#13 – If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure by Jann Arden (2020) – Jann Arden is a Canadian pop star, and an accomplished writer, who has written a memoir, and collections of essays. She talks about aging, and how she is embracing her Crone as she enters that phase of her life. She talks about the difficult relationship she had with her father, who was an alcoholic. She discusses her own battles with alcohol and self-esteem. She talk about lots of difficult experience she had when she was younger, and how they have all contributed to the person she is today, her success, but more importantly, her failures. While Jann’s trademark humor is not as up front as in some of her other work, her conversational language makes it’s seem like you’re just having a chat with her. The book is filled with platitudes, but Jann makes them meaningful, and you can’t help but believe in her.
#12 – The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (2019) – I know G. Willow Wilson from her work with comics; her creator-owned Invisible Kingdom, her Vertigo series, Air, and her Marvel superhero landmark series, Ms. Marvel. Recently learning of her prose work, I picked up her latest novel. This delightful fantasy tome takes place in the area that was to become Spain under the conquering Spanish monarchy. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of the sultan of Granada. While she lives comfortably and has certain benefits form her station, she is essentially the sultan’s property. Her one true friend is Hassan, the palace mapmaker, who has two secrets that become a huge danger to his life when when an envoy for the Spanish monarchy comes to negotiate the terms of the sultan’s surrender to their new power. It turns out that this envoy, Luz, is part of the Spanish Inquisition, and Hassan’s penchant for lying with men, and more importantly, his unexplainable ability to draw maps that become reality target him for conversion or death.
Fatima and Hassan flee the sultan’s palace and find themselves targets of a desperate chase. They are unexpectedly aided by the sultan’s wife, and one of the mysterious spiritual beings known as the djinn. Through danger and adventure, not to mention personal growth, Fatima finds the strength within herself that she never knew she had. It’s a complex, imaginative tale that explores history through the lens of fantasy and from a unique point-of-view.
#15 – The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken (1998) – Reiken is a New Jersey-born author who now teaches at Emerson College. He has published three novels, the most recent of which, Day for Night (2010) was my #1 book read in 2012. Going back to his first novel, The Odd Sea, was an odd, and serendipitous choice to read this past year, because it was unplanned, and I just happened to see the book at the library, and the name was familiar (I had forgotten that the other book of his that I read had ranked so highly with me). Published in 1988, The Odd Sea was selected for best debut novel lists in both “Library Journal” and “Booklist,” and charts the territory of a family dealing with the unfathomable, when Ethan, one of their teenaged children disappear, never to return. Focusing mainly on Ethan’s younger brother, Philip, it is an exploration of how a family must cope with a tragedy that cannot be explained, and how it informs the path of Philip’s life and coming-of-age.
#14 – Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne (2020) – Maryland-based author, Karen Osborne released her debut novel, Architects of Memory in 2020, part one of the proposed The Memory War Trilogy. Ash lost everything during the intergalactic war with the alien Vai. Now struggling with a terminal illness, the salvage pilot encounters something that could change the course of humanity, and must do everything she can first to understand it, then to keep it out of the hands of those whose best interests are perhaps not shared by many. Deft, gritty, hard sci fi, Architects of Memory does an imaginative job at creating a life form so alien to humanity that actions and motivations are nearly impossible to discern. I look forward to reading volume two, Engines of Oblivion, soon.
I feel good about the amount of reading I did in 2021. It has still been a strange year, with a pandemic still raging, but we did head back to working on site in June, and that meant commuting again. I managed to squeeze one last book in by finishing it today, so my total is 33 books for the year. That doesn’t match my golden days of reading, but it’s a great improvement over the last several years. I will certainly try to keep up that pace.
For today’s post, I’m just going to list all the books I read in 2021 in alphabetical order. Then starting tomorrow, I will list my favorites. And just in case you’re wondering, the book pictured is one that I liked, but that didn’t make the final list.
