I recently obtained an excellent German pressing of this record. Although not my most favorite MMEB record, its in the top 5. It's hard to find this record in near mint condition.
Happy birthday, Manfred! 79 today The printed lyrics on the LP are "wrapped up like a deuce". Manfred himself sampled Kanye West on his most recent album. I think Noel has a great voice, but he never really got a chance to shine on a studio album (as his vocals on several tracks off "Soft Vengeance" were replaced by Chris Thompson, who'd already started to sound rather raspy by then, and on "2006" a lot of the material didn't suit him, plus again Manfred seemed to bring Chris back despite his by then obvious vocal problems). Live, he didn't have a lot of charisma/stage presence, but sang exceptionally well. With their current singer Robert Hart (since 2011) it's the other way round: Great frontman but I don't really like his voice... I think Noel is best enjoyed on disc 1-3 of the recent "Bootleg Archives Volume 6-10" 5-CD set. Unlike part 1 of the series these recordings have good to excellent sound quality. Now listen Luke to what I say That Green Line comes around here Tell all my friends when they come to the city I'll buy them all a beer Seriously though, more stuff in the pipeline? Great to hear! Although I still don't have any of the Radio Days releases... I was told this was how Manfred wanted it. Later, I saw an LP reissue of Watch being sold at his merch with a bonus track tagged onto side 2. On vinyl!! But if you like MMEB, you should also get the "Odds & Sods" 4-CD set, which was repackaged in book form, and includes "Joybringer" among many rarities (and a bit too many album tracks). Mastered by Andy Jackson!
Was just checking out one of the Pre-Earth Band records the other day, Chapter Three. VERY avant-garde experimental jazzy mindful of King Crimson in spots with the brass sound. This was Manfred and Mike Hugg just before the Earth Band and yes, 1st album is great! I first heard Solar Fire in 1974 in a record store and loved it the minute I heard it!
Love their late 70s pop rock prog albums "Watch" and "Angel Station". They have some very catchy songs; "Davy's on the Road Again" and "You Angel You", for example. Davy's is an epic.
... Not "Earth Band....but definately "Manfred"....well worth a listen if you have not yet encountered this offering...
Check out his Instrumental Jazz EPs from the 60's. Some of the material kind of foreshadows Ch 3, especially 'Bare Hugg'.
Bare Hugg also appeared in a completely different guise as the 80s instrumental "Man in a Jam". Well, they're rather similar.
Springsteen, as has been said before, sang "Cut loose like a deuce", whereas Chris Thompson sang some gibberish that we're trying to figure out. In "For You" he did a similar thing singing "Who am I to ask you to fight my wars", which he live then reverted back to the original "And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?", although to me it sounded like "... to lick my swords"! Robert Hart, on the other hand, just plain destroys "For You" every time: "I crawled into my ambulance, my pulse was getting weak" "Give it all to me now while you've got the strength to speak" "Give me my money back don't want it anymore" (!)
Oh, I get your point. I'm just saying, how do you find the misheard gibberish amongst original lines like, "With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round... "
My favourite lines from the song (at least in the MMEB version) are actually "Some brimstone baritone, anticyclone, rolling stone, preacher from the east, says dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in its funnybone, that's where they expect it least." Too much fun with a rhyming dictionary or what? I don't get why they never performed this part live. Edit: It seems Bruce actually did use a rhyming dictionary to write the song. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-lyrics-of-Blinded-by-the-Light-by-Manfred-Mann
Found this online: Once Manfred had learned Springsteen’s original, he hadn’t listened to it. “I find that if you keep referring back you can get over-familiar with it and start to think it’s better than your lousy version,” he says with dry irony. But he hadn’t checked the lyrics, and somehow ‘Cut loose like a deuce’ became ‘Wrapped up like a deuce’. Worse still, that line sounded more like ‘Wrapped up like a douche.’ Manfred blames the azimuth on the tape machine [something to do with the angle of the tape head on the tape], and does a convincing Alan Partridge impression as he wraps his facial muscles around the words ‘deuce’, ‘douche’ and ‘dooce’ – which is what they finally managed to get it back to after more fiddling about with the tape. “The funny thing is that afterwards people came up to me and said: ‘You know why that record was such a hit, don’t you? Because everyone was trying to figure out if it was ‘deuce’ or ‘douche’,” he says. Springsteen, who apparently didn’t see the funny side at the time – although he has mellowed since – backs up that theory. He told VH1’s Storytellers: “One version is about a car, the other is about a feminine hygiene product. Guess which the kids liked to shout more?” So it may be just as well that Manfred never succeeded in his plan to have Springsteen sing one of the two vocal lines at the end of the song, combining the verse and the chorus. “I didn’t want to go through managers or publishers, so I got the number of the hotel where he was on tour and I phoned up. It was mid-morning his time, but maybe he’d had a late night because I just got this really tired voice saying: ‘Uh huh?’. So I said: ‘Oh, are you a bit tired?’, and there’s no reply, just a grunt. So I said: ‘Okay, I’ll call back’. But I lost my bottle and I couldn’t phone again. It’s a shame, he’d have been great for it. Instead Manfred sang the part himself. It is allegedly the only time you can hear Manfred’s voice on a record. __________________ That last sentence is totally untrue. Already on the debut Manfred sings two songs, on Solar Fire he sings "Earth, the Circle part 1", on Angel Station "Resurrection" and on Chance "Adolescent Dream".
One of my personal favorite albums by Manfred Mann's Earth Band is "Chance". Much like Jethro Tull's also brilliant "The Broadsword & The Beast" and ELO's "Time", "Chance" is an album of it's time, but I still go back from time to time and enjoy it! Here is one of my favorite songs from "Chance" called "Stranded" ...
Another great song from "Chance" is this one, written by Dennis Linde, who wrote Elvis' "Burning Love". "Hello I Am Your Heart"
Note that Chance was produced by the then-known (in America) Trevor Rabin. It's telling that he made it the least prog and most AOR of all Earth Band albums.
"Davy" was a highlight of 1978 for me as a kid, so catchy and boppy, good one for the youth club disco...
The interpretation is as radical as "Blinded"... John Simon - "Davey's on the Road Again" (Robbie Robertson cowrite, Merry Clayton b/voc)
Saw them live with Noel about 15 (!) years ago - superb singer Seen Chris Tompson several times, and his set is alway heavy on the Manfred...hits - also a great singer, a bit different to Noel, but a better frontman imo. In 2016 I saw Manfred..open for Rainbow. Hart is a very good singer, but perhaps not the best fit. Still; a very good gig - the band can play!
