Customer Reviews

Happy to Meet Sorry to Part

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Horslips was a group way ahead of its time. In the 1970s they took traditional Irish folk tunes and, while employing a bewildering array of traditional instruments, added a splattering of electric guitars and hard driving bass lines, injecting an intensity until then unseen in the realm of folkdom. It was a marriage made in heaven - hard rock tends to lack melody and traditional folk music tends to lack energy. By combining the two, we have the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, other than a single FM hit "King of Morning, Queen of Day", the Horslips sound never really caught on with the masses. Perhaps sensing impending doom and in a futile attempt to reach a wider audience, they eventually dropped the Irish folk melodies altogether, switched to dull, nondescript hard rock, and quickly faded from the scene. By 1980 Horslips was a complete bust. "Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part" is their debut album (1973) and although it is essentially a traditional folk album and lacks the polish of later works, it is interesting in the surprising number of influences it employs. While there is an overall gentle, jazzy, laid-back feel to the album, certain songs such as "The High Reel" (omitted on CD), "The Musical Priest", and "Bim Istigh Ag ol" lay the foundation for their more high energy sound which was further refined and developed on subsequent albums. "Ah Bratach Ban" has a bluegrass feel; "Ace & Duece" sounds like something straight out of the Middle Ages; "Bim Istig Ag ol" would fit quite nicely on Jethro Tull's "Stand Up" album; and "Dance to Yer Daddy" beckons the three-part harmonies of church choirs. Throughout various instrumental passages even early psychedelic Pink Floyd comes to mind! In these days of droning two-chord sludge permeating the airwaves, it is not surprising that this "old" music, with its intoxicating melodies and skillful playing, sounds so refreshing. This style is finally starting to catch on, as the cult popularity of Tempest, Wolfstone, the Glengarry Bhoys and the like will attest. These imitators all owe a huge debt to Horslips, the true originators of "Celtic Rock."

When I first heard this, in the wonderful l.p. version that was die cut like a concertina, it made me proud. In the era of Tull and Fairport and Steeleye Span, an Irish group finally opened up rock listeners like myself to traditional music, which for my young self had been poisoned by my parents' generation of showband crooners and unctuous Bing Crosby covers. With Horslips, I could drink from the well, so to speak, and my erstwhile (pre)punk cred might have been a bit tainted, but the energy and intelligence of this debut made its own claim for attention confidently yet sensitively.

Hearing this album decades after I first did, some of the arrangements have honestly not worn well, but the same can be said for all three English bands in the previous paragraph. What distinguishes Horslips from their peers may be that they the five Irishman could tap into a still living musical and linguistic tradition, and went to learn from musicians rather than, as Ashley Hutchings did, from the manuscripts--themselves collected by such as Lloyd and way back by Child, of course. Not to by any means denigrating the English example, but I'd hazard that the connection with the "living tradition" for Horslips, I sense, was somewhat closer than for the late 60s London bands that preceded them into folk & rock. Perhaps Sweeney's Men predated Horslips into merging some outside influences into an Irish trad foundation, but that late-60s trio sought inspiration more from Californian folk-rock and its L.A. singer-songwriters.

Also, Horslips thrived just as Planxty and then the Bothy Band were jump-starting the home-grown trad scene, playing the old tunes touched by veins of rock rather than as fossilized artifacts.

Back to "Happy," the most enduring sounds in retrospect seem to lie among, a bit surprisingly to me, some of the less amped-up songs. (I find the same now when returning to many Tull, Fairport, and Steeleye efforts contemporaneous with this 1972 l.p.). "Flower" and "Clergy" gain from their delicacy, while the phasings on "Musical Priest," and "Hall of Mirrors" make these sound today like imitation prog. The band's eagerness to plug in may be understandable, but their stance to hold back, as in their version with Johnny Fean's lamenting slide guitar, of "Shamrock Shore," makes what to my younger ears sounded cloying now more gentle, to this fine song's improvement.

"Ace & Deuce" has never left my memory since I first heard it, an excellent duel, as this piper tune's title predicts, that shows off all of the band at its finest. Johnny Fean's guitar work has often been praised, but don't forget the band. Eamonn Carr (later a writer for Hot Press magazine) controls the bodhran especially well, and the whistles, fiddles, and mandolins from Charles O'Connor & Jim Lockhart, and Barry Devlin's bass--perhaps a pioneer in his contribution to Irish folk-influenced arrangements--all propel the music sensibly.

While, as many first efforts, a harbinger of better work to come, this album, rounded up if I could to 4.33 stars for effort, prepares for the band's best two records, "Tain" and "Book of Invasions." It ranks, however, # 3. A recovery from hamfisted sham-rock (sorry), their disparate, back-to-roots Christmas collection, pre-"Tain" "Drive the Cold Winter Away," is often ignored but can stand its own against Horslips' "all-trad" purist peers.

Their two albums after "Happy," "Dancehall" and "Unfortunate Cup," take the band too far into muddled rawk, competing with, say the electrified Steeleye that was also emerging; these have not worn well. A irreversible decline followed "Book," as their rockier, Tull-like, anthemic sound eclipsed and eliminated the traditionally-hued, dappled shadings on their finest four albums.

P.S. Make sure you buy the band-approved remasters of Horslips CDs out on Edsel in 2000, not the 1990s Outlet issues. I have both for HTMSTP, and having played them side-by-side to compare, the sonic clarity is substantially enhanced, noticably in the bass-drums foundation for the skirling whistle-guitar-fiddle sound that characterizes this giddy, memorable LP.

