1. Background

2. Recording and composition

3. Release and reception

4. LP track listing

5. Personnel

6. Chart positions
    Albums  Singles 

7. References

8. Bibliography

9. See also

Phases and Stages is the seventeenth studio album by Willie Nelson, which followed the moderate success of his first Atlantic Records release, Shotgun Willie. Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler at a party where Nelson sang songs from an unreleased album he had recorded in 1972. The single "Phases and Stages" was originally recorded the same year. Nelson re-recorded the album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in two days and Wexler produced it.

The album narrates the story of a divorce. Side one tells the woman's story and side two the man's. Released on March 1974, the album peaked at number 34 on Billboard{{'}}s Top Country Albums and the single "Bloody Mary Morning" reached number 17 on Billboard{{'}}s Country singles. Despite the chart positions attained by the album, and its singles, Atlantic Records closed their Country music division in September 1974.

Background

In 1972, Nelson signed a recording contract with the Country Music division of Atlantic Records and Jerry Wexler, who gave him greater creative control than he'd had during his tenure with RCA.{{sfn|Kienzle, Richard|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NnQrKtq_JV4C&lpg=PA251&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA251#v=onepage&q&f=false 251]}}{{sfn|Cusic, Don|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KCmNqTTKiyAC&lpg=PA120&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false 120]}} Nelson met Wexler at a party in Harlan Howard's house, where he sang the songs he wrote for an album. Howard later remembered, “He got on the stool late at night when the party had thinned out, and he sang like a total album with a gut string and a stool. He just went from one song to another and then Jerry Wexler from New York...flipped out.{{sfn|Streissguth, Michael|2013|p=41}} Nelson was excited at the prospect of using his own band, something RCA had not allowed him to do previously. By this time the core of Nelson’s band – Paul English on drums, Bee Spears on bass, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, and Bobbie Nelson on piano – was in place and cultivating a new sound that would be soon widely known as Outlaw country, a progressive take on traditional country music with a rock and roll attitude. Nelson recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Shotgun Willie, in 1972.{{sfn|Kienzle, Richard|2003|pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=NnQrKtq_JV4C&lpg=PA251&dq=%22Shotgun%20Willie%22&pg=PA250#v=onepage&q&f=false 250], [https://books.google.com/books?id=NnQrKtq_JV4C&lpg=PA251&dq=%22Shotgun%20Willie%22&pg=PA251#v=onepage&q&f=false 251]}} Shotgun Willie, produced by Arif Mardin and Wexler, marked a change of style in Nelson's music. Nelson stated that recording the album had "...cleared his throat".{{sfn|Tichi, Cecilia|1998|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=p_gYzRsNNbEC&dq=Tichi+1998&q=cleared+his+throat#v=onepage&q=cleared%20his%20throat&f=false 341]}}

Recording and composition

The single "Phases and Stages" was first released in 1972. Nelson had previously recorded the album Phases and Stages in Nashville, Tennessee.{{sfn|Reid, Jan|2004|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCDF5fFuBT8C&lpg=PA227&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q&f=false 227], [https://books.google.com/books?id=qCDF5fFuBT8C&lpg=PA227&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA228#v=onepage&q&f=false 228]}} In 1973, Nelson re-recorded the songs in two days at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio for Atlantic Records with musicians Fred Carter, Jr., David Hood, Barry Beckett, Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carr and Roger Hawkins. Atlantic Records' executives criticized Wexler's decision to record in Muscle Shoals instead of Nashville, Tennessee.^[1] Wexler later stated: "They said Muscle Shoals was too R&B for Willie. I said Willie was too R&B for Nashville."^[2] Although initially sceptical of recording at Muscle Sholes, Nelson later admitted, Playing with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, I was able to sharpen the edges. Wexler was right. That studio brought out the blues in me, big time.”{{sfn|Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David|2015|p=231}}

The album became one of the first concept albums in country music.^[3] The theme of the songs centers in divorce, narrated from both viewpoints. The one of the woman is narrated on side one; while the man's on side two. The recurrent song "Phases and Stages" is repeated throughout the album, introducing several other songs.{{sfn|Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David|2015|p=230}} The album begins with "Phases and Stages/Washing the Dishes", with the woman tired of caring for her unfaithful husband, emphasizing her domestic chores. This is followed by "Phases and Stages/Walkin'" where, after consideration, she leaves her husband at night, saying "Walkin' is better than runnin' away, and crawlin' ain't no good at all". In "Pretend I Never Happened", she advises him to forget her and continue with his life. In "Sister's Coming Home/Down at the Corner Beer Joint", her younger sister describes the woman moving back home and sleeping late. Eventually, she overcomes her grief and begins a social life at the corner beer joint, representing her liberation with the lyrics "(she's) dancin' on a hardwood floor, her jeans fit a little bit tighter than they did before". The final song of side one depicts the woman falling in love again but reluctant to admit it because she fears that her story will be repeated.{{sfn|Reid, Jan|2004|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCDF5fFuBT8C&lpg=PA227&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q&f=false 227], [https://books.google.com/books?id=qCDF5fFuBT8C&lpg=PA227&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA228#v=onepage&q&f=false 228]}} The second side of the album begins with "Bloody Mary Morning", with the male narrator ordering drinks on a flight from Los Angeles, California to Houston, Texas after his wife unexpectedly left him, with "the smog and haze reminding me of how I feel". In "Phases and Stages/No Love Around" he recalls dragging in at sunrise after another night of carousing: "I come home last Saturday morning, I come home and found you gone." In the sad "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone", the man realizes the vast impact on his life of her leaving. "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way" reflects his inability to accept the situation and his grief, but still in a self-centered way. In "Heaven and Hell", the man expresses his ambivalence about living without his wife, with the lyric: "Sometimes it's heaven, sometimes it's hell, and sometimes I don't even know." The final track is "Phases and Stages/Pick Up the Tempo/Phases and Stages", in which the man reveals his inability to change his character, and accepts his nature and its consequences.^[4]

Although Nelson admitted the subject of many of the songs was “grief, grief, and more grief,” he also clarified, “The overall theme was not a reflection of my own life...I was simply making up a story. Sure, I’d gone through breakups and heartaches of my own. What human soul hasn’t? But Phases and Stages was a fictional account of the sorrow that comes with the ruins of romance.”{{sfn|Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David|2015|p=231-232}} Nelson revealed that “It’s Not Suppose to Be That Way” was written for his daughter Susie, "a father talking to his daughter, saying to her what I was now saying to Susie. Instead of trying to give people advice, I am better at putting my feelings into a song.”{{sfn|nelson, Willie; Bud Shrake|1988|p=309}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2018}} “I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone” was written about Paul English’s wife Carlene, who committed suicide, but, Nelson later suggested, “it has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people who have no idea why I wrote it.”{{sfn|nelson, Willie; Bud Shrake|1988|p=174}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2018}} “Bloody Mary Morning” previously appeared on Nelson's 1970 LP Both Sides Now but “the sentiment fit the story”{{sfn|Nelson, Willie; Ritz, David|2015|p=231}} so he recut it at Muscle Shoals. Three songs - "Pick Up the Tempo," "Heaven and Hell," and "It's Not Suppose to Be That Way" - also appeared on Waylon Jennings' pivotal album This Time, released in July 1974, which was not coincidentally co-produced by Nelson, a cross-promotion that built the Waylon and Willie brand.{{sfn|Patoski, Joe Nick|2008|p=277}}

Release and reception

The album was released in March 1974. Nelson later admitted, “Considering the puzzlement with which Nashville had received Yesterday’s Wine, I didn’t know how this new concept album would go over.{{sfn|nelson, Willie; Bud Shrake|1988|p=201}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2018}} It peaked at number 34 in Billboard{{'}}s Top Country Albums and number 187 in Billboard{{'}}s Top LPs & Tapes.^[4] The single "Bloody Mary Morning" peaked at number 17, and its follow-up, "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone", peaked at number 51 in Billboard{{'}}s Country singles.^[5]

Despite the moderate success of Nelson's singles, Atlantic Records' executives were unhappy with Nelson's style, and closed their Country Music division in September 1974. Wexler protested to Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, arguing that Atlantic had Willie Nelson. The Ertegun brothers replied "Willie Who? Go ahead and close it." Following the division's closure, Wexler resigned.{{sfn|Reid, Jan; Sahm, Shawn|2010|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1gry61absiEC&lpg=PA127&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false 127]}} The album sold 400,000 copies, and Nelson was released from his Atlantic contract, prompting Columbia Records' executives to offer Nelson a contract giving him complete creative control of his works.{{sfn|Cusic, Don|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KCmNqTTKiyAC&lpg=PA120&dq=%22phases%20and%20stages%22%20willie%20nelson&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false 120]}}^[7] Wexler later described Phases and Stages and Shotgun Willie as "...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."^[6]

LP track listing

All songs written by Willie Nelson.

Personnel

The musicians and recording personnel included:^[1][13]

• Willie Nelson – acoustic guitar, vocals
• Fred Carter, Jr. – acoustic, 12-string, & electric guitars, dobro
• Pete Carr – acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo"
• John Hughey – pedal steel guitar
• Johnny Gimble – fiddle, mandolin
• Barry Beckett – keyboards
• David Hood – bass

• Roger Hawkins – drums
• Eric Weissberg – banjo on "Down at the Corner Beer Joint"
• Al Lester – fiddle on "Bloody Mary Morning"
• Jeanie Greene – background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo"
• George Soulé – background vocals on "Pick Up the Tempo"
• Mike Lewis – string arrangements on "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" and "It's Not Supposed to Be that Way"
• Jerry Wexler – producer

Chart positions

Albums

Singles

References

Bibliography

• {{cite book|title=Discovering country music|author=Cusic, Don|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2008|isbn=978-0-313-35245-4|ref = harv}}
• {{cite journal|title=Matthew, Mark, Luke and Willie|author=Flippo, Chet|journal=Texas Monthly|date=September 1975|issn=0148-7736|volume=3|number=9|publisher=Emmis Communications |ref = harv}}
• {{cite book|title=Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky-Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz|author=Kienzle, Richard|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978-0-415-94103-7 | ref = harv}}
• {{cite book|author1=Nelson, Willie |author2=Ritz, David |year=2015|title=It's A Long Story: My Life|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|isbn=978-0-316-33931-5|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|title=The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock|author=Reid, Jan|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-292-70197-7 | ref = harv}}
• {{cite book|title=Texas Tornado: The Times & Music of Doug Sahm|author1=Reid, Jan |author2=Sahm, Shawn |publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-292-72196-8 | ref = harv}}
• {{cite book|title=Reading Country Music: Steel guitars, Opry stars, and Honky-Tonk Bars|author=Tichi, Cecilia|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8223-2168-2 | ref = harv}}
• {{cite journal|title=Billboard's Recommended LP's|journal=Billboard|date=March 9, 1974|issn=0006-2510|volume=86|number=10|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc | ref = {{harvid|Billboard|1974}}}}

See also

• Shotgun Willie
• Muscle Shoals Sound Studios

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