In my opinion, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band has one of the coolest sounds in rock and roll history. It can get heavy, it’s smooth as all get-out, and the band does great work covering songs by the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Their cover of “Blinded by the Light” from Bruce Springsteen’s album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973), is one of my favorite cover songs of all time. The keyboards/organs/synthesizers always give the tracks such a unique sound, I think. With that said, I’m going to jump on in.
“Father of Day, Father of Night” is a cover of Bob Dylan’s shortest studio track (original length 1 minute, 32 seconds) to date that first appeared on his album, New Morning (1970), that extends the tune out to a whopping 9 minutes and 55 seconds. Wow, that somewhat spacey intro leads into a very harmonic jazzy jam that gives the song some structure. That intro was sweet. The vocals are absolutely awesome. The instrumentation really backs up the vocals and makes it milky smooth. It’s like a scant chorus effect to the vocals that the band does in many of their songs that makes it sounds awesome to me I think. The way the song builds is awesome. It’s an awesome journey. This song is really sweet in my opinion. Everything is so heavy, but so jazzy, and such a prog rock sound (almost reminds me of Caravan’s 1971 album, In the Land of Grey and Pink, in that sense). Wow. The sound takes on a psychedelic-ness to it when you combine those three factors in my opinion. Oh wow, that outro with the backwards playing is amazing. It’s not even really an outro, more just a sweet sequence near the end of the song, which keeps jamming on, becoming more and more impressive as it goes. That was an absolutely sick way to spend 10 minutes.
“In the Beginning, Darkness” builds on that jamming at the end of the first track and a new song structure forms out of this void that only contained sweet jams. That electric guitar is absolutely wailing in the background. The jams are so heavy, yet so light at the same time. It’s paradoxical, but absolutely awesome. The chaotic fuzz to the guitar that goes back and forth is absolutely sweet as the drums keep feeling like they’re getting heavier and quicker, for such an extended period of time too.
“Pluto the Dog” almost has a reggae feel to it. They added some dog barking, or something resembling it; awesome. This song is pure jam energy at a steady pace. It sounds like something the band XTC would play in their later years of playing. That synthesizer is awesome. Almost reminds me of Phish as well, in a certain way.
“Solar Fire” starts out with some SPICEY organ in the background. This song sounds like one heck of a journey. The way it falls into the jam is awesome. Wow that guitar is awesome. It’s got such a steady feel to it with some jamming overtop, awesome. That bass is so smooth and groovy as well. The album’s namesake of a track is absolutely awesome – that guitar is absolutely delicious.
“Saturn, Lord of the Ring, Mercury the Winged Messenger” starts out with some sort of epic spacey feel to it, with an almost sinister backdrop that really brings out the harmony of the track even more. None of the band’s awesome vocals quite yet, but definitely one sweet polished jam from the band. That guitar solo is absolutely awesome. It sounds so familiar, but I can’t quite place from where – I’m just going to enjoy it. The song gets really quiet, and you can hear something in the background – it’s almost as if you could hear the movement of planets. It sounds cliche, but they really found quite a unique sound with this one. The synthesizer solo comes in the center of attention. That clean bass tone is absolutely awesome. The way everything gradually comes together and jams as one is really awesome. Wickedness might be a good word, rather than sinister, to describe parts of this one.
“Earth, the Circle, Pt. 2” seems out of place at first glance when you look at the title of the track versus the following track. That dancing piano is really sweet. The lyrics are back on this track. The melody in this one is pretty awesome and unique. Wow, everything falls away but the drum and bass until the synthesizer comes back on with some crazy little jams. Manfred Mann really had an awesome unique sound in his playing.
“Earth, the Circle, Pt. 1” sounds like it’s rounding off the jam from the previous song. It’s strange, because I feel like this one could have definitely come first and the sequence would have been awesome as well. Wow – those synthesizers are sick. I really like the timbre of the vocals in this one, as the piano plays the same notes behind the vocals it gives a unique feeling to it. This one has some a soft playful feel to it so far. I almost feel like I’m somehow being sent back in time with the track though. This album is really awesome, and so is the track.
“Joybringer” sounds like the most accessible traditional rock and roll song of the entire album, though it’s definitely got a lot of prog rock feel to it. There’s actually some acoustic guitar to the track, which is absolutely awesome. Wow, that synth plus acoustic plus drums combo is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. I feel like this is coming from a different musical dimension than I’m accustomed to, and I didn’t even realize that was such a thing. Awesome track.
“Father of Day, Father of Night (Edited Version)” ends the album on a much shorter version of the opening track, less than one third of the original length. Bob Dylan’s New Morning (1970) originally ended on Dylan’s original version. I feel like the album took me on a trip around the sun without knowing until realizing that I just got back to where I started. The song is absolutely epic, just as the first version on the album. The organ is epic, the vocals are epic, the strings are epic, and the drums really build a platform for the whole song to stand on.
I’m super glad I listened to this album tonight. I feel like I learning more about what’s possible with music. If you have any interest in progressive rock, jazz rock, hard rock, or psychedelic rock, you’d most likely enjoy this one. Wow. Amazing listen.
-A