Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Solar Fire

It is the album that strongly reaffirmed, in 1973, this formation of the British keyboardist of South African origin, Manfred Mann, in the music market, after the good successes of the sixties in the pop singles market. New is the group's name but also the musical genre pursued: we are in the midst of the progressive era and the excellent Mann adapts, especially since his keyboards become even more central.

The work is led, or rather dominated, by its long introductory song, a cover of Bob Dylan that is transformed for the better, let's also say genuinely turned inside out like a sock and filled with juicy variations. It's titled “Father of Day, Father of Night” and its original by Dylan is on his “New Morning” from 1970, with its title halved and in the form of a minute and a half, no more, of brisk Jewish prayer, conducted at the piano and with Bob's characteristic nasal voice that at a certain point loses the melody and concludes the fourth verse of the stanzas in haste (or slapdash, think the differently inclined admirers of ours, myself included).

Manfred Mann and his instead take it, stabilize it in a slow and evocative tempo, entrust it for singing to their guitarist who proceeds to focus the melody even in those last verses lazily pulled away by the famous minstrel of Minnesota. Then there's the “stretching,” in progressive style, up to almost ten minutes, mainly through a long instrumental interlude (after only the intro had already taken away a minute and a half... like the entire Dylan version!). An extended guitar solo in crescendo does most of the work, followed by another from the leader on the Moog synthesizer, and in between, further instrumental variations.

The rest of the album offers some good cues: “In the Beginning, Darkness” is a psychedelic rock blues that feels more sixties than seventies. “Pluto the Dog” is a short instrumental dominated by the leader’s synth and a... barking hound, as the title justifies. The track that titles the whole album is a tense rock blues sung by three voices that chase and respond to each other. “Saturn, Lord of the Ring Mercury the Winged Messenger,” another instrumental pretentious from the title and multipart, has a lot of film score vibes that feels thrilling. “Earth, the Circle” is divided into two parts but with the second preceding the first, just to be quirky. The “part 1” is also sung, by Mann himself, and it sounds like the old Pink Floyd.

Another example of that long series of works from the sixties/seventies that demonstrate how once it was possible to release music that sometimes indulged quite a bit, without the record label putting too many obstacles for all those solos, those instrumental parts, that wordiness, “Solar Fire” smells of old (better) times and the relative artistic freedom they brought with them. The CD version is closed by the bonus track “Father of Day...” in single version, reduced to only three minutes... abomination! Beautiful interstellar cover art.