Customer Reviews

Maximum Darkness

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area I was lucky enough to have numerous opportunities to see Man perform at various venues in the SF area...if fact, I thought they lived here rather than in Great Britan! They were darlings of KSAN before it was sold out into corporate oblivion and I remember their music being played alot on that station. This album is an accurate representation of the energy and creativity that the group exhibited when they performed. John Cippolina fits right in with what Man was doing and it's a fabulous record. I never tired of listening to it.

Well this live Man disc is a little rough but worth the purchase price anyway.A lot of people compare Man to a variety of West Coast bands but in reality I feel that they where a unique musical experience. Opinion often seems to be split between rabid fans and almost as rabid detractors, but all the best bands seem to have that problem.
Like many UK bands from this period Man lack a great vocalist( but then that never bothered the Grateful Dead either) which sometimes let them down , however if guitar solos and good tunes are your thing then you will find plenty to like here.
Although not as good as the live side of the double album Back to the Future and various bootlegs from the same period this is a wonderful artifact from a time when music was looser and all the better for it.

Just kidding, but there was a fusion between the hard rocking Man and Cippolina's incredible guitar mastery. Always has been one of my favorites. Play Codeine at 11 and watch the wallpaper peel and your mind do a '60s mind melt.

In the seventies, Man seemed to be on a mission to go through as many line ups as they released albums. While they didn't quite acieve that, this live album sees the unique combination of a set of established band members with a special appearance from the late John Cipollina best known as a member of "Quicksilver Messenger Service".

One interesting aspect of this was that Man went from being a band with two lead guitarists to being one with three. Still they managed this without total disintegration though this album does not really give a full impression of the live line up. It was subject to a lot more post concert studio work than most live albums.

The CD kicks off with a Deke Leonard number 7171-551 which, as is normal for his compositions, it is at the harder end of the spectrum of Man's music. I think that this is the highlight of the album, everthing is really tight and together. This is followed by a couple of non-Man songs which were introduced by Cipollina. The first, Codine is a powerful song anyway and the band do a particularly good job on their version. This is followed by "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" which is OK but sounds some way from the Man that I like.

The last two songs, "Many are Called, but Few Get up." and "Bananas" are well established in the Man live set. The version here of the first of these is not my favourite. It is not so well focussed as the one on the "Padget Rooms" CD. However, I really like the version of "Bananas" here.

All in all, I think that the 1999 party tour is a better live albun than this but it still has a lot of great songs.

I was reading through the list of dedications, and noticing that just about everybody is from the San Francisco area (even though the album was recorded in England), and was thinking: 'These are all the people they had to go through in order to meet John Cipollina (just kidding guys).

This is a magnificent live album, three lead guitars, a wall of great hard rock, and an intensity which is not for the faint of heart. This is not your Steely Dan, Greatful Deal, Allman Brothers brand of laid back country rock. This is loud, it's nasty and its full of delicious licks.

It starts off with Deke's "7171-551" from his solo album'Iceberg' which had been expanded from a perky little single to an 11 minute assault on the senses. Next are "Codine" and "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", two old standards that Quicksilver had originally recorded for the 'Revolution' soundtrack album (which was somewhat rare at the time, but was later reissued), Deke's vocals on "Codine" are incredible. For the B-side there are two old classics "Many Are Called" and "Bananas" both turned into extended jams with all three guitars getting a chance to stretch out.

Ted Koehorst's commentary on allegations that Mickey Jones went back and rerecorded much of John Cipollina guitar work (see his liner notes for 'Be Good To Yourself') deserve refutation, but since I really don't know any better, all I can say is that if they are true I prefer to live in an alternative reality where Minni-Vanilli can sing, Michael Jackson is innocent, and Mr. Cipollina's guitar work didn't need any studio tampering, and shame on you Mr. Koehorst for spreading vicious allegations about the non-existence of Santa Clause, etc.

