Two Manuel compositions

The drummer, the bass player and the pianist all had many turns singing lead in The Band, but my personal favourite was the pianist, Richard Manuel. Manuel composed two other songs all by his lonesome on Music from Big Pink, "We Can Talk" and "Lonesome Suzie". The first of these songs brilliantly illuminates the capacity of the aforementioned trio to harmonize their talents and play to their greatest strengths, with lots of playful metaphors and a melody hinting at a carefree attitude toward life with an underlying deeper meaning. The latter song, "Lonesome Suzie" really draws the listener into the penetrating sense of mourning that Manuel seemed to always understand, and as his life progressed, experience firsthand.



We can talk about it now
It's that same old riddle only starting from the middle
I'd fix it but I don't know how
Well, we could try to reason but you might think it's treason
One voice for all
Echoing across the hall
Don't give up on father clock

We can talk about it now
Come, let me show you how
To keep the wheels turnin' you've got to keep the engine churnin'
Did you ever milk a cow
I had the chance one day but I was all dressed up for Sunday
Everybody, everywhere
Do you really care
Pick up your heads and walk

We can talk about it now
It seems to me we've been holding something underneath our tongues
I'm afraid if you ever got a pat on the back
It would likely burst your lungs
Woh, stop me, if I should sound kinda down in the mouth
But I'd rather be burned in Canada than to freeze here in the south
Pulling that eternal plough

We've got to find a sharper blade or have a new one made
Rest awhile and cool your brow
Don't need it, no need to slave, the whip is in the grave
No salt, no trance
It's safe now to take a backward glance
The leaves have turned to chalk
We can talk about it now,
We can talk about it now


We Can Talk

Levon Helm

"It's a funny song that really captures the way we spoke to one another; lots of outrageous rhymes and corny puns. Richard just got up one morning - or afternoon - sat down at the piano, and started playing this gospel song with its famous line: "But I'd rather be burned up in Canada than to freeze here in the South."

This is a perfect opener for side two, in contrast to Tears of Rage on side one, and another Manuel song. Unlike his other compositions, this is tailor made for the ensemble rather than for a lead vocal by himself. The way the lyrics are swopped between singers, and get lost in the general hurly-burly previews what happens on the next track but one, Chest Fever. Rick and Richard are close in to the mics, Levon appears to be around / across / along the hall. The distance between the perceived positions is accentuated on the remasters. The lines are exchanged, finished for each other, then everything suddenly blends together in a line that sums up their finest vocal work:

'One voice for all, echoing (echoing) around the hall!'
Manuel's writing here is as dense, complex and enigmatic as Robertson's. We Can Talk defies explanation, yet bursts from the lyrics imprint themselves in the mind.

The song is a series of snatches of conversations; perhaps it's emphasising the eventual cameradie among the members of The Band after years on the road (and presumably the inevitable fallings out).

Richard Manuel

"(there's) a whole vocal thing I wasn't aware we had before. I remember thinking "I really like this stuff."

It's all tied together with the wackiest, oddly-accented most fabulous drum track you've ever heard. Greil Marcus sums it up in Mystery Train (devoting more space to this song than almost any other by The Band):

".. a Richard Manuel tune that sounds like the best merry-go-round in the world. Full of exultation, exhortation, smiles and complaints, it is the song of a man who has gone far enough to have become part of what he sings about. 'It's safe now', he says, 'to take a backward glance.'"

Richard Manuel

"The songs that I wrote myself ... I'd usually have a musical idea and then I'd give it a theme, an idea to go with it ... like 'We Can Talk' ... that song ... 'We can talk about it now.'? I just got up one morning and wrote that song. I got that gospel thing on the piano."



Lonesome Suzie, never got the breaks
She's always losing so she sits and cries and shakes
It's so hard just to watch her, and if I touch her
Oh, poor Suzie, I'm wondrin' what to do

She just sits there, hoping for a friend
I don't fit here, but I may have a friend to lend
Maybe I mistook her, but I can't overlook her
Must be someone who can pull her through

Anyone who's felt that bad could tell me what to say
Even if she'd just get mad, she might be better off that way
And where is all the understanding
Her problems can't be that demanding
Why is it she looks that way
Every time she starts to cry?

Lonesome Suzie, I can't watch you cry no longer
If you can use me until you feel a little stronger
I guess just watching you has made me lonesome too
Why don't we get together,
What else can we do?