phases and stages

Willie Nelson traced the circles and cycles and scenes that we've all seen before in this carefully considered compassionate and cautionary country concept album about closure and contrition.  After the creative breakthrough of 'Shotgun Willie', Nelson built his next album around an old single that never charted and created an insightful commentary on divorce with side one from the perspective of the woman and side two from that of the man.  He had recorded the songs in Nashville, Tennesee; but decided to rerecord them exclusively with R&B producer Jerry Wexler, who had produced some of 'Shotgun Willie'.  The sessions at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama featured Willie Nelson on acoustic guitar and vocals;  Fred Carter, Jr. on acoustic, 12-string, & electric guitars, and dobro;  Pete Carr on acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, and background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo";  John Hughey on pedal steel guitar;  Johnny Gimble on fiddle and mandolin;  Barry Beckett on keyboards;  David Hood on bass;  Roger Hawkins on drums;  Eric Weissberg on banjo on "Down at the Corner Beer Joint";  Al Lester on fiddle on "Bloody Mary Morning";  Jeannie Greene and George Soulé on background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo";  and Mike Lewis on string arrangements on "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" and "It's Not Supposed to Be that Way".  

The subject matter was inspired by his own recent divorce.  Nelson reflects:  "I just do things off the top of my head -- trust my instincts, pretty much ... The country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place...Sometimes that’s good for your mind. It doesn’t hurt to feel sad from time to time. It’s better than having a drink when you feel life has abused you, because that way you can end up a drunk...We enjoy making ourselves feel sad. People will pay good money to come and cry. Give me a hundred bucks for a ticket and I’ll make you cry!...You don’t have to be selfish because your ambition and drive is for your family members as much as for yourself. Along the way you pick up wives and kids and you are responsible for them. You don’t discard them. There is no such thing as ex-wives, only additional wives ... You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it ... We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it."

'Phases and Stages' only made it to number one hundred and eighty-seven on the Billboard's Top LP's and Tapes chart and thirty-four on the country album chart.  The album sold over four hundred thousand copies; but it wasn't enough to keep Atlantic Records'  Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun from closing down their country division over the protests of Jerry Wexler, who would quit in protest.  Wexler says:  "'Shotgun Willie', I only contributed a side or two; the late Arif Mardin really made and produced that record. A great man...The next one, 'Phases and Stages', was on me. So I took him– to Muscle Shoals, and we used the Muscle Shoals guys augmented by Johnny Gimble on fiddle; I think we had a steel player, and Fred Carter (Jr.), a great lead guitarist...These two records are 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."






http://willienelson.com/



https://myspace.com/willienelson/music/album/phases-and-stages-424

Bloody Mary Morning had originally appeared on his album 'Both Sides Now' in 1970.  The new version hit number seventeen on the country chart.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ut-YSf9hgk



I Still Can't Believe You're Gone went to number fifty-one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrxzIhxRIA



Pretend I Never Happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=178y5C55xpw



Phases and Stages (Theme)/No Love Around
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ut-YSf9hgk







'Phases and Stages' 
full album



All songs written by Willie Nelson.

Side one
1. "Phases and Stages (Theme)" / "Washing the Dishes"   2:06
2. "Phases and Stages (Theme)" / "Walkin'"   3:58
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
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