It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since Mark saddled up his sparkly horse and rode off into the sunset. We still mourn the loss of a brilliant artist and a friend, and we ache for all of the music that we will never get to hear. But we are thankful for the memories and especially for the music that has been left behind.
So in honor of Mark and in tribute to him, we present two recordings that we think you’ll probably have never heard until now. They are especially fitting as tributes to Mark, as between them, they well encapsulate Sparklehorse’s musical and emotional range. And both come from Good Morning Spider, my own favorite Sparklehorse album.
First, A very rare live recording of Hey Joe recorded in Richmond in the Summer of ’98, in excellent quality:
Secondly, something very exciting indeed; perhaps what could be considered a ‘holy grail’ for Sparklehorse aficionados: The unreleased Sound of Music studios mix of Happy Man, in all it’s unfettered glory. This is not the “Memphis Version” that Mark later disavowed. It is a re-recorded version that was made in 1998 and which preceded the “Memphis Version”, but which was never released. It’s basically like the studio version from GMS – without the radio static stuff obliterating half of it. According to Daniel’s notes, the band consisted of Mark, Scott Minor, Scott Fitzsimmons, and Jonathan Segel, with John Morand and Jonathan DeMaio behind the boards, with a little help from David Lowery. And it’s amazing. And yes, we have it. And now so do you:
Happy Man (Unreleased SOM Mix) No longer available
We hope you enjoy these, and we would like to thank our friends at SOM for sending these our way and allowing us to share them with you.
Rest well Mark. You are missed every day…