Down the Road (Manassas album)

Down the Road is the second and last studio album by Stephen Stills' band Manassas. It was released in April 1973, and peaked at number 26 in the US charts, to mixed reviews. It was Stills first album since the 1968 Super Session not to be certified Gold. "Isn't It About Time", a protest song, was released as the lead single and reached number 56 on the charts.

Down the Road
Studio album by
Manassas
ReleasedApril 23, 1973
RecordedCriteria Sound Studios, Miami, Florida, Caribou Ranch, Colorado, The Record Plant, Los Angeles, January 1973, September 1972
GenreCountry rock, blues rock, folk rock, Southern rock
Length30:50
LabelAtlantic
ProducerStephen Stills, Chris Hillman, Dallas Taylor
Stephen Stills chronology
Manassas
(1972)		 Down the Road
(1973)		 Stills
(1975)
Manassas chronology
Manassas
(1972)		 Down the Road
(1973)		 Pieces
(2009)
Singles from Down The Road
  1. "Isn't It About Time" / "So Many Times"
    Released: April 14, 1973
  2. "Down The Road" / "Guaguancó De Veró"
    Released: July 21, 1973
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]

Background

After a very critically and commercially successful year, 1972, things changed when they regrouped to record at Criteria Studios in early 1973. Stills had met and married French pop singer Veronique Sanson, while Hillman re-united with the rest of the Byrds for a one-shot reunion album. Hillman was also entertaining a big-money offer from David Geffen's Asylum Records to form a new super-group with J.D. Souther and Richie Furay. Arguments and increased drug-use were extremely prevalent, and Stills was losing money paying for each member each night.[3] Before and during the recording of this album Stills maintained a round the clock schedule with Manassas in the studio, which resulted in another album of unreleased material written by Stills, Chris Hillman, Dallas Taylor, and Fuzzy Samuels, that included Stevie Wonder singing on a track.[4]

Recording

The album was initially recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami with the Albert Brothers, until an increasingly combative Stills caused the brothers to quit halfway during recording, so sessions moved to Caribou Ranch, Colorado and to Los Angeles. To make matters worse Atlantic Records, then rejected some of the tracks, which necessitated re-recordings, resulting in patchwork quality to the album.[3] Some suspect that the album was rejected for containing too few Stills' songs and too many from Chris Hillman. 'Down The Road' and 'So Many Times' were recorded in September 1972 at Criteria, Miami. The rest of the tracks were recorded in January 1973.[5]

Aftermath

After a tour lasting until October 1973, during which Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels left for personal reasons and was replaced by Kenny Passarelli, the group broke up for good, with Stills (along with Joe Lala), joining Crosby, Nash and Young in Hawaii for an (ill-fated) reunion, and Hillman (along with Perkins and Harris) joining the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.[3] Another factor contributing to the disbandment was Dallas Taylor's crippling heroin addiction, especially after Stills paid for him to go to rehab, then found him shooting up in a bathroom.[6]

Stills supported the album with two tours and a performance on ABC's In Concert series on the 16th April 1973 at Bananafish Gardens, New York, which was maligned upon showing; one video of the band performing "Do You Remember the Americans" has appeared, but nothing else since.

Reception

The album was not very well received. Rolling Stone was especially critical, saying "[i]t would be sad to think the people involved put this record out not because of business pressures but because they were proud of it."[7] Richard Williams for Melody Maker 1973, said ' For me, the two latin songs are the best; Stills has a real affinity for this music - the hoarse strained quality of his voice suits the yearning mood of the tunes - and I'd love to see 'Pensamiento' become a hit single'.[8]

It made it only to #26 on the Billboard album charts[9] and its single, "Isn't It About Time", made it only to #56 on the Billboard singles charts.[10] By 1974, the album had sold an estimated 300,000 copies in the US.[11]

Stills blamed the failure of the album on Atlantic preferring to have a CSNY reunion, which was a guaranteed cash cow. Other reasons for the commercial decline include record stores not knowing which section to put the album in: either under Stills' name or under Manassas'. Billboard, Record World and Cash Box, all credited the album to Manassas rather than Stephen Stills' Manassas like they credited the debut record; Meaning, many people might have been unaware that this was a new Stephen Stills album.[12]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Stephen Stills, except where indicated..

