If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)

"If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)" is a single by the American rock band Counting Crows. It is the fourth track on their fourth album, Hard Candy (2002). The inspiration from the song, according to Adam Duritz, came from the sense of "not lasting" he felt when he went to bed and read a newspaper that stated Richard Manuel, a founding member of The Band, had died of an apparent suicide. Manuel was a pianist, vocalist, and initially, the primary songwriter in the group, who suffered from bouts of depression—all abilities and traits shared by Duritz. Duritz stated that the sense of impermanence was "overwhelming" and 15 years after the death of Manuel this sense inspired him to write the song.

About this song, Duritz said: ”This is about a thing that happened about 15 years ago when I was out all night with my friends drinking. I came home about six in the morning with this girl and got the morning paper on the way in the house and I opened it up and it turned out that Richard Manuel had died. He was the piano player and one of the singers for The Band. And I was a huge fan, you know? They were a big deal to me. And I kinda went to bed that morning thinking about how this thing that I had always loved was gone now. It’s like John Lennon dying, there’s not going to be anymore Beatles reunions, for sure. There’s not going to be any Band reunions. And I was thinking this girl will probably be gone sometime soon too, you know, things just come and go in life. When were starting recording, we started writing, and we wrote this song. It’s just sort of about how you can’t hold on to anything in your life (your idols, the music you love, some girl, anything at all) a lot of times because you can’t give all of yourself. And this is called Richard Manuel is Dead.”