Lyres-Happy Now... (1993)


 

Artist: Lyres

Title: Happy Now...

Label: Taang!  

Format: CD

Cat: TAANG! 66

Year of Release:1993

Country and Year of Edition: US 1993

Sell Price: $3.99 12/19/22  VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 11/23/22 NM+ $3.95

Low:$2.50

Median: $4.13

Average: $4.29

High: $5.73

Current low price: $2.96

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 26

Have/Want: 225/23

Where Sold: Middletown, MD

Time it took to sell:  10 years

Where and When Purchased:  late 90's internet collection buy

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

It's a nugget if you ever dug it.  If you dig the likes of mid-60's regional independent bands like TTHHEMM, The Scavengers, Dale & The Devonaires, The Road Runners, Phil and the Frantics or Mr. Lucky & The Gamblers then you will be sated with these renditions.

2 Nanker Phlege Stones songs: Now I've Got A Witness and Stoned are here. You get an actual hit, “Nobody”originally by the Isley Brothers and later the Human Beinz.  The whole thing closes with Bo Diddley's "I Can Tell."

This leaves two live tracks from the famed 1980 Lyres "Lost EP" recorded here Live at Irving Plaza.  They are among my favorites of the record: "I Ain't Going Nowhere" and "100 cc's"  The drumming on "Ain't Going Nowhere" and the fade in on "Pain" are the highlights of the album for me.

Strange how Happy Now… fell through the cracks for me.  I bought it at some point later in the 90's in a push to complete my Lyres collection.  I always thought of the Taang! era as less important than the Ace of Hearts period,  This was before Edgar at Mars Bar got me excited to see them again around the time I bought this.  

Even though I witnessed Lyres in the 80's (opening a free Aerosmith arena gig in Worcester), I always had the subliminal of Lyres as a studio band. One you'd hear on radio ("Don't Give It Up"), a bar jukebox  (“Help You Ann”), or on record (everything else), not a band you would see in a club (Cantones or The Rat notwithstanding).  Somehow this "recent" era of the last 25 years I've seen whatever Monoman puts forth as Lyres every chance I get and even had a hand in booking a show or few.  

Definitely a Boston entity that means more to me in my life outside of Boston.



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