Phases and Stages
Encyclopedia
Phases and Stages is a 1974 album by Willie Nelson
, which followed the moderate success of his first Atlantic Records
release, Shotgun Willie
. Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler
at a party where Nelson sang songs from an unreleased album he had recorded in 1972. The single "Phases and Stages" was originally recorded the same year. Nelson re-recorded the album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in two days and Wexler produced it.
The album narrates the story of a divorce. Side one tells the woman's story and side two the man's. Released on March 1974, the album peaked at number 34 on Billboards Top Country Albums
and the single "Bloody Mary Morning" reached number 17 on Billboards Country singles
. Despite the chart positions attained by the album, and its singles, Atlantic Records closed their Country music division in September 1974.
and Jerry Wexler, who gave Nelson greater creative control than his previous contract. Nelson met Wexler at a party in Harlan Howard
's house, where he sang the songs Nelson wrote for an album. Nelson recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Shotgun Willie
, in 1972. Shotgun Willie, produced by Arif Mardin
and Wexler, marked a change of style in Nelson's music. Nelson stated that recording the album had "...cleared his throat".
The single "Phases and Stages" was first released in 1972. Nelson had previously recorded the album Phases and Stages in Nashville, Tennessee
. In 1973, Nelson re-recorded the songs in two days at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
for Atlantic Records with musicians David Hood
, Barry Beckett
, Jimmy Johnson
, Pete Carr
and Robert Hawkins. Atlantic Records' executives criticized Wexler's decision to record in Muscle Shoals instead of Nashville, Tennessee
. Wexler later stated: "They said Muscle Shoals was too R&B for Willie. I said Willie was too R&B for Nashville."
The album starts with "Phases and Stages/Washing the Dishes", where the woman is tired of caring for her unfaithful husband, emphasizing the activity of washing dishes. The song is followed by "Phases and Stages/Walkin'" where, after consideration, she leaves her husband at night and comments: "Walking is better than running". In "Pretend I Never Happened", the woman advises her husband to forget her and continue with his life. In "Sister's Coming Home/Down at the Corner Beer Joint" the woman's younger sister describes the subject's grief; the woman sleeps through daylight hours trying to forget her husband. In the part, the female narrator overcomes her feelings and returns to her social life at the corner of a bar, representing her liberation with the lyric "...(with) her jeans fitting tighter than they did before". The final song of side one depicts the woman falling in love again but still reluctant to admit it because she fears that her story will be repeated.
The second side of the album begins with "Bloody Mary Morning", where the male narrator orders drinks on a flight from Los Angeles, California
to Houston, Texas
after his wife unexpectedly left him. In "Phases and Stages/No Love Around" and "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" the man realizes the true impact of her disappearance on his life. "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way" reflects his inability to accept the situation and his grief. In "Heaven and Hell", the man expresses his inability to live without his wife, with the lyric: "Sometimes is heaven, sometimes is hell, and sometimes I don't even know." the final track is "Phases and Stages/Pick Up the Tempo/Phases and Stages", in which the man reveals his inability to change his character, and accepts his nature.
and number 187 in Billboards Top LPs & Tapes
. The single "Bloody Mary Morning" peaked at number 17, and its follow-up, "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone", peaked at number 51 in Billboards Country singles
.
Despite the moderate success of Nelson's singles, Atlantic Records' executives were unhappy with Nelson's style, and closed their Country Music division in September 1974. Wexler protested to Ahmet
and Nesuhi Ertegun
, arguing that Atlantic had Willie Nelson. The Ertegun brothers replied "Willie Who? Go ahead and close it." Following the division's closure, Wexler resigned. The album sold 400,000 copies, and Nelson was released from his Atlantic contract, prompting Columbia Records
' executives to offer Nelson a contract giving him complete creative control of his works. Wexler later described Phases and Stages and Shotgun Willie as "...generally viewed as having set Willie on a new path ... it was the coalescing of his audience, where the rednecks and the hippies came together. And to this day, that's Willie's audience."
