I have consumed a considerable amount of material by and about The Band. These four Canadians and one American - three of them lead singers and all exquisite musicians - were one of the best straight-up-rock and roots-rock bands ever. They originated in Ronnie Hawkins’ rockabilly band in the late 1950s and early ‘60s.
Stage Fright was The Band’s third album and their first as producers. Released in 1970, it was also their first entry since elevating to dizzying heights of fame. The boys recorded Stage Fright at the Woodstock Playhouse in upstate New York near their home.
Glyn Johns engineered and mixed the Capitol Records album. You may have seen his starring role as engineer for The Beatles in the recent Get Back documentary on Disney+. He would have done this job soon after completion of the Get Back work in London. Interestingly, Todd Rundgren also engineered Stage Fright. It seems that through the all-around, drug-hazed confusion, participants were unsure of which mixes made it to the final album. It is reasonable to conclude, however, that the boys did not love Rundgren’s initial work and asked Johns to rescue it. It’s likely that most of the material on the album reflected Johns’ redo.
Side Two contains five numbers that are well known to Band enthusiasts, most prominently “The Shape I’m In” and “Stage Fright.” Written by guitarist and putative band leader Robbie Robertson and pianist Richard Manuel, “Shape” speaks to depression and desperation - “this livin’ alone will drive me crazy” - especially as band mates watched Manuel’s seemingly inexorable drug-induced demise. He died by suicide in 1986 after a concert by a new iteration of The Band, 10 years after their Last Waltz farewell.
Garth Hudson’s work on the Lowrey organ evokes both the church and the feeling of a whirlpool or vortex circling down and around the listener. It seems appropriate when reflecting on the arc of the gifted Richard Manuel’s tragic life, having left us at age 42. I have long thought he had one of the most beautiful, interesting voices in rock.
Bassist Rick Danko’s plaintive, jittery singing seems perfect for the Robertson-Danko title track “Stage Fright,” focused as it was on the fact that some of the guys and their mentor and previous headliner Bob Dylan suffered serious stage fright. “Now if he says that he’s afraid, take him at his word.” The classically trained Hudson was by far the best musician in the group and, once again, his organ solo and ethereal background work here were masterful.
I’ve always enjoyed the alternating lead vocals of Manuel and drummer Levon Helm in “Daniel and the Sacred Harp,” a back-country allegory about the Faustian bargains people make on route to fame and fortune. While they all had fame, by the way, many Band members constantly struggled with money. Manuel sang the part of Daniel and Helm that of a narrator. Interestingly, the drummer Helm played guitar here and Manuel drummed. Guitarist Robbie Robertson worked the auto-harp.
A new song for me and the best on Side One is “Sleeping.” It’s a sweet but melancholy Robertson-Manuel number about the escape sleeping provides from fame and pressures to produce and perform. Yes indeed, this entire album threads through the neuroses attendant to wanting fame and then finding it. Oh yes, there was the massive drug abuse, too. “Sleeping” is softly sung by Manuel in lullaby fashion, only to be punctuated by a few intervals of exquisite riffs integrating guitar and organ lines with a funky rhythm section. I’m no musical expert, but the song evoked a waltz-like feeling, too. I looked it up and sure enough, it was done in waltz time.
The semi-abstract, rainbow-like sunset of an album cover was itself an interesting collaboration between photographer Norman Seefe and his mentor, the famed, Grammy-winning designer Bob Cato.
The album covers tough, self-reflective if not self-absorbed topics for sure, but it is sweet and beautiful. The music is catchy, rhythmic, and anything but depressing. That’s the whole idea of “Stage Fright” - joyous music framing painful, confessional lyrics. It is certainly a rainbow of contrasts.
Image courtesy of Discogs.