Stephen Stills - 'Manassas'

 

'Manassas' was released in 1972 on the Atlantic Records label. It's the missing ink between the classic folk/southern rock of the 60s and 70s, and the alt-folk, alt country/Americana of today, including Ryan Adams, Amos Lee, Lucinda, Gillian, Emmylou, Wilco, Calexico, Drive-by Truckers, Connor Oberst, Danny Lanois, Steve Earle, Alabama Shakes, Jayhawks, et. al.

This is a wide-ranging, cross-genre classic; it's got everything terrific that we ever heard from Stephen Stills: his most soulful voice, his guitar playing, his harmonies, his steel guitar, and his slide work.

'Manassas' was released in April 1972, a month before 'Exile on Main St.'. While the Rolling Stones’ love letter to American blues, rock and gospel is deservedly famous, 'Manassas' which operates in much of the same territory, has largely been forgotten.

The album was an immediate success, and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard album charts at the end of April 1972, weeks after its release, then according to the "Manassas Conspiracy Theory" strangely disappeared from stores. Steven Stills claimed that Atlantic Records co-founder and CEO Ahmet Ertegun purposely suppressed the album because it was picking up serious steam and threatening a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion, which was a huge moneymaker. At the time, Steven Stills was in the middle of a serious cocaine habit, so I wouldn't be at all surprise if his views were "blow" induced paranoia, but who knows? When money is involved, nothing surprises me.

The players: Stephen Stills - vocals, guitar, bottleneck guitar, piano, organ, electric piano, clavinet, Moog synthesizer. Chris Hillman - vocals, guitar, mandolin Al Perkins - pedal steel guitar, guitar, vocals Paul Harris - organ, piano, electric piano, clavinet Dallas Taylor - drums Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels - bass Joe Lala - congas, timbales/percussion, vocals Sydney George - harmonica (on "The Raven" and "The Wilderness") Jerry Aiello (on "The Raven" and "The Wilderness") - piano, organ, electric piano, clavinet. Roger Bush - acoustic bass (on "The Raven" and "The Wilderness") Byron Berline - fiddle Uncredited
Jerry Garcia played pedal steel guitar on “So Begins the Task,”
Bill Wyman co-wrote "The Love Gangster" and played bass on the song and on "Rock & Roll Crazies". Bill Wyman enjoyed the experience so much he later said he’d have left the Rolling Stones to join Manassas.

'Manassas' is a stone cold classic, and is most certainly one of the best albums of its era.

The freeload is 24 bit 48 kHz, and sounds really nice.

For the freeload what albums from 1972, do you listen to on a regular basis?