MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND

Manfred Mann's Earth Band's Solar Fire opening with Father of Day, Father of Night, an example of one of Mann's more notable talents: taking a second-string Bob Dylan song and redeeming it through entirely transforming the musical backing. Taking this decidedly hippified anthem and putting it through a series of symphonic prog filters turns it into a memorable trip and a tasty appetiser for the rest of the album. If what follows often doesn't quite measure up to the brilliant opener, it's still a competent enough release which will appeal to most fans of symphonic prog, and it finds the band's compositional powers on top form, radically scaling back their reliance on cover versions.

Rehearsing on stage? That's rather naughty!

A fan of mid-period MMEB, I had high expectations after perusing the track list before obtaining this album. Well, it turned out to be a let down. There is nothing much wrong with the actual performance, except that the same tunes were recorded in much better versions on the studio releases.

Right off, they've ruined an otherwise great tune "Road To Babylon" by almost completely removing the dynamics that made this piece so enjoyable in the first place. The rest of the tracks suffer from similar neglect due to re-working.

I am not immune to variations in a live context, indeed, my preference is for such that contains extended solos, even jamming. Well, this performance is not one of those, leaving me substantially unimpressed.

The tracks here are poor cousins to the originals and in some instances the performance is rather awkward as if the band were only rehearsing. There are some fine moment,s but overall, they don't save the rather uninspired delivery as a whole.

The vocals are generally strong and there is some good guitar work in places, but frankly, I can't imagine that the band were only able to do a mediocre performance on stage. With that in mind, the release of "Wired" doesn't appear to be a wise decision.

I couldn't call it good and if you have the originals, there is no reason to bother with this. In my books, it doesn't quite reach the criteria for 3 stars, so it's a regretful 2, only.

The fourth Earth Band album in a little under two years, 'Solar Fire' is undoubtedly the former Beat group's most ambitious undertaking, a space-themed concept piece featuring nods to classical music, strong instrumental moments and an extraordinary nine-minute version of Bob Dylan's 'Father Of Day, Father Of Night' as the album's opening track. However, whilst this 1973 album was undoubtedly a vast improvement on their blandly-realised debut, the underwhelming follow-up 'Glorified Magnified' and the frankly rather poor third album 'Messin'', there is still much about the Earth Band's style of progressive rock that simply hasn't aged at all well. The haphazard blend of intricate instrumental solos, overly-slick production values and Mann's awkward vocals positions the group as a kind of sub-Alan Parsons outfit, their overall sound featuring a jocular, semi-serious feel that distracts hugely from the music. The lengthy opening cut and the funky-yet-playful moog solo of 'Pluto The Dog' aside, this is a prime example of why the Earth Band have never been taken seriously as a progressive rock group. An overcooked mixture of stodgy pop melodies, over-produced prog theatrics and hokey art-rock ambition, 'Solar Fire' helps explain just why punk-rock came knocking. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Always the odd cousins to the progressive rock fraternity of the 1970's, Manfred Mann's Earth Band enjoyed a relatively successful career, graduating from humble beat group origins to full-blown art-pop purveyors during the space of a few short years. A prolific outfit led by the South African-born keyboardist Mann, the first Earth Band album arrived in 1972 and was quickly followed by four more full-length studio offerings, all of which were released across the space of just two years. The most notable of these was arguably 1973's ambitious 'Solar Fire', a kind of classically-tinted, space-themed concept yarn, yet the Earth Band would really hit their stride with 'Nightingales & Bombers' from 1975, an album whose title was inspired by a cache of accidental BBC recordings from World War 2 that were supposed to pick up certain ornithological sounds yet ended up catching a major aerial dogfight between British and German forces(the recordings feature in the album's penultimate piece, a live rendition of 'As Above So Below'). Inspired by these extraordinary tapes, Manfred Mann's Earth Band put together what many consider to be one of their defining achievements. Featuring a trio of covers - this time it's a fairly straightforward AOR version of Bruce Springsteen's popular 'Spirits In The Night', a slick reading of Joan Armatrading's 'Visionary Mountains' and a slightly awkward take on 'Quit Your Low Down Ways' by Bob Dylan - 'Nightingales & Bombers' proves both eclectic and accessible, blending progressive aspirations with a slick pop-rock touch that prefigures much of their 1980's output. Unlike 'Solar Fire', it is shorter, sharper tracks that are the meat of 'Nightingales & Bombers', making for an enjoyable if somewhat lightweight album, the atmospheric Springsteen-penned opener - one of the better versions of the oft-copied track - providing an energetic opening, whilst the intricate melodies of 'Time Is Right' and the title- track showcase the group in highly-creative mood with the latter in particular blessed by a dazzling keyboard solo from bandleader Mann. However, whilst many of the classic releases from the Earth Band's fellow progressive icons of the 1970's have generally stood the test of time remarkably well, both 'Solar Fire' and 'Nightingales & Bombers' simply haven't. Listened to now through 21st century ears, its unfortunate to note that virtually all of Manfred Mann's Earth Band albums from this period feature a trite, almost jocular feel, no doubt carried on from their 1960's beat-group past, that distracts the listener from what should be some pretty impressive instrumental moments. As a result, this inability to shake the pop-essence of their past makes for a simplistic brand of what can be best described as progressive pop - no bad style in the right hands, just ask The Alan Parsons Project - with 'Nightingales & Bombers' a prime example. There are still moments here well worth the price of admission, but when compared against the 'Nursery Crymes' and 'Wish You Were Heres', this does feel rather tame. Hats off to excellent production values though; pity the music isn't of the same quality. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Inspired by a World War II-era tape the band had come across of birdsong rudely interrupted by a flyover of bombers, Nightingales and Bombers leads off with one of the Earth Band's competent prog-pop reworkings of Bruce Springsteen songs (in this case, Spirit in the Night) and follows it up with a range of prog instrumentals and songs. Fat Nelly manages to combine a music hall sense of humour with keyboard-heavy prog performances in a great little match - the sort of combination ELP were always trying (and failing) with their comedy numbers - whilst the instrumentals proved that the Earth Band were a serious prog powerhouse in their own right. A real eye-opener if, like me, you've only heard Manfred Mann's various singles before tuning into this one.

