Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great album for what seems to be a forgotten group., July 9, 2000
By A Customer
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.
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44 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Only one good song, November 20, 2000
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.
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46 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Saved by "The Boss", September 27, 2002
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.
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