The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller came in at #18
Architects of Memory (2020) by Karen Osborne
Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Rock Star (2013) by Tracey Thorn
The Bird King (2019) by G. Willow Wilson
The Blade Between (2020) by Sam J. Miller
The Guncle (2021) by Steven Rowley
Harlem Shuffle (2021) by Colson Whitehead
The Healing Power of Singing (2021) by Emm Gryner
Hidden Palace (2021) by Helene Wecker
Honor (2022) by Thrity Umrigar
How to Be an Antiracist (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi
Hummingbird Salamander (2021) by Jeff VanDerMeer
If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure (2020) by Jann Arden
Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything (2020) by G. Willow Wilson
Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds (2021) by G. Willow Wilson
Kill Me Now (2018) by Timmy Reed
Kindred (1979) by Octavia Butler
Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album (2012) by Ken Caillat with Steven Steifel
Master of the Revels (2021) by Nicole Galland
Memorial (2020) by Bryan Washington
The Next Queen of Heaven (2009) by Gregory Maguire
Night Came With Many Stars (2021) by Simon Van Booy
The Odd Sea (1998) by Frederick Reiken
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) by Becky Chambers
Rachel to the Rescue (2021) by Elinor Lipman
Real Life (2020) by Brandon Taylor
Scardown (2005) by Elisabeth Bear
The Seventh Perfection (2020) by Daniel Polansky
Sex with Strangers (2021) by Michael Lowenthal
A Star is Bored (2020) by Byron Lane
The Stone Sky (2017) by N.K. Jemisen
Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac (2007) by Carol Ann Harris
Stumptown: The Case of the King of Clubs (2015) by Greg Rucka
Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (2013) by Christopher Durang
As we explore my five favorite Happy Rhodes songs, it becomes evident as to why Building the Colossus is my favorite album. In some ways it is Happy’s more accessible album, but I guess for me, it’s her most consistent album, where I enjoy nearly all the songs. I guess I can kind of see why Happy is disappointed with the production… it might be considered over-produced by some, but for me it’s just perfect. However Building the Colossus doesn’t take the top spot. In fact, that spot goes to a song that has had three different incarnations, with The Keep‘s acoustic version being the winner. Let’s start with #5, which goes all the way back to Warpaint.
#5 – All Things (Mia Ia Io) – Warpaint (1991) There is something simple and elegant about All Things, with a single musical passage that repeats through the entire song. It’s a slow burn, percussive, almost droning line with a gorgeous propulsive bass line to power it. When Happy’s voice slides in, the deep tenor with which she sings is just over a whisper; there’s something conspiratorial about it, and it draws you in. The chorus, which is just vocalizations without meaning is Happy using her voice as another instrument to add color and texture to the song. Simple. Elegant. For me, powerful. It also represents for me, the best of Happy’s early work after she branched out of her acoustic phase. A great exploration of electronics and the expanded use of her deeper register to really broaden her musical style.
Lyrically, it seems Happy might be exploring reincarnation, or perhaps cosmic beings commenting on humanity. The line form which the title comes, “All things exist at once seems more than we can bear,” seems to suggest that we live all our many lives simultaneously. Her question to her companion, “Tell me all the plans you have for the great beyond. Will you be physical again or be a cosmic vagabond?” is what makes me think about reincarnation. Return to the corporeal realm? Or travel through the cosmos as a soul? It’s funny that my Top 5 starts with a song about souls, because it ends with one too. In a 2018 interview, when Happy was asked if her music was spiritual, she responded:
“There have been so many things I’ve experienced in my life that I feel have to come from somewhere else. There’s something else going on. You could call it quantum mechanics if you wanted to. I feel all things exist at once. I believe time is simultaneous and non-linear. I also don’t believe that our bodies die and then that’s the end of us. I believe there are other things that happen, but I can’t put my finger on any of it.”
In addition to the studio cut from Warpaint, I’ve included a live version of the song from Happy’s 2001 concert at Ectofest West. She had badly cut a tendon in her left hand the night before and couldn’t play the guitar; only the keys, but she still went on with the show, and sounds great. I do like the way they use the guitar to substitute for some of the keyboard parts.
#4 – Big Dreams, Big Life – Building the Colossus (1994) There is something so gentle and warm about this overlooked song from Building the Colossus, that to me, harkens back to Happy’s earliest work, yet shows the maturity she has attained over the years of performing. It’s a simple song with a gorgeously sung vocal against a lovely finger-picking acoustic guitar. Monica Wilson’s lovely cello enhances to the beauty of this short but dreamy song. It’s one of my favorite vocal performances from Happy’s upper register. She lets her tremolo out and the song is sung with such tenderness.
Lyrically Happy is musing on her life, how far she’s come, what it took to get her here, and how while it was hard, she wouldn’t change anything. If you have big dreams, you need to accept that your life will be big as you attain them. There’s really not too much to say about this song other than I get lost in it every time I hear it.
#3 – Collective Heart – Building the Colossus (1994) It’s hard not to love this song, which Happy Rhodes about her e-mail discussion group, Ecto, of which I am a part. In some ways, this is a pretty straightforward pop song form Happy, but from the opening piano flourishes to the beautifully, generous lyrics where she sings about getting so much positive energy from her fans, particularly those of us who are/were part of our online discussion group.
