Customer Reviews

Back Into the Future

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4 star:		(1)
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The new reissue of this classic by Man does not disappoint. As mentioned, the reissue contains all of Man's 1973 show at the Roundhouse on Discs Two and Three, plus the original LP on Disc One. For those of you not familiar with Man, they were probably the closest to a SF 60s band the British Isles had in the early to mid 1970s. Two of the jams from this show were on the original LP and appear here too. One of them (Jam up Jelly Tight) is two or three minutes longer. There are also two singles Man recorded in 1973 included too. I had cassette copies of both of them and it's a pleasure to now have them on CD. What a pleasure to hear all of this in one box set.

Any Man fanatic like myself simply must have this reissue. And anyone wanting to listen to how a Welsh band can sound like Quicksilver or early Steve Miller or any other SF band of the 60s should give this CD a listen. And if you like what you hear, be sure and check out their other CDs, like Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics and Be Good to Yourself At Least Once A Day.

This album was originally released in 1974 as a double LP set. It contains two sides that were recored in the studio and two sides recorded live.

I think that it is the best Man album (but I must admit that I have only heard half of them). This is in spite of the fact that the star of the group, Deke Leonard, is missing. This is one of the most polished, professional sounding albums Man has done. Even the live jams seem under control. Maybe that is because Deke Leonard is missing.

The main attactions here are the live tracks. The first is an a'capela number done by the "Gwalia Male Choir". It is fun but not essential. From there it goes into a 19 minute version of C'mon. This is the spaciest, most psychodelic version of the song I have heard. The Gwalia Choir does a solo in the middle of the song. The whole thing reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. C'mon is a song that Man does at most of their concerts. They do it significantly differently each time. This is the most laid back version.

The last track is the 21 minute Jam Up, Jelly Tight. This is actually Spunk Rock. This is a really rocking jam. It is also played differently than any other version. It features keyboard and flute solos.

For most of it's history, Man was a guitar driven band. During this brief period, Phil Ryan joined the band, adding keyboards and a new dimension. That and with Deke Leonard's shrill, out of control guitar and vocals missing, this album comes off more polished than others. Don't get me wrong. I really like Deke Leonard's contributions to the band, it just that they can be uneven at times. This CD is one of the few that is uniformly good throughout.

There are two really good studio tracks. Never Say Nups to Napalese is an especially good track. It is almost progressive. The other 4 studio tracks are mediocre. The real reason to get this is for the last two thirds of the CD.

Man turned out a masterpeice here even though their line up was ever changing.Mickey jones is at his brilliant best on aint their fight & nepalese where is guitar work is spine tingling and catchy. a brilliant live version of c/mon betters the original studio cut from a band who preceeded the manics& phonics but never get the recognition they deserve.check out their earlier stuff.Revelation IS THE RIGHT WORD

I've been purchasing & listening to many bands from the 70's that I somehow missed. This band "MAN" is one of the best I've discovered & can't believe I missed. This album, in particular, is phenomenal. I just got done listening to it a second time (all 3 CD's) this week while away on a camping trip. The original album is top notch for a studio album, but the two live CD's blow me away. Would of loved to have seen these guys back then. Got another one of their 70's albums on the way, their that good.