"Mighty Quinn" | ||||
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Single by Manfred Mann | ||||
from the album Mighty Garvey! (UK) The Mighty Quinn (US) | ||||
B-side | "By Request – Edwin Garvey" | |||
Released | 8 January 1968 | |||
Recorded | 2 November – December 1967 [1] | |||
Genre | Pop rock | |||
Length | 2:51 | |||
Label | Fontana Tf 897 [2] | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan [2] | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Hurst [2] | |||
Manfred Mann singles chronology | ||||
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Official video | ||||
"Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)" from TopPop on YouTube |
"The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)" | |
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Song by Bob Dylan | |
from the album Self Portrait | |
Released | 8 June 1970 |
Recorded | 31 August 1969 |
Venue | Isle of Wight Festival, Wootton Creek |
Genre | Folk rock [3] |
Length | 2:48 |
Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
Producer(s) | Bob Johnston |
"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, [4] which became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the "Mighty Quinn" title.
The subject of the song is the arrival of Quinn (an Eskimo), who prefers a more relaxed lifestyle [" jumping queues, and making haste just ain't my cup of meat"] and refuses hard work ["Just tell me where to put 'em and I'll tell you who to call"], but brings joy to the people.[ original research? ]
Dylan is widely believed to have derived the title character from actor Anthony Quinn's role as an Eskimo in the 1960 movie The Savage Innocents . [5] Dylan has also been quoted as saying that the song was nothing more than a "simple nursery rhyme". A 2004 Chicago Tribune article [6] said the song was named after Gordon Quinn, co-founder of Kartemquin Films, who had given Dylan and Howard Alk uncredited editing assistance on Eat the Document .
Dylan first recorded the song in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years. Meanwhile, the song was picked up and recorded in December 1967 by the British band Manfred Mann, [7] who released it as a single in the US on 8 January 1968 under the title "Mighty Quinn". [8] A UK single followed within a week. [8] The Manfred Mann version reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for the week of 14 February 1968, and remained there the following week. [9] It also charted on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 10, and reached No. 4 in Cash Box . Cash Box called it a "funky-rock track" with "a trace of calypso [to] add zest to a tremendous effort." [10]
Later groups to feature the eponymous keyboardist, Manfred Mann Chapter Three [11] and Manfred Mann's Earth Band, played a dramatically different version of the song live. A live recording of part of the instrumental midsection was released on the 1975 Earth Band album Nightingales & Bombers under the title "As Above So Below". [12] The band finally released a live version of the entire song on their 1978 album Watch . The single edit, released to commemorate ten years since the release of the 1968 Manfred Mann hit version, omitted the prog middle part and included a few new guitar solos. Since that time, the song has appeared on numerous live recordings, the middle part often including long solos and/or snippets of other songs. On the album Mann Alive , the "As Above So Below" middle part has been replaced with a riff from "Oh Well" and in recent years, the band often quoted "Smoke on the Water" as well before returning to the main hook. Thus, their live performances of "Mighty Quinn" often run over ten minutes. It's probably the song most often played by Manfred Mann's Earth Band [13] and usually appears as the last song of the regular set or the last encore.
The Manfred Mann version is noted for Klaus Voormann's use of a distinctive flute part. This was replaced in the Earth Band version with Manfred playing it on an organ.
A demo of 14 of the 1967 Basement Tapes recordings, including the first of two takes of "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)", was produced in 1968, but was not intended for release. Recordings taken from the demos began appearing on bootlegs, starting with Great White Wonder , [7] a double-album bootleg that came out in July 1969. The first official release of the song was in 1970 on Dylan's Self Portrait album, [14] a live recording from 1969's Isle of Wight Festival. The live version (titled "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)") was also selected in 1971 for the second compilation of Dylan's career, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II . [15]
When Columbia finally released The Basement Tapes in 1975, the song was not among the double album's 24 songs (although an Inuk was represented on the album cover, alongside Dylan, The Band, and several other people meant to represent certain characters from some of Dylan's songs). However, ten years later in 1985, the second of the two 1967 takes appeared on the five-LP Biograph set (this time titled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"). [16] This version was used again on The Essential Bob Dylan , a compilation released in 2000. The first of the two 1967 takes was not officially released until 2014, on The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete .
The first release of the song, the #1 hit by Manfred Mann, which topped the UK charts in February 1968, was released as "Mighty Quinn". When Dylan released a live version of this song on his album Self Portrait, in June 1970, the song was titled "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)". This title was repeated when the same live recording was released on the album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in November 1971. When Dylan's original "basement tapes" recording of the song, backed by The Band and recorded in West Saugerties, New York in 1967, was eventually released as part of the compilation album Biograph, in 1985, it was entitled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"; this is the title according to the official Bob Dylan website. [17]
Although they never played the song with Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead started playing "The Mighty Quinn" in concert in 1985. It became a favorite encore among the Grateful Dead's fans, and remained so to the end of their career. [18]
In 1969, the Hollies put their own spin on "The Mighty Quinn", adding a prominent banjo accompaniment, a horn section, and a flute part in reference to Manfred Mann's version. This version was featured as the last song on the Hollies Sing Dylan album, and the group performed the song in concert in 1969 alongside "Blowin' in the Wind".
In 1969, Julie London sang a version of "The Mighty Quinn" on her final album Yummy, Yummy, Yummy . The album featured multiple covers of contemporary pop and rock songs with full orchestral arrangements, including "Louie Louie", "Light My Fire", and "The Mighty Quinn".
Leon Russell included a version in a medley with "I'll Take You There", "Idol With the Golden Head" and "He Lives (I Serve a Risen Savior)" that opens his album Leon Live .
Phish has played "Quinn the Eskimo" in concert a total of 38 times throughout their career, having first performed in 1985, two years after their formation. [19] The band performed the song at two of their festivals: Camp Oswego in 1999 and Superball IX in 2011. [20] [21] Covers of "Quinn the Eskimo" appear on two Phish live releases: the 1999 live box set Hampton Comes Alive and the 2010 live DVD Alpine Valley. [22] [23]
Noel Gallagher performed a live version on Thursday 10 June 2021 for the TV show Out of the Now on Sky Arts. The song closed a 12-song set performed at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End. Following that performance, the track was included twice on his 2022 tour of the U.K, before having it as a staple throughout his 2023 North American tour, and eventually keeping it within his setlists for the U.K and Europe legs of his 2023 'Council Skies' tour. [24]
Cornershop released a version of the song on their 2009 album Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast, retitled The Mighty Quinn.
Kris Kristofferson covered the song in 2012 for Chimes of Freedom, in honor of 50 years of Amnesty International. It has also been covered by Swiss rock groups Gotthard and Krokus. Jorn Lande covered this song as a hard rock rendition on his 2019 album Heavy Rock Radio II: Executing the Classics.
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A 1989 film, The Mighty Quinn , takes its name from the song; Dylan makes reference to the movie in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles: Volume One :
The Adult Swim show Joe Pera Talks with You uses "Mighty Quinn" as a season 2 opener in the episode "Joe Pera Talks with You About Beans". [42] This was not the version performed by Manfred Mann, because in the show an 8th grade choir is singing the track. On the Adult Swim Podcast Joe states that it wasn't as expensive to get rights to the song because the children were singing. [43]
The Pittsburgh Penguins NHL hockey team has used a parody version of the song, called "The Mighty 'Guins," as a fight song. [44]
The Manfred Mann version of the song is the anthem of the London Premiership rugby club Harlequin F.C.
Manfred Mann were an English rock band formed in London in 1962. They were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group had two lead vocalists: Paul Jones from 1962 to 1966 and Mike d'Abo from 1966 to 1969. Other members of various group line-ups were Mike Hugg, Mike Vickers, Dave Richmond, Tom McGuinness, Jack Bruce and Klaus Voormann.
Hampton Comes Alive is a six-disc live album by the American rock band Phish, released on November 23, 1999, by Elektra Records. It is the band's third live album and the first time complete live Phish concerts were released in their entirety. Hampton Comes Alive consists of two full concerts recorded on November 20 and 21, 1998, at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. The album title is a play on Peter Frampton's classic live album Frampton Comes Alive!.
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, as of 2024.
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". He is the father to actress Olivia d'Abo.
"Blinded by the Light" is a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on his 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. A cover by British rock band Manfred Mann's Earth Band reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in February 1977 and was also a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada.
"Free Man in Paris" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It appeared on her 1974 album Court and Spark, as well as her 1980 live album Shadows and Light. It is ranked No. 470 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Just Like a Woman" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. Dylan allegedly wrote it on Thanksgiving Day in 1965, though some biographers doubt this, concluding that he most likely improvised the lyrics in the studio. Dylan recorded the song at Columbia Studio A in Nashville, Tennessee in March 1966. The song has been criticized for sexism or misogyny in its lyrics, and has received a mixed critical reaction. Some critics have suggested that the song was inspired by Edie Sedgwick, while other consider that it refers to Dylan's relationship with fellow folk singer Joan Baez. Retrospectively, the song has received renewed praise, and in 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Dylan's version at number 232 in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. A shorter edit was released as a single in the United States during August 1966 and peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single also reached 8th place in the Australian charts, 12th place on the Belgium Ultratop Wallonia listing, 30th in the Dutch Top 40, and 38th on the RPM listing in Canada.
