As Stephen Lewis’ "Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band" powerfully reminds us, they were truly the sum of their parts. The Canadian-American roots rock group was a delicate musical fusion that included Robbie Robertson on guitar, Levon Helm on drums and lead vocals, Rick Danko on bass and violin, Garth Hudson on keyboards and saxophone and Manuel, last but certainly not least, on piano and organ.
Much has been made of Manuel’s March 1986 suicide at age 42. By that point, The Band was playing two-bit theatres and dance halls — a far cry from their stature more than a decade earlier — and Manuel’s alcohol and drug abuse had returned with a vengeance. In his biography, Lewis wisely opts to steer a wide berth around such instances, preferring to devote his book’s precious real estate to stories about how Manuel lived and worked, as opposed to the last tragic hours of his existence in a Winter Park, Florida, motel.