11/15P. This album - like most of the other Earth Band albums - is absolutely strange. This record is the most impenetratable take on blues rock that was likely to come out in 1973.

This album is where Manfred Mann's Earth Band first steadied their distinctive sound - the unisono playing of a fierce Stratocaster and the Moog synthesizer, the rapid jams which start abruptly in the middle of a song and the effective deconstruction of cover versions. But when I listen to this album I always wonder what kind of music this band actually wants to do. There are the spacy synthesizers, the (slight) jazz influences and the moody instrumentals, but the whole thing reminds me more of Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album than of anything else. It's all about tight band interplaying and heavy riffs, but these riffs share similarities both with Robert Johnson's and Gustav Holst's compositions. There are few progressive bands which rely as heavily on riffs, and there is no other progressive rock band which arranges these riffs in such a sophisticated way, eventually making them sound like the title melody to a science fiction movie. This album is really knotty and cold, but nonetheless tremendously exciting.

First of all - I don't own the reissue of this album. The Earth Band reissues by Creature Music Ltd. are by far the worst reissues I've ever seen. Useless bonus tracks, a shabby booklet design without any interesting information and a sometimes shabby sound (especially on the Chapter Three albums). I don't want to know which drunk apprentice was responsible for this stuff. I mean, making typos while copying the original liner notes for an album - that cannot be true!

But all in all, there's just one dull track on the whole record. Get Your Rocks Off is a cover version of one of the many overrated Dylan Basement Tapes songs and is on the same level as the mediocre stuff on the Glorified Magnified album. Ok, they manage to pack a short and sweet multi-tracked guitar bridge into the song at 1:11, and the slide guitar in the chorus is quite alright as well, but they just aren't The Band - and the song itself is pretty forgettable. It's a shame because the MMEB pulled off some nice blues rockers on Glorified Magnified, particularly the stomping I'm Gonna Have You All and Look Around, which itself is based on the American folk song Black Betty.

Cloudy Eyes isn't dull, but simply a few tads too little inspired. It is a laid-back instrumental which steadily walks along a stoic 4/4 beat without lots of variation. Nevertheless I always enjoyed the neat J.S.Bach melodics in this tune with the sharp lead guitar setting the main melody with lots of trills while the Moog synthesizer echoes some guitar motives, allowing the guitar to do some variations. But since I've listened to Procol Harum's Repent Walpurgis I believe that such music works much better when given a certain degree of solemnity. But that's not the major problem, the chord progression differs too much from Repent Walpurgis to make the track a rip-off. But there's not a lot happening in the first four minutes, it's just the same (good) melody over and over again. Thankfully, the piece fades out before it gets tedious. The last 90 seconds are dedicated to Mann's Moog, and here he emulates the sound of a hurdy-gurdy, a stringed folk instrument which gives a droning sound due to a revolving wheel. In a way it's a violin with an endless circular bow, or the stringed pendant to the bagpipes. It sounds absolutely odd and I've got no idea what purpose this fragment has. But I don't mind; no matter what it is or what it shall be - it is really successful in its menacing drone and sends shivers down my spine.

