line up 1 (1975-)

- Tom Lucas -- vocals, guitar, piano

  supporting musicians (1975)

- Geoffrey Davis -- guitar, slide guitar, synthesizers

- Peter Haviland -- guitar

- Paul K. Johnson -- drums, percussion

- Steve Klass -- synthesizers

- Laura Kranker - backing vocals

- Pam Matheson -- back vocals

- Ishmael Rodriguez -- guido

- Peter Sanders -- bass

- Russell Simon -- bass

- T-Rocket and the Barking Guitars

Genre: art rock

Rating: **** (3 stars)

Title: Red Letter Day

Company: New Fate

Catalog: LP 01
Year: 1979

Country/State: Syracuse, New York

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: lyric insert included; still in shrink wrap (torn)

Available: 1

Catalog ID: --

Price: $75.00

Not the first or the last time ... I bought a copy of this album at a yard sale out of sheer curiosity.  Hadn't heard of the artist, the label or any of the supporting musicians.  It just looked interesting and was cheap,  Got it home and eventually gave it a spin.  Wasn't bad.  Wasn't great.  One of those album's that was interesting enough to hold on to for awhile.  Set it aside and eventually came back to it.  The funny thing is I couldn't find any background information on Tom Lucas.  Knew he wasn't the actor Tom Lucas.  Knew he wasn't the well known Western artist.  He certainly wasn't the Australian rugby player.  Anyhow, I liked the LP enough to hold on to it and about fifteen years ago I stumbled across a detailed and interesting autobiography Lucas has posted on the UK Festivals Guide website (see below)- he appears to have performed at the 2011 Bunkfest festival:

Singer/keyboardist Tom Lucas started his musical career in the band White Trash, quickly renamed T-Rocket and the Barking Guitars in order to avoid a clash with Edgar Winter's similarly named band.  The band attracted some attention throughout central New York before heading to Los Angeles.  The band's Southern California sojourn only lasted a couple of months with Lucas eventually returning to New York where he re-enrolled in Hobart College. Having been drafted into the military and served a tour of duty in Vietnam, music remained Lucas' passion and he continued to write and perform; material written in the 1972-75 timeframe serving as the basis for his 1975 solo debut "Red Letter Day".  Back in New York Lucas pulled together a band and over the next year they group undertook extensive rehearsals as well as playing local clubs.  They finally went into New York's Basement Recording Studio, recording the material in a single ten hour session; completing mixing over the next three days.  With demos in hand Lucas attracted the attention of producer/manager Sandy Pearlman and Columbia Records executive Murray Krugman who were then making waves with Blue Oyster Cult (fellow Hogart graduates).  The pair were taken with Lucas' material but were unwilling to sign his band.  Lucas promptly elected to shed the band, but by that time Pearlman and Krugman had moved on.  Lucas continued writing material and four years after the initial demos were recorded he managed to raise enough money to press and release 500 copies of his debut album on his own New Fate label.

Co-produced by Lucas and his wife Lisa Lucas, "Red Letter Day" featured a collection of nine Lucas originals.  Musically the album was hard to categorize, though comparisons to early Neil Young with a distinctive Lou Reed element put you in the right musical ballpark.  The title track bore more than a passing resemblance to Young, while the closer "Broken Wheel" would not have sounded out of place of a Reed album. Propelled by Lucas's pinched vocals and melodic keyboards there was a distinct singer/songwriter flavor to tracks like deeply personal "Days Numbered" and "Days Of Reckoning Come".   Elsewhere "Down To the Ground" and the title track added social and political commentary to the mix.  Luckily a first-rate collection of musicians including guitarist Geoffrey Davis, drummer Paul K. Johnson and bassist Russell Simon repeatedly stepped in to ensure songs like "Self Made Man" and  the Steely Dan tinged "Babylon Rising" reflected an energetic rock and roll base.  It wasn't particularly commercial; it was frequently dark and enigmatic, but it stood as one of the best (and least known) singer/songwriter albums I've come across.  By the way, for a self-financed, quickly recorded effort release the production sounded great.

