Black Sheep is a rarities album by American rock band Ra

Ra (U.S. band)

Ra is an American alternative metal band from Los Angeles, California, taking their name from the Egyptian sun god. The band has been around since the 1990s, but did not actually evolve into its current form until 2002...

; being their fifth release total, including their live album. It includes a collection of B-sides and demos that go back to 1994. Ra's newest single "Supernova" is featured on the album - "Supernova" was digitally released on June 9, 2009.

The only previously released song is Crazy Little Voices. It was originally released in 1999 as part of The Rage: Carrie 2

The Rage: Carrie 2

The Rage: Carrie 2 is the 1999 sequel to the 1976 horror film classic Carrie. Directed by Katt Shea, the film starred Emily Bergl, Mena Suvari, Jason London and Amy Irving.-Plot:...

 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Rap/hip hop vocals are prevalent in the album and in the songs: The Foundation, Busted, Chained To The Ground, and Deliverance. The album's most straight-up, heavy metal song is Baghdad; in this way, it is similar to Parole from Ra's debut album, From One

From One

From One is rock band Ra's first major label album released October 22, 2002. It features the band's hit single, "Do You Call My Name," which had a music video and was followed by their second single, "Rectifier." "From One" reached #154 on the Billboard 200...

.

Black Sheep was digitally released on iTunes, but was never released for physical purchasing in retail stores.

During the outro of the song "Chained to the Ground," the musicians play a part of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs."

Track listing

1. "Cross of Snow" – 5:20
2. "Tomorrow's Sun" – 5:37
3. "The Foundation" – 3:26
4. "Crazy Little Voices" – 3:49
5. "Chained To the Ground" – 4:06
6. "Deliverance" – 4:11
7. "Busted" – 3:22
8. "U Need Me" – 5:06
9. "What I Am" – 5:14
10. "Who's To Blame" – 3:40
11. "Not In Your Head" – 4:04
12. "What I'm About" – 3:58
13. "Seen All Good People" - 6:10
14. "Baghdad" - 3:53
15. "Supernova" - 3:55

Liner Notes

1. Cross of snow
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Bass, vox, Nandi Johannes- Guitars and Frank Katz- Drums

1994-One of the first songs to capture what eventually would become Ra's sound. Notice the Arabic influence and the stop and go chorus...just like in "Rectifier"

2. Yesterday's rain
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Bass, vox, Nandi Johannes- Guitars and Frank Katz- Drums

1994-Another example of early Ra development as well as the constant references to the sun. Written about Kurt Cobains death.

3. The Foundation
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- guitars, vox, Skoota Warner- Drums, Kirk Lyons- Bass

1996- In mid 90's, rap rock was all the rage and as a band from NYC we did our part to interpret the times. While I did honestly like the movement, ultimately is wasn't the area where Ra's strength lay. This song landed a deal with Sony- Edel America Records.

4. Crazy Little Voices
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999-This was a later version of the original song released by Edel America featured in the move "The Rage- Carrie 2"

5. Chained to the ground
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Skoota Warner
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999-Another rap rock attempt, quite funny to me but nonetheless I always liked the chorus and most notedly, the outro is the inspiration for the outro in "Skorn"

6. Deliverance
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Skoota Warner
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999- If chained to the ground is funny then this one is just stupid but i thought it had some good energy

7. Busted
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass and Dave Aaron- slide guitar

2000- This song was originally all rapped but when sung had a cool vibe to it. A successful song for Ra, it landed quite a few meetings at major labels.

8. U need me
Written by Sahaj Ticotin, Dave Aaron and Pete Williamson
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Recorded for the "Duality" session, this is a creepy song about a serial killer who stalks his victim from his window. It later felt too dark for the record which I was instructed to make lighter.

9. What I am
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Also recorded for the "Duality" sessions, this is a beautiful song about the deepest suicidal feelings. I absolutely love the guitar tones on this track...again it was too dark for the powers that be.

10. Who's to blame
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Ben Carroll
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass, Ben Carroll- Guitar

2004-2009 Remixed and mastered for 2009 this trak laments about the worst kind of dying relationship... the stale one.

11. Not in your head
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Sometimes a really good song gets lost when u record it. Digitally sped up it has some sound degradation but the elements of this song could have been great... Notice the bridge is the chorus from "Chained to the ground"

12. What I'm about
Written by Spencer Proffer
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums

2005- This was for a TV show about Frankenstein that never caught on. Always thought it was a great song though...

13. Seen all good people
Written by Yes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums

2005- Commissioned by ESPN this cover was used on a few sports shows for the network. I thought it was well executed and should include it here...

14. Baghdad
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums and Ben Carroll- guitar

1998-2005 Still relevant today, the original version of this song was recorded in 1991!! When there was the first gulf war! This version was one of the first things I ever wrote on 7 string guitar and recorded the basic traks in 1998. Ben and I added the dueling guitar solos in 2005... loose production but fun anyway...

15. Supernova
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, vox, Andy Ryan- Drums, Ben Carroll- Guitar, PJ Farley- Bass

2009- When the sun dies it sinks in on itself until it reaches a critical density and releases a massive amount of energy called a supernova... it either dies or lives on to become a black hole.

Personal Message from Sahaj

Hopefully this will help u with understanding the intent of the record. We wanted to show how a band struggles with identity until it finds itself. Pick and choose what u dload if u wish but the whole record is $9.99 on itunes which works out to $.666 per song. (it really does... I don't know if that's good or not) Thanx to all and we love u guys.- Sahaj

2010 version iTunes release Track listing

1. "Supernova" - 3:54
2. "Cross of Snow" – 5:26
3. "Yesterday's Rain" – 5:53
4. "The Foundation" – 3:26
5. "Busted" – 3:24
6. "Baghdad" - 3:55
7. "Chained to the Ground" – 4:13
8. "Crazy Little Voices" – 3:51
9. "What I Am" – 5:20
10. "Not In Your Head" – 4:11
11. "U Need Me" – 5:11
12. "What I'm About" 4:03
13. "Seen All Good People" - 6:22
14. "Who's to Blame" – 3:41