Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Watch (1978 Prog-Rock)

With essentially the same crew as the excellent Roaring Silence from two years earlier, this is cut from the same musical cloth. However, without the two Bruce Springsteen songs from the earlier album, the material is not as strong. With keyboardist Manfred Mann's jazz leanings melded to a rock band, this sounds much like Colosseum without horns.

Dave Flett / guitars
Pat King / bass, backing vocals
Manfred Mann / keyboards, backing vocals
Chris Slade / drums, percussion
Chris Hamlet Thompson / lead vocals, guitar
Doreen Chanter / backing vocals
Irene Chanter / backing vocals
Kim Goddy / backing vocals
Stevie Lange / backing vocals
Victy Silva / backing vocals

Tracklist
01.Circles - 4:51
02.Drowning On Dry Land (Inc.: Fish Soup) - 6:00
03.Chicago Institute - 5:49
04.California - 5:33
05.Davy's On The Road Again - 5:57
06.Martha's Madman - 4:53
07.Mighty Quinn - 6:20

AMG Review by Mark Allan

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - The Good Earth (1974 Progressive Hard Rock)

Another piece of topical hard rock from Manfred Mann's Earth Band and, as before, listenable even to those without a serious bone in their bodies, by virtue of the playing. Moving between hard rock and British blues influences (with a special debt to Cream on the opening cut, "Give Me the Good Earth") and progressive rock, the quartet cuts a mean swathe across the sonic landscape, between Mick Rogers' soaring guitar solos and Manfred Mann's inimitable synthesizer work. Some of the less ambitious cuts, such as "I'll Be Gone," are relatively dispensable, but when these guys start reaching, as on "Earth Hymn," that's when their best musical instincts take hold, and the results are always worth hearing. There's stuff here that King Crimson or Be Bop Deluxe wouldn't have been ashamed to have had on any of their albums; indeed, the instrumental "Sky High" is worth the price of admission by itself as a showcase for the talents of all four players as both hard rock musicians and an art rock ensemble. They even manage to work in elements of folk-rock, and its attendant lyricism, on the album, by way of the Christopher Logue-based "Be Not Too Hard" (which was also recorded, in a different adaptation, by Joan Baez about seven years earlier). And "Earth Hymn, Pt. 2" closes out the album in grand style, once again pushing the band to the edge of their unique brand of progressive/hard rock.

AMG Review by Bruce Eder

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Messin' (1973 Prog-Rock)

Opening with Mike Hugg's title track, which builds on Mick Rogers' intense riffing and the killer vocals of Vicki Brown, Judith Powell, Liza Strike, and Ruby James, Messin' is pretty intense and involving from its very first bars. It's also damned topical and serious, for all of the free-wheeling rock & roll spirits and the progressive rock complexities that go into the playing. And the result is a spellbinding whole, featuring some astonishing keyboard flourishes by Manfred Mann himself (who ventures into Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson territory on "Buddah," even as the rest of the band seems to be emulating Deep Purple) and killer guitar from Mick Rogers, while Colin Pattenden and Chris Slade lay down the rhythm section like a pair of articulate pile-drivers. They pretty much stomp their way through their rendition of Bob Dylan's "Get Your Rocks Off" and do a gorgeous high-wattage blues rendition of "Black and Blue." The whole record comes out somewhere in the middle of art rock and heavy metal, along with (amazingly enough) topical folk, and does no violence to any of the genres — and the band even works in a loose-limbed version of Dr. John's "Mardi Gras Day" as a finale. In a way, it's surprising from hearing this record that it took this band another two years, and an embrace of one of Bruce Springsteen's songs, for Manfred Mann's Earth Band to become truly well known, because all of the ingredients were in place, and their genre-bending sound was only the best, most accessible kind. The album was also issued with a different cover as Get Your Rocks Off, but Messin' has become the reissue title.

AMG Review by Bruce Eder

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Solar Fire (Wonderful Prog-Rock 1973)

Fans of muscular progressive rock will love Solar Fire, a concept album loosely designed around cosmology. The album opens with the majestic "Father of Night, Father of Day," which has the drive and complexity of a prime King Crimson track. As unlikely as it may seem, the track was controversial in Mann's native South Africa because of the "Father of black, father of white" line, implying that apartheid might not extend to infinite space. The album moves on to the progressive rock/jazz fusion of "In the Beginning, Darkness," a swinging, even funky track that benefits from soulful vocals by Doreen Chanter and Irene Chanter of the Grove Singers. The same duo contributes to the title track, a slow piece that begins with a fairly standard rock structure and incorporates a massive progressive jam in the middle. The instrumental suite which follows is a showcase for the combination of angular, sometimes slightly dissonant guitar with fluid keyboard work, and the band rocks straight through with stately grace. Once again, one is reminded of early King Crimson, which was about the only other group to turn out complex, shifting instrumentals of this quality. The album closes with the strange "Earth, the Circle, Pt. 1," which begins almost like a nursery rhyme, switches to a jazz shuffle, and fades out as an odd combination of the two. The album was groundbreaking when it was released and is still a delightful listen. If you like the hard-edged side of Manfred Mann, this may be your favorite album.

