Stephen Stills's 1972 Manassas album

[Steve M.]

At the end of a grueling solo tour of the U.S. to promote is second solo album, Stephen Stills of Crosby, you-know-who and Nash met up with Byrds alumnus and Flying Burrito Brothers member Chris Hillman in Cleveland, where the Burritos were also playing. Stills and Hillman got to talking, and seeing that they needed some musical direction in their lives, agreed to work together. A week later , Stiulls called Hillman. "Met me in Miami," he told him.

At Criteria Studios in Miami, Hillman arrived with two fellow Burritos, steel guitarist Al Perkins and fiddler Byron Berline. Retained from the Stills tour were drummer Dalls Taylor, keyboardist Paul Harris, and bassist Fuzzy Samuels, along with former Blues Image percussionist/signer Joe Lala. Stills had been visualizing a concept album that would bring together every conceivable form of popular music.

Right from the start, the chemistry was electric. Stills and Hillman realized that they had assembled a potent band, and they set about recording what became a double album. The band could have easily been called "Stillman," but that sounded like a Brooklyn gym ( ), so they needed another name. While on a "dry run" tour and passing through Virginia, near the Civil War battlefield at Bull Run, they found the perfect name from the nearby town that gave the two battles of Bull Run their Southern name. . . .

[Steve M.]

MANASSAS!



The debut album of Stills and Hillman's band was released on April 12, 1972. As you can see, Stephen Stills is the only one credited twice on the album. It's appropriate - Stills was the driving force behind this septet. This could be the greatest album ever put out by anyone from Crosby, Stills and Nash outside the group itself.

[Steve M.]

The album was divided into four distinct parts, one part per side: "The Raven," side one, a freewheeling suite of rock songs with Latin and blues influences; "The Wilderness," side two, which was pure country and bluegrass; "Consider," side three, dominated by pensive folk-rock tunes; and side four, "Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay," which says it all.

[Steve M.]

So let's begin with a song-by-song analysis!

"Song Of Love" - The opening cut is a strong, intense blues-rock number with some delicious guitar solos and some punchy Latin percussion. Stills's voice is in fine form, and the rest of the band play with enough grit to offset the studio polish.

[Steve M.]

"Medley: Rock and Roll Crazies / Cuban Bluegrass" - Not missing a beat, the Manassas album segues straight into the second song. Side one was designed as a consistent song cycle, with no gaps between the songs. The "Rock and Roll Crazies / Cuban Bluegrass" medley, released as a single, delivers sharp guitar lines and Stills's satirical lyrics about getting hung up on rock stardom in the first part. Going along at a moderate tempo, a biting guitar riff kicks the track into a faster pace and initiates a bluegrass-based rock melody with a Latin vibe - "Cuban bluegrass." Stills ends the cut with a Spanish language-verse, then abruptly segues into. . .

[Steve M.]

"Jet Set (Sigh)" - Unlike the other "Raven" songs, "Jet Set (Sigh)" is a slow, smoky blues number, heavy on slide guitar and peppered with harmonica. This was one of the first songs Stills and Hillman cut together, and it worked out well enough to give the whole concept of the album a life of its own.

[Steve M.]

The tempo picks up at the end of "Jet Set (Sigh)" with a slight Latin hustle at the end, at which point it segues into. . . .

"Anyway" - This is a crunchy rocker, with the full band anchored firmly by Fuzzy Samuels's bass and Dallas Taylor's subtle but steady drums, with Joe Lala's percussion thrown in for good measure. Stills shares lead vocals with Lala about the need to go after a desired woman without rregard to the consequences: "I'm gonna try again, don't matter if I win or lose; gonna try again anyway." Dig it. Stills's sharpest guitar riffs on this record can be found right here.

[Steve M.]

"Both Of Us (Bound To Lose)" - The band slides into a lilting, romantic melody kicked into gear by Dallas Taylor's efficient drums as Hillman and Stills share lead vocals. The lyrics plead for a woman to notice the narrator and acknowledge his feelings for her. Essentailly a country-rock song, Stills throws in some angular blues guitar riffs. After an abbrievated harmony verse, Manassas suddenly swings into a funky Latin hustle jam, with more sharp guitar riffs. Stills, Hillman, and Talyor lead the group to a heavy raveup at the end, slamming the song - and side one - shut.

[Steve M.]

