3rd time's the charm

The best of the best.

When The Band set about making their 1970 album Stage Fright, the pressure definitely was on them to live up to their last two efforts, their debut Music From Big Pink & 1969's eponymous masterpiece (aka The Brown Album). Somehow, despite the stress & strain, the constant touring & hard partying, The Band came up with another release which, although it may not have matched the achievements of its predecessors, is still pretty awesome & if I must concede downright powerful music.

Stage Fright also marked a shift in tone especially from a lyrical aspect, which makes this effort a more challenging listen from the get-go. Whereas Big Pink & The Band offered the listener rootsy yet oh so mysterious images & figures of Americana, Stage Fright revealed Robbie Robertson & company dropping their masks & telling it like it was to their audience. If this wasn't enough, this approach was far more personal & harrowing; to say this was a downshift into darkness is way beside the point. To be honest, SF is where The Band let loose & created a portrait with every possible color they could find, a far cry from the rootsy, old-timey vibe which defined a vast majority of their best-known songs ("The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" just to name a couple).

If there were an underlying theme which connects SF so strongly, it would be self-destruction in its various obfuscations: alcohol, fear, isolation & refuge. More so than ever, this album would be Robertson's brainchild but the artistic heart & soul of the group was definitely Richard Manuel, beyond any doubt. Manuel was not only a brilliant multi-instrumentalist but also one of The Band's go-to guys in the songwriting department; he either had a hand in or was the primary writer for their more familiar compositions. He had a hand in writing "Sleeping" & "The Shape I'm In" on SF but his love for booze & lack of motivation in certain respects kept him from playing a bigger role for the group. It was on Robertson to smooth things out, to iron out the rough spots Manuel may have run across, especially if Richard had issues completing certain songs; if anything, when all else failed, Robertson wrote songs in hopes that he could reach his fellow bandmate & colleague. Unfortunately, even though Richard Manuel still had plenty of bright moments ahead of him but after Stage Fright he didn't write any more songs which is not only sad; it's a harrowing glimpse of one of this album's primary themes: being in the Band was not only the premise for his self-destruction via alcohol but The Band proved to be a refuge he could turn to, something that made him keep on keeping on.

So without further ado, the opening track, "Strawberry Wine," with drummer Levon Helm at the mic, kicks off the festivities which have come to define Stage Fright. Though it is upbeat & fun it also sounds desperate, capturing a drunk whose existence revolves around his wine, that is to say, around feeling good all the time. "Sleeping" is not just a portrait on what it's like to be out on the road as a musician but the isolation & need for hiding which comes with this lifestyle as Manuel points out so brilliantly in one of his more heartfelt performances. "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" could serve as a modern-day lesson of selling out; at the same time, this song also reveals Robertson making an unpromising assessment on the price he & his bandmates (Manuel in particular) were paying for being in a band. "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show" takes the 19th century medicine show & puts it into a modern-day interpretation, where the rock and roll touring lifestyle was seen as a cure-all - which in a sense it was. The title track points out what it's like to be out there in the spotlight, trying to cope with who knows how many screaming fans, the press & man knows who else & not feeling comfortable about any of the above. "The Rumor", SF's closer (& a moody one at that) is, depending on your outlook, a song of hope & redemption or a song chock full of uncertainty.

Stage Fright, despite all of its upbeat glory, is one of The Band's more intimate, more personal albums ever committed to tape. Some critics were taken aback that it didn't follow the same beaten path of the first two efforts but then again who can argue? In retrospect, The Band was being honest & being downright real with us; that was not only a good call on their part but a great way to make SF such a powerful album, period: A-plus all the way!!