Happy Place

The first time I heard Sparklehorse I was in a little studio in Escondido and I was plunking away on a guitar I loved (and wished I had). The studio monitors crackled in to life and I heard a stool creek loudly under the weight of something sinister and an organ that crackled into chords. I crawled into the control room as the organ continued a simple melody and, beautiful in it's simplicity, created a whole world of rain and rustling trees inside my head. Out of so little came so much. Then, as if tuning a radio, static clambered away from the organ and latched on to a bullet miced voice and a weak guitar just audible through the noise. "If I had, if I had more, more would be layed at your feet"
The static grew, drowning the song, and the organ returned marring and smearing the lines of the second verse, then the haze cleared and the song opened up, became monstrous and roared through the speakers. Guitars blared instant hooks through my ears and (as a young lad) I couldn't help but fall in love with the vision of a man devoured by a crazy horse. The song ended with a simple but mournfully honest plea. "All I want is to be a happy man." The organ returned, the song was sung, and Mark wasn't there anymore...