The Band were responsible for one of the most influential albums of the late sixties when Music from Big Pink helped spark the era’s “return to the roots” trend in 1968. They were responsible for one of the era’s very best albums when they released their perfectly crafted eponymous LP the following year. So The Band could be forgiven if their third album wasn’t quite as fresh or electrifying as their first two. Rather Stage Fright finds the quartet working in the deep groove they’d already etched out. “Strawberry Wine” is a return to the driving backwoods funk of “Up on Cripple Creek”, “Sleeping” is another delicate Richard Manuel vehicle in the model of “Whispering Pines” or “Lonesome Suzie”, and so on.
If The Band aren’t quite stretching themselves musically third time around, they’re at least doing their thing as well as ever, and Robbie Robertson’s lyrical concerns have certainly shifted. While The Band looked backward to America’s past, Stage Fright looks inward for Robertson’s first truly personal selection of songs. Throughout the album, he is either contemplating his own lack of motivation or looking at his band’s work with alarm. The title track views live performing through a sweaty veil of anxiety. “All La Glory” is the one moment of true clarity as Robertson observes his newborn girl with awe and pens one of rock’s loveliest odes to new parenthood.
So Robertson’s personal investment is what really keeps Stage Fright sparking. The Band get themselves sufficiently worked up for a few tracks such as “Time to Kill”, “Just Another Whistle Stop”, and the title number, but the album could have used a bit more forceful rock and roll. Stage Fright is still a beautifully performed and recorded album full of catchy tunes and a worthy candidate for a deluxe fiftieth anniversary edition. It is receiving a slightly belated one no doubt due to the pandemic, but it is worth the wait.
As was the case with recent revamps of Music from Big Pink and The Band, Stage Fright has been subjected to a Robbie Roberston-approved remix and remaster from the original master tapes for its fiftieth anniversary edition. Definition of the individual instruments is sharper than in the original mix, but I don’t think the remix is radically different enough to upset purists. The decision to present the core album in an originally planned running order very different from the familiar one will be more controversial. I personally think “The WS Walcott Medicine Show” makes for a less forceful opening track than “Strawberry Wine”. And as pretty as it is, “Sleeping” is a less rousing finale than “The Rumor”. Sometimes it’s best not to mess with the familiar too much.
A bonus concert recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1971 provides an interesting counterpoint to the main album’s themes and an invigorating counterpoint to the album’s more sedate tone. The Band seem anything but indolent or anxiety stricken as they march confidently through a set of the best from their first three albums, as well as a sparkling version of The Four Tops’ “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”. They sound powerful in the hall’s booming acoustics and against the crowd’s tidal roar. Even Robbie Robertson concurs that this is peak live Band in this box set’s notes.
All of this material is spread across a variety of media. The Royal Albert Hall set is exclusively on standard CD, but the remixed/reshuffled Stage Fright is included on CD, Blu-ray (in a 5.1 Surround mix), and vinyl.
Other goodies include a couple of interesting but inessential alternate versions of “Sleeping” and “Strawberry Wine” and a historically valuable hotel room jam session between Robertson, Manuel, and Rick Danko. There’s also a repro of the Spanish pressing of the “Time to Kill b/w “The Shape I’m In” single (the mixes are the new ones, though), a few lithographs, and a booklet. However, that live disc is the real star of the fiftieth anniversary edition of Stage Fright.