This, their first album, is one of Horslips' best and most innovative. They create some very unique, interesting and immensely enjoyable music by blending traditional Irish music with hard/progressive/psychedelic rock. It is more folk orientated than most of their later efforts but it is also incredibly diverse with each song approaching the blending of trad and rock from different angles. A truly amazing groundbreaking album.

Note: this is dated 2006 and not 2000, but should be the same Edsel-Demon reissue that the band approved and supervised. It's essential that you purchase only this version, not the 1990s Outlet one with inferior sound and cheap packaging.

When I first heard this, in the wonderful l.p. version that was die cut like a concertina, it made me proud. In the era of Tull and Fairport and Steeleye Span, an Irish group finally opened up rock listeners like myself to traditional music, which for my young self had been poisoned by my parents' generation of showband crooners and unctuous Bing Crosby covers. With Horslips, I could drink from the well, so to speak, and my erstwhile (pre)punk cred might have been a bit tainted, but the energy and intelligence of this debut made its own claim for attention confidently yet sensitively.

Hearing this album decades after I first did, some of the arrangements have honestly not worn well, but the same can be said for all three English bands in the previous paragraph. What distinguishes Horslips from their peers may be that they the five Irishman could tap into a still living musical and linguistic tradition, and went to learn from musicians rather than, as Ashley Hutchings did, from the manuscripts--themselves collected by such as Lloyd and way back by Child, of course. Not to by any means denigrating the English example, but I'd hazard that the connection with the "living tradition" for Horslips, I sense, was somewhat closer than for the late 60s London bands that preceded them into folk & rock. Perhaps Sweeney's Men predated Horslips into merging some outside influences into an Irish trad foundation, but that late-60s trio sought inspiration more from Californian folk-rock and its L.A. singer-songwriters.

Also, Horslips thrived just as Planxty and then the Bothy Band were jump-starting the home-grown trad scene, playing the old tunes touched by veins of rock rather than as fossilized artifacts.

Back to "Happy," the most enduring sounds in retrospect seem to lie among, a bit surprisingly to me, some of the less amped-up songs. (I find the same now when returning to many Tull, Fairport, and Steeleye efforts contemporaneous with this 1972 l.p.). "Flower" and "Clergy" gain from their delicacy, while the phasings on "Musical Priest," and "Hall of Mirrors" make these sound today like imitation prog. The band's eagerness to plug in may be understandable, but their stance to hold back, as in their version with Johnny Fean's lamenting slide guitar, of "Shamrock Shore," makes what to my younger ears sounded cloying now more gentle, to this fine song's improvement.

"Ace & Deuce" has never left my memory since I first heard it, an excellent duel, as this piper tune's title predicts, that shows off all of the band at its finest. Johnny Fean's guitar work has often been praised, but don't forget the band. Eamonn Carr (later a writer for Hot Press magazine) controls the bodhran especially well, and the whistles, fiddles, and mandolins from Charles O'Connor & Jim Lockhart, and Barry Devlin's bass--perhaps a pioneer in his contribution to Irish folk-influenced arrangements--all propel the music sensibly.

While, as many first efforts, a harbinger of better work to come, this album, rounded up if I could to 4.33 stars for effort, prepares for the band's best two records, "Tain" and "Book of Invasions." It ranks, however, # 3. A recovery from hamfisted sham-rock (sorry), their disparate, back-to-roots Christmas collection, pre-"Tain" "Drive the Cold Winter Away," is often ignored but can stand its own against Horslips' "all-trad" purist peers.

Their two albums after "Happy," "Dancehall" and "Unfortunate Cup," take the band too far into muddled rawk, competing with, say the electrified Steeleye that was also emerging; these have not worn well. A irreversible decline followed "Book," as their rockier, Tull-like, anthemic sound eclipsed and eliminated the traditionally-hued, dappled shadings on their finest four albums.

P.S. Make sure you buy the band-approved remasters of Horslips CDs out on Edsel in 2000, not the 1990s Outlet issues. I have both for HTMSTP, and having played them side-by-side to compare, the sonic clarity is substantially enhanced, noticably in the bass-drums foundation for the skirling whistle-guitar-fiddle sound that characterizes this giddy, memorable LP.

This is a very enjoyable offering from horslips which combines irish trad tunes but adds a rock element. The trad tunes are terrific and the rock songs ain't too shabby either. There is some excellent electric guitar work from sean fean. One of the highlights is the tune 'scalloway ripoff' which really cooks! ...

I was in a record store when this came out. I never heard of Horslips. Wondering about looking at LP's, I walked up to the clerk and asked what was playing. I said that it was awesome and loved it right away. He looked at me kind of strangely and said "really"? I bought it and have loved it ever since. I also bought Aliens, The Man Who Sold America and Short Stories on record back then. I also got Best of and Rewind on cd. I did get to see them here live in the States opening for Be Bop Deluxe at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. They were still great in their later years live. I got to go to Ireland in the early 2000's and bought this Edsel edition at a local shop. We were on a bus tour and the driver put it on. That was a magical moment listening to this great music while touring through the emerald isle. U2 was the biggest band ever out of Ireland, but the driver and I agreed Horslips were the greatest. I saw a local Irish band that were really good (Tuatha) and talked to them after their gig asking if they liked Horslips. They were shocked I heard of them being from the States and said they were bloody brilliant.

Knew this record: I have the vinyl version. Was a pleasure to see that this album exists in CD-format. Great group, great album.

You can take all these other so called Irish bands and toss them away. None will ever compare to Horslips. Great Irish instruments with the new. Thanks lads

For any horslips fans this album won't disappoint. For anyone who doesn't know much of their stuff, I still think you'll enjoy this. If you like irish music and you like rock music then this is by far the best combination. Including classics like "Flower Amang Them All" and "Dance to yer Daddy".