Rolling Stone
wrote: "(Nelson) seems to understand an unloved woman better than any dozen articles from Ms. (magazine). The fact that Nelson can fashion a believable scenario with such sparseness is a tribute to his ability to turn experience into good music. Phases And Stages, his best work to date, now seems to call out for the filmmaker who can turn good music into good cinema". Texas Monthly described the album as: "...a compassionate account of dissolution of marriage, which gave extremely sensitive male and female viewpoints".
Billboard
wrote: "Nelson's unfettered voice honestly portrays his songs of love and lament". Critic Robert Christgau
wrote: "Nelson's combination of soft-spoken off-key and battered honky-tonk matches the bare, responsive country music Jerry Wexler has gotten out of the Muscle Shoals regulars." Newsweek
wrote: "In Phases and stages (Nelson) looked far beyond country music's traditional shore of self pity toward a clear vision of real life country divorce".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
wrote for Allmusic: "...the deceptively relaxed arrangements, including the occasional strings, not only highlight Nelson's clever eclecticism, but they also heighten the emotional impact of the album. [...] As a result, this is not just one of Willie Nelson's best records, but one of the great concept albums overall".
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, which followed the moderate success of his first Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
release, Shotgun Willie
Shotgun Willie
Shotgun Willie is a 1973 album by Willie Nelson. The recording marks a change of style for Nelson, who later stated that the album "cleared his throat". When Nelson refused to sign an early extension of his contract with RCA in 1972, the label decided not to release any further recordings...
. Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
at a party where Nelson sang songs from an unreleased album he had recorded in 1972. The single "Phases and Stages" was originally recorded the same year. Nelson re-recorded the album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in two days and Wexler produced it.
The album narrates the story of a divorce. Side one tells the woman's story and side two the man's. Released on March 1974, the album peaked at number 34 on Billboards Top Country Albums
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
and the single "Bloody Mary Morning" reached number 17 on Billboards Country singles
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
. Despite the chart positions attained by the album, and its singles, Atlantic Records closed their Country music division in September 1974.
Background and Recording
In 1972, Nelson signed a recording contract with the Country Music division of Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
and Jerry Wexler, who gave Nelson greater creative control than his previous contract. Nelson met Wexler at a party in Harlan Howard
Harlan Howard
Harlan Perry Howard was a prolific American songwriter, principally in country music. In a career spanning six decades, Howard wrote a large number of popular and enduring songs, recorded by a variety of different artists...
's house, where he sang the songs Nelson wrote for an album. Nelson recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Shotgun Willie
Shotgun Willie
Shotgun Willie is a 1973 album by Willie Nelson. The recording marks a change of style for Nelson, who later stated that the album "cleared his throat". When Nelson refused to sign an early extension of his contract with RCA in 1972, the label decided not to release any further recordings...
, in 1972. Shotgun Willie, produced by Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
and Wexler, marked a change of style in Nelson's music. Nelson stated that recording the album had "...cleared his throat".
The single "Phases and Stages" was first released in 1972. Nelson had previously recorded the album Phases and Stages in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. In 1973, Nelson re-recorded the songs in two days at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
for Atlantic Records with musicians David Hood
David Hood
David Hood , is a bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame....
, Barry Beckett
Barry Beckett
Barry Edward Beckett was a keyboardist who worked as a session musician with several notable artists on their studio albums...
, Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (musician)
Jimmy Johnson is an American a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section that was attached to FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for a period in the 1960s and 1970s, and later was the a founder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio located at first on 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama and at...
, Pete Carr
Pete Carr
Jesse Willard "Pete" Carr is an American guitarist. Carr has contributed to hit recordings by Joan Baez, Luther Ingram, Bob Seger, Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, Paul Simon, The Staple Singers, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Wilson Pickett, Hank Williams, Jr., and many more over the past four decades...
and Robert Hawkins. Atlantic Records' executives criticized Wexler's decision to record in Muscle Shoals instead of Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Wexler later stated: "They said Muscle Shoals was too R&B for Willie. I said Willie was too R&B for Nashville."
