Lonesome Suzie

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"Lonesome Suzie"
Lonesome Suzie label.jpg
Single by The Band
from the album Music from Big Pink
A-side "Whispering Pines"
Released1970
RecordedEarly 1968
Genre Rock
Length4:04
Label Capitol
Songwriter(s) Richard Manuel
Producer(s) John Simon

"Lonesome Suzie" is a 1968 song by The Band written and sung by Richard Manuel originally appearing on their influential debut album Music From Big Pink . [1] It was also released on Across The Great Divide, a compilation box set from 1994. Drummer Levon Helm has said that "...Lonesome Suzie was Richard's failed attempt to write a hit record." It never charted and is one of the few songs on which Manuel contributed writing, but is also recognized as one of Manuel's signature pieces. In 1970 it was released as the B-side of the French single release of "Whispering Pines".

Contents

Recording

"Lonesome Suzie" was recorded at Capitol Studios and Gold Star Studios. [2]

Lyrics and music

The song is about a lonely spinster. [3] [4] [5] The woman is described as "always losing" and we are told that she "sits and cries and shakes". [6] The singer is left not knowing what to do for her. [6] He feels that the woman can use a friend and although he isn't willing to be that friend, he suggests that maybe he can lend her one of his friends. [4] The singer recognizes that she might get angry at someone who is able to relate to her, and thinks getting angry might be helful to her. [6] The song ends with the singer acknowledging that watching her is making him feel lonely too, and he suggests "Why don't we get together, what else can we do?" [6]

Music journalist Greil Marcus felt that the singer's recognition of his willingness to lend the spinster a friend, despite not willing to be her friend himself, is what leads to his breakthrough at the end in being able to feel loneliness himself. [4] Music critic Barney Hoskyns interpreted the song as addressing Manuel's own lonliness. [3] Helm described it as "a quiet song that told a story that was typical of Richard's general philosophy, which was to be kind to people." [7]

Manuel sang the lead vocals using his falsetto voice. [7] Garth Hudson plays organ in a church-like manner. [6] According to drummer Levon Helm biographer Sandra B. Tooze, Helms "lags behind [Manuel's vocal], doubling up on the snare in parts, with an almost inaudible hi-hat." [8] Robbie Robertson plays simple guitar licks with a subtle backing by the other members. Some of Robertson's guitar licks follow Manuel's lines in a manner similar to Charlie McCoy's work on Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row". Boston Globe critic Ernie Santosuosso described the song as "a latter-day 'Little Girl Blue'". [9]

Reception

San Francisco Examiner critic Ralph J. Gleason described "Lonesome Suzie" as "as agonizingly personal a tragic story, though in a different way, as 'Eleanor Rigby'". [10] Anderson Independent-Mail editor Mac Thrower gave it as an example of how Manuel "had the distinctive ability to take love songs that most singers would dissolve into schmaltz and turn them into tender personal statements." [11] Douglas Featherling of the Kingston Whig-Standard felt it was one of the least successful songs on Music from Big Pink. [12]

Hoskyns called the song "classic Manuel: sung in his richest falsetto voice, supported by delicate guitar and organ fills, the track dripped with longing and despair, with the tender sympathy only a fellow lonelyheart could possibly muster." [3] The Band FAQ author Peter Aaron called it "a wistful, painfully romantic treasure that hints at what might have been had [Manuel] continued to evolve as a songwriter in the years ahead" and one "of the highest points on an album wall-to-wall with high points." [5] Music professors Allan Moore and Remy Martin described the song as being "no less harmonically elaborate, although it is formally more concise, than the minuet of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik ." [13]

Helm called it "a miniature portrait that Richard sang in his squeezed-out falsetto." [7] Band guitarist and primary songwriter Robbie Robertson was impressed by how moving the song was. [14]

Alternate Version

The 2000 re-issue of Music From Big Pink includes a version of the song with a faster tempo and more doo wop rhythm. [15]

Blood, Sweat & Tears version

In 1970, it was covered by Blood, Sweat & Tears on their third album Blood, Sweat & Tears 3. Chicago Tribune critic Peter Gorner described this version as reminiscent of the Moody Blues. [16] New York Times critic Don Heckman praised David Clayton-Thomas' "remarkably subtle" vocal performance. [17] Asbury Park Press critic Miriam Bush also praised Clayton-Thomas' vocal performance. [18] Santosuosso said that "Although the brass choir tends to bully him, at times, David's musical discipline sustains him well as he manages some tellingly melodramatic moments." [9]

On the other hand, Blood, Sweat & Tears guitarist Steve Katz dismissed it in his autobiography, saying "You can actually hear David smile. He ruins it. It's pretentious. It's not honest, you can feel it. I hate it so much I haven't listened it in forty years...He just tanks the whole thing, just tosses it off like he's Dean Martin or Robert Goulet or some fucking thing, which is not what we were about, not at all." [19]

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. "Music From Big Pink". All music guide. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  2. ↑ Sellars, Jeff (2022). "Big Sound from Big Pink". In Sellars, Jeff; Neece, Kevin C. (eds.). Rags and Bones: An Exploration of the Band. University Press of Mississippi. p. 68. ISBN   9781496842985.
  3. 1 2 3 Hoskyns, Barney (2006). Across the Great Divide. Hal Leonard. pp. 156–157. ISBN   9781423414421.
  4. 1 2 3 Marcus, Greil (2015). Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music. Plume. pp. 45–47. ISBN   9780142181584.
  5. 1 2 Aaron, Peter (2016). The Band FAQ. Backbeat Books. pp. 8, 23, 87. ISBN   9781617136139.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Coleman, Joshua (2022). "Half Past Dead: Remnant Identity in The Band's America". In Sellars, Jeff; Neece, Kevin C. (eds.). Rags and Bones: An Exploration of the Band. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 110–111, 114. ISBN   9781496842985.
  7. 1 2 3 Harris, Craig (2014). The Band: Pioneers of Americana Music. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 85. ISBN   9780810889040.
  8. ↑ Tooze, Sandra B. (2021). Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond. Diversion Books. ISBN   9781635769135.
  9. 1 2 Santosuosso, Ernie (July 12, 1970). "Blood, Sweat, Tears unveil annual album". Boston Globe. p. 61. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Gleason, Ralph J. (November 10, 1968). "Soul Sounds and Rugged Rock in 'Big Pink'". San Francisco Examiner. p. 36. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Thrower, Mac (March 13, 1986). "Manuel More Than Just Another Casualty of Rock". Anderson Independent-Mail. p. 1C. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Featherling, Douglas (October 28, 1989). "A Communal Individual". Kingston Whig-Standard. p. 81. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Moore, Allan; Martin, Remy (2018). Rock: The Primary Text: Developing a Musicology of Rock. Routledge. ISBN   9781472462404.
  14. ↑ Robertson, Robbie (2016). Testimony: A Memoir. Crown. ISBN   9780307889805.
  15. ↑ O'Hare, Kevin (August 27, 2000). "The Band's masterpieces re-released". The Republican. p. E1. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Gorner, Peter (August 23, 1970). "B, S & T Still Have the Touch of Midas". Chicago Tribune. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Heckman, Don (August 1, 1970). "European Tour Aroused Patriotism in B, S & T". Quad City Times. p. 5-3. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Bush, Miriam (July 19, 1970). "The Third Album". Asbury Park Press. p. E4. Retrieved 2025-02-07– via newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Katz, Steve (2015). Blood, Sweat, and My Rock 'n' Roll Years. Lyons Press. p. 139. ISBN   9781493017423.
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