Sounds (UK) 1978

Chuffed by the success of Manfred's last album, 'The Roaring Silence' and the hit single, 'Blinded By The Light', that came from it, Bronze have excavated from the early history of the Manfred Mann's EarthBand from the Phonogram vaults and re-released the band's first three albums.

As an exercise in rock and roll archaeology it's praiseworthy enough and it uncovers some interesting moments – mainly instrumental – but the three albums tend to reinforce the view that 'The Roaring Silence' and its predecessor, 'Nightingales And Bombers', marked the real beginning of the group's fruition. You should make sure you have these two before you start exploring the EarthBand's origins. 'Manfred Mann's Earth Band' and 'Glorified Magnified' both date from 1972 with 'Messin' emerging the following year.

The first album, 'Manfred Mann's EarthBand', doesn't really hang together and it's clear that the group were still settling in. At the time, heavy metal rock was in its hiatus and the group catch a mild dose on some tracks, notably 'Captain Bobby Stout'. Even Dylan's 'Please Mrs. Henry' is given a ponderous, chanting treatment that sounds more like Edgar Broughton than Manfred Mann.

But Manfred does demonstrate his skill in finding songs to suit his own purpose with Randy Newman's 'Living Without You' (even if it is given too much of a 'pop' treatment for my taste) and Dr John Creaux's 'Jump Sturdy'. And he turns in a couple of worthwhile compositions of his own – 'Prayer' where the sharp instrumental break compensates for any inadequacies in the melody, and 'Part Time Man' which is given a rather Lou Reed like delivery by singer Mick Rogers.

There's more purpose about 'Glorified Magnified', particularly in the instrumental department which starts to reveal what is now one of the group's strongest points – their ability to work around a simple theme, linking their individual skills to a corporate output and producing some intelligent but exciting rock music.

Indeed their arrangements are frequently better than the original theme and Manfred's skill in making the most out of what are often pretty mediocre songs (and a lot of them are his own compositions) is remarkable. 'I'm Gonna Have You All', 'Wind', 'Meat' and the album's title track all illustrate the point well.

There's also an improvement in the way the songs are built up to effective climaxes revealed on 'Look Around' (by Slade) and 'One way Glass' (by Mann). The obligatory Dylan track 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue', is treated more in the way that Mann used to adapt Zimmo's songs back in the Sixties.

Messin' continues the band's progression and the title track, an ecological diatribe written by ex-Manfred Manner Mike Hugg, is given a solid working with some neat electronics from Mann and some stirring guitar from Rogers later on.

Manfred's own keyboard playing shows an increasing breadth with several jazz elements creeping back into his solos as well as some increasingly atmospheric synthesizer playing. And the Dylan track (don't worry Manfred, Springsteen is just around the corner) is the little known 'get Your Rocks Off' (fancy Dylan writing a song called that!) which turns out to be a chanting, raucous 12-bar.

These three albums are Bronze's contribution to the Manfred Mann back catalogue. EMI will shortly be doing their bit when they release a compilation of his early pop hits.

Hugh Fielder