By the time the Band recorded their third album Stage Fright in 1970, pianist Richard Manuel had already co-written several songs from “Tears of Rage’ with Bob Dylan, “In a Station,” “We Can Talk,” and “Lonesome Suzie” from the band’s ’68 debut Music from Big Pink then “When You Awake,” “Whispering Pines,” and “Jawbone” from their self-titled release a year later. When Stage Fright came along, Manuel also contributed two more—”Sleeping” and “Just Another Whistle Stop.”
Stage Fright was a success for the Band, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and “The Shape I’m In” further showcased Manuel’s more soulful baritone left on previous songs like “Across the Great Divide,” “Whispering Pines,” “Lonesome Suzie,” and more on later albums.
On the album, bandmate Robbie Robertson also wrote a song about Manuel in mind.
Videos by American Songwriter
[RELATED: The Song The Band’s Rick Danko Wrote With Bob Dylan in a Basement]
‘Out of Nine Lives, I’ve Spent Seven’
Robertson initially wrote the more funk-leaning “The Shape I’m In” with Manuel in mind. The pianist had suffered from severe depression all his life, which was evident among his bandmates. Manuel had also hit a new high in his drug and alcohol abuse by 1970 which began taking a toll on his work and the band.
“I found myself writing songs I couldn’t help but write,” said Robertson of the album. When sung by Manuel, who also plays the clavinet on the track, the lyrics of “The Shape I’m In” reveal the fears and dread of living the musician continually struggled with—This living alone will drive me crazy … Out of nine lives I spent seven.
Go out yonder, peace in the valley
Come downtown, have to rumble in the alley
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Has anybody seen my lady?
This living alone will drive me crazy
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
I’m gonna go down by the water
But I ain’t gonna jump in, no, no
I’ll just be looking for my neighbor
And I hear that that’s where she’s been, oh
Out of nine lives, I spent seven
Now, how in the world do you get to Heaven?
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
[RELATED: The Band’s Rick Danko Played Final Show, Four Days Before His Death in 1999]
Released as a B-side to the Band’s single “Time to Kill,” “The Shape I’m In” became more of a fan favorite and was later covered by The Pointer Sisters, Bo Diddley, Marty Stuart, She & Him, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, and more.
“Sleeping”
Along with “The Shape I’m In,” “Sleeping,” which Manuel sings on and co-wrote with Robertson, also reveals more of the despair the musician had been battling throughout his life and a search for peace—The storm is passed, there is peace at last / I’ll spend my whole life sleeping.
Just hours after playing with the band in Orlando, Florida in 1986, Manuel died by suicide at the age of 42. “We’d been in the studio recording,” recalled bassist Rick Danko in 2006 of Manuel’s death. “We just finished filming in Arkansas (for ‘Country Boy,’ a movie starring bandmate Levon Helm and other members of the Band). We were getting ready to do so much more.”
The reunited Band continued touring without Manuel—and Robertson, who parted ways for good after The Last Waltz—until 1999, following Danko’s death. In 1994, Manuel was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Band.
I just spent 60 days in the jailhouse
For the crime of having no dough, no, no
Now here, I am back out on the street
For the crime of having nowhere to go
Save your neck or save your brother
Looks like it’s one or the other
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Now, two young kids might start a ruckus
You know they feel you’re trying to shock us
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Photo: Canadian musician Richard Manuel (1943 – 1986) of The Band, performing at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 3rd June 1971. (Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.