I think that the main problem with the Manns is not in their “tamed” and clean sound, but in their attitude in general — they didn’t WANT to sound tamed and clean, they wanted and tried quite the opposite and had a desire to compete with The Rolling Stones, The Animals etc., though obviously their talent and self-confidence simply were not enough for this.
I really love lots of music from 1960s and 1970s that sounds “clean and tamed” — The Association, Carpenters, James Taylor etc. However, all these artists knew what they want and what they can do and never tried to compete with Black Sabbath or, I don’t know, Captain Beefheart. Heck, I even prefer Manfred’s “My Little Red Book” over Love’s any day — the arrangement is much more complex and “bacharachish”, let me say. Unfortunately, they tried too many OTHER things in their discography and, sadly, failed almost everywhere else.
But, quite surprisingly, people really love all this stuff and opinions like yours and mine are quite rare — I mean, according to RateYourMusic “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (as for me, one of the most atrocious songs of the whole decade) is in top 100 singles of the year 1964. FYI, users rated this song highly than “Viva Las Vegas”, “Everybody Loves Somebody”, “I’m Into Something Good”, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “Bits Of Pieces”, “Out Of Sight”, “Anyway You Want It”, “I’ll Follow the Sun” and lots of other songs, that are thousand times better (while, for example, “Winchester Cathedral” (ok, it’s also not “Good Vibrations”, but at least it’s lovely and original tune, that was performed adequately) is considered to be one of the worst songs of the decade according to the same site — sometimes other people’s opinions are simply beyond my understanding).
Expanding on your footnote about the LP5 - the Liverpool Five were actually pretty interesting in their own right, functioning more like gang of musical expatriates that ended up in America rather than being a proper “British Invasion” band, both in a literal sense (having hopped around mainland Europe and the Far East for a couple years before ending up on the west coast) and in a musical sense (their sound was actually much more in line with the American garage rock and revved-up R&B styles rather than English beat music). While they never cut their teeth as songwriters (I think I count only one “original” self-penned song in their entire 3-4 year run), they actually did turn out a number of pretty good recordings during their time with Columbia Records, including a ferocious pre-Monkees version of “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, which is decently recommendable. And for my money, I actually perfer their version of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” over the Manfreds’ version - although I’ll readily admit that Im probably at least a little biased simply because of having been acquainted with the LP5 version first.
As a funny little sidenote - the band wasn’t even from Liverpool in the first place! The band had actually originated from London, evolving out of the R&B scene there before taking off across the world. But hey, I guess the “The London Five” doesn’t roll off your tongue as nicely as “The Liverpool Five” does, now does it?
Thanks for the clarification! I didn't really have the time to properly investigate those guys. Might look into them with more depth some day - that sound of 'Stepping Stone' is definitely up my personal alley, even if it's not particularly distinguishable from a gazillion other bands on Nuggets.
I was interested to read this review when I received the E-Mail. I mean, who the heck were these guys? The two songs that were highlighted on the song list absolutely sucked and I can bear no more.
The reason this article was of interest is because I actually saw them open for a Uriah Heep concert sometime in 1973 or 4 in Little Rock Arkansas. I do not remember being particularly impressed by them. Manfred Mann wasn't exactly Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson either. Thankfully their song 'Blinded By the Light' was yet to be recorded, so I didn't have to suffer through a live version, a song I detested in the 70s.
Speaking of Uriah Heep, I know this is the one band that pisses off George and most critics BAD. LOL, I still love them. They were (and still) too dam good.
"...‘£sd’, i.e. ‘pounds, shillings and pence’, rather than the supreme musician’s muse circa 1965 (for that matter, the same goes for the song with the same title released by The Pretty Things that same year — although, come to think of it, what sort of a coincidence is that? Why would two different bands write a song about pounds, shillings and pence back-to-back in 1965?"
I'm not English, but the reason probably was that decimalization of the currency was a political topic in 1965 as it was officially announced in 1966, approved in 1967 and at last implemented on "Decimal Day", 15th of February 1971.
I think that the main problem with the Manns is not in their “tamed” and clean sound, but in their attitude in general — they didn’t WANT to sound tamed and clean, they wanted and tried quite the opposite and had a desire to compete with The Rolling Stones, The Animals etc., though obviously their talent and self-confidence simply were not enough for this.
