Many songs were unavailable for a while due to a technical glitch. They should all be back now. New (fan) web site: http://happyrhodes.org NEWS: All 11 of Happy's albums are now up on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/user/happyrhodesalbums#play/playlists All vocals by Happy Rhodes except "Proof" (additional vocals by Kelly Bird and Mitch Elrod) and "Winter" ("Oh" by Jerry Marotta). All of Happy's albums can be listened to free via streaming audio at rhodesongs.com Many songs can be downloaded free at wretchawry.com Full disclosure: Happy did not put up this page. My name is Vickie and I have her permission to put up pages and share her music. Happy isn't an Internet person, except for e-mail. She's been making music for over 25 years and has 11 albums. I put up this page because I wanted more people to know about her and hear her music. I know IAC isn't a place for fan pages, but I do have her permission. Thank you for understanding. I just want to spread the music to those who would appreciate it. Discography: Find Me (2007) Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998) The Keep (1995 compilation) Building The Colossus (1994) RhodeSongs (1993 compilation) Equipoise (1993) Warpaint (1991) Ecto (1987) Rearmament (1986) Rhodes II (1986) Rhodes I (1986) Bio from auntiesocialmusic.com (used with permission) Happy Rhodes is an enigma. This is according to the Music Industry, which has never been able to pigeon-hole her into any category. Her music is otherworldly yet substantial and her 4-octave voice has a haunting familiarity to it. Most listeners find her work difficult to describe and yet she incites an almost unheard of devotion among her fans. She goes from Kate Bush highs to David Bowie lows and you find yourself being beckoned to follow her into her multilayered worlds. She was born on August 9th, 1965 and named Kimberley Tyler Rhodes. Three days after her birth, while still in the hospital, her brother Mark called her "Happy-baby" because she was so smiley and he couldn't pronounce Kimberley. It seemed so fitting that it stuck. The family never knew her as Kimberley and so when she was 16, she made Happy her legal name. Happy's youth wasn't easy. She lived in poor neighborhoods, in a poor family and experienced a never-ending onslaught of peer rejection and abandonment. Despite the truly bad odds, she was driven. Music was an early inclination, as were dance and art. Her father, Vernon H. Rhodes Jr., exposed Happy to his very eclectic musical tastes early on. She would sit on the floor in front of his console stereo and listen to Switched-On-Bach until she could sing along with every note. "I remember some Saturday mornings I'd wake up to Bagpipe music BLARING through the house and that meant that he'd be listening to his whole collection all day...... I loved walking around the house, singing along with every record or reel-to-reel tape." When Happy was 11, she got her first guitar. She had no desire to learn the instrument the way everyone else was doing it. She simply wanted to begin writing immediately. Creating was always the main objective for her, not excelling at any one particular instrument. It became instantly clear that Happy's path would not be one of virtuosity. But by the time she was 14, she was already performing her original songs in school shows. As time went on though, she became increasingly removed from the outer world. High School became a place of alienation for her because she was already driven for a musical future and depression was slowly becoming part of her everyday existence. She knew she needed to do something or she would explode. At age 16, Happy left school and got her G.E.D. For the next two years, she wrote and made some Open Mic Night appearances at a legendary cafe called Cafe Lena in Saratoga, NY. During this time, she met up with Pat Tessitore, a co-owner of Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer, NY. She approached him with the idea of becoming an intern of sorts, just so she could learn the basics of audio recording. "I knew I wanted to be a professional musician, but didn't really know where to start. So I decided I'd learn how to MAKE records first, get my foot in the door and then figure the rest out later." Happy never really got the full recording education she was looking for because as soon as Tessitore heard her sing, he insisted on recording everything she'd written up to that point. "She played and it absolutely blew me away. And I had heard a lot of voices in my day", recalls Tessitore. "She brought tears to my eyes." Soon, Happy met up with another musician and mutual friend of Tessitore's, Kevin Bartlett. Bartlett had been writing his own instrumental music for years and had a small, cassette-only label, called Aural Gratification. He heard Happy's work and asked if she'd like to release her music to the public on his label. She accepted. One of these cassettes made its way to a woman named Vickie Mapes, who at that time, was doing an all-female-artist radio show in Kansas City. She began to play Happy's tapes and circulating samplers to unsuspecting music-lovers. From her efforts, a small fan-base was forming. They organized themselves into what is now known as ECTO, a Happy Rhodes Mailing List. This is a forum through which, music lovers can discuss Happy's work, as well as other "Ectophilic" artists. Happy released approximately 9 CD's on the Aural Gratification label. In 1997 however, Happy decided that it was time to seek out a different kind of record label. A good friend recommended her to a newly forming label called, Samson Music. Founded by Norm Waitt Jr.(co-founder of the Gateway Computer company), this was a label that Happy felt would take her music to the next level. She signed with them and released "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight" in August of 1998. "I went through a lot of darkness to make that album. It was also the most fun I've ever had making a record." Happy and Samson Music parted ways in early 2000. She self-released her 11th album, Find Me, in October 2007. End auntiesocialmusic.com bio ==================================== Fan pages: New fan site Song samples MySpace Ecto - Lyrics Live clips on YouTube (Happy has never made a video to any of her songs, so only live clips, an interview clip, and fan videos exist, but there are over several dozen of them on YouTube).
