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Ra to the Rescue is one of the rarer albums in the Sun Ra canon. There's a reason, and it has nothing to do with quality content (or lack thereof). When Ra and his business partner Alton Abraham launched their pioneering independent Saturn label in Chicago in the late 1950s, and on thru the 1960s – by which time Ra had moved to New York – each new album was carefully curated, titled, packaged with a printed, illustrated sleeve, and promoted in ads and catalogs.

By the 1970s, when Ra and his band were based in Philadelphia, this process had begun to unravel. During that decade and the following one, Ra often issued albums without the involvement of Abraham (who had remained in Chicago). These releases – dozens of titles – were often hastily compiled, thematically mismatched, and issued in generic white sleeves adorned with homemade abstract artwork, glued-on photographs, and adhesive stickers. They were pressed in limited quantities and shipped to Rounder Distribution for sale, with a small percentage of the pressing reserved for the merch table at Arkestra gigs. Ra to the Rescue (RTTR, a palindromic acronym) emerged during this latter period.

Ra to the Rescue was initially pressed in limited quantities in 1983, but several of its tracks subsequently were reissued with incongruous tracks on the albums (commonly referred to as) When Spaceships Appear, Cosmo-Party Blues, Somewhere There, and Children of the Sun. Those album "titles" are in many cases simply the names of the first track on a particular side (these were scribbled in pen on otherwise blank labels). To complicate matters, some tracks were retitled for reasons that shall forever remain inscrutable.

The tracks on Ra to the Rescue were recorded at several locations over several years. Some were taped at New York's legendary (and now long-gone) avant-garde arts enclave, the Squat Theater. Squat was founded by Hungarian political dissidents and based in a cramped storefront at 256 West 23rd Street. The origins of the remaining tracks on Ra to the Rescue are speculative. The Earthling Recordings of Sun Ra (2nd ed.) calls them "odds and ends from various [1984 or 1985] concerts taped by Arkestra members." Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive says they were recorded in 1984 by director Frank Cassenti for his documentary Mystery, Mr. Ra, at two Paris concerts: one at the Paris Jazz Festival, the other at the New Morning club. Many tracks in the documentary are fragments. The two titles included on this album which are heard in the film are different recordings. Anderson says "Mystery, Mr. Ra" was recorded at the festival and intended for release by Sun Ra, but was shelved.

This Modern Harmonic package is the first time Ra to the Rescue has been reissued on LP. The original Saturn pressing had no official album artwork. The cover for this release was adapted from a 1980s hand-designed sleeve laminated with a shower curtain.