Happy Just to Be Like I Am

Happy Just to Be Like I Am is the fourth studio album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.^[1]

Happy Just to Be Like I Am
Studio album by Taj Mahal
Released	1971[1]
Genre	Blues
Length	42:36
Label	Columbia
Producer	Taj Mahal, David Rubinson
Taj Mahal chronology
The Real Thing (1971) Happy Just to Be Like I Am (1971) Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff (1972)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Rolling Stone	[4]

Reception

Christgau's Record Guide said in their review: "this relaxed, witty survey of musical Afro-America is strongest when its compositions verge on interpretations".^[2] Disc and Music Echo called it a "fine album, it's funky and it's gutsy, and there's splended brass on it".^[5] Rolling Stone Magazine said it is a "loose riotous blues 'n roots album", and that Taj Mahal is "nearly alone carrying the torch of the country music blues for other young black musicians to hear".^[5]

Eric Zoeckler wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it is the "unconventional mixture of instruments, Taj's six-holed fife, a section of four tubas, gung-ko-gwees, flugelhorns and steel bodied guitars, that makes this recording the delight that it is".^[6]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated

1. "Happy Just to Be Like I Am" (3:49)
2. "Stealin'" (Gus Cannon) (6:58)
3. "Oh, Susannah" (Traditional) (5:19)
4. "Eighteen Hammers" (5:45)
5. "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day" (4:14)
6. "Chevrolet" (Ed Young, Lonnie Young) (2:45)
7. "West Indian Revelation (AKA West Indian Reservation)" (6:09)
8. "Black Spirit Boogie" (7:10)^[1]

Personnel

• Taj Mahal - guitar, steel guitar, mandolin
• Bill Rich - bass
• Howard Johnson - baritone saxophone
• Jesse Ed Davis - guitar on "Oh Susanna" and "Chevrolet"
• Earl McIntyre - trombone
• Andy Narell - steel drums on "West Indian Revelation"
• John Simon - piano
• Hoshal Wright - guitar
• Kwasi "Rocky" Dzidzornu - conga
• Bob Stewart - flugelhorn
• Joseph Daley - tuba
• James Charles Otey, Jr. - drums^[7]

Technical

• Glen Kolotkin - engineer
• John Simon, Taj Mahal - mixing^[7]