Find Me Beautiful and haunting, this is about a woman alone, dying, begging to be found.
One And Many About being akin to having multiple personalities, but they're all 100% you.
Treehouse Just wanting to be surrounded by people who like you, what's so bad about that?
Here And Hereafter Just a simple love song, with a dark streak
Charlie Inspired by Charles Crumb, brother of Robert Crumb, in the documentary Crumb. - reached # 1 on KIAC Big 50
Chosen One Always the bridesmaid, never the bride (well, now she is). Not very "PC" but simple and heartfelt.
Fall Utter despair. One of the most frightening songs Happy's ever written.
She Won't Go A sister song to "One And Many." Understanding this song is the key to understanding Happy.
Terra Incognita This is from the point of view of her cat. Look for 2 different fan videos on YouTube to see Happy's cats.
Til The Dawn Breaks An early Happy song, from 1986's Rearmament. High and low voices are both used to spine-tingling effect. Happy's alone in the studio.
Winter A dark dreamscape about loss and sorrow.
When The Rain Came Down Was described as being a duet between Annie Lennox and Kate Bush.
Roy (Back From The Offworld) This is inspired by the Roy Batty character in the film Blade Runner.
Glory (radio edit) Friendship, the most important thing.
Temporary and Eternal (Live acoustic version) A life lived, regrets expressed
Temporary and Eternal (album version) Much more ethereal than the live version
Tragic Two figures, tragic.
The Chariot An abused child from a broken home. Please read the song story and lyrics.
Ra Is A Busy God (Vocal) Happy liked the instrumental she did so she re-worked the song and wrote lyrics. This is from the point of view of a child watching the sun go down.
Ra Is A Busy God (trance instrumental) Another of Happy's trance instrumentals.
Warpaint Don't try to tell me there's no reason for any moment in time Every memory of mine. Those years are lines of color on my face My past is warpaint
Summer Ethereal unrequited love song
Summer (The Keep version) Unrequited love. Man it's a bitch.
Collective Heart Happy has been making music for over 25 years, and has 11 albums. Along the way she's gained a small, but fiercely devoted worldwide following. This song is about and for them, in thanks for the support.
Words Weren't Made For Cowards The title says it all.
I Say Who she is.
Serenading Genius Oh to be one of them (she is, but she doesn't know it).
Hold Me Weird how life doesn't always work out the way you planned.
Ashes To Ashes A cover of David Bowie's song. Licensed Cover
100 Years From the POV of a sentient computer abandoned on a deserted space station.
All Things (Mia Ia Io) Are you a cosmic vagabond?
Myrr (The Smoking Car) This is one of 6 trance instrumentals Happy wrote and recorded for 2 trance albums by Aural Gratification (the record label).
Feed The Fire (Warpaint album version) This is for the main artists who inspired her: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Yes, Queen and Wendy Carlos.
Feed The Fire (Acoustic Tribute version) This is for the main artists who inspired her: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Yes, Queen and Wendy Carlos. (Snippets of Bush, Yes and Bowie in this version)
Proof Funky and ethereal in the same song.
9/22/2009 12:44:55 AM Greetings to Vickie thanks for sharing Happy's Music...quite a catalog here...and what variety...and such a amazing voice she has...lovely tone and texture......will spend some time scouring through and checking out all her music over time thanks for taking the time for doing this listening to the David bowie cover.....pretty sweet for sure, great guitar picking too best bryon
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