Exploring Sun Ra’s secret ‘Batman and Robin’ album
Few jazz musicians come with the widespread respect and acclaim of Sun Ra. The experimental composer acted as a trailblazer for the development of the genre, going from big band jazz and the wave of free jazz artists like John Coltrane to something much more ‘out there’. But alas, being principled does not pay the bills, which likely explains the existence of Ra’s Batman and Robin album.
Something of a footnote within the extensive discography of Sun Ra, Batman and Robin was released in 1966 in an effort to cash in on the incredibly popular Adam West television series which was airing at the time. Despite its legendary status among Sun Ra completists, the record was originally credited to ‘The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale’, a band that – by all accounts – does not exist. The involvement of everybody’s favourite jazz experimentalist was circumstantial: he had been drafted in as a replacement for Blues Protect keyboardist Al Kooper, who had to miss the sessions to attend his father’s 50th birthday.
Batman and Robin was the brainchild of producer Tom Wilson rather than Sun Ra. After resigning from his position at Columbia Records, where he had produced seminal works by the likes of Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, he began to work as a freelance producer. Needing a quick injection of cash, Wilson thought that Batman and Robin was a guaranteed money maker, given the incredible popularity of the character at the time.
Recruiting Greenwich Village’s premier blues rockers, The Blues Project, Wilson set about recording the album. Reportedly, members of the band were not told in advance that they would be recording Batman theme music; they were simply told to turn up, play, get paid and leave. After Kooper dropped out and various other members of The Blues Project didn’t show up, Sun Ra was brought on board along with John Gilmore and Pat Patrick, the saxophonists from his musical collective, Arkestra.
Musically, the record is a far cry from the groundbreaking sounds of Sun Ra. Made up of fairly nondescript scores inspired by the television show, the record borrows heavily from other musicians. For instance, the guitar track on ‘The Riddler’s Retreat’ is almost identical to The Beatles’ ‘She Loves You’, and various other songs borrow from classical compositions by Chopin and Tchaikovsky. Nevertheless, Batman and Robin provides an interesting perspective on Sun Ra’s career at the time, and if you listen very closely to the record, you can hear faint hints at his immense musical talent – although he was not initially credited.
Perhaps the only real positive outcome of Batman and Robin is the fact that it made enough money for Wilson to continue making records. The producer soon went on to produce work by the likes of Hugh Masekela, as well as works by Nico and even the first two Velvet Underground albums, which offer a nice avant-garde connection between Sun Ra, The Velvet Underground and Batman.
Endlessly bootlegged and reissued, it is disputed whether Batman and Robin even counts as a Sun Ra album, given that he was not originally credited. The fact stands that he did contribute a lot of music to the album, even if it was only as a way of raising some cash, and therefore, it provides perhaps the most bizarre record within his discography – no mean feat when considering that the man was known for his spaced out avant-garde compositions.
