Although The Space Age Is Here to Stay is technically a compilation, chances are good some of these tracks will be new to even the most serious
Ra fans, as six of the 16 tracks are previously unreleased and those that have been released are largely from lesser-known albums. The tracks span from 1958 to 1985, with each decade represented by at least two tunes. The songs range from jazz standards to space declamations to pseudo-gospel call-and-response stompers, and feature not only
Sun Ra but the great
June Tyson,
John Gilmore, and others. By and large, these tracks are on the obscure side and the songs that may be familiar are represented by different versions. "Enlightenment" gets a circus organ arrangement and vocals by
Gilmore and
Tyson. "Nuclear War" here is a live PG-rated version instead of the original 12" version. Even "Space Is the Place," probably the best-known track on the album, is not the better-known version from the album of the same name, but an excellent take from The Other Side of the Sun. Even if you have heard many of these tunes, you probably haven't heard them sound this good before. These masters come from the
Sun Ra Archive, where
Michael D. Anderson and
Irwin Chusid have been doing remarkable restoration work. ~ Sean Westergaard