It’s also the one of her songs that she carried over to her most recent project as lead vocalist for The Security Project, a Peter Gabriel tribute band. The live version I’ve included here is a special one, because I was at the performance, and my friend Laura recorded it from the table we were sitting at. While I love this song for its positive, upbeat melody and gorgeous harmonies, it’s a difficult one to reproduce live. Happy’s layered vocal tracks really make the track pop for me, and that great piano part, which Happy usually eschews when she performs it on her own, turning it into an acoustic guitar driven track. Although, re-listening to the acoustic version from The Keep, it’s still maintains its warm beauty. That said, I like the way The Security Project maintains the original orchestrations, but they just can’t reproduce the vocals. So I’ve included the videos for the original track off Building the Colossus, the acoustic version from The Keep, and the live version with The Security Project. Enjoy!
#2 – Building the Colossus – Building the Colossus (1994) And Building the Colossus completes its sweep with its 4th song in my Top 10 (and 9th in my Top 40), the album’s title track. I love so many things about this song. I love the varied uses of her voice. I love how prog rock it is. I love the Middle Eastern feel of the bridge, and the fantastic organ part that supports that segment. I love the gorgeous coda to the song right before the final verse where it slides into that gorgeous major key. I love the incredibly clever lyrics that sound like it’s describing the building of a massive architectural tower, but it’s actually about building your self. Scot always loved this song because she uses the word “underwear.”
Many of you know, I’m not really a lyrics person, but this one is so clever and smart that you can’t resist.
“Shoring up the sides, pillars hold me up Mortar me here, mortar me there Gonna need stronger underwear uh-huh to keep this spine upright Reaching to the sky, stone by stone A character flaw will bring it all down Gonna have to call the mason ’round uh-huh and sturdy up the ground.”
Then…
“I know that up is the general direction of-a where I gotta go to get the best view, there’s a lotta rotten beams that I gotta get rid of, gonna sheetrock up, gonna order some steel I try to build the perfect model of-a who I wanna be There’s an ideal person hiding, lurking, waiting inside of me .”
Many hardcore Happy fans don’t love the album Building the Colossus, and I think it’s too pop sounding for them. Happy has gone on record as stating that the album is her least favorite and she can’t listen to it. She cites that she uses electronic sounds because they sound electronic, and on BtC, they tried to use electronic instruments to emulate instruments in a way that didn’t work for her. She also stated that the album includes a few of her favorite songs, and I’d love to know which ones those were. Listening to Building the Colossus alongside all her other albums to create this list, I find that while it has the most songs in my Top 40, and obviously, my Top 10, as an album, it’s not my favorite. For me, Happy’s songwriting improves with maturity, and I think my favorite would have to be Many Worlds Are Born Tonight with an honorable mention to Find Me (Equipoise is pretty dam good too), but I can’t deny the power of all those great songs from Colossus.
#2 – Save Our Souls – The Keep/Rhodesongs/Equipoise (1995/1993/1993) Save Our Souls has long been my favorite Happy Rhodes song, but it tops my list as a very particular version of the song, and that’s the acoustic version she recorded for The Keep. The song first appeared in 1993 on Equipoise, in a much more electronic form and featuring some gorgeous Happy vocal arrangements. An acoustic version next appeared later that on Rhodesongs, Happy’s compilation album, and that spare, stripped down version was just beautiful. But when she recorded it again for The Keep, she slowed it down, and poured even more emotion into her vocal, keeping the acoustic backdrop, but adding some lovely electric washes to really create a powerfully moving song that chokes me up every time I hear it.
Lyrically Save Our Souls is a cynical look at humanity’s search for aliens, seeking them as almost salvation, or the next step in our own evolution. Yet Happy turns it around on us, singing about how we have dominated and eradicated all other species on earth and now it’s lonely at the top so we look for salvation from the stars.
“We are the number one offender of specieism and yet Here we are reaching out for aliens, Looking for our salvation. Pity our emptiness.”
It’s tragic, bitter and beautiful.
Instrumentally, there is something about the chord progression Happy uses in this song that I find so emotionally moving. The fantastic use of her upper and lower registers is perfection in this song… the verses song so gorgeously using her deepest voice, and the chorus hitting the stars, presumably where the aliens are coming from to save us. I think in many ways, Save Our Souls would be best song to introduce someone to Happy because it captures all the best of her.
Naturally, for video/audio selections, I went a little crazy for this one. We start with my #1 version from The Keep, because if you only listen to one version, it’s got to be this one. Then there is a hauntingly, beautiful, live version of the song from a 1997 show at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia. This is possibly the ultimate version of the song because it does nearly everything The Keep version does, but it adds the uncannily-Happy-sounding background vocals of Kelly Bird to really allow the song to soar. Then for completists, there’s the original version from Equipoise.
