Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Angel Station (1979)

Steve:

Although Angel Station played a role in my early musical memories, my appreciation of this album and Manfred Mann's Earth Band has grown more recently. Like several albums from the time period covered on this blog, Angel Station was probably an album that Zeta-4 FM in Miami chose to play as their daily noontime album, with Dan at the ready with his Maxell C90 cassette. Many years later, I acquired my own vinyl copy of this album for $1 (those were the days, the 1990s), and I would play it every few years for nostalgia's sake. "Don't Kill it Carol", the opening track (also a single), was always a particular favorite. 

Several months ago, I found a Top of the Pops video clip of "Don't Kill it Carol" on YouTube, which I enjoyed immensely despite it being just a lip sync of the song. In the clip, the band's personality shone through, and the song's use of three different lead vocalists (Steve Waller for the verses, Chris Thompson for the chorus, and Mann himself for the bridge) got me interested in the band's versatility. I've now acquired all their vinyl albums from the early 70s through the early 80s, all waiting patiently for me in affordable racks in my local record stores - such are the thrills of being a music fan and vinyl consumer. 

In 1979 the Earth Band were a relatively high-profile band, having scored a major hit with a prog rock cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light". Mann had long since established a reputation as a creative interpreter of other songwriters' material, particularly Springsteen and Dylan. Although Mann had been mining similar territory since he formed the band in 1972, his commercial breakthrough came with The Roaring Silence (1976), featuring a new lineup with Chris Thompson on lead vocals.  

For Angel Station, the band sounded appropriately high-tech and expertly produced, thanks in part to co-producer (with Mann) Anthony Moore, also a member of the experimental band Slapp Happy, which had collaborated with Canterbury prog giants Henry Cow! This is no experimental prog effort, however. From the opening track "Don't Kill it Carol" into the obligatory Dylan cover "You Angel You" (a huge improvement over the original version from Dylan's Planet Waves) to the perplexing Mann-sung closer "Resurrection", this is all state-of-the-art late 70s rock. If you take the pop sensibility of The Alan Parsons Project, apply it to arcane cover material and eclectic original songs, then inject the widescreen irony of Flash & the Pan, you may get something close to Angel Station. 

Manfred Mann himself has always kept his distance from the spotlight. In his various bands (including his Earth Band), he has never been the frontman or featured vocalist, and although he is a skilled composer, he has chosen to identify himself mainly as an interpreter of others' material. Choosing this anonymous route may have kept Mann and his bands from enjoying the legendary status of other equally prolific and talented artists of their time. But in the process, they may have extended their shelf life as artists, allowing music fans like me to discover an interesting, largely obscure body of work. Angel Station was the catalyst for my search. 

Dan:

Steve is probably correct about the origin of Angel Station as a noontime album, but I also acquired the vinyl copy pretty early. Mann was always a mysterious character to me. He had a hit single in 1968 with "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)," a Bob Dylan song that everyone knew for its catchy chorus: "Come all without, come all within. You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn." The Mighty Quinn LP did not contain any original compositions, only covers. I also didn't know at the time that Mann was born in South Africa in 1940 as Manfred Lubowitz, but moved to the UK in 1961.

I continue to own only one Manfred Mann album, Angel Station, and it's one of the favorites in my whole collection. I have never dissected it to discover who plays what or analyzed the songs carefully (except perhaps for the dissection of "Resurrection" below). Still, it's an amazing record from beginning to end. 

The placement of "Resurrection," a Mann original, at the end serves as something of a postscript. It portrays Jesus' resurrection into a modern commercial world where He is greeted by promoters eager to monetize his reputation as savior of mankind. Hawking "Jesus hats, Jesus coats" is funny, and the capitalist asks Jesus if He brought any valuable memorabilia with him, such as a piece of the cross, a crown of thorns, or perhaps a disciple or two. Mann's clearly not mocking Jesus here; the target of his sarcastic wit is modern society where worth is measured only in monetary value.