus track of "Love Took A Trip" is just magnificent in every way. I cannot stop listening to it even now, months after first hearing it. This is the song that overwhelmed me and brought me to tears in the Turnip Truck (Iocal grocery store) parking lot. As a raga, as a blues ramble, as an acoustic paean to the twists and turns that are inherent to the nature of "love" as it were...this song inhabits at least three different personas and each one of them is independently brilliant. But married together they take on a profile larger than the sum of its parts.
Here's how you win a green vinyl copy of this record. Just go to whatever your preferred method of streaming is and listen to the entire album, including the four bonus tracks. Once you've done so, just come back and post a comment here. You can say you loved it, say you need it, whatever. You can also say nothing, maybe just "i listened" and I will randomly select from that pool of commenters. Get in before midnight Thursday February 27th.
You really gotta listen though. If you're gonna lie, what's the fucking point? My job, my goal here, is to use my enthusiasm to help convey to you why something is important. So...pony up kiddos.
My baby LOVES me… Digging the split screen video!
I listened to it, I lived it, I loved it.
I listened. I loved it. I need it.
Oooooooh this sounds cool as hell!
Great album. I wish I had heard this sooner!
Such a great album, and I bet it will sound even better on vinyl!
I listened, and I really dig it. The one that stood out to me was Baby Where Are You but the whole album is great. His voice is different but amazing.
Thanks for turning me on to his music.
I listened to it, I was kinda surprised by the vocals (pretty sure it was more of a choir vocal or at least layered) for whatever reason but it settled in really quick. To me It’s a really laid back album and nice change of pace to what I usually listen to. Also, I really do like the album cover. For whatever reason it reminds me of “Journey: Greatest Hits”; must just be the wings.
My favorite track would probably have to be “It’s So Easy (When You Know What You’re Doing).
Would
Normally when you post new albums I go and download a few songs and see if it my thing. I have this album only a few minutes and thought not my thing— but then I read your take and asked to listen to the entire album and I found a few gems—My bad for not listening to all. will plan to listen next time to make sure I do not pick a tune or two that doesn’t work for me. Love took a trip— that is something I will try and learn to play. Love and Peace Raga— cool. Love the picking not too much the singing, Thanks for making me take a second look.