Manassas (1972)

Manassas is the 1972 debut double album by Manassas, a blues rock group led by American musician Stephen Stills, released April 1972. It was a critical comeback for Stills and continued his commercial success by being certified Gold only a month after being released and peaking at number 4 on the US charts.

Recording

The album was recorded at Criteria Studio B late 1971, where Stills used his clout to keep the studio and engineers Ron and Howard Albert available around the clock. The band all stayed in a rented house about 30 minutes away from the studio, in Coconut Grove. This allowed Stills to record the album around the clock, waking up band members in the early hours of the morning when an idea struck. Stills would also record in mammoth sessions often going on for days, until Chris Hillman and Stills got into a fight, after which they started to record at regular hours. Al Perkins and Dallas Taylor had a rule where they would not perform any more than seven takes for a single track, so often Stills would stay in the studio editing after having released the band at 4 or 5 am. The band then flew to Stills' house in London in January 1972 to finish recording and mixing the album and to rehearse for an upcoming tour starting in March 1972. It was here that Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones played bass on and co-authored "The Love Gangster" and is reported to have said that he would have left the Stones to join Manassas. At one point Stills put in an unbroken 106 hour stint in the studio, and engineer Ron Albert said he had just got to bed after a marathon session lasting 84 hours when the phone rang with Stills summoning him back to the studio with the words: "I know you're tired, but there's this idea I've got for this song that I want to get on tape before I forget it..." Another time, working to Stills' manic schedule, the band cut eight tracks in two days with no sleep.

Songs

The album was split into four thematic sides. Side 1, The Raven, is a composite of rock and Latin sounds that the group would often perform in full live exactly as presented on the album, including the segues that connected several of the songs. Side 2, The Wilderness, mainly centers on country and bluegrass, and features Chris Hillman on mandolin and fiddler Byron Berline. Side 3, Consider, presents a mix of musical styles, including "Johnny's Garden" (reportedly written for the caretaker at Stills' English manor house bought from Ringo Starr), and Stills using a Moog synthesizer on "Move Around". Side 4, Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay, features rock and blues songs, including "The Treasure", a mainstay of Manassas' live sets, and Stills' acoustic solo piece "Blues Man".

Several of the songs on the album are inspired by Stills' romantic relationship with Rita Coolidge, and Coolidge's leaving Stills for his CSNY bandmate Graham Nash. In particular, "Raven" was Stills' nickname for Coolidge, while "What to Do" and "Right Now" were written about CSNY's subsequent breakup and Stills' relationship with Nash.

Artwork and packaging

The artwork was taken after Stills, a Civil War buff, had the band flown over to Manassas station in Manassas, Virginia, where the Confederacy had claimed its first major victory at the Battle of Bull Run. The photo they liked was the band standing on the platform under a Manassas sign, and so the band was named. Included with the album were fold-out posters with named pictures of all the members and hand-written lyrics on the back, including a message urging people to 'Use The Power, Register and Vote'.

Chart performance

The album debuted on the Billboard Top LP's chart for the week ending April 29, 1972 and eventually peaked at No. 4 in June, during a 30-week run. Stills' album shared the top 5 with an album by David Crosby and Graham Nash (Graham Nash David Crosby) and an album by Neil Young (Harvest), all collectively members of the quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. "It Doesn't Matter" was released as a single and peaked at No. 61, during a chart run of 7 weeks. "Rock & Roll Crazies" was released as the second single and peaked at No. 92 during a 3-week run. By 1974, it had sold an estimated 400,000 copies in the US, which is the equivalent of 800,000 as the album is a double.