Ted Lucas - Ted Lucas

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Tracklist

A1 - Plain And Sane And Simple Melody
A2 - It's So Easy When You Know What You're Doing
A3 - Now That I Know
A4 - I'll Find A Way To Carry It All
A5 - Baby Where You Are
A6 - It Is So Nice To Get Stoned
B1 - Robins Ride
B2 - Sonny Boy Blues
B3 - Love And Peace Raga

4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 18 Nov, 2010.

The work of Ted Lucas has circulated through collectors circles via tapes, mp3s and the like for many years. Drag City have taken the liberty of re-pressing his most well known self-titled, self-released LP from 1975. The background on Lucas is daft good, he studied under Ravi Shankar, he was Motown's 'exotic instrument specialist' playing on many a fantastic record, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent and even had artist Stanley Mouse (primarily known for his work with The Grateful Dead) adapt the art for Jimi Hendrix's last (and unreleased) LP for his solo effort. Lucas is an obsessive artist and performer whose DIY style meant that much of his solo work has been criminally overlooked by labels and public alike. The album itself is a testament to Lucas's skill and conviction as an artist with these tracks feeling like a missing link in the history of psychedelic folk and pop. It's got a Cat Stevens without being shit vibe to it with elements of the counter culture era traditionalism of Crosby, Stills and Nash in there for good measure. So, you get outstanding lead and backing vocal performances from Lucas that ooze a wisened subtlety. On top of that you're treated to some beautiful guitar playing and amazingly consistent production throughout which makes for a thoroughly worthwhile listen. Great for getting baked and dwelling on the finer things in life... Like getting baked and listening to this record. Outstanding stuff.

The music of Ted Lucas has circulated through CDRs and blogs for years now. Although primarily known for this, his 1975 self-titled album (sometimes referred to as The OM Record), a legacy of hundreds of tapes decisively reveal one of the psychedelic era’s most criminally overlooked talents.

Lucas studied with Ravi Shankar. He was the ‘exotic instruments specialist’ for Motown and played sitar on many of their most famous productions. He rubbed shoulders with Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent and every other major player on the Detroit scene. His pioneering early psych rock bands Spikedrivers and Misty Wizards managed to become legends with nothing more than a handful of singles.

Stanley Mouse, friend of Ted and prime image-maker for Grateful Dead, adapted the cover for ‘Ted Lucas’ from his artwork for Jimi Hendrix’s unfinished last album. It’s the first appearance of the space scarab -- the UFO that would later become Journey’s symbol.

From brief spontaneous ditties predating the lo-fi indie movement by 20 years to the epically psychedelic sitar guitar ragas in Lucas’ signature loose string tunings, Lucas never wavered from his visceral, intensely honest vision. A self-taught master of many instruments and consummate do-it-yourselfer, Ted created a home studio and worked out new ways to tune his guitars. The pride he took in his craft and his attention to detail were inspiring and exasperating to all who knew him. His wit was legendary.

The reasons for Lucas’ failure to break out of the Detroit scene would require, and probably deserve, a book-length investigation. His career provides insight on the difficulty of self-publishing and selfpromotion in the pre-internet age. Without a doubt, things would have turned out very differently had he come up today.

“Ted Lucas deserves to be lifted on someone’s shoulders and paraded down the main street of the interwebs and sprinkled with confetti and fanfare... His voice has an otherworldly quality; it sounds like it was laid down in a field of cotton. It is resonant and rich, but simultaneously smoky, numbed, and crestfallen” - Kevin Farge (Naturalismo).

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