Re: Happy Rhodes

[Philip.Sainty@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Philip Sainty)]

In article <3n4bo4$mf9@elaine47.Stanford.EDU>,
James Alexander Chokey <jchokey@leland.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
>In article <D7A03t.89t@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl>,
>S.L.Yuen <S.L.Yuen@twi.tudelft.nl> wrote:
>>
>>In the past you guys spoke highly about Happy Rhodes. So I'm curious 
>>about her music. Could anyone recommend an album for a newbie like me?
>>And is there a maillist or newsgroup dedicated to her?
>
>	There is a Happy Rhodes mailing list called Ecto (named after
>one of her albums).  I'm afraid I don't know the address. 

Ecto is available in digest format, or as bounce-mail (ie. each post
arrives as a separate piece of mail)

To subscribe, send email to either ecto-request@nsmx.rutgers.edu
or ecto-digest-request@nsmx.rutgers.edu with "subscribe" in the body
of the message (I think it's the body - if I remember rightly, subject
lines are ignored)

(It might be worth my pointing out that the address has changed from the
old ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu, in case anyone here got accidentally dropped
from the digest during the change-over, and never found out how to get
back on...)

>I used to
>subscribe to it, but it received so much traffic--  including much
>that had nothing to do with Happy (and a substantial amount that had
>had nothing to do with music at all), that I got off it.

Yup, Ecto is quite a busy list, and it's unfortunate that some fans
find they have to un-subscribe because of it :/ but if the volume isn't
a problem it's a lovely list to be on - there's an extremely friendly,
atmosphere, and the non-Happy content is responsible for about 90% of my
musical purchases :)

Another excellent source of general information is the Ecto home page.
(http://www.helix.net/ecto/)

There's also the Happy Rhodes fanzine - "Rhodeways" - run by Sharon Nichols,
which comes out quarterly. Subscriptions are $15 in the US and $18 elsewhere,
and the new address (having recently changed) is:

Rhodeways
P.O. Box 1953
Kingston, N.Y. 12401
U.S.A.



I'll raise my hand to disagree with Jim (as he invited :) about _Equipoise_
and _Building the Colossus_, as I love them both! In particular I'm not
sure I'd consider "Equipoise" to be particularly poppy. Aside from that,
however, I thought Jim's summary was good! (btw, if you were wondering
about the comparisons with both early Kate and Annie Lennox, Happy has a
four octave range!)

Of the albums I have (currently "Rhodes II", "Rearmament", "Warpaint",
"Equipoise", and "BTC") I think my favourite would be either "Warpaint"
or "Equipoise". I'd probably recommend either "Warpaint" or "RhodeSongs"
as a first album. "RhodeSongs" is a 16 track compilation (including
some acoustic versions of songs, a cover of David Bowie's "Ashes to
Ashes", and a (reportedly wonderful) original track ("Summer") which
is unavailable elsewhere. Although I've yet to get "Ecto", from what
I've heard I'd agree with Jim that it too would be a good first album.


>P.S.	The conversation about Kate Bush that was taking place on
>alt.music.progressive recently has branched into a discussion of
>Happy as well-- or at least a few posts on her have appeared, for
>those of you who are interested to hear what prog fans might have to
>say about HR.

Thanks!! I hadn't even heard about a Kate discussion there :)



Philip
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Philip Sainty            |  What are your dreams?               |  _O_   Am I
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