RARE: Tearful Rick Danko (The Band) sings I Shall Be Released at memorial of Richard Manuel: 11/3/86

Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 - March 4, 1986) was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a pianist and singer in The Band. The five members existed from December 1961 as The Hawks, becoming The Band in 1967.
Early life and career
Manuel was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. His father, Ed, was a mechanic employed at a Chrysler dealership, and his mother was a schoolteacher. He was raised with his three brothers, and the four sang in the church choir. Manuel took piano lessons beginning when he was nine, and enjoyed playing piano and rehearsing with friends at home. Some of his childhood influences were Ray Charles, Bobby Bland, Jimmy Reed and Otis Rush.
Manuel first became acquainted with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks in the summer of 1960 when the Revols opened for them at Pop Ivy's in Port Dover, Ontario.
Richard Manuel tragically died by suicide on this date in 1986. The pianist for the legendary and massively influential group The Band, Manuel also possessed both a soulful baritone as well as a forlorn falsetto, both of which figured as one-third of the group’s singing structure along with bassist Rick Danko and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Levon Helm (Manuel would also play drums when Levon stepped out from behind the kit).
Manuel met Danko and Helm in 1960 when the latter two were in Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks. At the time, Manuel’s band The Revols were opening for The Hawks. In his autobiography, The Wheel’s On Fire, Helm noted that he remarked to Danko, “See that kid playing piano? He’s got more talent than Van Cliburn,” referencing a contemporary piano prodigy.
The next spring the roles were reversed and Hawkins found himself opening for The Revols at the Stratford Coliseum in Manuel’s (and much of The Band’s) native Ontario. A mover and shaker in the Canadian scene, Hawkins offered to manage The Revols and later recruited Manuel as pianist for The Hawks which by this time included guitarist Robbie Robertson and keyboardist Garth Hudson.
The group - who separated themselves from Hawkins in the mid-1960s - would develop a rollicking, gin-soaked sound from tireless touring in both Canadian and U.S. clubs. After Helm, Robertson and Hudson backed blues musician John Hammond, Hammond suggested the band to Bob Dylan, who was entering his “Dylan Goes Electric” phase. Dylan with an electric guitar and band horrorified his hardcore folk fans, whose ire was directed at Dylan and his new rock band, booing them relentlessly night in and night out.
But rather than deterring the young musicians, the experience with Dylan only seemed to bolster their already road-tested raw rock ‘n’ roll talent. In 1967, Manuel, Robertson, Danko, Helm and Hudson officially became The Band. The group would release their groundbreaking debut, Music From The Big Pink (which Manuel contributed four songs to including the Dylan co-write, “Tears Of Rage”), in 1968. Music journalist Al Aronowitz categorizing The Band as “country soul … a sound never heard before.”
On March 4, 1986, after a gig by The Band at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge in Winter Park, Florida (a suburb of Orlando, Florida), Manuel died by suicide.[20] Danko, who also struggled with substance abuse, confronted Manuel about his alcohol use after the show.[22] The Band eventually returned to the Langford Hotel, down the block from the Cheek to Cheek Lounge, and Manuel talked with Helm about music, people, and film in Helm's room. According to Helm, at around 2:30 in the morning, Manuel said he needed to get something from his room. Upon returning to his room, he woke his wife, Arlie, who observed that Manuel "was all pissed off about something"; Manuel claimed that his frustration stemmed from the quality of the piano at the venue. When Arlie enjoined him to come to bed, he lay down with his clothes on. After she resumed sleeping, it is believed that he finished one last bottle of Grand Marnier before hanging himself in the bathroom sometime before 3:30.[22] He was buried a week later at the Avondale Cemetery in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario.[23][24] At his memorial service in Woodstock, Danko sang one of Manuel's most famous covers, Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" accompanied by the church's pipe organ and the other attendees.