2000 Great Songs #1212: Happy The Man

Here's another example of a song I love in large part because it was all but impossible to find for the longest time, its rarity giving a sheen of something special and personal to the track. Indeed, a million years ago, I talked about how the #1 track on this list, my all-time favorite Beatles song (and song period) was the not-exactly-common Beatles pick "Rain." But when I first heard it, the song (the b-side to the better-known "Paperback Writer") was essentially unavailable, the single out of print or impossible to find, and the non-album track wasn't then included on any compilations albums. This has changed since the advent of the CD (and of course the internet), but at the time it made the song feel extra-special, something I was lucky to hear once or twice on the radio and after that was left to recreate it in my head.

Anyway, "Happy The Man" was a 1972 single from Genesis, a band not exactly known as a singles band. When I first became obsessed with Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, and especially 1971's Nursery Cryme, I read about the song somewhere, but there was no way to actually hear it, so it kinda took on mythical proportions in my head. Eventually I found a bootleg vinyl record that included the song, and another rare early b-side ("Twilight Alehouse"), along with a handful of live tracks. I (over)paid for the record, brought it home, and was delighted to find it lived up to my expectations. 

Ok, it wasn't quite as fascinating as the contemporaneously-recorded Nursery Cryme, more of a (mostly) straightforward pop song than much of their early work (in contrast to the more sprawling, proggy "Alehouse"), but the difficulty in tracking it down added to its allure. Plus I loved the jangly, shimmering chord progression in the intro, something I've been playing on my guitar ever since.

As with "Rain," its rarity has decreased--it's been included on a few Genesis box sets, and of course you can find it online--but it hasn't lessened my love of the tune.

Slightly shorter:

Live bootleg:

Tribute band The Watch:

Cool cover from Rob Gould & Friends: