Maps of Music

Phases and Stages (1974)

Where the lyrics of Phases and Stages take you, and where it was really made.

The album tells one divorce story from both sides, yet its Alabama recording was doubted by the label's own executives, who then closed the country division that released it.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (1974)

Recording site Muscle Shoals Sound Studio — Willie Nelson recorded the album in two days at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama in 1973, with Jerry Wexler producing. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Phases and Stages is the 17th studio album by American country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, released March 1974 on Atlantic Records
• It followed the moderate success of Shotgun Willie, his first Atlantic release
• The album is a concept album about a divorce: side one tells the woman's story and side two the man's
• The recurring song 'Phases and Stages' is repeated throughout and introduces several other songs

Background

• Nelson signed in 1972 with the newly created Country Music division of Atlantic Records
• Producer Jerry Wexler gave him more creative control than his RCA contract had
• Nelson was excited to use his own band, something RCA had not allowed
• Wexler proposed recording at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, using a rhythm and blues section instead of Nelson's band

Recording

• Nelson recorded the album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in two days, and Wexler produced it
• The 1973 session musicians included Fred Carter Jr., David Hood, Barry Beckett, Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carr and Roger Hawkins
• Atlantic executives criticized the choice of Muscle Shoals over Nashville
• Back in Nashville, Nelson heard the Muscle Shoals tapes, was unsure of them, and re-recorded with his own band
• Wexler rejected replacing the Muscle Shoals recordings and had Tom Dowd do the final mix

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Willie Hugh Nelson on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas.
• Wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band, Bohemian Polka, as a guitarist at age nine.
• Attended Baylor University for two years before dropping out to pursue music.
• Moved to Nashville in 1960 and joined Ray Price's band as a bassist.

Career

• Songs such as "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper" became hits for other artists.
• Debut album ...And Then I Wrote was released in 1962; joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965.
• Helped lead the outlaw country movement after moving to Austin, Texas in 1972.
• Red Headed Stranger (1975) was a critically acclaimed concept album; the single "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" became his first number one hit.
• Co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
• Acted in over 30 films, including The Electric Horseman (1979).
• Received a Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for "Ride Me Back Home" (2019).
• Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone called it Nelson's best work to date and suggested it called out for a filmmaker
• Texas Monthly described it as a compassionate account of the dissolution of a marriage, with sensitive male and female viewpoints
• Billboard praised Nelson's unfettered voice for honestly portraying his songs of love and lament
• Robert Christgau noted that Nelson's soft-spoken, off-key singing matched the bare country music Wexler got from the Muscle Shoals musicians
• Newsweek said Nelson looked beyond country's traditional self-pity toward a clear vision of real-life country divorce
• Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn called it an important breakthrough and a major work by an artist whose talent deserved more attention
• The Detroit Free Press called the songwriting heavy, heart-holding words

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it one of the great concept albums overall
• Wexler later said the album set Willie on a new path, bringing rednecks and hippies into one audience
• Atlantic reissued the album on CD and LP in 2008

Records

• Peaked at number 34 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and number 187 on Top LPs & Tapes
• Lead single 'Bloody Mary Morning' peaked at number 17 on Billboard's Country singles
• Follow-up 'I Still Can't Believe You're Gone' peaked at number 51 on Billboard's Country singles
• The album sold 400,000 copies
• Atlantic closed its Country Music division in September 1974, and Nelson was released from his contract

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Nelson's road band before this album was Paul English on drums, Bee Spears on bass, Mickey Raphael on harmonica and Bobbie Nelson on piano
• Nelson said the songs' theme was not a reflection of his own life: 'The overall theme was not a reflection of my own life'
• 'Bloody Mary Morning' had earlier appeared on Nelson's 1970 LP Both Sides Now, but he recut it at Muscle Shoals
• Wexler wrote in his autobiography: 'They said Muscle Shoals was too R&B for Willie.'
• When the Ertegun brothers were asked to save Nelson's division, they replied: 'Willie Who? Go ahead and close it.'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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