The Story Behind the Song Richard Manuel Wrote Solo for The Band’s ‘The Basement Tapes’ With Bob Dylan

When The Band started piecing The Basement Tapes together with Bob Dylan in 1975, all of the songs had already been recorded between 1967 and ’68 and received some final touch-ups. The Band had just finished a 21-city tour with Dylan a year earlier and started sorting through the demos they had recorded a near-decade earlier.

In between the releasing his seventh album, Blonde on Blonde in 1966, a motorcycle accident shortly thereafter, and his next release John Wesley Harding in ’67, Dylan retreated to his home in Woodstock, New York, and the Band’s Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson moved into a house called the “Big Pink,” which would later inspire their 1968 debut (Music from the Big Pink).

By the time the Band recorded their third album Stage Fright in 1970, Manuel had already co-written several songs from “Tears of Rage” with Dylan and “Katie’s Been Gone” with Robbie Robertson, which eventually made their way onto The Basement Tapes.

Videos by American Songwriter

Orange Juice and Blues

Within those earlier recordings, Manuel also penned another song on his own, the second Basement Tapes track “Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast).” Manuel initially laid the track down in ’67 with Rick Danko, before it was later overdubbed by Robertson, Hudson, and Levon Helm for The Basement Tapes.

While some songs and covers never made the Basement Tapes cut for their obscurity or incompleteness, “Orange Juice Blues” made the cut. The more mid-tempo bluesy track covered the parting of ways of two lovers.

I had a hard time waking this morning
I got a lotta things on my mind
Like those friends of yours
They keep bringing me down
Just hangin ’round all the time

I’ve had a hard time waking most mornings
And it’s been that way for a month or more
You’ve had things your way
But now I’ve got to say
I’m on my way out the door

[RELATED: Robbie Robertson Had Richard Manuel in Mind Writing “The Shape I’m In”]

Why don’t you get right? Try to get right, baby
You haven’t been right with me
Why don’t you get right? Try and get right, baby
Don’t you remember how it used to be? Oo-oo

You had a hard time waking this morning
And I can see it in your empty eyes
But there’s no need for talking
Or walking ’round the block
Just to figure out the reason why

[RELATED: The Band’s Rick Danko Plays His Final Show, Four Days Before His Death in 1999]

Manuel, ‘Big Pink’ Through ‘Northern Lights—Southern Cross’

Manuel’s contribution to the Band spanned more beyond their Basement Tapes with “In a Station,” “We Can Talk,” and “Lonesome Suzie” from Music from Big Pink then “When You Awake,” “Whispering Pines,” and “Jawbone” from their self-titled release a year later. When the Band’s 1970 album Stage Fright came along, Manuel contributed two more: “Just Another Whistle Stop.”

Later on, Manuel wrote “Hobo Jungle” and Rags and Bones” on the Band’s Northern Lights – Southern Cross and co-wrote “Acadian Driftwood,” “Ring Your Bell,” and “Jupiter Hallow.”

Photos: Richard Manuel of The Band poses in Saugerties, New York, 1969. (David Attie/Getty Images)