Stephen Stills & Manassas - Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 10-7-1973 | Albums That Should Exist

 

Stephen Stills & Manassas - Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 10-7-1973

Paul says: Back in 2018, I posted a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) concert is very closely linked to this one, taking place just three days earlier at the same venue. I'll explain more about that shortly. I was certain that I had posted this album at the same time. However, recently I was updating broken links, and I noticed there was no link for this album. I looked closer, and realized I'd never posted it. So better late than ever.

Manassas was a band led by Stephen Stills of CSNY. But included many other great musicians, especially Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds, who wrote and sang lead vocals on some songs. The idea was this would be Stills' main band for many years. They released the cleverly titled "Manassas" in 1972 and "Down the Road" in 1973. CSNY had been apart since late 1970. But around the time of this concert, they began getting back together.

A concert taking place on October 4, 1973 was billed as a Manassas concert. But CSNY basically crashed the band's first set and played a bunch of songs acoustically, which meant they didn't need Manassas to back them up. That reunion a very big deal in the music world. CSNY had been called the "American Beatles" and had sold zillions of albums, way more than Manassas. Chris Hillman later commented that this was the night he realized the future of Manassas was done, due to Stills naturally wanting to rejoin the much more popular CSNY. It would turn out Hillman was right. Manassas would break up not long after this, after they played a few more concerts to finish their tour.

Here's the link to the CSNY set (mostly) from that concert:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/crosby-stills-nash-young-winterland.html

However, "the show must go on." Despite being upstaged by the CSNY reunion, Stills and the rest of Manassas still had their second set to perform. But it must have been frustrating and bittersweet for them (except for Stills). Their encore, "Daylight Again - Find the Cost of Freedom," was performed by Manassas and CSNY together. That may have been awkward. By the way, I've included that song on both album, since it was both a CSNY performance and a Manassas one.

Then, three days later, on this date, October 7, 1973, the whole process repeated itself. CSNY performed another set in the middle of another Manassas concert at this same venue. For whatever reason, I believe only the Manassas set from this date is available, so that's what I'm posting here. This apparently includes everything that was performed except for the songs with just CSNY. As for CSNY, the album I've posted from them consists mostly from their October 4, 1973 concert, with a few different songs from October 7th added in.

At least some of two concerts were professionally filmed for some reason, and I think this one was broadcast live on the radio as well. That's why we have a recording with soundboard-level sound quality. I don't believe the film footage has been officially released in any way, but you can find it on YouTube. 

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 Song of Love 
02 Rock and Roll Crazies 
03 Jet Set [Sigh] 
04 Anyway 
05 So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star 
06 talk 
07 Johnny's Garden 
08 talk 
09 Go Back Home 
10 talk
11 Six Days on the Road 
12 talk
13 Safe at Home 
14 Fallen Eagle 
15 Hide It So Deep 
16 You're Still on My Mind 
17 talk 
18 Pensamiento 
19 talk 
20 49 Bye-Byes - Drum Solo 
21 For What It's Worth 
22 talk 
23 Lies 
24 talk 
25 The Treasure - Carry On 
26 talk 
27 Daylight Again - Find the Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young & Manassas)

(all tracks Stephen Stills and Manassas except where noted)