RETROSPECTIVE

HAPPY THE MAN was the best thing to come out of Washington DC since FDR's New Deal, and arguably the most accomplished American Prog Rock band of their time. Even so, this outstanding 1989 compilation of their early, essential work hasn't attracted a single Prog Archives review until now, which is a shame, because it's the perfect introduction to a group that suffered, even more than most Progressive acts, from an almost criminal lack of exposure.

Part of their problem was a career that blossomed too late to catch the slipstream of a disappearing zeitgeist. But an even bigger hurdle was their eclectic, unclassifiable sound, not easily squeezed into the familiar Prog pigeonholes of the 1970s. They were never an easy band to pin down: complex but melodic, lush and cinematic, jazzy (but never jazz), and favoring a collaborative approach without the crutch of self-indulgent solos, a refreshing trait for a group of such clearly gifted multi-instrumentalists (including two keyboard players, neither one a subscriber to the popular Emerson/Wakeman model of mini-moog overkill).

The band always acknowledged their debt to the music of YES, GENESIS, and GENTLE GIANT. But they never borrowed more than just enough to fuel their own creative spirit, unlike the more slavish counterfeits of other stateside proggers (step forward, STARCASTLE).

Newcomers looking for a taste of the often elusive HTM style will find plenty to chew on here, from strictly coloristic mood pieces to more than one idiosyncratic rocker with a challenging (to say the least) time signature. You haven't lived until you've heard the accelerated stop-start synchronizations of "Stumpy Meets the Firecracker in Stencil Forest" (...and how's that for a memorable song title?) Or the masterful "Service With a Smile", maybe the most compact and perfect realization of the Progressive Rock philosophy ever recorded. In something under three minutes this one song makes a complete mockery of all the knee-jerk anti-Prog accusations of pomposity and pretension, while still managing to turn an unlikely 11/8 meter into a toe-tapping powerhouse beat.

This collection includes almost all of the group's first two classic albums (with six out of nine tracks from their 1977 debut, and six of eight from the 1978 masterpiece "Crafty Hands"), plus three selections from their belated 1983 album "Better Late..." Most of the songs are in an economical four-to-five minute range, and all but one are entirely instrumental, which may help explain why their music has dated so little over the years.

Add a detailed history of the band, extensive notes on each of the songs, and updated biographies (through 1989, at any rate) of everyone who was ever involved with the group, and you have a generous and very attractive package designed to rekindle old memories or, better yet, spark new interest in one of Progressive Rock's best kept secrets. Let's hope their recent reunion earns them, at long last, some of the long- overdue attention they missed the first time around

After a first long break (ten years) without any HTM production, it was probably not a bad idea to release a compilation from this very discreet US band.

This compilation gets most of the track selection out of their first two albums, leaving only three spots (out of thirteen) for their third release "Better Late". This is actually a good choice, since I couldn't really cope with it (although the three ones featured are OK).

HTM plays an almost instrumental music, at times "Genesis" related, at times more on Crimson side ("Stumpy Meets.") or even VDGG.

There is no chronological order here, except the last three numbers which come from their last work. Some might argue about some songs which IMO shouldn't sit here like "Knee-Bitten Nymphus". This one being closer to their third source of inspiration, namely "Camel". "Steaming Pipes" is another jazzy oriented song like "Camel" produced at in the late seventies.

"Wind Up Doll" is one of their very few tracks with vocals is featured; It sounds almost as a "PFM" track (during the time that they used to sing in English). More complex and well constructed, it is one of the best song from this compilation work. "Open Book" is also very good, but fully Trespass-esque.

The longest song ("New York Dream Suite" being a kaleidoscope of their different styles (symphonic, jazzy, ambient).

Like my fellow reviewers (three), I believe it is a perfect introduction to the band and as far as I'm concerned, I don't need more than this one to summarize their career so far. Three albums in one.Fair enough. Three stars.

Happy The Man had the great misfortune of just coming into being at the same time that all of the major record labels were discovering, with the help of rock "journalists", that the public wanted (or were being told that they want by the above mentioned "journalists"), punk and disco. These brilliant minds found that they could pawn of cheaply produced records by groups that couldn't play to save their lives, and groups that came up with one lick, increased the bass EQ, and played that one riff until the polyester proles' heads went numb.

Therefore, this great band only released two LPs before calling it quits (two CDs of demos, one from before their records, and one from after, have since been released - and their comeback CD a few years ago). That means this single CD is able to hold most of the two albums and a few tracks from the CD of demos for the third album.

The songs show was a great and unique band HTM was. The songs are somewhere between fusion and symphonic prog, with a flair towards inventiveness. The songs can get a little bit lighter than I like at times, but they usually migrate away from that before too long.

Favorite tracks on this are Stumpy Meets The Firecracker In Stencil Forest, a roller coaster of a song, and New York Dream's Suite, one of the most grandiose songs by this band.