''Happy Sad'' is the third album by American singer-songwriter

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ...

, released in April 1969. It was recorded at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California and was produced by former

Lovin' Spoonful Loving may refer to: * Love, a range of human emotions * Loving (surname) * '' Loving v. Virginia'', a 1967 landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case Film and television * ''Loving'' (1970 film), an American film * ''Loving'' ( ...

members

Zal Yanovsky Zalman Yanovsky (December 19, 1944 – December 13, 2002) was a Canadian folk-rock musician. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky and teacher Nechama Yanovsky (née Gemeril), who died in 1958. He played lead guit ...

and, coincidentally, his subsequent replacement

Jerry Yester Jerome Alan Yester (born January 9, 1943) is an American folk rock musician, record producer, and arranger. Biography Yester was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and grew up in Burbank, California. He formed a duo with brother ...

. It marked the beginning of Buckley's experimental period, as it incorporated elements of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

that he had never used before. Many of the songs here represent a departure from the binary form that dominated much of his previous work. The sound of the album is characterized by David Friedman's

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

, an instrument which gives the album a more relaxed tone than Buckley's earlier work. The songs are much longer than on previous releases and this style continued through to later works. The vocals on the album are more drawn out than earlier performances and this represents the beginning of Buckley using his voice like an instrument. The

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

on ''Happy Sad'' represent a change as Buckley stopped working with Larry Beckett, his lyricist on the two previous albums ''

'' and '' Goodbye and Hello'', and began writing the lyrics himself. Buckley's self-penned efforts stand in contrast to Beckett's occasionally

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and literary-style work.Underwood, Lee. Retrieved on May 1, 200
Tim Buckley Biography
''timbuckley.com'' Buckley would also go on to author all his own material on the following two albums.

Inspirations and song analysis

''Happy Sad'' shares much in common with his later albums, '' Lorca'' and ''

Blue Afternoon ''Blue Afternoon'' is the fourth studio album by Tim Buckley, released in November 1969. It is Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's Straight record label. This was Buckley's fourth album afte ...

''. Much of the material that would appear on those albums was written at the same time as the songs that appear on this album, representing the most productive and prolific period of Buckley's career. Buckley's musical tastes expanded during the period that the album was written. The first track, "Strange Feelin", was instrumentally inspired by

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

' " All Blues" from '' Kind of Blue'', while the melody of the song is totally original. "Buzzin' Fly" was written much earlier than the rest of the work and was originally performed with a group Buckley had during high school, the Harlequin 3, with bassist Jim Fielder and later lyricist, Larry Beckett. Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, David Browne The third track, "Love from Room 109 at the Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)", is a song composed of various movements and this represents the second time Buckley wrote in this manner, his previous effort being the title track of '' Goodbye and Hello''. The segments of the song were written separately as "Danang" and "Ashbury Park", as demonstrated on the later released demo sessions, '' The Dream Belongs to Me: Rare and Unreleased 1968 - 1973''. The final version of the song is backed by an 'ocean'

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

, however this was not originally intended to feature on the song. Buckley and the band were happy with the take of song but because of a recording problem the track had a slight electric buzzing in the background. The producer solved this by muffling the buzzing with the ocean

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

. "Dream Letter" is an ode and apology to his ex-wife, Mary Guibert, and his son

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

. This is the second song Buckley wrote about the pair, the first being "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" on his previous LP, '' Goodbye and Hello''. In comparison to that song "Dream Letter" has a more apologetic tone, the lyrics reveal this with Buckley lamenting "Does he ever ask about me?". It would be over five years later that Buckley would meet with his son again.Browne, David (October 24, 1993). Retrieved on May 1, 200
The Unmade Star
". ''The New York Times''. The name of the song would later be used for a live album:

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' ...

release '' Dream Letter: Live in London 1968''. The concert features much of the same personnel from the ''Happy Sad'' sessions. "Gypsy Woman" is a long track highlighting Buckley's vocal acrobatics and on the record has some qualities of a jam session. Buckley and his band were disappointed with its recording but the song would remain as part of Buckley's live repertoire for the following years. The closer of the album, "Sing a Song For You", is more similar to Buckley's work on ''Goodbye and Hello'' than to the songs on the rest of the album. It shares the verse/chorus style and folk leanings of " Song to the Siren", which though released on '' Starsailor'', was written around the same period.

Reception

Released at the height of his popularity, ''Happy Sad'' was his highest charting album, reaching No. 81 in the US Pop albums chart, but Buckley's experimentation on this album would alienate some of the fanbase and his mainstream appeal he gained with ''Goodbye and Hello''. However, this was only the beginning of Buckley's experimentation with sound and genre, and subsequent releases would further reduce his mainstream popularity and see his sales take a downturn. In 2000 it was voted number 954 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...

''.

Track listing

All tracks written by Tim Buckley. Side One #"Strange Feelin'" – 7:40 #"Buzzin' Fly" – 6:04 #"Love from Room 109 at the Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)" – 10:49 Side Two #"Dream Letter" – 5:12 #"Gypsy Woman" – 12:19 #"Sing a Song for You" – 2:39

Personnel

*Tim Buckley – vocals,

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

* Lee Underwood – lead guitar, keyboards *John Miller – double bass *Carter C.C. Collins – congas, conductor * David Friedman – percussion,

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

;Technical *

– producer *

Jac Holzman Jac Holzman (born September 15, 1931) is an American music businessman, best known as the founder, chief executive officer and head of record label Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records. Holzman commercially helped launch the CD and home video form ...

– production supervisor * Bruce Botnick – engineer *

Ed Caraeff Ed Caraeff (born April 18, 1950) is an American photographer, illustrator and graphic designer, who has worked largely in the music industry. He has art directed, photographed and designed more than 400 record album covers from 1967 to 1981 for ...

– photography * William S. Harvey – art direction *Robert L. Heimall – design

Inspirations and song analysis

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

References

Further reading