Marc Delgado: The Cautionary Tale of Richard Manuel

Written by Marc Delgado and Justin Tracy, performed by Marc Delgado
Album: Wildwood Road, 2021

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Marc Delgado – originally from California, now based in Glenford, NY, just outside of Woodstock – is a singer/songwriter, musician and poet. In 2021, he recorded the tribute song "The Cautionary Tale of Richard Manuel" for his album Wildwood Road. The song about Richard, which Delgado has characterized as "a little song about addiction, fate, grace and, perhaps, the existence of an unknown, all-powerful entity," draws heavily on his own experiences with addiction. He talks about this in an article/interview from 2025:

Delgado wrote 'The Cautionary Tale of Richard Manuel' possibly as a reminder, like a string knotted around your index finger, after the Canadian songwriter died, sadly committing suicide after years of struggling with addiction. You have the impression that the lyrics are the result of a stark, vulnerable conversation between two songwriters with similar issues. "He was such a beautiful musician. I loved his voice, the music he wrote, the way he sang", Delgado remarked without hesitation. "He had this kind of otherworldly talent and, by all accounts, squandered it. You hear he wasn't that great a guy to be around, and I get that. I know what drugs and alcohol can do to a person. I mean, he was with this amazing group of musicians making music as good as you'd hear anywhere, and he couldn't keep his shit together". But Manuel wasn't the only member of the Band whose act was far from together. Danko and Helm were such junkies that from what you can read, Robbie Robertson just couldn't handle the unpredictable behavior any longer. Of course, Delgado finds the parallels to his own life experiences. He admits that he's still learning to be clean, yet the patterns are always repeating, a phrase heard in the song by the band Runner, 'Ur Name on a Grain of Rice', suggesting that, even in small doses, resolve weighs a ton. "I'm not even in the same town as Richard Manuel", Delgado declares (although actually he's pretty close to West Saugerties). 'Time and again, I'd relapse, and again, and again. People would ask, why do you keep doing that? And I would say, I don't know. It was such a lame answer, but the truth is, I couldn't figure it out. It must have been something else. Because I was depressed, or I was afraid or on and on. But it was simply because I was a drug addict, and that's why I would just fucking blow my life up over and over again. And with Richard, it was the same thing. It doesn't matter what you got going on, man. It'll take everything from you. In the song, the refrain is, I can't explain what comes over me'." —from the article "More People Really Should Know About: Marc Delgado", published by Americana UK in January 2025

Lyrics

There was a time & a place
I felt the wheel & it's grace
King Harvest sang in the fields

So we drank to what we made
Then the season changed
Soon I felt the long & the slow decay

Why must I be the thief?
Why must you see my grief?
I can't explain what comes over me

Then I was crushed by The Weight
I hung it all up & I waved
Goodbye to the crowd & the hands from the stage

A whispering sound I received
Through the pines & the trees
In a motel dream I swam from the beach to the sea

Why must I be the thief?
Why must you see my grief?
Tears of Rage roll down my cheeks
I can't explain what comes over me

Home, so far away
Home, so far away
Home, so far away

Why must I be the thief?
Why must you see my grief?
Tears of Rage roll down my cheeks
I can't explain what comes over me