Album of the Week - Man - Welsh Connection
Rather pathetically, when we were teenagers and brought a new album to school to play, we'd always try to be cool about it, like we were insiders who knew the good stuff from the bad. And I confidently strode with my latest purchase, Now, there was no bigger fan of Man than me. They’d been one of my favourite bands for what felt like years but which was probably no more than 2 or 3.
So when I bought this when it came out, it was my pride and not inconsiderable joy. I bought it new as well, so it was a considerable investment for me. Now, Man were famous for their extended jams and less so for their studio tracks. I’d loved Slow Motion, their previous studio effort but this surpasses that I think.
It has 8 songs, well crafted and memorable, all between 4.00 and 7:20 minutes long. There’s little prolonged soloing which was their forte. The cover was designed by Joe Petagno who, amongst a storied career. designed ‘Snaggletooth’ for Motorhead. It’s the poise of the songs that I love, nothing is rushed or overplayed. The title track is a good example. The intertwining guitar melodies are so well crafted.
The song has a light and shade quality. There are so many sections to the song, so many ideas. I don’t know what you’d call this sort of music really. We just called it ‘rock’ but it has a beautiful, spacey psychedelic section which I'm sure is where the jamming would start.
It was one of only 3 of their albums to chart, making #40 in 1076. You can imagine, I was hardly thought of as the hippest cat in the 4th form for proudly carrying it under my arm to school in the Spring of that year and I was already forging a healthy ‘they don’t understand me’ attitude that has served me well ever since.
