Album: Manassas
Artist: Manassas
Born: Miami, Florida
Released: April 1972
Genre: Americana
Influenced: Rolling Stones, REM, Wilco, Bright Eyes
True to form, here's another blog about a sprawling double album (plus there's another one to write about before March is out!). The 70s really were the heyday of the double LP. This album is such a gem, I don't even like to write about it, preferring to think of it as my little secret. Nobody I've ever mentioned it to has any idea what I'm talking about. At the time of its release, Stephen Stills' record label Atlantic saw his work with Manassas as just a side project to the main action, which was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and so did little to promote the album. Another factor that worked against it is the album's determined lack of coherent style. Teaming up with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and members of his most recent band Flying Burrito Brothers, Stills brought his own musicians to the mix and created an album of four distinct slices of Americana, each side with its own title. The Raven has a more straightforward rock sound, The Wilderness has a strong country and bluegrass flavour, while Consider has a folk rock feel and Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay has a heavier, blues approach.
As with many of these bloated masterpieces, there's no doubt you could recreate a stone cold classic from its constituent parts. My selected track listing would be Song Of Love, Anyway, Both Of Us, Colorado, So Begins The Task, It Doesn't Matter, Johnny's Garden, The Love Gangster (co-written with Bill Wyman), What To Do and the magnificent The Treasure (Take One). I own a pristine vinyl copy of this album with lyric sheet and, having listened to the album through a couple of times while consulting the lyrics, I can also vouch for the fact that this is by far Stills' best songwriting effort. Stills might be best remembered as a brilliant guitarist, from Buffalo Springfield and the Super Sessions to his work with Hendrix and Neil Young, but on this album he showed he was more than just a junior songwriting partner. Blues Man is a particularly touching tribute to three of the best blues rock guitarists of his generation, Hendrix, Duane Allman and Al Wilson (of Canned Heat), all of whom had prematurely passed away at the time of writing the song. More than anything I just love the relaxed, unpretentious, ramshackle feel of the album, one of the highlights of American roots rock.
True to form, here's another blog about a sprawling double album (plus there's another one to write about before March is out!). The 70s really were the heyday of the double LP. This album is such a gem, I don't even like to write about it, preferring to think of it as my little secret. Nobody I've ever mentioned it to has any idea what I'm talking about. At the time of its release, Stephen Stills' record label Atlantic saw his work with Manassas as just a side project to the main action, which was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and so did little to promote the album. Another factor that worked against it is the album's determined lack of coherent style. Teaming up with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and members of his most recent band Flying Burrito Brothers, Stills brought his own musicians to the mix and created an album of four distinct slices of Americana, each side with its own title. The Raven has a more straightforward rock sound, The Wilderness has a strong country and bluegrass flavour, while Consider has a folk rock feel and Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay has a heavier, blues approach.
As with many of these bloated masterpieces, there's no doubt you could recreate a stone cold classic from its constituent parts. My selected track listing would be Song Of Love, Anyway, Both Of Us, Colorado, So Begins The Task, It Doesn't Matter, Johnny's Garden, The Love Gangster (co-written with Bill Wyman), What To Do and the magnificent The Treasure (Take One). I own a pristine vinyl copy of this album with lyric sheet and, having listened to the album through a couple of times while consulting the lyrics, I can also vouch for the fact that this is by far Stills' best songwriting effort. Stills might be best remembered as a brilliant guitarist, from Buffalo Springfield and the Super Sessions to his work with Hendrix and Neil Young, but on this album he showed he was more than just a junior songwriting partner. Blues Man is a particularly touching tribute to three of the best blues rock guitarists of his generation, Hendrix, Duane Allman and Al Wilson (of Canned Heat), all of whom had prematurely passed away at the time of writing the song. More than anything I just love the relaxed, unpretentious, ramshackle feel of the album, one of the highlights of American roots rock.
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