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Mighty Garvey! | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 6 May 1968 (US) 28 June 1968 (UK) | |||
Recorded | 22 August 1966 – 12 March 1968 [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 38:54 | |||
Label | Mercury (US), Fontana (UK) | |||
Producer | Manfred Mann | |||
Manfred Mann chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
Singles from Mighty Garvey! | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Rolling Stone | (moderate) [3] |
Mighty Garvey! is the fifth and final studio album by Manfred Mann,released on 28 June 1968 by Fontana Records. It was the last recorded by the band (not including compilations) after the change of direction and personnel of their 1966 album As Is . It continued a transition away from jazz and blues towards self-composed art-pop. Despite including two UK top 5 hit singles (Bob Dylan's "Mighty Quinn" and Tony Hazzard's "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown"),the album did not chart and the band split up the year after. In the US and Canada,it was released as The Mighty Quinn by Mercury Records.
The group's continued pop success with material by established songwriters such as Dylan and Hazzard made its handlers averse to the risk of releasing self-written singles,a state of affairs that had prevailed ever since the success of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy",even though the group's first hits had been self-composed. At least one example of drummer Mike Hugg's new-found productivity had been seen as potentially chart-worthy [4] and singer Mike d'Abo was able to provide other artists with hits such as "Build Me Up Buttercup" and "Handbags and Gladrags". The resultant pop image did not encourage album sales to "serious" listeners,particularly when trends were turning from baroque pop to hard rock. So,like contemporary releases by The Kinks and The Zombies,Mighty Garvey! became a record esteemed more in retrospect [5] than at the time. It was re-issued in 2003,with bonus tracks.
The group's commercial compromises [6] also led to "self-knocking", [7] and its recordings developed an ironic distance that on Mighty Garvey sometimes invites comparison with The Kinks, [8] Dave Dee,Dozy,Beaky,Mick &Tich,Frank Zappa or The Bonzo Dog Band. Even on Hugg's intricate and sentimental "Harry the One Man Band" the vocal track finally dissolves into schoolboy mirth and silly noises.[ citation needed ] The three different versions of d'Abo's song "Happy Families",credited as;(Track 1) Performed by Eddie 'Fingers' Garvey,(Track 6) Performed by Ed Garvey and The Trio and (Track 14) Performed by Edwin O'Garvey and His Showband,are outright parodies of "the pompous big rock band style,the sleazy lounge jazz style,and then the semi-drunk family entertainment "country-shape Christmas" style" [8] that appropriate and poke fun at the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept ("Edwin Garvey" being an invented character introduced on the similarly flippant flip side of "Mighty Quinn").
These three parodies and two hit singles take up over a third of a relatively short L.P. and of the remainder,d'Abo's "Country Dancing" and "The Vicar's Daughter" are likewise somewhat arch,besides strengthening an impression of "chameleonism" [8] and lack of sincere direction. "Big Betty" is also non-original,a treatment of Huddie Ledbetter's song "Black Betty" in a manner reminiscent of The Spencer Davis Group's hits,providing the only real point of contact with the band's rhythm and blues past. Yet this still leaves a core of worthwhile,intelligent and melodic songs,also by Hugg and d'Abo apart from "Cubist Town",written by guitarist Tom McGuinness in a one-off collaboration. The group made full use of the new possibilities of multi-tracking,overlaying complex and inventive textures of flutes,keyboards and vibraphones,while the group's backing vocals,originally limited to a tribal unison,began to take on an almost Pet Sounds complexity,even if they're not quite as in tune.
