Images of Life＜Orange & Turquoise Vinyl＞

Detroit musician Ted Lucas 1975 self-titled album was a masterwork of mellow acid folk, and it was the only thing he released under his own name in his lifetime, though he devoted his entire life to making music. In fact, it was bad experiences his earlier bands had with record labels that drove Lucas to self-release his album, and to spend most of his days gigging close to home and working on new material in his attic studio. Images of Life collects some of the numerous recordings Lucas made but never shared before his death in 1992, dividing the collection up into three chapters. The first chapter focuses on the Spike Drivers, one of Detroits first psychedelic garage bands and a project Lucas worked with during the mid-60s. The sound the Spike Drivers put together was part folk-rock, with vocal harmonies and jangling guitars not unlike the Byrds on some songs, but the performances were also raw and fuzzy. "High on Love" features Lucas low-register lead vocals and distorted guitar solos that play over the duration of the tune. The band was in fellowship with the trippy meandering of Jimi Hendrix or Love, but could also switch gears for Bay Area-flavored psychedelia like "High Time" or more garage-folk dirges like "Blue Law Sunday." Lucas studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, and his session playing of the instrument showed up on several Motown records. Theres a Middle Eastern character to many of Lucas songs, not limited to the sitar ragas hed sometimes record but also in the hand percussion and droning elements of "Youve Got the Power" or the wandering melodies of "Often I Wonder," a tune by Lucas short-lived acoustic duo the Misty Wizards. Selections like "Its Not Easy" or the plaintive title track feel like lo-fi readings of the stoney, lonely folk sound Lucas found on his 1975 album. Many of the unreleased solo recordings from 1970 to 1974 (the contents of Images of Lifes second volume) are of the same quality as the ones that made it onto his record, all of them touched with humor, sadness, and a quiet kind of gratitude. By the mid-70s, Lucas returned to his rock roots and spent years toiling over a more instrumentally stacked second album that ultimately stayed in the vaults. The collections third movement is made up of mixes of songs from this unreleased album, with highlights including the lively melodic power pop of "Searching for Love" and the moody minor-key beauty of "Slow Motion Ocean (of Love)." Images of Life represents just some of the partially realized recordings Lucas made, but its more than enough to illuminate how dynamic his talents were, and to spark listeners to imagine a world where Ted Lucas songs were deservingly on the radio instead of tucked away in storage waiting to be discovered by future generations. ~ Fred Thomas