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Isn't It About Time" 3:02
2."Lies"Chris Hillman2:55
3."Pensamiento"Stephen Stills, Nelson Escoto2:36
4."So Many Times"Chris Hillman, Stephen Stills3:30
5."Business on the Street" 2:55
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Do You Remember The Americans" 2:05
2."Down The Road" 3:16
3."City Junkies" 2:50
4."Guaguancó de Veró"Stephen Stills, Joe Lala2:51
5."Rollin' My Stone"Stephen Stills, Calvin Samuel4:50
Total length:30:50

Personnel

Manassas

Guests

  • Joe Walsh - slide guitar
  • Bobby Whitlock - keyboards
  • Sydney George - flute
  • Jerry Aiello - organ
  • Charlie Grimes - guitar
  • Guille Garcia - percussion
  • Lachy Espinol - percussion
  • Pat Arnold - vocals

Technical Personnel

  • Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman, Dallas Taylor - Production
  • The Albert Brothers - Engineers at Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida
  • Jeff Guerico - Engineer at Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado
  • Bill Halverson, Malcom Cecil - Engineers at Record Plant, Los Angeles, California
  • The Albert Brothers, Bill Halverson, Stephen Stills - Mixdown engineers
  • Bob Jenkins - Photography
  • Bob Jenkins, Buddy Zoloth - Design

Thanks again to Michael John Bowen and his Manassas road crew

Charts

Tour
Manassas North American Tour 1973
Tour by Stephen Stills
Start dateFebruary 19, 1973
End dateOctober 13, 1973
Legs2
Stephen Stills concert chronology

The Stephen Stills Manassas North American Tour 1973 was a concert tour by American musician Stephen Stills and his band Manassas. It was in support of their 1973 album Down The Road. Manassas released the album Down The Road in April 1973, it was less well received than their debut, with many of the recording sessions for it being disjointed. This resulted in the cancellation of a few dates of the first leg of the tour. The first show back was recorded for the ABC In Concert TV series, during which Stills remarked that he hadn't played with the band since before Christmas. Unsurprisingly this show wasn't very well received. CSNY reunited to record an aborted album in June–July 1973 further complicating the tour. However CSN and CSNY reunited at the October Winterland Arena shows which planted the seeds for the CSNY 1974 reunion tour. It was during this second leg of the tour that John Barbata filled in for Dallas Taylor on the drums for one show due to his drug addiction and Kenny Passarelli filled in for George "Chocolate" Perry on bass due to prior commitments.[12][24][25]

Tour[12]
Date City Country Venue Notes
9 February 1973 Raleigh United States Reynolds Coliseum Cancelled to finish recording
14 February 1973 Charlotte Charlotte Colisseum
17 February 1973 Atlanta Municipal Auditorium
18 February 1973 Chapel Hill Carmichael Auditorium
19 February 1973 New York Academy Of Music Professionally recorded[26]
20/21 February 1973 Bannanafish Garden Filmed for ABC In Concert

