By the point The Band got here to report their third album, in Might 1970, expectations had been excessive. That they had already been Bob Dylan’s backing group after which damaged out on their very own to play an integral function in altering the course of American music with their 1968 masterpiece, Music From Massive Pink, and its self-titled follow-up. Judging by its title, Stage Fright steered the group knew they’d have much more to show.
As a gesture to the residents of Woodstock – who had endured a number of the issues of residing in a city that performed residence to well-known musicians – The Band provided to report Stage Fright in a personal city live performance. The proposal was rejected by the native council, and so the group recorded the album on the Woodstock Playhouse with out an viewers. Younger engineer Todd Rundgren was in command of the acoustics, and guitarist/vocalist Robbie Robertson mentioned, “It turned out to be an interesting acoustical thing because you could perform with the curtain closed and it would give you this dry sound and if you opened the curtain you got the sound of the house in there.”
Although The Band had privateness to be inventive, the anxieties of fame and movie star are evident within the themes of worry and alienation that permeate Stage Fright, which was launched on August 17, 1970.
The songs are extra private than these of their first two albums, and an undoubted spotlight is the title observe, a candid track about Robertson’s wrestle with stage fright. He turns his fears about performing for an viewers right into a common lament. Robertson mentioned, “In ‘Stage Fright’ a lot of stuff I was trying to hold in was starting to creep out.” Bassist and fiddle participant Rick Danko takes lead vocals on the track and delivers a strong efficiency, ably supported by Garth Hudson’s fluent organ enjoying.
Stage Fright continued to focus on The Band’s virtuosity. Hudson additionally performed electrical piano, accordion, and tenor and baritone saxophones on the report, whereas Levon Helm performed drums, guitar, and percussion (and sang lead vocals on 4 songs), and Richard Manuel performed piano, organ, drums, and clavinet.
All that instrumental expertise, along with Manuel’s ability as a singer, got here collectively on “Sleeping,” a Robertson-Manuel composition that blends rock and jazz inflections right into a ruminative gem. That pairing additionally co-wrote “Just Another Whistle Stop,” which races alongside in zestful Band fashion, whereas the temper darkens once more on “The Shape I’m In” and the catchy “The WS Walcott Medicine Show.” The awful “Daniel And The Sacred Harp” is a parable a couple of musician promoting his soul: “The moment of truth is right at hand/Just one more nightmare you can stand.” Robertson, who wrote the track, mentioned he was making an attempt to convey how helpless and weak issues appeared for the musicians on the time.
Helm sings tenderly on Robertson’s poignant lullaby of “All La Glory,” which he wrote for his little one. Hudson’s sleek accordion enjoying brings out the very best from shifting lyrics, whereas “The Rumour,” considered one of seven songs Robertson is credited with writing solo, is one other robust providing.
Of their 1970 evaluation, Rolling Stone journal known as the album “elusive.” Certainly, Stage Fright has the uncertainty of a report made at a time when the bonds between the band members had been being examined by private {and professional} frictions. “It was a dark album,” Helm admitted later. “And an accurate reflection of our group’s collective psychic weather. We all realized something was wrong, that things were beginning to slide.”
Nevertheless, as a bit of music, it stands the check of time. And the general public liked it on the time as effectively. Stage Fright reached a career-best place of No.5 within the album charts and went gold after promoting greater than half 1,000,000 copies.
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