Sadjoy is more or less an extended guitar solo constructed around a 40bpm, i.e. really slow, rhythm with many people singing a sophisticated melody over and over again. Supposedly Manfred Mann intended to write some kind of musical in 1973, and this and Cloudy Eyes are recycled versions of compositions intended for this purpose. A track like this, for sure, will only be successful when the guitar playing is good, and indeed Mick Rogers rarely had such a good opportunity to show off his considerable skills. The sharp attack of the Stratocaster bridge pick-up and Mick Rogers' emotional bendings fit very well to each other, preventing the whole affair from being boring over the whole 5 minutes.

Mardi Gras Day is one of the swampy Cajun-like tracks by Dr. John Creaux, and although this is pretty much a simple sing-along tune, this mixture of shrieking lead guitars, the laid-back offbeat rhythm and the tribal backing vocals by presumably everyone who was present in the studio is amazing. Mick Rogers really nails this one with his reggae vocals and the clean funky rhythm guitar. Manfred Mann's Earth Band, as early versions of Ashes to the Wind show, did a lot of this world-music inspired rock fusion in those years and continued to do so on the Somewhere in Africa album.

This brings us to the three huge songs on this album.

In Black and Blue the band do what they were always best in: enriching existing songs by other bands which sounded pretty dull in their original form. This time it's a first-person blues song by an Australian band which has slavery and deprivation as its topic. Starting off as a Mick Rogers vocal solo the song develops into a mournful sea of tightly weaved Moog melodies on top of a leaden rhythm. The guitar stays pretty quiet, but howls from afar from time to time. Apart from the wailing multi-tracked guitar riff (which, in fact, take in the role of a chorus) this is an amazingly haunting piece of psychedelic blues rock and a definite highlight in the band's career. I'm not completely sure, but it might be my favorite track off this record, simply due to the psychedelic mid-part which is pretty unique in the band's repertoire.

Messin' is, in fact, a self-cover - something which the Earth Band frequently did with their 1960s and Chapter Three songs. It was written by keyboarder Mike Hugg and recorded for the shelved third Chapter Three record. Originally a fast soul/rock track with free jazz elements, actually a more concise Happy Being Me with a flute and Hammond organ solo, the band augmented it with industrial machine sounds and sounds of crying monkeys (both effects are utterly frightening, I have to admit) and made a leaden blues rocker out of it. The female backing vocals and the lyrics are the only things which didn't change, even Mike Hugg's melody has been simplified at certain places. But the band deteriorated the original version by no means; they rather gave it a better structure in the extended instrumental part by rearranging the brass melody of the early Chapter Three track Konekuf that it may fit on the heavy rhythm of the vocal parts. Interestingly, they play parts of the melody in a nearly polyphonic way (i.e., shifted by some bars) with amazing musical communication between Manfred Mann and Mick Rogers. Afterwards Manfred Mann shows his talent of writing riffs which sound bluesy although their melodies, soaked with strange intervals and avantgarde, are as stiff as contemporary classical music. At first Mick Rogers has an extended solo, then Manfred Mann runs into some ragtime-inspired Moog synthesizer pitch bends. After a reprise of the chorus the track ends in the monkey and machine noises again. A tour de force with a style of improvisation absolutely typical of this band. Check out the Chapter Three version (Messin' Up The Land from the Odds and Sods collection) as well - it's available for commercial download and absolutely worth the mony.

