MAN
CREATED GOD IN HIS OWN IMAGE
(1968-2009)
Man is one of those band you easily admit to know at least by the name but uneasily mention any of their songs. It was my case until a couple of years before. I first heard a Man note when I dropped on the "Back Into The Future" LP. I first listen to a few seconds of each tracks and didn't really liked it much. Not enough paid attention, I guess. Some years later, I bought a compilation called Rock Buster (1971) (you know, that one with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover). There are so many great bands on that compilation, including Man with the song "Sudden Life" (extract below). I liked it so much that it gave me back interest to the band. So I decided to go further and as I listened to them, I found that really good. In fact, Man was a band who never lacked creativity.
For that baistophe, I thought it would have been easy to compil their albums, just because I thought their discography had ended in 1976. Huge mistake as I discovered they came back in 1983 for a serie of quite great albums from the 1992 "The Twang Dynasty" to their very last "Kingdom Of Noise" (2009). The large gap between "The Welsh Connection" (1976) and the "Twang Dynasty" is also a large gap artistically : While the 70s part of the band was much more psychedelic and nearly progressive (may we say it?), the post-come-back is much more basic blues-rock with some kind of their Welsh traditional culture in it.
For that baistophe, I thought it would have been easy to compil their albums, just because I thought their discography had ended in 1976. Huge mistake as I discovered they came back in 1983 for a serie of quite great albums from the 1992 "The Twang Dynasty" to their very last "Kingdom Of Noise" (2009). The large gap between "The Welsh Connection" (1976) and the "Twang Dynasty" is also a large gap artistically : While the 70s part of the band was much more psychedelic and nearly progressive (may we say it?), the post-come-back is much more basic blues-rock with some kind of their Welsh traditional culture in it.
My Man TOP3 :
1. Do You Like It Here And Now, Are You Settling In? (1971)
2. Maximum Darkness (1976) / Live At Padger Penearth (1972)
3. 2 Ozs Of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle (1969)
My Man BOTTOM3 :
1. The Twang Dynasty (1992)
2. Rhinos Winos And Lunatics (1974)
3. Call Down The Moon (1996)
10 comments:
Nice one. MAN are a band that have allways been on my radar, but for some reason I never got to check them out, just ddin't know where to start I spose and their music wasnt exactly piped into every home.
I know where to start now. Another band who crossed paths a few times with Man are the wonderful Brinsley Schwarz, who I love, I have a mix CD I did fro a friend, whic I would be more than happy to share somewhere down the line if anyone wants it. I go a few more on the boil at the moment.
Anywawa as I said another great post that show the diversity of this blog.
C'est devenu une institution bravo et longue vie.
MAN jamais entendu parlé mais bien vendu puisque entre les commentaires et les Youtube je me lance dans votre compilation.
Je pense faire un tour côté Celtic, pour voir.
Sinon dans la liste des "que vous ne pensez pas faire" Robert Palmer? Dommage car dans son genre à lui il a sacrément bourlingué, comme Ry Cooder (dans un autre genre... quoique)
je n'ai jamais vu une compil couvrant son éclectisme et NON je ne vous fais pas du pied, en ce qui me concerne je me suis arrêté à CLUES je ne saurai que couvrir une partie.
bon ça m'a fait plaisir et bonne continuation!!
je suis exactement dans le même cas que toi. je me suis arreté à Clues. et c'est bien pour ça qu'on l'a mis dans notre wishlist : peut-être qu'une âme charitable daignera s'en charger. Mais je te rassure, si on n'a personne qui s'y connait mieux que nous, on s'en chargera quand même.
Quant à Ry Cooder, il est sur les rails. il ne saurait tarder...
Wow,
I don't understand how anyone could put Rhinos on a bottom 3 unless you are upside down. Perhaps their very best...
Dr. Dream
Another great posting. You missed a trick, though by not including the track "The Wings of Mercury" from The Twang Dynasty album. Sounds just like Quicksilver Messenger Service, who I'm sure they modelled themselves on in the early days. And the title is a tribute to Quicksilver. A brilliant comeback track.
Thanks for all the work!
a great band, but it does take some work to suss out their records. They changed personal every 3 months!
I got to see them a lot in the 70's when they came over to the states, and a few times in the 80's. I encouraged them to come over to the States in the 90's to record an album, Call Down The Moon. Check the that one out. There is a bit of the old sound on that one, as I insisted.
i cant read french, but i suspect that "Ry Cooder" is french for well "Ry Cooder" If so and its a request, I'm almost there with it, just some fine tweaking and artwork to do.
@ron : sure that album is a great part of their second life!
@Stu : always the same problem : the place. I admit I haven't put it in this baistophe maybe because it is not classical Man music. However, this song remains great and could have been here like you said it.
@Dr Dream : I'm sorry I made you angry by putting 'Rhinos' on my Bottom3. I think it's not the most essential album they made, which I understand you disagree. I do think it was the very beginning of the end. Npt that bad either but a bit worse than its predecessors. next, I think that the following one (Maximum Darkness), thanks to John Cipollina (from QMS, which explains the song "The Wings Of Mercury), is much better.
You are surely right : I have outrageously underrated that album, but I won't either reevaluate it.
@TT : Devant was talking of RObert Palmer whom he wandered why he was in our wishlist. He compared him with Ry Cooder as a traveller in music.
I just told him that Ry Cooder was already advanced in our projects.
I hope you won't contradict me ! ;-)
Not a bad compilation.
I used to live in Penarth where they recorded the Padget Rooms album....heady days indeed.
Post a Comment