Customer Reviews

The Best of Manfred Mann's Earth Band

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This album is a very pleasing and fun album. Manfred Mann, the leader of the group and keyboardist, did a superb job finding the musicians for his band and arranging ALL covers on this CD. Being Manfred's band him being a keyboardist, there is a lot of keyboard action of pretty much every song. Only two songs on this album are of original material...being Questions & On the Run. The song Blinded by the Light, which was written by Bruce Springsteen, is probably the best cover of all time. The song topped the U.S. charts in February of 1977, so it's something that you are hopefully familiar with. Songs like Questions, Circles, and Hollywood are great slower songs. You Angel You is a happier song with a good beat to it. Davey's On the Road Again and Quinn the Eskimo (once a top 10 hit) have a live approach to them with a nice sound and great solos by both the guitar and keyboards. Quit Your Lowdown Ways, Don't Kill It Carol, For You, Blinded by the Light, and Spirit in the Night (once a top 40 hit) are the rock-styled awesome songs. Chris Thompson, the lead vocalist who appears on all songs but Spirit in the Night & Quit Your Low Down Ways (Mick Rogers being the lead singer on those songs), is a superb vocalist that fits the songs he is in perfectly. My only flaw with it is that a couple of songs like On the Run, although an alright song, sound too retro, meaning too 1980's sounding. Even living through the 80's, I never liked that style of music. Please, don't take my word for buying this album unless you know of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. As with EVERY album, please listen to sound samples of every song before you buy.

Before you crucify me for the title of this review, know that I love both "Blinded by the Light" and "The Mighty Quinn." However, the version of "The Mighty Quinn" on this CD is a really crummy live recording. I was really maddened by this, since nowhere on the cover does the word "live" appear. So for the presence of "Blinded by the Light" I'll spot this CD 2 stars, but with nothing else on it, that's all it gets.

AMAZON'S ALBUM DESCRIPTION UP THERE IS WRONG, THIS ISN'T THE ALBUM WITH 'THE RUNNER' OR ANY OF THE 19 TRACKS THE REVIEW SAYS... THAT SONG YOU CAN'T GET HERE.

This is a greatest hits CD, only problem with it is that this has a live track on the CD that is not stated on the back of the CD.

Mannfred Mann's Earth Band formed in 1971 and is a later incarnation of Mannfred Mann.

For the "charming original" of "The Mighty Quinn" get Mannfred Mann's Greatest Hits instead. I prefer the version here; it's from the "Watch" album.

The Earth Band had a lot of hit or miss material in the late '70's and '80's. I still drag out "Angel Station" from time to time and play a couple tracks from it, but I'd skip it unless you have time and money to blow to mine for the good stuff.

Get "Roaring Silence" and "Watch" and you've pretty much got their best.

I bought this CD for the song Blinded By The Light and when I got the CD I saw it also had The Mighty Quinn, Blinded By The Light is the only good song on this poorly made CD, The Mighty Quinn is just a bad quality live recording. I'm still looking for a better CD that has better sound quality and Manfred Mann's Earth Band's version of Bruce Springsteen's Blinded By The Light. I will give this CD 2 stars because I love Blinded By The Light, it's one of my favorite 70's songs.

I can't believe all the moaning and groaning going on about this release! Those of you moaning about the first five lps not being represented here's the key; those lps were released on Polydor Records not Warner Brothers. The record company can only release what they have rights to. Those of you groaning about Quinn The Eskimo being a live version here's the other key; the pop band Manfred Mann of the 60s not the Earth Band of the 70s had the hit on Fontana records. All in all a fine representation of the Earth Bands time on Warner Brothers. If you want the other material by the many incarnations of the group might I suggest you pry open your wallets and buy the other fine Greatest Hits CDs. Before you complain about what is or isn't on a particular CD why don't you do a little research first and then buy. From what I've read here most of you don't know jack about the band, just a song you heard on the radio called Blinded By the Light that brings back some long forgotten teenage memory. If you want a great CD by the "Band" get Nightingales and Bombers. Now get back to your $5 cups of coffee and leave the real music listening to the rest of us.

Were it not for the presence of two bowlderdized Bruce Springsteen songs (the almost identical sounding "Blinded by the Light" and "For You," both from Springsteen's folkie debut album), "The Best of Manfred Mann's Earth Band" would be a pretty dismal affair. As it stands, those are about the only two listenable tracks. Another Springsteen cover, "Spirit in the Night" doesn't work as well, while the Bob Dylan cover "The Mighty Quinn" is a wretched live version rather than the charming original. The rest of the album isn't even that good. On the plus side, at least the version of "Blinded by the Light" is the longer album cut rather than the chopped up single version.

Overall, you should only buy this album if you can't live without having "Blinded by the Light" in your collection.

If you like Springsteen songs, buy Springsteen. If you were hoping for the radio version of Quinn the Eskimo, be warned that this is not it. The song should be tagged "Underwater Version" so the wary know what they are getting, as I did not.

Manfred Mann Earth Band is probably best remembered for their exceptional cover of Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light". This Best of focuses on their hits from 1974-1980 when they appeared on Warner Brothers in the United States. While it still lacks essential Manfred Man cuts from his earlier band and has a live version of "Quinn the Eskimo" (which is inferior to the studio version although to be fair that was recorded by Mann's PREVIOUS band), this is a pretty good collection over all focusing on the band's shift in style to more of a mixture of stadium rock/early 70's prog.

The sound is exceptional. The mastering by Lee Herschberg has a wide dynamic range with plenty of detail and a nice warm sound. The booklet also has plenty of info on this incarnation of the band including personnel changes (the departure of Mick Rogers, the addition of Dave Flett replacing him on lead guitar, the addition of vocalist/guitarist Chris Thompson, ex-Wings member Geoff Britten joining, etc.)and plenty of pictures.

Aside from the Springsteen covers, the best material here comes from the late 70's including "Don't Kill It Carol", "On the Run", "You Angel You"--another Dylan cover and "Davy's On The Road Again" co-written by Robbie Robertson. Mann's band clearly was focusing on appealing to mainstream rock audiences and their efforts here spanning "Nightingales and Bombers"("The Good Earth" which preceded "Nightingales and Bombers" has nothing from that album here) to 1980's "Chance" which featured the last appearance of Chris Thompson (he left after 1979's "Angel Station" but appeared on a couple of cuts on "Chance" as well).

I like this collection quite a bit but it gets dinged a star for having the live version of "Quinn the Eskimo" without noting that it is a live version however it does get points for including over an hour's worth of music as well as the full length version (not the single version)of "Blinded by the Light". If you're looking for the best songs from the mid-70's incarnation of the band, this is a good single collection.