Re: HAPPY RHODES

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Don Lashley wonders:

>OK...it's my birthday and I got $70 worth of gift certificates to my fave
>music store.  Now, I have EVERYTHING by Kate (except the HoL re-release,
>but I do have the Japanese Box...so, that one is on the back burner.  If I
>DID get the re-release, I wouldn't open it and I just get it as a novelty
>item) BUT they do have about 6 CD's by Ms. Rhodes, whom I have never heard?
> Should I try her out?  What does she sound like?  Which one should I start
>with?

This is just begging for trouble -- you'll hear as many different answers
as there are Happy Rhodes fans in this group.  Herewith, my own answers:

Yes, if you're the sort of person who has everything by Kate, Happy Rhodes
might well please you also.

She sounds (to me) like a very talented and intelligent person who counts
Kate, David Bowie, Yes, and Peter Gabriel as strong influences.  But her
songs don't sound like imitations of these.  (She is, on the other hand,
the ONLY person to record a song which I would honestly have mistaken for
an undiscovered Kate Bush song if I hadn't known better.)

For an introduction, see if your fave music store has a copy of a
collection of RhodeSongs.  It was my introduction to her ouvre, and it won
me over in nothing flat!  Also recommended for the newcomer are Ecto (I
bought it just to find out what the damn word meant) and Building The
Colossus.  The latter includes the song "Collective Heart" which is on my
shortlist for most beautiful song ever written.

Stay tuned for every other HR fan here to call me an idiot and disagree
with every word I've just written.  They're funny that way.  ;-)


RAB

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