by Richard Skelly » Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:23 am
Can a recording act have a double-sided hit when only one side (barely) makes the charts. Yes, if you’re The Band.
Case in point: Time To Kill b/w The Shape I’m In. Both sides got lots of play on FM stations in Canada and the US. But it was only the ‘A’ side that made it to a measly #77 on Billboard and a meh #62 on Canada’s RPM Weekly. (Time To Kill did rocket up to #13 in The Netherlands!)
In retrospect, The Shape I’m In should have been a stand-alone single and not a wasted ‘B’ side. Still, neither it nor Time To Kill was likely destined for high chart position up here since the CRTC’s CanCon regs were still months from taking effect.
The Shape I’m In was written for and sung by Band multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel. Whether it was solely composed by Robbie Robertson (who gets the label credit) became a simmering bone of contention—along with other Robertson originals—with Levon Helm. According to the late singer/drummer/guitarist and mandolin wiz, many Band classics were collaborations...with Robertson only the most dominant participant. Helm always contended other members should have got 10 to 20 percent shares of writing royalties. That way, Helm claimed, Robertson would still have earned the most royalties while allowing others to benefit from their contributions.
Richard Manuel died by his own hand in 1986. Bassist Rick Danko passed from heart problems in 1999. Levon Helm succumbed to cancer in 2012. His daughter permitted a final hospital-bed meeting between her dying father and Robbie Robertson. Press reports indicated Levon was virtually unable to speak by then...so Robbie did most of the talking as they clasped hands.
Band organist Garth Hudson, Robbie and Bob Dylan are the only survivors of the long ago Basement Tapes project that led directly to The Band recording their Big Pink debut.