Manfred Mann

It's hard to call a band with one of the biggest songs in oldies radio underappreciated, but it's hard to dispute that Manfred Mann are a band ignored. Alone among all major (and not so major) British Invasion bands, they have never experienced a revival, perhaps because their influence was not lasting. Few bands covered them and although the members went onto many very good things, they weren't often cited as an influence the way that the Kinks, the Animals, the Small Faces, and even the Move often were. Influence is not the same as accomplishment, and Manfred Mann, in their earliest incarnation, were certainly accomplished, as musically adept as any of their peers, perhaps even a touch more versatile than most. This much is evident from EMI U.K.'s exhaustive yet not exhausting four-disc set Down the Road Apiece: Their EMI Recordings 1963-1966. The very size of this set -- it's four discs, just three cuts shy of 100 tracks -- means it's for serious listeners only, but that doesn't mean that it's for the already converted, as this, more than hits compilations, really illustrates how different Manfred Mann were from their peers: jazzier and stylish, not as gritty or hard.

That Manfred Mann were a different band than the rest is immediately evident from the first track here, "Why Should We Not," a slinky minor-key instrumental that plays like Ellington's "Caravan" with a blues harp. Throughout their EMI recordings, Manfred Mann alternated between these jazzy numbers and rave-ups that sounded like a cleaned-up Yardbirds. Mann's organ could be reminiscent of the Zombies, but they never were as pop as the Zombies -- they were a hardcore rhythm & blues outfit, grooving like an Animals with no sense of menace. This isn't a detraction, it's a distinction, as that sense of jazzy, swinging sophistication separates them from the rest of the British Invasion. Indeed, it's hard to think of another band of their era whose big hit -- of course, a cover of the girl group classic "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," a single that remained omnipresent for decades -- was so misleading, not giving an indication of what the band was all about. Certainly, their first album, 1964's The Five Faces of Manfred Mann, was a better representation of their jazz-and-R&B sensibility, but their jazz nature is easier to discern on this set, assembled as it is in session order and ending in 1966, the pivotal year that saw guitarist Mike Vickers and vocalist Paul Jones leave the band, with Mann carrying on with drummer Mike Hugg as bassist Tom McGuinness switched to guitar. After a little more lineup rejiggering, this new version with Mike d'Abo on vocals moved toward progressive pop, powered equally by psychedelia and Bob Dylan, which leaves Down the Road Apiece as an encapsulation of the band as an almost pure R&B outfit.

That's not to say that Manfred Mann didn't cut pop singles in an attempt to follow up "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" -- there are other poppier covers of girl group tunes, they cut an early cover of Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" in 1965, they finally had another big hit in both sides of the Atlantic with 1966's "Pretty Flamingo" -- and there are enough relatively hidden pop nuggets like the wonderful "Tired of Trying, Bored with Lying, Scared of Dying" to make this worth digging through for British Invasion pop fanatics without much use for R&B grooves. But the enduring impression that their complete EMI recordings leaves behind is of an exceptionally skilled, versatile R&B combo, one whose nimble touch is easier to appreciate and love when heard in bulk as it is here, as their gift becomes more apparent the more music is heard. Again, Down the Road Apiece is certainly too much for those who just want a couple of hits, but for those who want to dig deep into Manfred Mann's often underappreciated legacy, this is worth the time (especially as Tom McGuinness traces the group's sometimes complicated early history in his fine liner notes here). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide