The Shape I'm In (The Band song) The Shape I'm In (The Band song) "The Shape I'm In" is a song by The Band, first released on their 1970 album "Stage Fright". It was written by Robbie Robertson, who did little to disguise the fact that the song's sense of dread and dissolution was about Richard Manuel, the song's principal singer. It became a regular feature in their concert repertoire, appearing on their live albums "Rock of Ages", "Before the Flood", and "The Last Waltz". Author Neil Minturn described the song as "straightforward rock." Along with "The Weight," it is one of the Band's songs most performed
The Last American (novel) made at the time. All of the Persians have farcical names (Nōz-yt-ahl is the name of an historian, for example) and often speak in breathless wonder at what they see. "The Last American" was among a group of anti-Utopian disaster literature which were published in the late 19th century, along with Ignatius Donnelly's "Caesar's Column" and Park Benjamin Jr.'s "The End of New York". Montesquieu's "Persian Letters" may have provided some degree of inspiration. In its own turn, the book seems to have been a rough model for Aldous Huxley's "Ape and Essence". The Last American (novel) The Last American