But the real highlight of this album is Deke Leonard's longest set of liner notes to date. It's a classic essay on the history and habits of Man's extended family, with further notes on the philosophy of car theft, police notes in triplicate, the dangers of Argentine Corned Beef and bolas in general.

VERY GOOD SOUND QUALITY. PROBABLY THE BEST SOUND QUALITY OF ANY MAN CD.

This is from a 1975 concert with Quicksilver's John Chipolina. The group is Deke Leonard, Martin Ace, Micky Jones and Terry Williams. It is right around 50 minutes long.

The sound quality is very good to almost excellent. It has a very good dynamic range and is fairly clear. Unlike most Man CD's you can really hear the drumming and bass guitar.

Most of the Man CD releases have had horrible sound quality. Most of the studio albums are especially bad. It is interesting that the live albums are usually better than the studio albums. Maybe the master tapes are lost.

This is Man as it moves into its hard rock phase, that lasted into the early eighties, and bottomed out with the Live At Reading from 1980. The group does jam, but it is more of a hard rock jam (like later Deep Purple). There is very little, but some of the spaciest of the early Man.

John Chipolina from Quicksilver is a guess star on this CD. The group plays two Quicksilver number. You can pick out Chipolina's distinctive guitar work at times throughout the performance.

There are rumors that there are some studio overdubs on this album. There were some sound problems and places where Jones and Chipolina were out of sync. Supposedly, Jones redid some of Chipolina's guitar solos. Could be, but there is definitely Chipolina's mark all over the album (unless Jones was really good at copying his style).

I don't quite give this CD five stars. While the guitar solos are great, the perfomances of the songs are not that great. I was never a big fan of Leonard's 7171-551 and it is on every Man live album from this time period. On Codine, the chorus of "one more time" is just repeated too many times. There is a much better version of Babe I'm Gonna Leave You on the CD Undrugged. Many Are Called, But Few Get Up is better on Padgett Room and the best version of Bananas is on Official Bootleg.

This is still a very good CD and it is great to hear the intermixing of the Welsh and San Francisco sounds.

An interesting liner note is that the album is dedicate to 3 Bay Area radio stations: KSAN, which was a pioneer in FM underground rock, but turned into a Country station in the eighties. KOME, the KOME-spot on your dial, featuring Denis Erectus, which is now a classic rock station, featuring Greg Kihn as a DJ, and KSJO, which was the last hold out, but moved more to hard rock, playing Led Zepplin and AC/DC, before switching to Spanish Language last year.

This is a good album but you might be a little disapointed in the album if you are buying this entirely because it has John Cipollina's guitar on the front cover . You DO hear him on the album but because he was a "special guest" in a band with 3 guitarists you dont get any of his long orchestrated solos he played back in his Quicksilver days . Also dont expect to hear anything that leaves "mona" or "the fool" in the dust . Other than that it is a great album with some long strange ballads that are unlike anything from the same era.

John's parts, with the exception of "Bananas" where he was too far out of tune with Mickey were as recorded live by John. Only "Bananas" needed any overdubs and that was more because John and Mickey couldn't hear each other than due to anything else.

Micky had the misfortune to be positioned next to The Monster Stack and consequently couldn't hear for days, let alone during the show.

The Man Band from the UK is one of those rare finds. On this album, the inimitable John Cipollina joins the Man Band live for renditions of some songs never recorded by Quicksilver Messenger Service. Codine is performed on this album as well as QMS ever did it live and I heard them perform it dozens of times in San Francisco during the 60's. This album is a real treat for QMS and JC fans.

OK, so this is one of the last MAN albums I picked up. I was just so happy to have found this band and most of their other albums that I held of purchasing this one. Never got into them in the early and late 70's (my teenage years). For that matter, never heard of them at that time. This is as good or better then the reviews already posted. Alot of these songs can be heard on other albums, especially now with the extra tracks and all. But, this is something different and unique. It's probably the addition of John Cipollina that gives this a flair all its own. Just recently purchased "MAN ALIVE" 2 CD set. Extremely good as well. Great band, great music.