Manassas
Down The Road

There was the first album of Manassas and was missing this one, and someone like me couldn't resist the temptation. After writing about the Byrds, I endeavored with the subsequent works of their members, and since Chris Hillman is here... Among the things I ask DeBaser users and Editors to forgive me, the most obvious is this "archivist" inclination of mine.

Every time I talk about the curly-haired bassist-guitarist, however, I end up discerning who undeniably surpasses him: Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons, and in this case Stephen Stills. Of the ensemble, nine elements in total, Hillman is the second writer, but even more than in previous bands where Chris served, within Manassas, the gap between him and Stills is unbridgeable and enormous. Just like in the first, double album, even in "Down The Road" there's really little to say about Hillman, except that Stills "allows" him to place the pleasant beach rock "Lies" in the tracklist.

If Manassas lasted a couple of years, it's not just the fault of "Down The Road," an album undoubtedly inferior to its predecessor - even in ambitions, let's be clear - but the responsibility rests entirely on Stephen Stills, a musician and author of great talents, but who at the time was not able to create a real collective around himself, relegating even the most capable companions to the role of mere performers. It goes without saying that the vast majority of them were and still are session men (Al Perkins above all), and thus Manassas were nothing more than a court for a king. However, I am impressed to read that Hillman, for the Byrds reunion album, decided to place two tracks (from Stills?) discarded from Manassas, one even co-written by drummer Dallas Taylor.

And yet the actual reason I review "Down The Road" is that I don't love its predecessor, although recognizing its greater nobility and aims. "Manassas" was perhaps one of the last musical manifestos of a generation, but I find songs there often more intelligent than beautiful, and especially to let "The Raven" slide down my throat, I have to pour a bottle of Johnson oil, with the only exception for the prismatic "Both Of Us (Bound To Lose)," unsurprisingly co-written by Stills with Chris Hillman. I find the country side more nostalgic than evocative, and more linear than lively, yet not disgusting at all. I can't resist the old healthy Stillsian folk rock of "Consider," and the rock blues of the last quarter seems almost aligned and supported, except for the incendiary "Right Now." I know I've just committed a mortal sin, but if my ears respond this way, should I perhaps wall them up?

So although less ambitious, although rather than aiming for history, it seems to aim at the charts, I find "Down The Road," the "easy album" of Manassas, very danceable and dynamic. "Isn't It About Time" is the Stills' song turned into a black music experiment; "Pensamiento" and the spectacular "Guaganco De Veró" are two delightful merengue-rock pieces, "City Junkies," an all-chorus rock, tinges with rhythm and blues in the gritty finale.

The other Stills' song, as per the manual, "Business On The Street," is an intense electric game, and "Down The Road" is a good boogie. I dance to this album, from the first song, "Isn't It About Time," to the concluding, bouncing and dark "Rollin' My Stone."

Never and never will I dream of saying that "Down The Road" is better than "Manassas," an album that I simply haven't understood sufficiently, despite multiple efforts and hearings. But I refuse to consider it a disappointment, I refuse to accept the idea of its oblivion. I struggle to understand the critics’ similar reproaches or the "modesty" of those who pretend this album didn't exist.

Anyway, I'm fine that the band disbanded shortly after: if you are Stephen Stills and don't do great things, what's the point of being you?