Richard Manuel: Tears of Grief

Other voices were calling Richard Manuel. Not the romantic ones he wrote about.

It was many years ago, July.  Psychedelic music was still happening.  "After Bathing at Baxter's."  The Doors were huge.  Hendrix alive.  I brought home the strangest-looking record on Capitol with what appeared to be a young child's painting on the cover.  The back had a color shot of a stupid-looking pink house and in huge, ugly black letters read, Music from Big Pink.

All I knew about the musicians was that I'd seen them back Bob Dylan three years before at his first electric shows.  They'd toured with Dylan all over the world, but nothing had been heard from them since his motorcycle wreck.