The Band essays – Track 6 Side 1 – Whispering Pines

This idea sprang from here.

Track 1 Side 1 - Across the Great Divide is here.
Track 2 Side 1 - Rag Mama Rag is here.
Track 3 Side 1 - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is here.
Track 4 Side 1 - When You Awake is here.
Track 5 Side 1 - Up On Cripple Creek is here.

If You Find Me In A Gloom, Or Catch Me In A Dream
Inside My Lonely Room, There Is No In Between

--Whispering Pines

There's sad songs, and then there's Whispering Pines, which makes most sad songs sound like the Hokey Pokey.

It is so desolate that you actually worry for the singer. And since it was Richard Manuel, we had a right to worry. Richard.....the one everybody meeting the group seemed to gravitate towards. Eric Clapton (who called Richard a “a bit of the holy madman”). Van Morrison. Countless others. They were captivated by the mad twinkle in his eye. His blushing vulnerability. His innate sweetness. His roguish charm. And the fact that he could stay up later, drink more, and still sing like Ray Charles the next morning.

He was the type of man who, as Band producer John Simon put it, “drove 150 miles an hour in his driveway.”