SOLAR FIRE

Manfred Mann's Earth Band more or less kept getting better and better with each new release. Solar Fire was the first in a long series of very good albums released by the band in the 70's. It begins with an excellent Bob Dylan cover in Father Of Day, Father Of Night. As usual with Manfred Mann's Earth Band, the cover is very different from the original. Obviously, it is a progified version of the Dylan number. The rest of the album's material is self-penned, some tracks by Mann alone, others by him together with other band members and one by Rogers/Slade without Mann. It has always surprised me why Manfred Mann's Earth Band relied so heavily on cover songs (particularly in live performances), when they evidently were capable of producing great songs like these and the ones on subsequent albums.

Solar Fire is not my personal favourite Manfred Mann's Earth Band album, but we can find here some of the band's very best and perhaps most progressive self-penned material. With the exception of the short instrumental, Pluto The Dog - which easily is my least favourite track here - the material on Solar Fire is pretty strong. Songs like In The Beginning, Darkness and the title track are highly melodic.

It is a bit odd that Earth, The Circle Part 2 comes before Earth, The Circle Part 1 on the album. Do they want us to play the album backwards perhaps? Maybe they did this to reflect the chronological order in which they were written? Or they did it as a joke? Or maybe it is just a simple typing mistake? We will probably never find out. But whatever the reason these tracks are very good.

Recommended!

Share this MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#223200)
• Buy MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND music online with PA partners
• Show all MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND MP3/Stream
• Go to MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Solar Fire page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND related discussions