REVELATION

I have a strange relationship with Man (the Man band that is!) ... I am familiar with two albums that bookend what is supposed to be their most progressive phase (from their second album 2 Ozs. Of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle to the live workout Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day and Back Into The Future) but I haven't actually heard anything from that period. As such what I can tell you is that Revelation is a damn good psychedelic album, while Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics is a bland pop/rock excursion that ranks as one of the biggest disappointments in my collection. As for the "magic" stuff in between? You'll have to ask someone else!

Now Revelation has some brilliant tunes and works as a cohesive whole. Sure, you're likely to find the moaning orgasmic female voices of Erotica and the opening narration somewhat cheesy, but for melancholy blues-based psychedelic rock that foreshadowed the evolution of progressive rock, there are few superior albums to go to.

From the opening ominous echoing melody of And In The Beginning and the stomping blues of Sudden Life all the way through the glorious gothic organ and wordless vocals of Puella! Puella! (Woman! Woman!), the soft-core porn of Erotica and the menacing intent of Don't Just Stand There (Come In Out Of The Rain) and the epic conclusion of The Future Hides Its Face (which reprises that great guitar line of the first track) Man are pretty much tuned in.

The creative core of keyboardist Clive John and guitarists/band mainstays Roger "Deke" Leonard and Mike Jones all stand out as they create a wash of swelling organ (that's right!) and pungent stinging acidic guitar lines that will have you begging for more. While the lead vocals (which include some uncredited contributions from a female guest, and not just on the orgasm sections!) aren't exactly stellar they meet the requirements of the music, or perhaps more pertinently, the time.

Indeed I can heartily recommend this album to fans of psychedelic rock, for it is a lost classic of that genre. However, like other superb recordings by Vanilla Fudge and Tomorrow that I've also reviewed here, it is missing just a little too much to make it an essential purchase from a progressive rock point of view. ... 57% on the MPV scale

"Revelation" is the first record of 'Man' and was released in 1969. It is a concept album about the story of 'Man(kind)' and musically a mixture of Westcoast, Blues- and Psychedelic Rock. 'And in the Beginning' starts with an explosion, (the big bang ?) leading into an organ theme and a medium rockin track. 'Sudden Life' starts with sound effects, a guitar riff leading into a Blues Rocker followed b y'Empty Room' a Westcoast influenced track.

'Puella! Puella! (Woman! Woman!)' is the first more adventurous track, starting with a flute intro, organ work and psychedelic vocalizes, sounding not unlike Pink Floyd. 'Love' is a nice ballad for acoustic guitar with falsetto vocals , a distorted flute and sounding similar to 'Babe I'm gonna leave you' by Led Zeppelin which was released some months later. 'Erotica' is a funky Blues track with simulated orgasm sounds (BTW the track was banned in the UK and was a minor hit in Europe) and must have been a party favorite. 'Blind Man' is an uptempo Blues Rocker and 'And Castles Rise in Children's Eyes' a track build around a Tschaikovsky theme with organ work and sound effects and 'Don't Just Stand There (Come in Out of the Rain)' a slower Blues with a nice harmonica intro.

Now after the more agreable sides of life it's time for War: 'The Missing Pieces' is introduced by the sound of marching drums and lots of blasting guns and explosions, a weeping woman and a dirge on a church organ, everybody got the message. The album ends with'The Future Hides Its Face' a reprise of the first track and ends with a countdown leading to another big explosion. Even if the record is musically not very consistent there are lots of good ideas, that Man would developp later on, a good exapmle of Early Prog.

Man's debut album Revelation bore little resemblance the American west coast jam band influenced group they would become. Forming from the ashes of Welsh Pop group The Bystanders, who released quite a few singles aimed at commercial stardom but enjoying little success beyond their south Wales stronghold. Despite the lack of success with The Bystanders by the time of this release due to numerous live performances and years learning their craft Man were already a tight unit with a particularly strong grasp in the use of vocal harmonies.

Revelation is a Psychedelic Pop/Rock concept album based on evolution and whilst you can see why it didn't set the world on fire is a more than competent start for a band who would go on to produce some excellent albums in the seventies.