Recording dates taken from Greg Russo's book Mannerisms:The Five Phases Of Manfred Mann. [9]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
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1. | "Happy Families" (Eddie "Fingers" Garvey) | Mike d'Abo | 19 December 1966 & 5 March 1968 | 2:18 |
2. | "No Better, No Worse" | d'Abo | Spring 1968 | 3:02 |
3. | "Every Day Another Hair Turns Grey" | Mike Hugg | 18 & 22 May 1967 | 2:54 |
4. | "Country Dancing" | d'Abo | 16 January 1967 | 2:53 |
5. | "It's So Easy Falling" | Hugg | Spring 1968 | 3:20 |
6. | "Happy Families" (Eddie Garvey and the Trio) | d'Abo | 12 March 1968 | 2:09 |
7. | "Mighty Quinn" | Bob Dylan | 26 October, 2 November & December 1967 | 2:52 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
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8. | "Big Betty" | Huddie Ledbetter | 20 January 1967 | 3:06 |
9. | "The Vicar's Daughter" | d'Abo | 22 August 1966 | 2:18 |
10. | "Each and Every Day" | Hugg | 22 August 1966 | 2:47 |
11. | "Cubist Town" | Tom McGuinness, Charles Perrot | 2 January 1968 | 3:21 |
12. | "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" | Tony Hazzard | 10 February 1967 | 2:27 |
13. | "Harry the One-Man Band" | Hugg | 19 December 1966 & 5 March 1968 | 3:11 |
14. | "Happy Families" (Edwin O'Garvey and his Showband) | d'Abo | 19 December 1966 | 2:16 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
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1. | "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)" | Dylan | 26 October, 2 November & December 1967 | 2:51 |
2. | "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" | Hazzard | 10 February 1967 | 2:25 |
3. | "Everyday Another Hair Turns Grey" | Hugg | 18 & 22 May 1967 | 2:56 |
4. | "It's So Easy Falling" | Hugg | Spring 1968 | 3:23 |
5. | "Big Betty" | Ledbetter | 20 January 1967 | 3:06 |
6. | "Cubist Town" | McGuinness, Perrot | 2 January 1968 | 3:19 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
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7. | "Country Dancing" | d'Abo | 16 January 1967 | 2:56 |
8. | "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James" | Geoff Stephens, John Carter | 22 August 1966 | 2:37 |
9. | "The Vicar's Daughter" | d'Abo | 22 August 1966 | 2:17 |
10. | "Each and Every Day" | Hugg | 22 August 1966 | 2:47 |
11. | "No Better, No Worse" | d'Abo | Spring 1968 | 2:26 |
Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two different lead vocalists, Paul Jones from 1962 to 1966 and Mike d'Abo from 1966 to 1969.
Manfred Mann's Earth Band are an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann. Their hits include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You", "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night". After forming in 1971 and with a short hiatus in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the Earth Band continues to perform and tour.
Michael David d'Abo is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of Manfred Mann from 1966 to their dissolution in 1969, and as the composer of the songs "Handbags and Gladrags" and "Build Me Up Buttercup", the latter of which was a hit for The Foundations. With Manfred Mann, d'Abo achieved six top twenty hits on the UK Singles Chart including "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James", "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" and the chart topper "Mighty Quinn".
"Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" is a folk-rock song written and first recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions. The song's first release was in January 1968 as "Mighty Quinn" in a version by the British band Manfred Mann, which became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the "Mighty Quinn" title.
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Michael John Hugg is a British musician who was a founding member of the 1960s group Manfred Mann.
The Manfreds is a British pop group, formed in 1991 as a reunion of former members of the 1960s pop group Manfred Mann, however without their eponymous founder Manfred Mann.
Manfred Mann Chapter Three is the debut album released in 1969 by Manfred Mann Chapter Three. It was one of the three first albums released on the Vertigo record label. The principal members of the group were Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg. Mann played the organ and acted as the group's musical arranger, whilst Hugg handled vocals, played piano and was the chief songwriter. The group was augmented by a five-piece brass section and several distinguished jazz soloists.
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A Sideman's Journey is the first solo album by German musician and artist Klaus Voormann, released in July 2009. Voormann is best known as the creator of the cover art for The Beatles' album Revolver as well as for being a much-in-demand session musician during the 1970s. He played bass on a large number of well-known albums by ex-Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr − including All Things Must Pass, Imagine and The Concert for Bangladesh − and by artists such as Harry Nilsson, Doris Troy, Lou Reed, Gary Wright, Carly Simon and Randy Newman. Before then, Voormann had been a member of the 1960s pop group Manfred Mann. A Sideman's Journey is notable for including performances by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yusuf Islam, among others.
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"My Little Red Book" (occasionally subtitled "(All I Do Is Talk About You)") is a song composed by American songwriter Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. The duo were enlisted by Charles K. Feldman to compose the music to Woody Allen's film What's New Pussycat? following a chance meeting between Feldman and Bacharach's fiancé Angie Dickinson in London. "My Little Red Book" was composed in three weeks together with several other songs intended for the movie. Musically, the song was initially composed in the key of C major, largely based on a re-iterating piano riff performed. David's lyrics tells the tale of a distraught lover, who after getting dumped by his girlfriend browses through his "little red book" and taking out several girls to dance in a vain effort to get over her.
"Ha! Ha! Said the Clown" is a song written by Tony Hazzard, first recorded by British pop group Manfred Mann. Hazzard claims the song "came out of the blue" though he did not demo it for weeks. Following recording a demo, he approached manager Gerry Bron, who liked it enough to want one of his groups, Manfred Mann, to record it. Manfred Mann recorded their version of the single on 10 February 1967 at Philips Studio in Marble Arch, London, together with producer Shel Talmy. It was the second of three singles Manfred Mann recorded to feature the Mellotron.
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"Come Tomorrow" is a song written by American songwriters Bob Elgin, Dolores Phillips and Frank Augustus for rhythm and blues singer Marie Knight, who issued it as a single in October 1961 through Okeh Records, a release which received good reviews, though failed to chart. The best known version of the song was recorded by British pop band Manfred Mann, who took it to the top-ten in the United Kingdom in 1965.
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