This was the song that introduced me to Tim Buckley in 1972...I was listening to an underground FM rock station called KPRI late one night and this amazing song came on that caught my attention in a major way...I was mesmerized by the performance and was keeping my fingers crossed that the "laid-back" DJ would announce the artist or song title. Sure enough he did, and I wrote down the singer's name and the song title on a piece of paper (used to do that all the time back in those days). I had never heard of Tim Buckley before, but I definitely was interested...it was one of those songs that I just had to own. I tracked the Goodbye And Hello album down about a month or so later and to make a long story short it became one of my favorite LPs when I was in high school (and still is.) Everything about "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" is great...the vocal, the steadily increasing tempo of the musical arrangement, the intense, poetic lyrics (which at the time I didn't know were autobiographical). It sounded like nothing else I had ever heard...also I really dug the conga drumming by Carter C.C. Collins that drives the song along with real ferocity. This is still one of my contenders for my favorite Tim Buckley song. One of the surprises when I got the album was the song ''Morning Glory"...I had heard it before by another artist (Blood Sweat and Tears) and thought it was called "My Fleeting House". My other fave on the Goodbye and Hello album is "Pleasant Street"...another mind-blowing track. Hearing "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" turned me into a life-long Tim Buckley fan.
Jazz Influences on Happy Sad Tim and Lee spent a lot of time in 1968 listening to jazz albums. Some of Tim’s favourites: Miles Davis- Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Porgy and Bess Bill Evans- Nirvana, Town Hall, Trio with Symphony Orchestra, Intermodulation, Undercurrent Jimmy Giuffre- The Jimmy Giuffre 3 Gabor Szabo- Sorcerer, Spellbinder, Bacchanal Roland Kirk- Volunteered Slavery (Tim always spoke highly of Kirk both as a musician and human being) These influences lead to a more expansive, improvisatory approach to concerts. Tim didn’t like his fellow musicians to ever repeat themselves or rely on cliché. (The most important new recruit seems to have been Dave Friedman on vibes- a much older and experienced musician.) Tim was very comfortable in the studio by his 3rd album and took this one-take only, spontaneously creative mentality with him. Lee however says he always felt stiff, and put-on-the-spot in the studio and doesn’t think he ever produced his best work there.
track 3) Love From Room 109 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway) This may be my favorite for complete immersion into the jazz of Happy Sad. Just amazing. This blew my mind upon first listen -- it took only a couple of those opening magical notes on vibes. The ocean waves washing over the whole piece...wow. The minor to major key shifts are so lovely and sophisticated. Man, how old was this musical genius at this point?! I was lost without a song without a melody You came into my hotel life You made my room a home Ah now, mama, don't you know what you done Ah, you made the sunshine in the city Oh, you warmed my heart You changed an old man filled with pity Back to a child again Ah now, mama, can't you see what you done So tell me darlin' if the feeling's wrong Don't waste another day Lord, the saddest thing I've ever known Was to watch it die away Ah now, mama, don't you lie don't you lie Oh, how can my giving find the rhythm and the time of you Unless you sing your songs to me The smell of your sweet skin does entangle my dream Oh may I stand here awhile living your smile Oh, how could you ever know what you've done You warmed my heart when I was so all alone But all I have to give Are my dreams of coming and going forever Inside the rivers of time you'll find me waiting For you to find peace in your mind So we can love again I feel what you feel If you feel what you feel And I see what you see If you see what you see So it goes on and on On it goes, on and on It's my heart and your heart It's our hearts together You sing and I'll bring We'll both love together And all I know is let it grow All you'll find is peace of mind
Love From Room 109 Lemonade Kid- thanks for the twofer. I had never listened to the live version (Oct. 68) back-to-back with the longer studio version recorded 2 months later. Both special versions. Absolutely one of Tim's greatest songs and central to the whole feel of the album. The ocean waves- a happy accident. The respected engineer Bruce Botnick forgot to set the Dolby, leaving a lot of electric hiss on the track. Tim didn't want to redo it so he recorded the sound of the Pacific waves just by his apartment to mask the hiss. As for this live version of Strange Feelin'- I hadn't fully appreciated how different it is lyrically and musically from the studio version recorded soon after. Almost a completely different song- amazing.
Thanks for that...I remember that story about the hiss...definitely a happy accident. Tim was very against multiple takes. According to Underwood, Tim felt that with each additional take the emotion & spontaneity would be drained from the song. If an engineer/producer was unwise enough to suggest a retake, Tim would just glare at the booth, and refuse. Happy Sad was a one-take album, start to finish, it seems. Genius.
“Goodbye And Hello” was my favorite album in 1967, when I was eight years old. (And I still love it.) Years later, my band from high school did “Phantasmagoria In Two” and “Knight Errant”.