"This Wheel's on Fire" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko. It was originally recorded by Dylan and the Band during their 1967 sessions, portions of which comprised the 1975 album, The Basement Tapes. The Band's own version appeared on their 1968 album, Music from Big Pink. A version by Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity became a hit in 1968, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 13 in Canada. Live versions by the Band appear on their 1972 live double album Rock of Ages, as well as the more complete four-CD-DVD version of that concert, Live at the Academy of Music 1971, and the 2002 Box Set of The Last Waltz.
Budapest Live is an album released in 1984 by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The album was recorded on the "Somewhere in Europe" tour in 1983 in support of the "Somewhere in Afrika" album, and despite its title, also featured recordings from the Dominion Theatre in London. It was the final Earth Band album to appear on the Bronze label and also the last album recorded with Steve Waller and Matt Irving.
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by American musician Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan performing the song in September 1971 was released on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II album in November of that year, marking the first official release of the song by its author. Earlier 1967 recordings of the song, performed by Dylan and the Band, were issued on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes and the 2014 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete.
Great White Wonder, or GWW, is a rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is the first notable rock bootleg, and specifically the first release from bootleg record label Trademark of Quality. Seven of the twenty-four tracks presented here were recorded with The Band in the summer of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York, during the informal sessions that were later released in a more complete form in Dylan's 1975 album The Basement Tapes. Much of the other material consists of a recording made in December 1961 in a Minnesota hotel room, studio outtakes from several of Dylan's albums, and a live performance on The Johnny Cash Show. It was the first time that these previously unreleased recordings came to the market; many more would be released in similar formats over the coming years, though most were single albums, not double albums like this record.
The Basement Tapes is the sixteenth album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed by the Band, and were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, in the lapse between the release of Blonde on Blonde and the subsequent recording and release of John Wesley Harding, during sessions that began at Dylan's house in Woodstock, New York, then moved to the basement of Big Pink. While most of these had appeared on bootleg albums, The Basement Tapes marked their first official release. The remaining eight songs, all previously unavailable, feature the Band without Dylan and were recorded between 1967 and 1975.
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 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, 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.
"One Too Many Mornings" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin' in 1964. The chords and vocal melody are in some places very similar to the song "The Times They Are A-Changin'". "One Too Many Mornings" is in the key of C Major and is fingerpicked.
This is the discography of English rock band Manfred Mann.
"Big River" is a song written and originally recorded by Johnny Cash. Released as a single by Sun Records in 1958, it went as high as #4 on the Billboard country music charts and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks. The song tells a story of the chase of a lost love along the course of Mississippi River from Saint Paul, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana.
"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 was 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 fiancée 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 reiterating 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.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete is a compilation album of unreleased home recordings made in 1967 by Bob Dylan and the group of musicians that would become the Band, released on November 3, 2014 on Legacy Records. It is the ninth installment of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, available as a six-disc complete set, and as a separate set of highlights – in a two-disc format common to the rest of the series – entitled The Basement Tapes Raw.
"Davy's on the Road Again" is a 1970 song by John Simon and written by Simon and Robbie Robertson. First released on John Simon's Album, the song charted at No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart when covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
"Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James" is a song written by songwriters Geoff Stephens and John Carter, recorded by English pop group Manfred Mann in 1966. Previous to this, it was recorded by the band Herbie's People who were signed to CBS and had recorded other John Carter songs. The original title was "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. Jones" and was recorded that way by Herbie's People. Their version was pulled by CBS when Manfred Mann said they would record it. It was subsequently issued but only in the USA on the Okeh label. Stephens and Carter, who were writers for a publishing company on Denmark Street, London, wrote the song in a style different from their usual compositions, as love was not the prevalent theme. Introduced to the song by producer Shel Talmy, Manfred Mann recorded it at Philips Studio in August 1966. Released by Fontana Records on 21 October 1966, the song was backed by drummer Mike Hugg's composition "Morning After The Party" as the group's second single on the label. Keyboardist Manfred Mann plays the Mellotron on the recording; it was one of the earliest recordings featuring the instrument. Following a trend set by Bob Dylan, the song tackles the subject of life in British middle class suburbia from the perspective of a narrator, who laments the loss of a lover after her marriage to another man.