Concept
The album's theme is one of divorce, which it narrates from both partner's viewpoints. That of the woman is narrated on side one; that of the man on side two. The recurrent song "Phases and Stages", is repeated throughout the album, and introduces the other songs.The album starts with "Phases and Stages/Washing the Dishes", where the woman is tired of caring for her unfaithful husband, emphasizing the activity of washing dishes. The song is followed by "Phases and Stages/Walkin'" where, after consideration, she leaves her husband at night and comments: "Walking is better than running". In "Pretend I Never Happened", the woman advises her husband to forget her and continue with his life. In "Sister's Coming Home/Down at the Corner Beer Joint" the woman's younger sister describes the subject's grief; the woman sleeps through daylight hours trying to forget her husband. In the part, the female narrator overcomes her feelings and returns to her social life at the corner of a bar, representing her liberation with the lyric "...(with) her jeans fitting tighter than they did before". The final song of side one depicts the woman falling in love again but still reluctant to admit it because she fears that her story will be repeated.
The second side of the album begins with "Bloody Mary Morning", where the male narrator orders drinks on a flight from Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
after his wife unexpectedly left him. In "Phases and Stages/No Love Around" and "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" the man realizes the true impact of her disappearance on his life. "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way" reflects his inability to accept the situation and his grief. In "Heaven and Hell", the man expresses his inability to live without his wife, with the lyric: "Sometimes is heaven, sometimes is hell, and sometimes I don't even know." the final track is "Phases and Stages/Pick Up the Tempo/Phases and Stages", in which the man reveals his inability to change his character, and accepts his nature.
Release and reception
The album was released in March 1974. It peaked at number 34 in Billboards Top Country AlbumsBillboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
and number 187 in Billboards Top LPs & Tapes
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. The single "Bloody Mary Morning" peaked at number 17, and its follow-up, "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone", peaked at number 51 in Billboards Country singles
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
.
Despite the moderate success of Nelson's singles, Atlantic Records' executives were unhappy with Nelson's style, and closed their Country Music division in September 1974. Wexler protested to Ahmet
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
and Nesuhi Ertegun
Nesuhi Ertegun
Nesuhi Ertegun was a Turkish record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International.-Background:Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Nesuhi and his family, including younger brother Ahmet, moved to Washington, D.C...
, arguing that Atlantic had Willie Nelson. The Ertegun brothers replied "Willie Who? Go ahead and close it." Following the division's closure, Wexler resigned. The album sold 400,000 copies, and Nelson was released from his Atlantic contract, prompting Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
' executives to offer Nelson a contract giving him complete creative control of his works. Wexler later described Phases and Stages and Shotgun Willie as "...generally viewed as having set Willie on a new path ... it was the coalescing of his audience, where the rednecks and the hippies came together. And to this day, that's Willie's audience."
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
wrote: "(Nelson) seems to understand an unloved woman better than any dozen articles from Ms. (magazine). The fact that Nelson can fashion a believable scenario with such sparseness is a tribute to his ability to turn experience into good music. Phases And Stages, his best work to date, now seems to call out for the filmmaker who can turn good music into good cinema". Texas Monthly described the album as: "...a compassionate account of dissolution of marriage, which gave extremely sensitive male and female viewpoints".
Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
wrote: "Nelson's unfettered voice honestly portrays his songs of love and lament". Critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
wrote: "Nelson's combination of soft-spoken off-key and battered honky-tonk matches the bare, responsive country music Jerry Wexler has gotten out of the Muscle Shoals regulars." Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
wrote: "In Phases and stages (Nelson) looked far beyond country music's traditional shore of self pity toward a clear vision of real life country divorce".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
wrote for Allmusic: "...the deceptively relaxed arrangements, including the occasional strings, not only highlight Nelson's clever eclecticism, but they also heighten the emotional impact of the album. [...] As a result, this is not just one of Willie Nelson's best records, but one of the great concept albums overall".
