Up for auction "Manfred Mann's Earth Band" Group Signed Album Page. Signers are; Paul Jones, Mike Hugg, Mike D'Abo and Rob Townsend.
ES-4112
Manfred Mann's Earth Band is
an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann. Their hits
include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You",
"Blinded by the Light"
and "Spirit in the Night".
After forming in 1971 and with a short hiatus in the late 1980s/early 1990s,
the Earth Band continues to perform and tour. Keyboardist Manfred Mann started
in the 1960s with the self-titled band that
had such hits as "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"
and Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn"
and then moved on to jazz fusion-inspired Manfred Mann Chapter Three before
forming the Earth Band in 1971. In his 2003 autobiography, Klaus Voormann, an associate of the Beatles and a former member of the group Manfred
Mann, alleges to have inspired the Earth Band's name by having suggested
several times throughout the 1960s that Mann's soft pop style of those days had
to become "earthier" and rockier, not least because of the
seemingly effeminate image of Mann's earlier
band which had led to a number of close encounters with violence, particularly
in Ireland. According to the officially approved version, however, the
name was chosen at the suggestion of drummer Chris Slade in September 1971 and is related to the
ecological movement ongoing at the time.
The
original line-up consisted of Mick Rogers (guitar
and vocals), Manfred Mann (keyboards, Minimoog synthesizer and vocals), Colin Pattenden (bass guitar) and Chris Slade (drums and
vocals). In its very earliest stages, the
band was simply billed as "Manfred Mann" and thus a continuation of
the 1960s group. The quartet released their first single, "Please Mrs.
Henry", in 1971. Their second single, Randy Newman's "Living Without You", was also
released by 'Manfred Mann' in Europe, but by 'Manfred Mann's Earth Band' in the
USA, where the track became a minor chart hit. On two non-charting single releases
in the UK in 1972/73, the group was billed simply as 'Earth Band', but
otherwise, from 1972 forward, 'Manfred Mann's Earth Band' was the band name
used on all releases. The membership of the Earth Band was stable between 1971
and 1976, during which time they released their first six albums. The Earth
Band combines the stylistic approach of progressive rock with Mann's jazz-influenced
Moog synthesizer playing and keen ear for melody. Beside producing their own
material, a staple of the band's music and live performances from the beginning
has been also relying on covers of songs by other modern pop/rock artists,
notably Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, in their progressive
rock style. Mann's interest in English 20th century classical music saw
him adapt Gustav Holst's Planets Suite and turn a version of the
"Jupiter" movement into a UK hit entitled Joybringer (included
on the 1973 album Solar Fire). Other classical music adaptations
include "Questions" from the 1976 album The Roaring Silence (which
is based on the main theme of Franz Schubert's Impromptu in G flat Major),
"Solar Fire is in Earth, the Circle, Pt. 1" (which uses the melody
from Claude Debussy's
"Jimbo's Lullaby") and "Starbird" also from 1976's The
Roaring Silence (which is based upon Igor Stravinski's ballet The Firebird). The title song to 1973's Messin' (written by Mike Hugg and originally recorded
by Chapter Three on their unissued third album), as well as most of the 1974
album The Good Earth, tapped into ecological concerns, a
recurring theme in Mann's music in later years, with The Good Earth giving
away a free gift of a piece of land in Wales with
each album sold. Like other prog-rock acts, the band also issued concept albums on
space and sci-fi themes (particularly the 1973 album Solar Fire and the singles "Launching
Place" off the 1974 The Good Earth and "Starbird" off the
1976 The Roaring Silence)
and religious or biblical imagery ("Prayer" on the band's debut
album, "Buddah" on Messin', Dylan's "Father of Day,
Father of Night" and "In the Beginning, Darkness" on Solar
Fire, "The Road to Babylon" and "This Side of Paradise"
on The Roaring Silence and "Resurrection" on the
1979 Angel Station). Social
criticism was also addressed ("Black and Blue"
on Messin' dealt particularly with slavery and "Chicago
Institute" on Watch with
mental institutions and science as a means of social control); a trend which
grew throughout the 1980s, with songs such as Lies (Through the 1980s) on
technological progress vs. social setbacks on Chance (1980),
and with Mann's growing involvement with the anti-apartheid movement which
was featured on the 1982 album Somewhere in Afrika.
Mann's intention for acknowledgement of oppressed ethnic groups also influenced
the 1992 album Plains Music, which
featured traditional Native American music.