AMG Review by Richard Foss

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Prog-Rock 1972)

Most folks know Manfred Mann from his '60s hits, but too few have ever heard the brilliant Manfred Mann's Earth Band album. Exploring arty and progressive directions, the Earth Band was a wholly different group from Mann's earlier lineup. Unlike the heavier art rock groups that would follow (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes), the Earth Band never became burdened by its own seriousness.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band combines hypnotic instrumentals ("Tribute"), exhilarating original songs ("Captain Bobby Stout"), and three definitive covers all laden with hooks worthy of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy." Mann mines Dylan's basement tapes again for "Please Mrs. Henry" (see "Quinn the Eskimo" and "Get Your Rocks Off" on other releases). An obscure Dr. John song, "Jump Sturdy" nearly jumps off the record. The synthesizer solo "Sloth" segues into the album's centerpiece, "Living Without You." With its thumping bassline and "So hard" chorus, this might be the best version of a Randy Newman song ever recorded. Closing the album, the Mann himself takes vocal turns on "Part Time Man" and "Up & Leaving," quiet acoustic tales that contrast with the complex instrumentals of the rest of the record. On whole, Manfred Mann's Earth Band is a completely satisfying album and one of the most underrated of the '70s.

AMG Review by J.P. Ollio

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Nightingales & Bombers (1975)

The album that was Manfred Mann's commercial breakthrough was a departure from the previous albums made with the Earth Band. Though the personnel are the same and the musicianship is as mind blowing as ever, the songs are shorter and punchier, in some cases more poppy. This is not to say that the band had sacrificed a bit of ingenuity or complexity, but the long jams are gone in favor of briefer sound portraits. The perfect example is the cover of "Blinded by the Light" by a then obscure songwriter named Bruce Springsteen. A listen to the original version, a rambling stream-of-consciousness piece reminiscent of early Dylan, doesn't hint at the delightfully bizarre possibilities Mann and the Earth Band extracted from the tune. Taking a piece of folk-rock, giving it a cool, spooky delivery, and adding a full-band treatment created an uncategorizable masterpiece. It was a number one hit for Mann and a major career boost for its author, and Mann released Springsteen covers on several subsequent albums. A second single from the album, "Time Is Right," also charted, becoming one of the only pieces written in 10/4 time ever to do so. Nightingales and Bombers featured in almost every "Best of the Year" list for 1975. Justifiably so -- though attention at the time was naturally on the hits, the rest of the album features a mix of good originals and eccentric covers, inspired playing, and tight, focused arrangements. The album stands up to repeated listening decades after it was created, and though fans of the more expansive progressive phase may prefer earlier works, they will generally allow the excellence of this one. (The name of the album was once regarded as a possible drug reference, but it is actually taken from a nature recording made during World War II. An ornithologist who was trying to record birdcalls captured not only the sound of birds, but also of incoming enemy aircraft. That recording is used in the track "As Above, So Below," and gives it an eerie character.)

AMG Review by Richard Foss

Manfred Mann's Earth Band - The Roaring Silence (1976)

The reason that The Roaring Silence became Manfred Mann's Earth Band's best-selling album may have been because of both Bruce Springsteen-penned singles, but its instrumental makeup, by way of Mann's keyboard manipulation coupled with Chris Thompson's chiseled singing, had just as much of an affect. "Blinded By the Light" and "Spirit in the Night" gave the band hits at both ends of the Top 40 spectrum, with "Blinded" going to number one while the mysteriously-sounding "Spirit in the Night" edged in at number 40 six months later. Outside of the singles, The Roaring Silence is made up of clean-cut, well-established synthesizer and guitar work, with touches of techno psychedelia that are sometimes lengthy but never messy. Tracks such as "Questions," "This Side of Paradise," and even "Starbird" uncover the band's creativity and instrumental wit. Mann is careful not to stray too far with his keys, and his compliance with Thompson's vocals are noticeable in almost every track. Aside from the music, The Roaring Silence basks in veiled poetry, cryptic but at the same time intriguing, verging on the complexities of progressive rock but far from its pretentiousness. Eventually achieving gold status, The Roaring Silence both commercially and artistically became the group's finest effort.

AMG Review by Mike DeGagne