And that’s it… my Top 40 Happy Rhodes songs.
One last thing about Happy. After recording 11 albums from 1986 – 2007, she retired from music, no longer recording or performing. Then, nine years later, she re-emerged as the new lead vocalist for the band, The Security Project. The band performs Gabriel’s early progressive work, generally taking material from his first four albums along with some songs from early Genesis. Band members include drummer Jerry Marotta (who played on some tracks of the latter three of Gabriel’s first four solo albums, and toured with him for ten years), Bass guitarist Trey Gunn (former member of King Crimson) and guitarist Michael Cozzi (former member of Shriekback). When Happy became lead vocalist, they began adding Kate Bush songs to their set. Happy returned in great form, sounding fantastic and performing wonderfully. It is my hope that this return, now interrupted by the pandemic, has inspired her to record and perform her own material again. To close, I have included a couple of tracks from The Security Project.
Sorry for the lengthy since my last post. Back to work in person full-time, pandemic restrictions starting to lift, a recent project where I’m filling the gaps in my movie viewing history have all kept me away from the blog for a while, but I’m back, and hoping to finish off my favorite Happy Rhodes songs soon.
With this entry, we enter my Top 10 favorites. Surprisingly, five different albums are represented, even going all the way back to 1986, and Happy’s third album, Rearmament. We haven’t had a pre-Warpaint song show up since #32’s The Revelation from Rhodes II. The remainder are taken from each of her last four studio albums.
#10 – She Won’t Go – Find Me (2007) That’s three in a row from Happy’s final album to date, and I’m not sure why that should be such a surprise as I think she just keeps getting better. Perhaps it was the lengthy span between when she recorded the songs to when she finally released them, the album sticks in my head as a compilation, when it’s not. This #10 song is the final song from Find Me, however. She Won’t Go is not one of Happy’s pretty songs, in fact it kicks off with some discordant wailing that persists throughout the track, much like the “she” referenced in the title, throwing tantrums in Happy’s mind. It’s another one of those lumbering, chunky songs that Happy does so well, and I find it rather thrilling.
Happy says of She Won’t Go, “… is a very caustic, almost abrasive-sounding song. I’m not sure I personally would want to listen to that song. I don’t even know how it happened. However, it has some of the most difficult vocal accuracy singing on it that I’ve ever had to do.” Her singing is truly on point in the song, and I like to think the “she” is the bitter, angry girl in Happy’s head who may have evolved out of the bullied child in If I Ever See the Girl Again, Musically, I love the flutter of tom’s that come in after the wailing, that then launch into full drums. The verses are delightfully atonal, with s bouncing bass line that all resolves into the grim chorus. The wailing guitars are used to great effect to had highlighting to the verses while Happy’s voice ping pongs from discordant lows to highs. It’s pretty amazing, and pretty impressive, and maybe it’s not a pleasant song, but it’s certainly a compelling one.
#9 – I Have a Heart – Rearmament (1986) Reaching way back to 1986, and Happy’s third album, which was basically part of the back catalog of songs she had written throughout her youth, there is her tender, heart-breaking ballad, I Have a Heart. Gentle finger-picking of an acoustic guitar leads to Happy’s hesitant voice… a lost lonely voice that is wrapped in some lush synth-strings, before being joined by some gorgeous harmonies. It’s a simple, straight-forward song sung by a young girl dealing with suicidal thoughts. “All I can do is beg her to stay…” is the singer’s mournful plea to her heart, which has been broken and beaten and just wants to leave. It’s hard to deny the sad beauty of the song and it’s enough to make Happy’s Top 10 here.
I’m not sure if she re-recorded the song for her Rhodesongs compilations, or just remastered the existing recording, but i suspect the former. The song sounds like it was sung by a slightly more mature Happy whose voice and grown since the initial recording. So that’s the version I’ve included below.
#8 – Pride – Building the Colossus (1994) There’s something about Pride that’s reminiscent of I Have a Heart but tonally they are nearly opposites. There is such a lovely feeling of self-acceptance in Pride, clearly written and performed by a far more mature Happy who has learned many of life’s lessons. I love how the lyrics are so tied to nature, which seems to be where she finds peace and humility. There is such a gentleness to this song, it just touches my heart. And the instrumentation, a simple blend of acoustic guitar, bass, and electric guitar washes, is gorgeous.
