The Beau Brummels | Are You Happy? | (Warner Bros.) 1967

“Are You Happy” taken from the CD ‘Triangle’ (Warner Bros. 7599-26886-2) 199?

The Beau Brummels | Are You Happy? | (Warner Bros.) 1967 | TRIANGLE, by The Beau Brummels. Three young men whose music is unique, absorbing, adventuresome. At one side of this Triangle, vocalist Sal Valentino, tall, dark, eyes that brood, a voice as important as any in music today.

At the second side, Ron Meagher, bassist, dressing like Buffalo Bill Cody, his fingering as solid as any’s, and more than most’s.

The third side: Ron Elliott, fleet guitarist and composer of most of the songs in Triangle — songs, inventive songs, formed into a suite which sings of man’s adventure in our world . . . metaphorically, into a Magic Forest.

Enter here a Magic Forest. Enter with one man, as he travels through this wilderness that is his life. Travels, not chronologically, but emotionally. And hear him, as he tells his life:

The Beau Brummels | Are You Happy? | (Warner Bros.) 1967

At the edge of the forest. He first pauses — staring back as someone still unforgotten. Looking at her in open inquiry. Asks, of this someone, now gone from his side, “how do you feel?” ARE YOU HAPPY, running to Summer, with Winter on your heels? And are you happy, running to shelter, when shelter won’t conceal . . .

Then, a few steps deeper into this forest, her past warmth now even less by him, his head dances in the memory of when he saw her crying, crying ’cause their hearts weren’t lying . . . but now, they’re ONLY DREAMIN’ NOW.

Deeper still, this uncommon Everyman wanders the Forest. Isn’t he a sight, with his fancies in flight, this PAINTER OF WOMEN, whose hands are his eyes.

Always around where there’s love to be found. He has chosen his dream, and cannot stop without it. And as he wanders, thoughts of passing, empty moments worry him.

He thinks ahead, ahead to himself in his tomorrow years, as THE KEEPER OF TIME, falling behind the hours, blinking and nodding. In such a mood, man tells himself IT WON’T GET BETTER, and he’d best act now, in his Summertime, when all the girls are in their prime. Time won’t re-arrange all the things that you need to be changed.

But even in this Magic Forest, life is wearying. Lift up that NINE POUND HAMMER. Knows its inevitability. Know that when death comes, your tombstone must be made of number nine coal.

The traveler asks, “Won’t you follow, follow, through the dark.” He, in his dream world, hears the lark of MAGIC HOLLOW, and calls out her melody, veiled within his own memory. Magic.

The Beau Brummels | Are You Happy? | (Warner Bros.) 1967

The struggle between hope and resignation, between heart and mind, wavers to the mind’s favour: he remembers her: AND I’VE SEEN HER sleeping; she is keeping to herself.

And I’ve heard her crying; she is lying to herself. She is waiting to be known, but living all alone. But, she’ll never give in. She’ll go to sleep again.

Alone, his thoughts turn outside him, to the Forest around. And to the fertile TRIANGLE which has caught him up: the Triangle of love and sun and rain. The eternal mandala he is part in. In this, the deepest part of the forest, the air is full of strangeness.

An unfamiliar breeze blows. He sleeps. And, as THE WOLF OF VELVET FORTUNE, he becomes a giver without thought of receiving, or of return.

Delight! Delight! Hearing a crying, frightened flower, he embraces. And in this embrace, travels in the beauty of the silver-glowing night. He is wiser. He pauses.

Epilogue, and release from the Magic Forest: OLD KENTUCKY HOME, singing, head back, of turpentine and dandelion wine. “Got fire in my belly and fire in my head; goin’ higher and higher, until I’m . . .” — (Stan Cornyn)

The Beau Brummels | Are You Happy? | (Warner Bros.) 1967

Similarly, in the rush to find groovy new groups, some fantastic work by an old group is being overlooked. The Beau Brummels used to be a quintet and had some hits, although I haven’t been able to find anyone who remembers what they were.

Anyway, there are three Beau Brummels left, and they have just released an album entitled, not surprisingly, Triangle.

The lead singer is Sal Valentino; he has a strikingly tensile voice that is equally adept at sadness, tenderness, or joy. Ron Meagher is the bassist, and he sounds solid. Guitarist Ron Elliott isn’t given much solo space, but he seems to have had the main songwriting chores on eight of the ten tunes.

Without going overboard, I think I can say that this is a nearly perfect rock album. It is unified, musically and dramatically; even tired old “Nine Pound Hammer” sounds as if it had been written just for this set.

The music is subtle folk-rock and demands attention. The arrangements by Valentino and Elliott are topflight, especially the guitarist’s handling of the orchestration. It is incredible that the Beau Brummels have been lost in the shuffle. (Downbeat)

Also in the folk idiom is Triangle (Warner Bros.) by The Beau Brummels, one of the best discs of the year. The strangely absorbing, tensile voice of lead singer Sal Valentino holds sway over a uniquely moving collection of originals, of which the standouts are the brooding “The Keeper of Time”, the sad “It Won’t Get Better” and the ambivalent “And I’ve Seen Her”.

And “Old Kentucky Home”, one of the two tunes not composed by the group, is a head-back, chest-out, swinging arrangement that wraps up a recording destined to please pop and folk fans alike. (Playboy)