Side one
| Track | Song Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Phases and Stages (Theme)/Washing the Dishes | 1:42 |
| 2. | Phases and Stages (Theme)/Walkin' | 4:06 |
| 3. | Pretend I Never Happened | 3:00 |
| 4. | Sister's Coming Home/Down at the Corner Beer Joint | 3:46 |
| 5. | (How Will I Know) I'm Falling in Love Again | 3:27 |
Side two
| Track | Song Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Bloody Mary Morning | 2:48 |
| 2. | Phases and Stages (Theme)/No Love Around | 2:24 |
| 3. | I Still Can't Believe You're Gone | 4:15 |
| 4. | It's Not Supposed to Be That Way | 3:27 |
| 5. | Heaven and Hell | 1:52 |
| 6. | Phases and Stages (Theme)/Pick Up the Tempo/Phases and Stages (Theme) | 3:26 |
Personnel
- Willie NelsonWillie NelsonWillie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
– acoustic guitar, vocals - Fred Carter, Jr.Fred Carter, Jr.Fred Carter, Jr. was an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer.- Early career :Carter was raised in the delta country in Winnsboro, the seat of Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana. Carter grew up with the heavy musical influences of jazz, country & western, hymns, and blues...
– acoustic, 12-stringTwelve string guitarThe twelve-string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with 12 strings in 6 courses, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar...
, & electric guitarsElectric GuitarsElectric Guitars were formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport and Richard Hall who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Saunders , Matt Salt and Dick Truscott , they also later added two backing singers: Sara and Wendy...
, dobroDobroDobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar... - Pete Carr – acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo"
- John Hughey – pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
- Johnny GimbleJohnny GimbleJohn Paul Gimble , better known as Johnny Gimble, is an American country musician associated with Western swing. He is an award-winning fiddle player and considered one of the most impressive fiddlers in the genre's history....
– fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single... - Barry BeckettBarry BeckettBarry Edward Beckett was a keyboardist who worked as a session musician with several notable artists on their studio albums...
– keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments... - David HoodDavid HoodDavid Hood , is a bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame....
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Roger HawkinsRoger HawkinsRoger G Hawkins , is an American drummer best known for playing as part of the studio backing band known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section of Alabama...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Eric WeissbergEric WeissbergEric Weissberg is an American banjo player, best known for the theme from the movie Deliverance.-Biography:Eric Weissberg went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, then the Juilliard School of Music. He joined an early version of the Greenbriar Boys , but left before they made any recordings....
– banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
on "Down at the Corner Beer Joint" - Al Lester – fiddle on "Bloody Mary Morning"
- Jeannie Greene – background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo"
- George SouléGeorge Soulé (musician)George Soulé He is a descendant of George Soule who was a signatory of the Mayflower Compact and the grandson of George Soulé who founded the Soulé Steam Feed Works in Meridian. Mississippi...
– background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo" - Mike Lewis – stringStrings (music)A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
arrangements on "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" and "It's Not Supposed to Be that Way" - Jerry WexlerJerry WexlerGerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
– producer
Album
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Billboard Top Country Albums Billboard charts The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine... |
34 |
| 1976 | Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
187 |
Singles
| Song | Chart | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| "Bloody Mary Morning" | Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
17 |
| "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" | Billboard Hot 100 | 51 |
See also
- Shotgun WillieShotgun WillieShotgun Willie is a 1973 album by Willie Nelson. The recording marks a change of style for Nelson, who later stated that the album "cleared his throat". When Nelson refused to sign an early extension of his contract with RCA in 1972, the label decided not to release any further recordings...
- Muscle Shoals Sound Studios