Manassas would play the entire "Raven" suite from start to finish in concert. The band was so well-rehearsed, they could even play the edits in the record live!

Engineers Ron and Howard Albert, who worked on the first Manassas album, consider it one of the two greatest rock albums of the seventies, the other being Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos. And the Albert brothers ought to know - they worked on both of them!

Manassas peaked at number four on the Billboard charts.

[Steve M.]

A picture of Stephen Stills from the Manassas days, on the July 1972 cover of Circus.

[Steve M.]

As the name of side two implies, "The Wilderness" is a set of country-rock songs; in fact they're more country than rock. This is the most consistently themed of the four sides of the first Manassas album, as some of the songs on the other sides don't fit their respective concepts so neatly. As fate would have it, 1972 was the year country-rock broke through commercially; it was the year the Pure Prairie League scored a hit single with "Amie," and Neil Young released Harvest, which produced the chart-topping single "Heart Of Gold." Also, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released the epic triple album Will The Circle Be Unbroken in 1972, and it was also the year of debut albums from the Eagles and Jackson Browne (not to mention America, so we won't!).

The downside of the commercial breakthrough of country-rock - which had been around for awhile by 1972 - was that it led to the soft, mellow, homogenized, whitebread LA pop-rock of the mid-seventies, which was one of the many reasons punk had to happen. Stephen Stills and Chris Hillman, by contrast, keep their country-rock pure and unadulterated on this record, producing some marvellous tunes.

So here we go:

"Fallen Eagle" - The first time I heard this song, I thought it was about a Vietnam draft dodger because of the closing lyric - "Fly on up to Canada, this country isn't safe anymore - that's for sure." Actually, it's about western Americans who were repsonsible for the bald eagle's near extinction - hunters shooting eagles for sport, sheep ranchers shooting them to keep them away from their lambs - and their disrespect for the national bird. It's an environmentalist song written before cliched, just-add-water environmental protest songs became fashionable.

Oh yeah, the music. It's a fast bluegrass song dominated by Byron Berline's fast fiddle playing, demonstrating why country used to called country and western. Stills and Hillman harmonize and try to keep up - vocally and instrumentally) with Berline, who's clearly leading on this track. They hold on to the end.

[Steve M.]

"Jesus Gave Love Away For Free" - Okay, never mind the redundant title. The truth is, this is one of the loveliest songs on the album. It's a slow waltz, with elliptical harmonic vocals and simple, plaintive lyrics about the need for people to "be trusted and loved by one only." The steel guitar alone makes this song a keeper.

[Steve M.]

"Colorado" - This paean to Stills's adopted home state is full of rich, treble-heavy guitars and lovely backing harmonies. A delicious pedal steel guitar solo in the middle eight adds to the confection. Stills movingly sings about the need for a woman who will love his home as much as she loves him, romanticizing Colorado's pine trees and tall mountains. It's a better tribute to the Centennial State than John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High," but Denver's song is the one everyone remembers. "Colorado" could have been a hit single if Stills had released it as such.

[Steve M.]

"So Begins The Task" - This tune sounds like a forgotten Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, which it actually is. Stills wrote it immediately after he composed "Helplessly Hoping ," which appeared on the 1969 CSN debut record, and although CSNY played "So Begins The Task" a few times in concert, they never recorded it. It has a chord progression similar to "Helplessly Hoping," with a light drum shuffle and a fine pedal steel line from the great Al Perkins.

Oh yes, the words. We'll let Stills explain "So Begins The Task": "I thought of this song as a poem. . . . It's a song of loss but also the freedom that goes with loss. It was conceived of as an acoustic song." Lyrically, it's superior to "Helplessly Hoping," although I'll always have a soft spot for that CSN tune for its alliterations.

[Steve M.]

"Hide It So Deep" - Here, ladies and gents, is a song that encapsulates every stereotype of every country ballad cliche ever conjured up - an extremely relaxed rhythm, a mournful fiddle line, Floyd Cramer-type piano passages, and lyrics about a good love gone bad. Not a bad song, mind you, but not a great one. Had David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash recorded an album together in 1972, this Stills song most likely wouldn't have made the final cut. In fact, it probably wouldn't have made the final cut of the first Manassas album had Stills and Chris Hillman elected to make it a single disc instead of a double set. It's still interesting, of only to show the magnitude of Stills's talents. He could (and can) pretty much do anything.