As Happy As You Make Me: Pearl Anniversary

tl;dr: three links at the bottom to different versions of a song celebrating its 30th birthday.

One of the main things I've been doing in this blog, other than posting NaPoWriMo poems before I mostly took those to Twitter, is marking anniversaries of my songs that I particularly like and/or are particularly meaningful. For instance, I posted about the 20th anniversary of Wrong Place, Wrong Time, the 25th anniversaries of If I Can't Be and Down from the Skies, the 30th anniversary of Watching Rainbows, and not-round number anniversaries of other songs.

It's been a few years, but I'd like to mark a 30th anniversary of one of my personal favorites, As Happy As You Make Me, written 30 years ago today (according to my notes). I don't remember a whole lot about writing it--I wrote it while on a family vacation in the UK, about the on-again/off-again college girlfriend and original muse I've mentioned here a few times, just as we were ramping up to embark on our longest "on again" stretch (at least officially). This was easily the most challenging original for me to play on the guitar, which I still wasn't really any good at. But Original Muse was very encouraging, and we used to call it "The Spider Song" since my fingers moving around the frets reminded her of a spider walking. I thought I might have the band learn it, but it really wasn't right for them and then I wrote a more suitable song about Original Muse, and that was that. It was in my regular rotation when I'd sit outside my dorm room and play, but I never did the song with any of the bands I've been in, nor was it really an option for any of them. As a result, unlike Down from the Skies or Another Margarita or Solitaire, there aren't a string of recordings of it down through the years.

But as years passed, I've appreciated the song more. It waited until 2009's The Cheese Stands Alone for a Gedankenband version, and while recording it I realized it was a much better song than I remembered. When seriously reconnecting with Original Muse several years ago, The Spider Song was one of her first requests when we were hanging around with a guitar together.  It has worked its way into being something I consider one of my very favorite originals, and trying to be objective about it, likely one of my best. What that says about how my craftsmanship has or hasn't progressed in 30 years is a different topic.

So! 3 versions of "The Spider Song" for you:
As Happy As You Make Me (link to Bandcamp site for The Cheese Stands Alone version)
As Happy As You Make Me (30th anniversary rerecorded unplugged version)
As Happy As You Make Me (early stripped down demo/experimental version for The Cheese Stands Alone)