I said I would jump in with Happy/Sad, but due to circumstances I'm late to the party. I have to start by repeating a story I've told several times over the years on this forum. In 1970-71 this was my absolute #1 "turn out the lights, light a candle and hop beneath the sheets with my girlfriend" album. We had other albums we turned to this purpose, of course, but this was at the top of the list. And these many years later when I listen to it, which I do frequently, I'm taken immediately back to those feelings of love and closeness I was experiencing back then. It's just an album that envelops you in overwhelming warmth and magic as it makes its way at its own pace, not constrained by any song structures. The vibes and upright bass along with Tim's ethereal 12-string strumming the somewhat unconventional electric guitar work give it a texture that is unique and incredibly affecting. If I believed in the "ten albums you'd take with you to a deserted island bit," which I don't, I'd have to say Happy/Sad would be one of them.
I love how this song takes its own sweet time to get going. The album's mood is immediately established with the vibes and the electric guitar (ever notice how it's out-of-tune, but it doesn't really seem to matter?). Serious magic going on during the instrumental break, and of course Tim's vocal is great, as it is throughout the album.
Happy/Sad's most accessible track, upbeat and positive. On a personal note…having a girl you're very much in love with sing the song's refrain back to you is an experience I wish everyone on earth could have just once.
This was the heart of the album for me, a song filled with wonder that works its way through several different moods, each of them more magical than the last. I'm glad that Tim let the track stand despite a technical flaw (though the solution to covering up that flaw was inspired, and it's hard to imagine the track without it). I can't conceive of a subsequent take bettering the one we got. This entire track just takes you to another place, and if you have someone to go there with you, it's golden.
I love this album, but I have to agree with the people who don't care for "Gypsy Woman". I saw Tim live a couple of times during this period, and "Gypsy Woman" was very long and drawn-out. The vocal improvisation was fascinating at first, and then fatiguing (for me anyway). By the time of the Dream Letter concert in London, it was no longer part of the setlist.
Gaz, interesting. We assume that "Love From Room 109..." and "Gypsy Woman" were probably one-takes because of the minor controversies surrounding them. Also "Sing A Song For You" probably wasn't one-take because it was recorded at the June sessions. Can you tell us anything about the 3 other tracks? Cheers.
Buckley/Beckett's First Song It's obviously an aside at this point, but I was reading an interview with Larry Beckett: he met Tim in High School and claims they wrote hundreds of songs before the 1st album. They are nearly all lost, but he says the very first song they wrote together- "Call Me If You Do"- survives courtesy of a version recorded by the Bohemians (one of Tim's High School bands) for a demo- the Orange County Demo- recorded on 8th November 1965. He says it was inspired by Lennon/McCartney.
track 4) Dream Letter An ethereal beautiful and touching song. Stunningly beautiful. Lovely key changes and as throughout, amazing vocals. Love the bowed double bass. Can't say I've read anything about it...another bittersweet song "dedicated" to his son, with Tim wondering sadly about his life that could've been and his young son. Music drove Tim's life but it would seem like he often questioned his life choice. Lady time, fly away I've been thinkin' 'Bout my yesterdays Oh please, listen darlin' To my empty prayer: Sleep inside my dreams tonight All I need to know tonight How're you and my child? Oh is he a soldier or is he a dreamer? Is he mama's little man? Does he help you when he can? Oh does he ask about me? Ah just like a soldier boy, Ah but I fight in wars The world never knows about Oh but I never win them loud Oh there's no crowds around me When I get to thinkin' about the old days When love was here to stay I wonder if we'd ever tried Oh what I'd give to hold you
This was second TB album I heard after Greetings From LA and then Safronia. Still a favourite album and if I could only have two of his albums, this would be one of them. Dream Letter so achingly sad. I wonder if it also hints at possible drug/alcohol battle: Ah just like a soldier boy, Ah but I fight in wars The world never knows about Oh but I never win them loud Oh there's no crowds around me Bring on Gypsy Woman, love it! Picks me up after Dream Letter - I wonder if it did for him too?
Dream Letter Lemonade kid-thanks for your lovely intro to this one. He strikes a much more conciliatory tone than "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain". And Lee Underwood's sonic experiments on this one are gorgeous. It appears this track and "Sing A Song For You" are the two tracks on the album that were recorded at the June 1968 sessions and were subject to multiple takes. The other 4 tracks, I assume, were all recorded in December, by which time his attitude to multiple takes had changed. Both tracks from the June sessions fit in perfectly though. I have always thought that CDs of LPs recorded prior to the CD age should contain a 20 second silence track (the approx. time it takes to flip an LP and play) to clearly delineate where side A ends and side B begins. However on this record the close running together of "Love From Room 107..." and "Dream Letter" works a treat.
Hmmm....Tim was always referring to his sonas I recall, but who knows. Was it in the My Fleeting House doc where the story goes that Tim tells a star (while on a movie set he was at?) that Fred Neil's Dolphins was all about a father and son's deeply tragic estrangement...so she went off to find a listen and could find nothing remotely close to what Tim was talking about. Me neither...but Tim felt some real grief there.
To me the "out fighting Wars" lyric refers to his personal battle to win the public over to his music or even his inner creative wars with his muse that every artist experiences, and in explaining this war Tim may be telling his son that is why he is so absent from his life. Beckett contends that Buckley never cared a bit about real monetary success as long as he could play & record his music.