Buddah begins deceptively as a ballad - a really good ballad I daresay, owing to Mick Rogers' controlled and vibrato-laden voice and the catchy clean Stratocaster picking, alternated by some heavy riffing in the chorus. The (not that rarely thought about) topic is the reappearance of ancient prophets (Jesus, Buddah and Moses) in our time. The Strawbs' The Man Who Called Himself Jesus is, from the lyrical point of view, more interesting than this example, but it doesn't matter in this case because everything else sounds marvellous. At 3:38 the jam part of the song begins. Listen closely to the shift in timing in the first bars of this part and you'll find again how meticously the band composed and planned the frame of the improvisation. They played these bars exactly the same way live, as recordings for the BBC and the Swedish TV prove! To the accurate thumping of the bass guitar and an accelerated drum rhythm Manfred Mann glides into an atmospheric Moog solo, sometimes accompanied by some backwards piano notes, a bit like Deep Purple's No One Came, but more futuristic and avantgardistic. The last 90 seconds contain in total six different parts: a riff-laden hard rock part, followed by some rising major chords, moving into majestic Moog fanfares (I suppose many AOR bands listened to this part!), a reprise of the riff-laden part, a short drum solo and an ending in which Mick Rogers majestically superimposes lead guitar lines in a major mode - which is not the kind of scale you would expect in a blues jam, but which Mick Rogers would later be known for.

All in all, ideas like these - making jams more exciting by improvising on complex scales, deconstructing existing melodies in a classical way, taking influence from world music, jazz, space rock and blues rock - make this album a really interesting piece of music. Solar Fire is more consistent and also has more peaks, but the stiff blues rock of Messin' - although it's, perhaps unintentionally, an exhausting and absolutely uncommercial record - isn't far away from the quality of Solar Fire. Get the album if you like blues rock and Moog synthesizers, but be prepared that the album is tougher than you might expect it to be.

(By the way - how comes that the song lengths are all exactly n:30 or n:00 minutes long? I did say that the album is peculiar, didn't I?)

I have some difficulties to understand why this album is so hated. I did not listened to it until now, because of these bad reviews ! I'm like others here a complete fan of the Roaring Silence, Messin, Nightingales & Bombers etc. period of MMEB, and I'm not that disappointed by '06. There are some very, very nice songs like "Frog" on this record, and the whole thing is running very smooth and pleasant all along all tracks. "Two Friends" is sounding very 70's MM. It's a lot better IMHO than some other efforts like Soft Vengeance, Criminal Tango... for me it's the best MM since Somewhere In Afrika, which is a masterpiece.

Worth ' 3+ stars IMHO but giving 4 to balance all these very low notes.

For me 'Watch' more or less ties with Manfred Mann's classic 'Roaring Silence' with its just as consistently vibrant and dynamic songs. It did sometimes get fewer raves than its predecessor, and unjustly so. It is indeed a much more commercial sounding effort with songs that are easy to get into, but like before there are plenty of crafty changes in style. "Circles" is a splendid opener, very much in the usual Earth Band style and halfway through it echos some mid-70's Kansas. "Drowning On Dry Land" is one personal favourite, with an acoustic verse paired with keyboards and Thompson's glorious vocals. I love the way the tune cuts into a clever lead guitar passage. Another favourite on this album follows called "Chicago Institute". This is a lot more funkier and uptempo. "California" is a lovely ballad that softens things up at the right point. I mentioned Thompson's voice earlier. Well, I do think he excelled to some of his finest moments here. "Martha's Madman" towards the end is also a great track. The lyrics are interesting too. Four stars.

Excellent compilation for Manfred Mann's Earth Band, able to represent the POP(ular) side of Prog. MMEB updates that Manfred Mann was produced in the 60's with the new language of Prog Rock. A large area is reserved for covers (Dylan, Springsteen, Bob Marley) managed to turn into songs with Prog Rock have little in common. Musically MMEB is not a light band (as sound) and the component Prog is not too bad. Being able to make a true reflection, the Prog side of MMEB consists of the Mini Moog that Manfred Mann is capable to sing and shine like few others. Despite MMEB can be considered a cover band with original songs, we can say that it is the product of the 70's and this 2 CD compilation confirms what I said.

I own a few albums of MMEB and MMB but I must admit that only compilations can involve me as the music proposed is capable of doing. So I can only recommend this compilation that contains all the hits from a band truly unique and totally perfect for those who love 70's music.

A single release from Manfred Mann's Earth Band containing "Davy's On the Road Again" and "Bouillabaisse". From 1978, about 8 minutes of pretty good rock music. Sorta proggy like much of this band's work. They always managed to walk the line between true rock and true prog with some pop stylings added to the mix. One of my favorite bands with a supurb vocalist in CHris Thmpson, Manfred Mann's great keyboards and competent backing musicians. Hard to give this less than a well earned 3 star rating. I don't often rate singles above 2 stars but this deserves it with little argument involved