In 2007 the infamous bootleg Radioactive label released an unapproved, "needle drop" reissue of the collection in CD format (Radioactive catalog number RRCD075).  Lucas wasn't compensated for the release, so don't buy a copy.  Look for the original or the 2007 CD reissue that Lucas released (including the previously unreleased track "Stars In the Night").

"Red Letter Day" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Red Letter Day (Tom Lucas) - 4:07  rating: *** stars

The first time I heard the title track I could have sworn I was listening to an early Neil Young solo effort. With Lucas' "I'm being strangled" vocals, a pleasant, yet somber country-rock melody and blatant power to the proletariat social commentary the comparison to Young was hard to overlook.  Geoff Davis provided the evocative slide guitar.

2.) Babylon Rising (Tom Lucas) - 3:47 rating: *** stars

Not sure how to describe Lucas' opening piano - somewhere between discordant and jazzy?  The good news in when Lucas' pinched voice and Geoffrey Davis and Peter Haviland's fuzz guitars kicked in "Babylon Rising" took a distinctive turn towards early Steely Dan.  The song actually grew on me after a couple of spins.

3.) One Eyed Gods (Tom Lucas) - 4:32 rating: **** stars

The hard rockin' "One Eyed Gods" has always struck me as Lucas trotting out his best Jagger and company impersonation.  That's not meant as a slam since the guitar powered track generated considerable energy as at rolled along.

4.) They're Coming (Tom Lucas) - 3:57 rating: *** stars 

Sporting some of Lucas' most political lyrics (apparently taking issue with Florida state laws), the combination of Davis' growling slide guitar and Lucas' cat-on-a-hot-tin vocals provided another Neil Young comparison.  

(side 2)
1.) Down To the Ground (Tom Lucas) - 4:00 rating: **** stars

To my ears "Down To the Ground" was the album's hardest rocking  tune.  Kicked along by Lucas's pounding piano and some cheese '70s synthesizers (which I love), it would have been the album's most commercial performance save for his searing indictment of companies violating worker rights and trying to crush union activism.  Woody Guthrie would have approved.  Shame the song faded out just as it was reaching a crescendo.

2.) Days Of Reckoning Come (Tom Lucas) - 4:25 rating: *** stars  

The album's most experimental track, "Days of Reckoning Come" opened up sounding like a Randy Newman blues tune being stretched over an open fire ...  Geoffrey Davis' slide guitar gave the track a cool, slinky sound.  

3.) Days Numbered (Tom Lucas) - 3:30 rating: **** stars 

Just Lucas accompanying himself on piano with a touch of percussion "Days Numbered" was the album's starkest, most personal performances.  The song was apparently inspired by the untimely death of Lucas' older sister.  Beautiful, somewhat ominous and thought provoking.

4.) Self Made Man (Tom Lucas) - 3:27 rating: *** stars 

An out-and-out rocker, "Self Made Man" gave guitarists Geoffrey Davis and Peter Haviland a chance to shine.

5.) Broken Wheel (Tom Lucas) - 3:19 rating: *** stars

Powered by Lucas' stark piano, the ominous ballad "Broken Wheel" sounded like Lou Reed having discovered the concept of melody.  The lyrics could easily have fitted on a Reed LP.  Kudos to drummer Paul K. Johnson's work on this one.

