MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND

The debut album comes with the original stellar line up of Mick Rogers, Manfred Mann, Chris Slade and Colin Pattenden, which pretty much lasted up until their Nightingales and Bombers studio release of 1975. A great progressive template to work within already garnered from Manfred Mann's prolific work everywhere else. It was 1972 so we had their counterparts like Strawbs, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Wishbone Ash etc already firmly established. The album is good but not brilliant as far as debuts go. It did lay the foundation for the trademark MMEB sound to come later and even the formula of covering Dylan songs and later Springsteen began on the " Please Mrs. Henry". " Trubute" is a great instrumental and the popular but awkward " Captain Bobby Stout" demonstrating the creative freedom bands had around this time from their record labels. A good start.