Richard Manuel, versatile multi-instrumentalist |
Richard Manuel (April 3, 1943 - March 4, 1986) was a Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. As a teenager, he learned to play a rhythmic style of piano unique in its usage of inverted chord structures and also learned to sing in the manner of Ray Charles, ethereal and otherworldly, which he did quite well in teenage groups such as the Rockin' Revols.
In the summer of 1961, aged eighteen, he joined Ronnie Hawkins' backing group, The Hawks, which already consisted of 21-year-old Levon Helm on drums, 17-year-old Robbie Robertson on guitar and 18-year-old Rick Danko on 6-string bass (Garth Hudson, aged 24, joined that Christmas). After two years, Manuel departed the Hawks along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound (occasionally joined by singer Bruce Bruno), initially as the Levon Helm Sextet (as Helm had accumulated the most time with Hawkins), later changed to the Canadian Squires, and then to Levon and the Hawks. It was as Levon and the Hawks, after the departure of Penfound and Bruno, that they came to the attention of Sonny Boy Williamson (with whom they planned a collaboration, one which never happened due to Williamson's death soon thereafter) and Bob Dylan (who would use the group as his backing group through the summer of 1967- during this time, Manuel started playing drums.)
1967 saw the group break away from Dylan, and saw Manuel and Robertson develop as songwriters. After recording numerous demo recordings, and signing with Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, they secured a contract for a 10-LP deal with Capitol Records in early 1968, signing as "The Crackers" (another choice was "The Honkies".) With Helm rejoining the fold (he had left in late 1965) as sessions got underway for the recording of their first album, the group proceeded to take what they had learned with Dylan (using three of his songs in the process), combining it with their ideal of the perfect album, with Manuel contributing four songs (one of them a co-write with Dylan) and Robertson the same (all on his own), with a cover of an old country track and a Danko-Dylan collaboration rounding out the bunch. The album was released with the group name as The Band, which it would be for the rest of their career.
1969's eponymous release featured just three tracks by Manuel, all co-writes with Robertson (who wrote or co-wrote all of the album's 12 tracks). 1970's "Stage Fright" featured two, again, both co-written with Robertson. Thereafter, Manuel was simply used as singer, keyboardist and occasional drummer for Robertson's creations. He grew increasingly dependent on alcohol and drugs. His voice suffered as a result, the evocative, ethereal voice of yore replaced by a gruff and hearty voice, still full of soul, but not the same.
By 1976, it was all over for The Band- Robertson wanted out, and without his lyrics, the group was kaput. Danko, too, wanted out, to focus on his solo career. Helm, who had wanted the group to continue on, founded a new group and started an acting career. Hudson worked for anybody that would have him. Manuel was alone... without any direction or guidance. Lingering as an addict, he turned to The Band's old manager, Albert Grossman, for help. Luckily, he got it.
1983 saw the reformation of The Band, with The Cate Brothers and Jim Weider augmenting the four returning members of the group- Manuel, Helm, Hudson and Danko. Manuel, freed from his addiction to alcohol and cocaine, was as fresh as ever, albeit a little older, performing old chestnuts such as "The Shape I'm In", "Chest Fever" and "I Shall Be Released" alongside favorites such as "You Don't Know Me" and "She Knows". All of that changed when Grossman died in late January 1986.
Manuel returned to his addictions, and coupled with a new tour with The Band that took then to gigs hundreds of miles apart, it was all too much. On March 4, 1986, after a gig outside of Orlando, in Winter Park, Florida, Manuel committed suicide by hanging. He was buried a week later in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario.
For the longest time, Manuel lacked the solo release that Danko, Helm, Robertson and even Hudson had. In 2003, the Japanese company Dreamsville Records righted this wrong by releasing selections from two solo concerts recorded in Saugerties, New York in October 1985, in a compilation entitled Whispering Pines: Live at the Getaway. They show Manuel in top form, performing for friends and wellwishers. Three months later, he was dead.
Acknowledgements
A wealth of information about Manuel and the other members of The Band can be found at Jan Høiberg's site : http://theband.hiof.no
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