Here's a really, really great video on Richard Manuel (and oh yeah, The Band).

Here's Richard leading The Band in "The Shape I'm In" at The Last Waltz. My God, just awesome!

https://youtu.be/aHMp_HV6a4s?si=VYptz9gaLsZzH3EW

I had no idea up until seeing/hearing the above videos how brilliant The Band was, now I do, thanks for posting. Quite simply, as good as rock music can be, definitely going to look at The Last Waltz again.

@bdp24 

Thanks for posting the video. The Band will always be one of my favorites. Every week I listen to one of their first two records.

In the book about The Band, "Across the Great Divide," Robbie Robertson says when he wrote "The Shape I'm In," he was witnessing Richard Manuel's descent into alcoholism and heroin addiction. 

@wharfy: It was only recently that I learned of Richard's (and Levon's) dabbling with heroin. Coincidentally, I believe that was also when Clapton was using, locked inside his house for a coupla years. And the same time John and Yoko were doing the same in The Dakoda. I remember hearing about Jerry Garcia's heroin addiction, and being surprised that a guy so associated with LSD and higher consciousness would be interested in a "body" drug.

I've known and made music with a couple of guys who drank themselves to death, including Evan Johns. During the recording of his Moontan album, he was drinking beer in quantities I had never before witnessed (about an 18-pk. a day). He told me "You're okay as long as you stay away from the hard stuff" (presumably whiskey, gin, and vodka). But as the album was being mixed and a tour set up to support the release of the album, Evan lapsed into a coma. The doctors told his woman to start making funeral arrangements, that he was in the final stage of liver failure. A coupla weeks later Evan suddenly sat up, asking about his Telecaster. Turns out that was the third time that had happened, but not the last. He somehow made it to the age of 60, dying in Austin, Texas back in 2017. The other guy made it to only 39.

Richard Manuel was only 42 when he committed suicide.