Happy The Man - Steaming Pipes

From the album "Crafty Hands" (Arista, 1978). Kit Watkins: Keyboards / Frank Wyatt: Keyboards and Woodwinds / Stan Whitaker: Guitars / Rick Kennell: Bass / Ron Riddle: Drums. Produced by Ken Scott.

[@austinmunday8190]

They should put this on the radio

[@robertgreenbaum7514]

I've been a long time fan... At the time I was a CCTV installer and I made facetious comments about the local rock Station overplaying. W IBG. From then on I became interested in Jazz Fusion

[@JoelBryant1960]

Best Prog Band Ever IMHO

[@pasthomas]

H.T.M. arguably the greatest prog band (along with Y.U.) incidentally, Kit Watkins is one of the greatest musicians you'll never hear about

[@snuppssynthchannel]

Y.U is inferior to the band that they draw inspiration from, (mostly Gentle Giant and Yes). While Y.U is by all means a good band, most of their arrangements are somewhat messy and instrumentally not as well performed as something one could expect from Happy the man or the more known European prog bands, it's all in how the musical elements of Y.U are a bit forced and does not mix together as organically as the other Eclectic bands of the decade. Gentle Giant was infinitely better performed, and composed music and all their albums better produced as well, and Gentle Giant was the originator alongside gryphon in implementing the folk inspired, medieval troubadour elements into rock music in such a manner as they did. Kerry Minnear also mastered writing counterpoint and fugal techniques, and the group managed to implement all of their musical inspirations, synthesizers and chamber sound in a organic way, while in comparison, in Yezda Urfas case, the implementation of these elements was somewhat forced. Now that's said i am not bashing the band, and you are allowed to have your opinion and i agree with your view that Happy the man is among the best prog bands from the seventies.

[@Shabimbly]

One of the best songs I’ve ever heard

[@jpablodegracia]

A masterpiece of progressive rock

[@k3vinhayne]

in my humble opinion these guys were the most impressive progressive rock band ever! Kit Watkins is so good it’s spooky!

[@snuppssynthchannel]

Agreed, Kit is the best synth soloist that I have ever heard.

[@gcdrummer1404]

Happy the Man is my absolute favorite symphonic progressive music bands from the US.

[@runkrunkus2315]

Kit and Stan are the best, the most inventive, the most excellent. Harmonies intertwining, keychanges, rythm changes, THE BEST ! But they are all great ! I forgot to push it....

[@61guitbox]

my fav track from HTM ! glad to see Stan and Frank still at it !!

[@alexeisenberg2834]

Kit Watkins...killer keyboards

[@swimszoots]

A thousand thumbs up! I break this album out every couple of years and listen a few times through. This tune has some characteristics of Mahavishnu and I love it.

[@jeffreyob1]

HTM, definitely the greatest prog band of all time. If you dig this go find Stan and Franks latest project, Oblivion Sun, they just released their 2nd offering "The High Places"

[@1359401]

No sorry love HTm but gentle giiant is the greatest band of all time

[@BallJoinedWing]

thanks for the tip bruh

[@SneakerPages]

That's great!! Gentle Giant is amazing... Playing The Game, His Last Voyage, Just The Same... aaahh

[@mrprogjazzgto]

WOW... I haven't heard this since the 70's Thanks for posting this..!!! Just came from floating thru Gentle Giant, Genesis, Brand X here on utube

[@bogeybast]

I bought & loved listening to the first lp but didn't know about Crafty Hands until now. I'm going to enjoy catching up. Thanks for posting this real treat for long time fans & everyone else with ears for joyful uplifting music.

[@chizmo7]

Best Minimoog solo ever!!!!!

[@johnwise9807]

Tell the World !!!!! Peter Gabriel..... wanted to Hire Stanley as his Guitar Player , but things never played out, but them guys would have been a Killer Duo

[@SneakerPages]

@mrprogjazzgto Glad you dug it my friend :-) One of my two favourites off this album, the other is "Ibby It Is". I like those bands you mentioned; I had a Brand X period a couple of years ago. Listened a lot to albums like Morrocan Roll, Masques and Is There Anything About. Bill Bruford's first band from 77 to 80 had a similar sound, to my ears. Great stuff!

[@katemurphy1915]

Thank you for the upload!!!.

[@gurgisjones1120]

Reminds me of some of Steve Hackett's early solo work that came out at the same time.

[@drwugong]

Still not on spotify in the UK.

[@ep784]

Nice music!

[@fernandoabdo1255]

EXCELSO!

[@SneakerPages]

@ep784 One of the U.S. best bands ever :-)

[@jotavn]

How I love tritones

[@JonP1961]

Great tune! Part of the section starting at 0:30 reminds me of something by Brand X (can't recall the exact tune), although more keyboard-driven here.

[@timt9625]

The uplifting part from 2:52-3:05 is my fav :)

[@SneakerPages]

@Beadbud5000 Absolutely!

[@SneakerPages]

Yeah, I like Kansas too, f.ex. The Spider on the Point Of Know Return album - but I gotta say that they don't have anything like Ibby It Is and this song here

[@wesleycolemanmusic]

If we were going to compare this to something Kansas, for some reason, I would probably say No One Together of there 1980 album has some similar elements. Although, you really can't compare other American prog bands to each other. RTF, Frank Zappa, Kansas, Guns & Butter, HTM, etc; American prog bands were pretty left field.

[@hubiex]

I'm hearing a bit of Steve Hackett's "please dont touch" in there, which was'nt released til' 79...Hmmm...

[@SneakerPages]

Please Don't Touch, great album with many great guest artists like Steve Walsh! And even more unexpected guests like Randy Crawford and Richie Havens I got a hunch also that HTM did "borrow" their name from Genesis and their single "Happy The Man" in... 1971 or 1972 (?)

[@Cr8Tron]

Nope.

[@debradesarmeaux2906]

No, not it at all. Stanley Whitaker's brother Ken suggested it. It is a bible verse that goes, "Happy the man who loses his head for he finds it again in heaven." I went to college with them and remain friends to this day!

[@johnwise9807]

And thats a TRUE FACT !!!!!

[@SneakerPages]

@JonP1961 Yeah, I find it sounds familiar too. Maybe "Access To Data" from the "Masques" album? Gonna listen to that now, to see if it could be that one!

[@SneakerPages]

@Big77Jim Yes, there's only vocals on a few of their songs, but I guess they were kind of anonymous guys anyway (unlike Rick Wakeman or Peter Gabriel) ;-) But man what a band... Yeah gotta love those meter changes and the swirling stunning music alltogether

[@SneakerPages]

@chizmo7 Yeah, great stuff!!

[@feduppelin4]

Speaking of Peter Gabriel, the HTM anthology CD I found said that they were offered a chance to back up Gabriel's 2nd album after a vigorous jam session... they declined. Bad career move perhaps?☺

[@SneakerPages]

+feduppelin Yeah maybe... but then again, if that had happened we wouldn't have this excellent HTM music :-)

[@johnwise9807]

look up Happy the man's Video from the 80's called Burning Heart Killer Song !!!!!

[@katemurphy1915]

Very unfortunately , You Tube won’t let me subscribe to this channel; this problem is a You Tube malfunction that can only be corrected from your end. Would you please assist me with subscribing to this channel? Thank you in advance.

[@katemurphy1915]

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