Now for the confession. For years… until today, actually, when I read the lyrics, I thought the first line of verse two was, “Walk on out and catch a bee in my hand…” which I loved. The lyrics are actually, “Walk on out and catch a beam in my hair…:” Okay, so it doesn’t resonate quit as much for me as what I thought, but it’s still lovely. Enjoy Pride as taken from Building the Colossus, and then from a live show at the Tin Angel in 2005.
#7 – Proof – Many Worlds Are BornTonight (1998) From the opening drumbeats, the powerful bass, and the wailing guitar licks, Proof captures me instantly. Then Happy’s deep, commanding voice starts making demands, and the chunky rhythm drives us into the song. A standout in the otherwise largely atmospheric Many Worlds Are Born Tonite, Proof seems like it belongs on Building the Colossus. I love the sparse, nearly whispered verses in contrast to the chorus, and then there’s the soaring instrumental bridge that seems like it’s swooping in from a different song.
Lyrically this one’s pretty impenetrable to me. It could be how you have to justify your life more and more as you get older, leaving the carefree days of youth behind. I’m not certain, but as a piece, it’s certainly intriguing, and the closest thing to a follow-up single to Roy that this album produce. I’ve included the original studio version along with a nice live version from 1999.
#6 – Runners – Equipoise (1993) The first track from Equipoise, Runners has the distinction of being the first song by Happy Rhodes I ever heard, and it clearly had quite an impact on me, topping the lower half of the Top 10. Despite its subject matter (which we will get to) Runners is arguably the closest that Happy has ever come to “single” material. I mean, it’s even got a pretty straight forward kick-snare action to drive it forward. Add to that a fairly traditional verse chorus structure, and some nice synths to provide the color and you’ve got alternative single written all over it. I love the gorgeous guitar lines that weave in toward the end while Happy repeats the chorus and adds her ad libs. The whole close out of the song, maybe the last minute and a half, really thrills me. Her voice is strong and commanding, and I love those soaring high notes she wails as the song fades out.
Then there are the lyrics. Runners is about the race to cheat death. There is toxicity everywhere trying to kill us. In what is surely a first for pop music, Happy sings about carcinogens, toxic dumps and malignant lumps. It’s all around us “coming around to take your (sic) heartbeat.” But as the song shift to the halfway points, Happy sings about all the things she is doing to combat the inevitability of death, from diets, to doctors, to wearing a tin hat to protect herself from the ozone. 😉 Only Happy could take such a grim topic, add some black humor, and turn it into a pop song. First I ever heard, and it’s still sticking with me.
#13 – If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure by Jann Arden (2020) – Jann Arden is a Canadian pop star, and an accomplished writer, who has written a memoir, and collections of essays. She talks about aging, and how she is embracing her Crone as she enters that phase of her life. She talks about the difficult relationship she had with her father, who was an alcoholic. She discusses her own battles with alcohol and self-esteem. She talk about lots of difficult experience she had when she was younger, and how they have all contributed to the person she is today, her success, but more importantly, her failures. While Jann’s trademark humor is not as up front as in some of her other work, her conversational language makes it’s seem like you’re just having a chat with her. The book is filled with platitudes, but Jann makes them meaningful, and you can’t help but believe in her.
#12 – The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (2019) – I know G. Willow Wilson from her work with comics; her creator-owned Invisible Kingdom, her Vertigo series, Air, and her Marvel superhero landmark series, Ms. Marvel. Recently learning of her prose work, I picked up her latest novel. This delightful fantasy tome takes place in the area that was to become Spain under the conquering Spanish monarchy. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of the sultan of Granada. While she lives comfortably and has certain benefits form her station, she is essentially the sultan’s property. Her one true friend is Hassan, the palace mapmaker, who has two secrets that become a huge danger to his life when when an envoy for the Spanish monarchy comes to negotiate the terms of the sultan’s surrender to their new power. It turns out that this envoy, Luz, is part of the Spanish Inquisition, and Hassan’s penchant for lying with men, and more importantly, his unexplainable ability to draw maps that become reality target him for conversion or death.
#14 – Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne (2020) – Maryland-based author, Karen Osborne released her debut novel, Architects of Memory in 2020, part one of the proposed The Memory War Trilogy. Ash lost everything during the intergalactic war with the alien Vai. Now struggling with a terminal illness, the salvage pilot encounters something that could change the course of humanity, and must do everything she can first to understand it, then to keep it out of the hands of those whose best interests are perhaps not shared by many. Deft, gritty, hard sci fi, Architects of Memory does an imaginative job at creating a life form so alien to humanity that actions and motivations are nearly impossible to discern. I look forward to reading volume two, Engines of Oblivion, soon.
