Down the Road is the second and last studio album by Stephen Stills' band Manassas. It was released in April 1973, and peaked at number 26 in the US charts, to mixed reviews. It was Stills first album since the 1968 Super Session not to be certified Gold. "Isn't It About Time", a protest song, was released as the lead single and reached number 56 on the charts.
Background
After a very critically and commercially successful year, 1972, things changed when they regrouped to record at Criteria Studios in early 1973. Stills had met and married French pop singer Veronique Sanson, while Hillman re-united with the rest of the Byrds for a one-shot reunion album. Hillman was also entertaining a big-money offer from David Geffen’s Asylum Records to form a new super-group with J.D. Souther and Richie Furay. Arguments and increased drug-use were extremely prevalent, and Stills was losing money paying for each member each night. Before and during the recording of this album Stills maintained a round the clock schedule with Manassas in the studio, which resulted in another album of unreleased material written by Stills, Chris Hillman, Dallas Taylor, and Fuzzy Samuels, that included Stevie Wonder singing on a track.
Recording
The album was initially recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami with the Albert Brothers, until an increasingly combative Stills caused the brothers to leave halfway during recording. So sessions moved to Caribou Ranch, Colorado and in Los Angeles. To make matters worse Atlantic Records, then rejected some of the tracks recorded for the album which necessitated re-recording of certain songs. Resulting in patchwork quality. Other people suspect that the album was rejected for containing too few Stills songs and too many from Chris Hillman. 'Down The Road' and 'So Many Times' were recorded in September 1972 at Criteria, Miami. The rest of the tracks were recorded in January 1973.
Aftermath
After a tour lasting until October 1973, during which Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels left for personal reasons and was replaced by Kenny Passarelli, the group then broke up for good, with Stills, joining Crosby, Nash and Young in Hawaii for an reunion, and Hillman joining the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. Another factor contributing to the disbandment of the group was Dallas Taylor's crippling heroin addiction, especially after Stills paid for him to go to rehab then found him shooting up in the toilets. Stills supported the album with two tours and a performance on ABC's In Concert series on the 16th April 1973 at Bananafish Gardens, New York. Which was maligned upon showing. One video of the band performing "Do You Remember The Americans" has appeared, but nothing else from the concert since.
Reception
The album was not very well received. Rolling Stone was especially critical, saying "t would be sad to think the people involved put this record out not because of business pressures but because they were proud of it." Richard Williams for Melody Maker 1973, said ' For me, the two latin songs are the best; Stills has a real affinity for this music - the hoarse strained quality of his voice suits the yearning mood of the tunes - and I'd love to see 'Pensamiento' become a hit single'. It made it only to #26 on the Billboard album charts and its single, "Isn't It About Time", made it only to #56 on the Billboard singles charts. By 1974, the album had sold an estimated 300,000 copies in the US. Stills blamed the failure of the album due to Atlantic preferring to have a CSNY reunion which was a guaranteed cash cow. Other reasons for the commercial decline, include record stores not knowing which section to put the album, either under Stills' name or under Manassas'. Billboard, Record World and Cash Box, all credited the album to Manassas rather than Stephen Stills Manassas like they credited the debut record. Meaning many people might have been unaware that this was a new Stephen Stills album.
