<strong>Sunday Music – Mighty Quinn – The Bob Dylan Series (Part 10)</strong>

Today’s music video is ‘Mighty Quinn’ from Manfred Mann.

This video was posted to You Tube by fritz51351

In 1966, Bob would have been quite satisfied with things. His two earlier albums ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ and ‘Blonde On Blonde’ had spent almost 6 months riding high in the charts, and he had a couple of successful songs also doing well, as well as the numerous covers from other artists and bands also doing quite well. He had just completed a long and also successful World tour. On this tour he was backed by a group of musicians made up from mainly a band called the Hawks, later to change their name to The Band.

In July, Bob had a motorcycle accident, and during that recovery period, band members would visit and just play. Bob was still prolific with writing and during this period, and at various locations, they would play a lot of this new material together as a band to settle on final versions of these new songs. What came from this was a series of recording sessions from 1967 which later morphed into what was the legendary double album called ‘The Basement Tapes’. Some of the material from these sessions would appear on Bob’s next studio album, and some would also appear on the album brought out by The Band titled ‘Music From The Big Pink’. There were numerous ‘bootleg’ versions of these songs that would appear in the interim, but a final version of ‘The Basement Tapes’ was not released as an album until mid 1975, almost 9 years after this session.

One of the songs written by Bob at the time was ‘Quinn The Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)’. This song, oddly, did not appear on ‘The Basement Tapes’, but Bob included it on his 1970 album, another double, titled ‘Self Portrait’, and this was a live version of the song, from Bob’s appearance at the Isle Of Wight Music Festival in 1969.

The song was picked up by an already well established English band, Manfred Mann, and they recorded their version, releasing it in 1968, under the title ‘Mighty Quinn’. It became the band’s third Number One hit and spent a long time in the charts, both in the UK, and around the World. As happens when other bands record songs, even though the lyrics are the same, the arrangement differs, and this version of Bob’s song was one that, if it can be said, was one of those that actually sounded better than Bob’s original. It was catchy, and sold extremely well for Manfred Mann.

Manfred Mann exists in two entities, the band of that name and the artist who gave the band its name.

Manfred was a classically trained pianist, studying music at University. He relocated from South Africa to the UK in 1971. With drummer Mike Hugg, he formed the Mann Hugg Blues Brothers, later shortening it to just Manfred Mann, and I guess that original name was as unfashionable in 1962 as it would be now. Manfred used a variety of keyboards and experimented with organs as well as synthesisers and the MiniMoog. The band was huge in the UK from 1964 until 1969, having 14 Top Ten Hits, as well as four Number ones. Then, as happens with bands, they slowly splintered.

Manfred went on to form Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1971. Manfred was including electronics more and more into his music, and used numerous keyboards and effects, placing them effectively into the music of his new band. Throughout the 70′s they were quite prolific, and toured extensively.

I went to one of their concerts in Newcastle Australia, in my concert going days, and it would rank as one of the best concerts I attended. The band was on stage for more than two hours, a rarity at the time, and their live music was absolutely perfect. Manfred Mann’s skill as an arranger and orchestrator blended the numerous instruments of the band into some beautiful music, even while categorised as rock, it was easy to listen to. Manfred was one of the earliest keyboard players in a band to be surrounded by an array of different keyboards, set up in three sides around him, and even though visible, he was almost hidden behind those tables of keyboards. What also impressed me at that concert was the size of the huge mixing table which was part of the band’s on stage performance, that mixing table placed mid theatre. I had never seen something of this size, and the guy operating that table was as much part of the band as those who were on the stage. I was lucky to be seated almost alongside the mixing table, and the operator worked as hard as the band on stage.

I have a collection of 6 of their vinyl albums from that 1970′s period. They had a huge Number One hit with Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Blinded By The Light’, and also a second big hit with Springsteen’s ‘Spirit In The Night’, which was so popular, it was actually included on two of their studio albums. Popular at all their live concerts and also on one of those studio albums was the original ‘Mighty Quinn’ from Manfred’s earlier band, and this live version was a longer and more driving version of this song.

One of their most underrated albums would have to be ‘Angel Station’ when Manfred would have to have been at the very peak of his craft as an arranger. The album includes songs that were beautifully performed, and crafted. One of the songs from that album is Bob Dylan’s ‘You Angel You’ from his 14th Studio album ‘Planet Waves’, released in 1974.

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s album ‘Angel Station’, although critically acclaimed did not sell as well as earlier albums, a great pity, because this would have to be one of the best albums to come out of the late 1970′s.

There is a live version of ‘You Angel You’ on You Tube, from a concert as recent as 2009, but I prefer the original recording from the album, shown in this video with an overlay of images.

This video was posted to You Tube by TeunBaan20051963

This link takes you to Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s version of Springsteen’s ‘Blinded By The Light’, this from Bert Sugarman’s The Midnight Special TV program. This clip is noted for Manfred’s detail in wanting live performances to be as close as possible to the studio version on the album. The array of keyboards you see here around Manfred would be about half of what he has during live concerts. The singer is Chris Thompson, with Chris Slade on drums, and Dave Flett on lead guitar.

This link takes you to Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s longer version of Dylan’s ‘Mighty Quinn’, this from a live concert in Budapest in 1983.

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Tagged: Bob Dylan, Manfred Mann, Music, Music Video, Videos

Posted in: Music, Videos