HAPPY THE MAN
Death’s Crown
(CUNEIFORM RECORDS 55015)
Fanatic fans who own obscure live-recordings knew from the existence of it for years. Owners of the CD “Retrospective” were acquainted of it too. And finally the readers of the interview with Frank Wyatt were informed about it: the never released epos “Death’s Crown” from Happy The Man. In the mentioned interview already was written that this almost 40 minutes lasting piece would be put on CD. Well, here it is! The piece that includes 11 parts was recorded in 1974 during rehearsals in the basement of the house of the band. In the band at that moment was still singer Dan Owen, while Wyatt, the composer of “Death’s Crown”, only played the electric piano then; it was only later that he stepped over to all kinds of wind instruments. The surplus value of this album is particularly the discovery of the musical base of Happy The Man, which manifests itself on this one even better than on “Beginnings” (which contains also never released recordings from 1974 and 1975). The typical trademarks from the band, which are being so strongly demonstrated on the eponymous debut from 1977 and “Crafty Hands” from 1978, are already clearly there and the composition would have been a goldmine in the hands of a producer like Ken Scott. One of the parts (part five) ended up on the second album as “Open Book (Without Words)” and despite the moderate sound-quality one can hear very good that the music is almost arranged the same way as it did on the later LP-version. This is also perceptible on one of the two other tracks on the CD, an early (vocal) version of “New York Dream Suite”. The second piece, “Merlin Of The High Places” is only known from live-recordings and the version which can be found on this album has been recorded in 1976 on comparable circumstances like “Death’s Crown”, as the recording-possibilities had since been improved a lot. While listening to this especially historically valuable release one can’t avoid to get a great admiration for the already in the interview adulated Kit Watkins. When you imagine that these are rehearsals it is hard to believe how he could chance from instrument almost unnoticeable, no matter if it were the divers keyboard-instruments or his flute. During the orchestral closing piece of “Death’s Crown” he manages to let the mostly somewhat thin sounding string-ensemble sound like a Mellotron, probably by combining it with an organ. Beautiful!
Death’s Crown
(CUNEIFORM RECORDS 55015)
Fanatic fans who own obscure live-recordings knew from the existence of it for years. Owners of the CD “Retrospective” were acquainted of it too. And finally the readers of the interview with Frank Wyatt were informed about it: the never released epos “Death’s Crown” from Happy The Man. In the mentioned interview already was written that this almost 40 minutes lasting piece would be put on CD. Well, here it is! The piece that includes 11 parts was recorded in 1974 during rehearsals in the basement of the house of the band. In the band at that moment was still singer Dan Owen, while Wyatt, the composer of “Death’s Crown”, only played the electric piano then; it was only later that he stepped over to all kinds of wind instruments. The surplus value of this album is particularly the discovery of the musical base of Happy The Man, which manifests itself on this one even better than on “Beginnings” (which contains also never released recordings from 1974 and 1975). The typical trademarks from the band, which are being so strongly demonstrated on the eponymous debut from 1977 and “Crafty Hands” from 1978, are already clearly there and the composition would have been a goldmine in the hands of a producer like Ken Scott. One of the parts (part five) ended up on the second album as “Open Book (Without Words)” and despite the moderate sound-quality one can hear very good that the music is almost arranged the same way as it did on the later LP-version. This is also perceptible on one of the two other tracks on the CD, an early (vocal) version of “New York Dream Suite”. The second piece, “Merlin Of The High Places” is only known from live-recordings and the version which can be found on this album has been recorded in 1976 on comparable circumstances like “Death’s Crown”, as the recording-possibilities had since been improved a lot. While listening to this especially historically valuable release one can’t avoid to get a great admiration for the already in the interview adulated Kit Watkins. When you imagine that these are rehearsals it is hard to believe how he could chance from instrument almost unnoticeable, no matter if it were the divers keyboard-instruments or his flute. During the orchestral closing piece of “Death’s Crown” he manages to let the mostly somewhat thin sounding string-ensemble sound like a Mellotron, probably by combining it with an organ. Beautiful!