Randy Hostetler – Happily Ever After
Happily Ever After is an epic spoken word piece composed and assembled in the mid 1980s by CalArts student Randy Hostetler (1963-1996). The work is comprised of multiple layers of Randy’s friends and family members telling stories, all starting with the phrase, “Once upon a time…” and ending with “….and they lived happily ever after.” Just a few of many yarns unfurled include a jellyfish poisoning, a strange tree mold, racism, dog abuse, and a variation on the old saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” The latter, which replaces the greener grass with a golden house, closes out the disc with a very plaintive woman’s voice. It’s a real tear jerker!
Throughout the piece, which clocks in at 45 minutes, two or more people can often be heard speaking simultaneously. When several speak at once, it becomes nearly impossible to follow any one tale. The point seems to be more about allowing the voices to form a web of pure sound that hovers around your head and floats through your mind. Indeed, at one point, the whole shebang coalesces into a huge crescendo of garbled sonics. Some twangy, unplugged slap bass even appears in the mix! No windscreen was used during the recording process, so people can be clearly heard popping their Ps all over the place. Still, Happily Ever After is one of the finest spoken word pieces ever assembled. After hearing it, there’s a good chance that fans of the genre will themselves live happily ever after.
Label: Frog Peak Music Catalog Number: FP008 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 4 Total Time: 45:50 Country: United States Released: 1999 More: Forced Exposure, Frog Peak Music, Living Room Music
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