Third Man Records will release a career-spanning box set of rare recordings by cult songwriter Ted Lucas on May 22. Titled Images of Life, the three-LP collection includes early band tracks, solo demos and a previously unheard 1979 album. Rainy Days, one of the LPs, is streaming now.
Third Man Records announced the release of Images of Life, a box set featuring rare and previously unreleased recordings by guitarist and songwriter Ted Lucas. The set arrives May 22 on vinyl and streaming platforms, compiling material from across his career spanning the late 1960s to 1979. It includes three LPs: Strange Mysterious Sounds from his early bands between 1965 and 1970, Rainy Days with solo tracks from 1970 to 1974, and Impossible Love, a lost 1979 album produced by Don Was. Listeners can stream Rainy Days immediately ahead of the full release. Ted Lucas gained early experience studying sitar under Ravi Shankar and working as a Motown session musician in the late 1960s. By 1975, after Warner Bros. dropped two of his bands and label head Mo Ostin rejected his solo demo, Lucas self-released those demos as The OM Album. Third Man Records issued an expanded edition of that work last year under the title Ted Lucas, which earned praise as a top reissue. The box set revives obscure tracks from Lucas's bands like The Spike-Drivers, The Misty Wizards and The Horny Toads, alongside solo efforts foreshadowing his self-titled 1975 album.