Fittingly it starts with And In The Beginning with a clap of thunder before a somewhat cheesy sounding organ comes in. It gets better though as the song kicks off with a slightly Indian sounding guitar riff and a decent lead vocal from ever present through many line ups Micky Jones. Those harmonies are used to great effect too.

Sudden Life has a strong blues feel with the vocal harmonies present again. Empty Room could be The Doors until the vocals come in being derivative of the sound of so many bands of the era in the Psych Pop field. This could also be said of Puella Puella (Woman! Woman!) without The Doors influence which hasn't stood the test of time too well. The vocals being sung with no words and dominated by what sounds like a recorder.

Love is a melancholic acoustic piece and followed by Erotica which no doubt would have had trouble with the censors of the time if they'd attempted to release it as a single due to it basically being an instrumental with the sound of a woman having an orgasm over the top.

Blind Man gets them back on track and is a fast up tempo shuffle with a dominant honky tonk style Piano until the song changes tack to a slower ending to fade out. And Castles Rise in Childrens Eyes (was there ever a more sixties sounding song title than that!) and it's another instrumental (apart from a few harmonised ah's) heavy on the keyboards but pretty good nevertheless.

Don't Just Stand There (Come in Out of the Rain) is another up tempo rocker with a nice Organ sound and a few heavy guitar riffs. I could imagine Uriah Heep coming up with this in places. The Missing Pieces has a military band intro before going off on a totally different tangent into a rather zany piece with some strange vocals and is a bit of a throwaway track.

Closing with The Future Hides it's Face revisits the opening track And In The Beginning to bookend the album nicely.

While Revelation sounds somewhat dated today and is very derivative of the time it's a solid enough debut from one of the most underrated bands of the seventies but not the best place to start in exploring the Man back catalogue. 2 ½ stars.

A Man is born

This is where it all started for Man, way back in 1969. The band evolved from the pop-centric group The Bystanders with a clear ambition to explore some of the exciting new territories which were opening up as music entered one of the greatest periods in its entire history. In what has become one of the great traditions of prog, Man dived straight into a full blown concept album, the theme being the development of man.

These days, it is all but impossible to listen to the opening track "In the beginning.." without being reminded of Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge". I challenge anyone not to imagine dwarves dancing round a 12" lump of stone as the track plays.

Liberal sound effects are used throughout the album to embellish what are otherwise ambitious but variable blues rock numbers. There is a rather jarring contrast between the final vestiges of The Bystanders on pop rock songs such as "Empty room" or "Love" and the heavier and less melodic tracks like "Sudden life". The former ("Empty room") actually sounds like a strange fusion of The Doors, Rush and the Mamas and The Papas!

The first real hints of anything potentially prog we get are on "Puella! Puella!", which features some nice flute touches and effective harmony vocals. The recording of "Erotica" appears to have involved a dark room and committed role playing, the results being released successfully as a single in the more liberated parts of Europe. The underlying music is of the dreamy 60's acid party type.

"Blind man" is a straightforward blues rocker, or so it seems until the track completely changes for the closing minute or so which comes across as a crossed wire from a Demis Roussos album. Later tracks such as "And the castles rise in children's eyes" and "Don't just stand there" have suggestions of bands such as The Nice, and Beggar's Opera, the organ playing of Clive John being rather Emerson like at times. The album concludes with a space landing and an atomic explosion.

In all, a refreshingly innocent Man album, which sees them exploring a number of styles and sounds they would quickly discard. The overall impression can at times be one of clumsiness, but we must keep in mind that this goes way back to the origins (of Man) in 1968/9, and as such should not be compared with their most revered albums.

Incidentally, the sleeve image was not originally intended to be so basic, the idea was to see the band naked in the desert on the front, and smartly dressed in the city on the back.

One of the earliest prog bands to emerge in Wales, the psychedelic progressive rock band MAN (aka MANBAND) formed as early as 1968 by Micky Jones (guitars, vocals), Deke Leonard (guitar, vocals), Clive John (keyboards, vocals), Ray Williams (bass) and Jeff Jones as a reincarnation of the harmony group The Bystanders which itself existed from 1962-68. This band was a staple on the British progressive rock scene but never found the fame and fortune that it deserved for its eclectic mix of West Coast psychedelic rock, British prog, blues, pub rock and a touch of jazz. The band was known for integrating the harmonic vocal strategies of The Bystanders and taking it all into the world of spacier complex rock with a heavy emphasis on trippy Hammond organ psych-fueled compositions.

