"Sleeping" is a song by The Band, first released on their 1970 album '' Stage Fright''. It was also released as the B-side to the " Stage Fright" single. It was co-written by

Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson, OC (born July 5, 1943), is a Canadian musician. He is best known for his work as lead guitarist and songwriter for the Band, and for his career as a solo recording artist. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in ...

and Richard Manuel. This and “Just Another Whistle Stop” are the only two songs Manuel receives credit for on the album. Music critic Barney Hoskyns rates it as "one of Richard anuel'sliveliest performances" and "one of The Band's most intricate arrangements." The Band never featured the song on a live album. The song features Manuel on lead vocals and the piano, Rick Danko on backing vocals and bass,

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...

on drums, Robertson on electric guitar, and Garth Hudson on the Lowrey organ and accordion. "Sleeping" uses a waltz time signature. Following the style of “ King Harvest (Has Surely Come),” the song has no true chorus. Instead, the verses that are sung softly are given greater importance. However, Robertson’s guitar solo comes in the middle of the song, rather than the end. Hoskyns rates this solo, played along with Hudson's "pitch-bending" organ, as "one of the most ecstatic passages on any Band record. Lyrically, the song is rather simple. According to music critic Nick DeRiso, the lyrics move from "a lament about 'the life we chose'" to "a confusingly lonesome period of guessing and searching." Manuel and Robertson dramatize how sleeping provides man with a necessary escape from the hustle of life. This

motif Motif may refer to: General concepts * Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose * Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions * Moti ...

can be traced back to “

When You Awake "When You Awake" is a song written by Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel that was first released on The Band's 1969 self-titled album '' The Band''. A live performance was included on the Bob Dylan and The Band live album '' Before the Flood'' ...

,” another song co-written by Manuel and Robertson just a year earlier and released on the self-titled '' The Band'' album. The emotion of the song ranges between melancholy and "blissful escapism." Both DeRiso and Hoskyns see "Sleeping" as something of a sequel to the emotional mood from earlier Manuel-penned Band songs "In a Station" (from '' Music from Big Pink'') and " Whispering Pines" (from ''The Band''). The song is featured in a karaoke scene in

Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film ''Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transition ...

's '' The Brothers Bloom'' (2008), sung by Rinko Kikuchi.

Personnel

* Rick Danko – bass guitar, backing vocals *

– drums * Garth Hudson – organ,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

* Richard Manuel – piano, lead vocals *

– guitar

References

{{The Band The Band songs Songs written by Richard Manuel Songs written by Robbie Robertson 1970 songs 1970 singles