WIRED

Here's another live album from Manfed mann's Earth Band, this one is recorded in 1977. The sound quality is inferior to "Budapest live" but the band sounds far more interesting! One of the trademarks from MMEB were the instrumental jams, so catchy and powerful featuring excellent, very propulsive interplay and fiery electric guitar soli and sensational Minomoog runs along powerful vocals and a dynamic rhythm-section.

One of the highlights is the epic "Father of day, father of night", one of the most compelling tracks ever made by MMEB, this rendition includes splendid wah-wah drenched guitarwork that can also be heard on "Blinded by the lights". The final song "The mighty Quinn" features again a fiery wah-wah drenched guitar solo, a propulsive rhytm-section and, last but not least, Mr. Manfred Mann delivering mindblowing sounds from his Minimoog! The final part of this song delivers the typical MMEB: propulsive and exciting with lots of great soli on keyboards and guitar.

THIS IS A PLEASANT LIVE ALBUM!!

I am kind of in two minds about this album. I had never before heard Manfred Mann live other than the live recordings, ' Nightingales and Bombers' from the same album and the incredible ' Waiter there is a Yawn In my Ear' from the Roaring Silence, so it was quite a surprise listening to Wired after purchasing it through secondspin.com.Chris Thompson does the vocals and in my opinion he always complimented MMEB with his strong voice and consistent range. Flett, Pattenden, Slade and Mann make up the rest of the band ( This is probably their most successful and long lived lineup) The highlight for me is ' Blinded by the Light' and ' Times is Right'. The songs chosen on this album are good especially the Watch album versions as well. The only draw back for me being the the difference between the live version and the studio version do not hold up as well. Still a good album however.

This first live album of MMEB holds some jewels.

After five studio albums, it was a good occasion to release this live one. A strong back catalogue of which many songs can be chosen should guarantee a good musical experience.

And this album is definitely a good one. From this very early repertoire "Captain Bobby Stout" which is an average hard/bluesy tune. Even if it was one of the best songs from their debut, I can't say that this extended version fascinates me.

"Father Of Day." from the great "Solar Fire" is somewhat emasculated here, unfortunately. The guitar solo is still a great moment but the studio version was so good (my fave out of their entire repertoire) that I could only be disappointed with this one. We'll have to wait for a (long) while to get a full version of this great song in a live rendition.

The album "Nightingales & Bombers" is featured with two numbers "Spirits In The Night" and "Time Is Right" (the weakest of this live offering IMO). Another good couple from "The Roaring Silence" showcasing "The Road To Babylon" and an excellent version of "Blinded By The Light".

From the album "Watch" (released in 78) the Dylan song "The Mighty Quinn" sounds way better than on the studio album. The final part is particularly exciting and features a superb guitar solo. A highlight.

At the end of the day, this is a good live album. I just miss some more numbers from "Solar Fire", but it must be because I am so in love with this album.

Three stars.

In my opinion Manfred Mann's Earth Band is only a Classic Rock band that plays songs with Prog arrangements. And this live album confirm that my perception. That is not more that an interesting collection of live versions recorded in Boston in 1977. It is strange but Manfred Mann's remain one of the more great keyboarders/ synthesisers players (Mini Moog) in primis, more than other, in Prog. With 2 Bob Dylan songs ("Father Of The Day, Father Of The Night" and "The Mighty Quinn"), 2 Bruce Springsteen songs ("Spirits In The Night" and "Blinded By The Light), another cover ("Days On The Road Again") and 3 original song this album is good for MMEB fans but for Progsters is not a good album. "The Mighty Quinn" is a 60's Manfred Mann hit that in this version have soli and virtuosism section that non please me. "Blinded By The Light" present the same complications... And this fact ruin the atmospheres of the song. Good is "Spirits In The Night", that sound good and "On The Road To Babylon", a great original MMEB song, not properly Prog but with Prog arrangements.

That "Wired" is not a great live is undoubted. That "Wired" is a good album for Prog in 1977 is undoubtful. More good for American audience (but MMEB have also great success in Europe) "Wired" is, at the same time, a good album for any discography, Prog or Classic Rock.

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.