The band debuted in 1969 with not one but two albums with this one, REVELATION emerging first in January followed by "Two Ozs of Plastic With a Hole in the Middle" in September. Fueled by fuzzy acid rock guitar riffs drenched with Hammond organ bombast, MAN easily set itself apart from the pack and was famous for its fiery live performances that featured lengthy jamming improvisations. REVELATION featured eleven tracks and is most famous for the song "Erotica" which simulated an orgasm and was banned in the United Kingdom altogether yet somehow appealed to the French where it became a hit single. The album's mix of rootsy blues and boogie rock with the more progressive and psychedelic meanderings found this debut in that transition zone where the acid fueled 60s were morphing into the headier hard driving 70s.

Criticized by many for being an uneven album, personally i find the appeal in MAN's debut is in the diverse array of styles presented which makes it a bit more interesting than a one-trick pony band that merely performs a single style of music. While the opening "And In The Beginning" showcases the band's clear space rock creds with slinking organ tinkles and a heady droning background accompanied by acid guitar and a mopey nonchalant tempo, the following track "Sudden Life" jumps into a bluesy harmonica fueled stomp with exquisite group harmonies pulling a fashionable bluesy call and response. One of the strengths of the band was that pretty much all of the members were competent vocalists with the exception of drummer Jeff Jones who obviously wanted nothing to do with all that harmonizing silliness! Despite the roots aspects the track delivers some trippy Hammond organ attacks.

"Empty Room" breaks back into classic 60s psychedelic rock with keyboards reminiscent of The Doors however the track itself is classic MAN with a rocking rhythm section, group harmony dynamic and psychedelic atmospheres. "Puella! Puella! (Woman! Woman!)" offers a strange almost instrumental that features a chilled vibe and does includes vocals but only wordless melody keepers. The flute adds a nice proggy touch to the mix as do the sudden time signature changes that punctuate the repetitive flow from time to time. "Love" is a simple and short acoustic guitar ballad with earnest vocals. Then comes the most famous track on the album, "Erotica" which features a randy vixen moaning and groaning with some freaky avant-garde keyboards behind a bluesy rock guitar and steady percussive groove. The guitars often sound a bit like Santana but not quite. For all the hubbub about this track it's actually not that big of a deal. It's basically the same thing as what the First International Sex Opera Band would make a whole album out of also in 1969 which was sold exclusively in sex shops in the Netherlands.

The following "Blind Man" is a surprise as it delves back into the 1950s with a boogie-woogie groove and tinkling piano roll. While done quite nicely it does seem like an oddball choice to include on a psychedelic album for sure! Then comes the more progressive "And Castles Rise In Children's Eyes" with a knotty intro followed by a spacey organ and high pitched vocal harmonies. The incessant changes in style and motif make it one of the most experimental tracks on the album. The rest of the album picks up the pace as far as the space rock goes. "Don't Just Stand There" rocks the Hammonds with bluesy guitar riffs and the occasional harmonica contrast while the short "The Missing Pieces" features a wild vocal harmony frenzy gone mad! "The Future Hides Its Face" basically reprises the opening track but offers more freaky spaced out electronic effects and samples from rocket launches and dialogue.

Overall i agree with those who point out that REVELATION is one of the least appreciated MAN albums. The criticism of uneven just doesn't resonate with me but then again i love a wild eclectic ride that is impossible to predict where it's taking you. There are no bad tracks on REVELATION although some will surprise you that they are included for sure! MAN delivered an excellent slice of proto-prog space rock on this album that mixes traditional blues based rock with 60s psychedelic and smatterings of progressive rock. Although i wouldn't call this album excessively progressive, the melodies, harmonies and instrumental interplay perfectly collude to make a fascinating album that gave MAN its distinct sound from the very beginning. This album is somewhat of a grower although it's not really unnecessarily complex however the way melodies and harmonies and rhythms are strewn together is somewhat unusual. Personally this one is extremely fascinating and fairly unique for 1969 which is why MAN would become one of Wales best known prog bands.