Broadcast on 16 March 1973

24 March 1973 Ames Hilton Colisseum
25 March 1973 Illinois Horton Field House
27 March 1973 Pittsburgh Civic Arena
30 March 1973 Chapel Hill Carmichael Auditorium
31 March 1973 Raleigh Reynolds Coliseum
2 April 1973 Atlanta Municipal Auditorium
3 April 1973 Athens Georgia Colisseum
6 April 1973 Williamsburg Kaplan Arena
8 April 1973 West Virginia West Virginia University Coliseum
11 April 1973 Richmond Alumni Coliseum
13 April 1973 College Park Cole Field House
14 April 1973 Charlottesville University Hall University Of Virginia
15 April 1973 Salem Roanoke College
Date City Country Venue
10 July 1973 Cleveland United States Blossom Music Centre
12 July 1973 Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre
13 July 1973 Milwaukee Henry W. Maier Festival Park
29 July 1973 Columbia Merriweather Post Pavilion 9,000+ attendance
30 July 1973 Saratoga Springs Saratoga Performing Arts Centre
1 August 1973 Illinois Mississippi River Festival
23 August 1973 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena
31 August 1973 Honolulu HIC Arena
28 September 1973 Ann Arbor Crisler Arena
29 September 1973 Purdue University Mackey Arena
4 October 1973 San Francisco Winterland Arena CSNY reunite for acoustic set
5 October 1973 Sacramento Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
6 October 1973 Long Beach Long Beach Arena Crosby Guests
7 October 1973 San Francisco Winterland Arena CSN reunite for acoustic set
12 October 1973 Kentucky SIU Arena 5,024
13 October 1973 Columbus St John Arena

Manassas

Setlist

Typical Tour Setlist[12]

All songs written by Stephen Stills, except where noted.

Electric Set I

  1. Song Of Love
  2. Rock And Roll Crazies/ Cuban Bluegrass (Stills/ Dallas Taylor, Stills/Joe Lala)
  3. Jet Set (Sigh)
  4. Anyway
  5. So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star (Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman)
  6. Johnny's Garden
  7. Go Back Home

Acoustic Set

  1. Six Days On The Road (Dave Dudley)
  2. Safe At Home (Chris Hillman)
  3. Fallen Eagle
  4. Hide It So Deep
  5. You're Still On My Mind (Luke McDaniel)

Electric Set II

  1. Pensamiento
  2. 49 Bye-Byes/For What It's Worth
  3. Lies (Chris Hillman)
  4. The Treasure
  5. Carry On
  6. Find The Cost Of Freedom

References
  1. Chrispell, James. Down the Road at AllMusic. Retrieved 3 September 2006.
  2. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  3. "The story of Stephen Stills and Manassas". Bill DeYoung dot com. 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  4. Zimmer, Dave. Crosby, Stills, & Nash: The Biography.
  5. "Atlantic Records Discography: 1972". www.jazzdisco.org. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  6. Sutherl, Sam (2018-08-29). "Manassas: Stephen Stills' Finest (Solo) Hour". Best Classic Bands. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  7. Nolan, Tom (June 21, 1973). "Stephen Stills: Down The Road : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone (137). Archived from the original on 2007-02-04. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
  8. Uncut (2018). Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Ultimate Music Guide. pp. 36–37.
  9. Down The Road - Manassas > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums at AllMusic. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  10. Down The Road - Manassas > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  11. Fong-Torres, Ben; Fong-Torres, Ben (1974-08-29). "The Reunion of Crosby Stills Nash & Young". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  12. Roberts, David (2016). Stephen Stills: Change Partners.
  13. "Stephen Stills". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  14. "STEPHEN STILLS | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  15. Canada, Library and Archives (2013-04-16). "The RPM story". www.bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  16. "Swedish Charts 1973-1975" (PDF). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. Salaverri, Fernando (2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  18. "CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Music and coin machine magazine 1942 to 1996". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  19. "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  20. "RPM Top Singles Chart" (PDF). RPM. RPM archives. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada. January 30, 1971. OCLC 352936026. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  21. "CASH BOX MAGAZINE: Music and coin machine magazine 1942 to 1996". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  22. "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  23. "RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 to 1982". worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  24. Zimmer, Dave (2000). Crosby Stills and Nash: The Biography. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306809743.
  25. Doggett, Peter (2019). Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Biography.
  26. "Atlantic Records Discography: 1973". www.jazzdisco.org. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
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