I really love lots of music from 1960s and 1970s that sounds “clean and tamed” — The Association, Carpenters, James Taylor etc. However, all these artists knew what they want and what they can do and never tried to compete with Black Sabbath or, I don’t know, Captain Beefheart. Heck, I even prefer Manfred’s “My Little Red Book” over Love’s any day — the arrangement is much more complex and “bacharachish”, let me say. Unfortunately, they tried too many OTHER things in their discography and, sadly, failed almost everywhere else.
But, quite surprisingly, people really love all this stuff and opinions like yours and mine are quite rare — I mean, according to RateYourMusic “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (as for me, one of the most atrocious songs of the whole decade) is in top 100 singles of the year 1964. FYI, users rated this song highly than “Viva Las Vegas”, “Everybody Loves Somebody”, “I’m Into Something Good”, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “Bits Of Pieces”, “Out Of Sight”, “Anyway You Want It”, “I’ll Follow the Sun” and lots of other songs, that are thousand times better (while, for example, “Winchester Cathedral” (ok, it’s also not “Good Vibrations”, but at least it’s lovely and original tune, that was performed adequately) is considered to be one of the worst songs of the decade according to the same site — sometimes other people’s opinions are simply beyond my understanding).
Expanding on your footnote about the LP5 - the Liverpool Five were actually pretty interesting in their own right, functioning more like gang of musical expatriates that ended up in America rather than being a proper “British Invasion” band, both in a literal sense (having hopped around mainland Europe and the Far East for a couple years before ending up on the west coast) and in a musical sense (their sound was actually much more in line with the American garage rock and revved-up R&B styles rather than English beat music). While they never cut their teeth as songwriters (I think I count only one “original” self-penned song in their entire 3-4 year run), they actually did turn out a number of pretty good recordings during their time with Columbia Records, including a ferocious pre-Monkees version of “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, which is decently recommendable. And for my money, I actually perfer their version of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” over the Manfreds’ version - although I’ll readily admit that Im probably at least a little biased simply because of having been acquainted with the LP5 version first.
As a funny little sidenote - the band wasn’t even from Liverpool in the first place! The band had actually originated from London, evolving out of the R&B scene there before taking off across the world. But hey, I guess the “The London Five” doesn’t roll off your tongue as nicely as “The Liverpool Five” does, now does it?
Thanks for the clarification! I didn't really have the time to properly investigate those guys. Might look into them with more depth some day - that sound of 'Stepping Stone' is definitely up my personal alley, even if it's not particularly distinguishable from a gazillion other bands on Nuggets.
I was interested to read this review when I received the E-Mail. I mean, who the heck were these guys? The two songs that were highlighted on the song list absolutely sucked and I can bear no more.
The reason this article was of interest is because I actually saw them open for a Uriah Heep concert sometime in 1973 or 4 in Little Rock Arkansas. I do not remember being particularly impressed by them. Manfred Mann wasn't exactly Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson either. Thankfully their song 'Blinded By the Light' was yet to be recorded, so I didn't have to suffer through a live version, a song I detested in the 70s.
Speaking of Uriah Heep, I know this is the one band that pisses off George and most critics BAD. LOL, I still love them. They were (and still) too dam good.
Some things are easy to understand, some are not.
How one can hate both Manfred Mann and Uriah Heep, that one's easy to understand.
How one could love both Manfred Mann and Uriah Heep, that's also easy.
How one could love Manfred Mann and hate Uriah Heep, I can figure this one out.
How one might hate Manfred Mann but love Uriah Heep, now that's a Sphinx-level riddle.
Ok George. I doom you to hear these lyrics in your head all night for 40 nights:
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
"...‘£sd’, i.e. ‘pounds, shillings and pence’, rather than the supreme musician’s muse circa 1965 (for that matter, the same goes for the song with the same title released by The Pretty Things that same year — although, come to think of it, what sort of a coincidence is that? Why would two different bands write a song about pounds, shillings and pence back-to-back in 1965?"
I'm not English, but the reason probably was that decimalization of the currency was a political topic in 1965 as it was officially announced in 1966, approved in 1967 and at last implemented on "Decimal Day", 15th of February 1971.