"I am Tom Lucas, the singer/songwriter who composed, recorded and released the original vinyl album titled "Tom Lucas Red Letter Day", early in my career following my rejection of a "suggested offer" following my and my band's audition for a contract with Columbia. The producer of the then "Blue Oyster Cult", Sandy Pearlman, and a then Executive at Columbia, Murray Krugman, were the industry figures who listened to our audition which took place in the then practice loft in Manhattan of the "Cult". Fate, which I not simply believe in, but trust, had me reject the terms, which were that I stay in NYC, drop my band of "too many" (8) musicians, so they could form a small, "efficient" band of "studio musicians" around me and then presumably "help shape me" into what they thought was "best for me". The result, the 500 copy private release of RLD, followed 5 years later by my 2nd LP, "Tom Lucas Lifeboats". I went on to continue songwriting (for it was never a choice, but simply what I discovered I was born or shaped or designed - to do). I wanted to be a novelist, and did write 2 short novels which are due to be published and available in late 2008 (WAR DREAMS and DETOUR) but eventually I could not ignore, despite my stubborn pride, the fact that I was a born poet, a lyric poet, and also a born musician (self taught pianist with many musicians in genetic ancestry). I did my best to keep true to who I discovered I was, never stop working on putting my ego back in its place - serving that which cannot be named but which is the Source of all creativity. Working in "obscurity" according to the recent crowd of critics who have 'discovered' me, I grew from the "soil" of what the Iroquois Nation called "God's Handprint" - the Finger Lakes region of central and western New York State. But I've lived and traveled throughout the country - and somewhat outside the country - but not in Europe - which is very significant if you're still with me and would like the real story from this "horse's" mouth: While trying to make peace with what I presumed was my destiny to be given some wonderful "original" songs 'from the Source', but to not live to see them discovered someday, which I knew would happen, because I know the Source does not do things for no reason - On Feb. 28, 2007, the evening before I was to undergo extensive major surgery through the front of my throat to repair severe damage to my cervical spine after a 25,000 pound truck and trailer rear-ended me, I suddenly received numerous phone calls from old friends scattered about the country, asking if I had "looked myself up lately on the net?" I did. Imagine the complex feelings that overwhelmed me when I discovered 15 pages of sites that referred to a CD put out by "Radioactiverecords" in the UK called "Tom Lucas Red Letter Day" - and that since this piracy of my original songs and recording of them had begun in July 2004, we calculated after extensive research that, over a year and a half ago, the people who ignored and violated me and my ownership rights, had sold at least 300,000 CDs of RLD, MOSTLY IN EUROPE through the major non U.S. distributor, PHANTOM DISTRIBUTION. I discovered that a reviewer at the world's 2nd largest circulation rock/pop mag, "SPIN", had written a rave review published on "SPIN online" which triggered my music's discovery with comments such as "One can only gasp in disbelief that a record of such magnitude, superb in virtually every way, could have gone unnoticed for so long." MAKING LEMONADE FROM LEMONS: fOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL SURGERY AND A LONG RECOVERY, I HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BY A NEW US COMPANY, NEW FATE PRODUCTIONS IN HAVING RED LETTER DAY AND MY 2ND ALBUM LIFEBOATS BOTH DIGITALLY RE-MASTERED, THE SONGS RE-SEQUENCED IN A BETTER ORDER BY ME, AND WITH COMPLETE LYRICS INCLUDED, WE RELEASED THEM IN AUGUST 2007 THROUGH CDBABY AND HAVE BEEN ALIVE AND KICKING EVER SINCE. CURRENTLY YOU MAY LOOK FORWARD TO A SCHEDULED NOVEMBER RELEASE OF THE NEW ALBUM OF NEVER BEFORE HEARD OR RECORDED SONGS BY ME WHICH I AND MY "COLLABORATORS" ARE FINISHING AT GRAND STAFF STUDIO IN MY BELOVED FINGER LAKES. I GUARANTEE WE WILL BE CELEBRATING MIGHTILY WHEN THIS POWERHOUSE OF PASSION, SOUL, AND VISION FILLS THE AIR. ENOUGH FOR NOW. YOU CAN READ ABOUT ME AT NEW FATE'S WEBSITE WHICH IS LOCATED BY SEARCHING WWW.TOMLUCAS.COM. WITH LOVE AND VISION MY NEW FRIENDS, THIS IS Tom Lucas  [Lucas' website is no longer active.]

 © Scott R. Blackerby February 2026