Manfred Mann Album: “Chapter Two: The Best of the Fontana Years”

This CD was a great discovery,filling in the "missing years" of the band, between the 60's hits and the re-popularized Earth Band of the 1970's.The band covers a wide variety of styles,always with a pop sensibility,that rivals some of the better known Brit.pop of this late 60's era: the Kinks,Beatles,Hollies,Who and others. From the pop gem "Mighty Quinn" to the psychedelicized "Cubist Town" the band produced many delightful songs not well known on this side of the Atlantic. The accompanying notes help to set the songs according to the shifting band personnel during this transitional time. If you like harmonized Brit. pop,you will be pleasantly surprised.

After the exit of Paul Jones from the group, the Manfreds moved toward a more overtly commercial sound in their singles. At the same time, they finally began to create substantial LPs.

This set poses the odd juxtaposition of the mostly dreadful single a-sides ("Mighty Quinn" excepted) and the magnificent LP tracks and single b-sides, generally authored by the Mann himself or Mike Hugg or Michael D'Abo (a superb songwriter in his own right even before joining the Manfreds). Indeed the LP tracks are reminiscent of the Zombies' "Odyssey and Oracle" material, while the single a-sides sound like Herman's Hermits or the nightmarishly inappropriate a-sides Mickie Most foisted on the Yardbirds in their last days.

The Manfreds' version of "Just Like a Woman" is frankly poor. Treacle such as "My Name is Jack" is even worse. With the tedious "Mr. Raggamuffin Man," the group packed it in. For the most part, the a-sides ape the music hall revival Kinks but without any authentic sense of humor and the bought-in songs sport cliched chord changes and melody lines. But tucked away on the albums or the flip sides of the singles were glorious numbers like "Box Office Draw," "Each and Every Day," "It's So Easy Falling in Love," "Up the Junction," and "Everyday Another Hair Turns Grey." Indeed, this set makes me wish for a full scale reissue of the Michael D'Abo era albums.

The inclusion of the single a-sides is inevitable, but they are what make this a four star disc for me rather than an easy five star. Fortunately they account for a good deal less than half the material included. If you expect "The Mighty Quinn" to be the best track here, get ready for a wonderful surprise.

There really was no band called Manfred Mann Chapter Two; the title refers to the reign of Mike D'Abo as lead vocalist, replacing Paul Jones. The subsequent band vocalized by Mike Hugg was indeed officially called Chapter Three.

But this is the band that brought MM back into the top of the charts, with a modus that always worked well for them: the requisite Bob Dylan tune, this time "The Mighty Quinn."

Stylistically, "Chapter Two" may have been more influenced by the departure of woodwind/guitarist Mike Vickers, who performed so well on their jazz tunes, than the departure of Jones. Bassist Tom McGuiness (later of McGuiness Flint) moved over to guitar (which remained a "not very prominent" instrument in the MM style), and Beatle buddy/artist Klaus Voorman moved in as bass player.

Erego, this incarnation is the "lite-est" of the various MM assemblies, a purely pop band interpreting bluegrass tunes and such, and weighing in with some veddy inside British stuff like "Vicar's Daughter" and "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James." Don't watch any silly lip-synced videos of the band during this period (available elsewhere), it will damage your enjoyment of the tunes.

I have to give it 4 stars, not 5, it just doesn't measure up to what came before or after. All the same, there is quite a bit of good material here.

This is a beautiful set. This set includes many obscure titles that are very difficult to find in any format. Some of their finest work including adventures in psychedelic/jazz and cool pop/rock. This band has always been very underated, they are in my opinion simply one of the greatest bands to emerge from the 60's whiplash of fantastic bands. Check this one out, the history speaks for itself. It's a killer.