http://www.strawberrybricks.com/The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive RockCopyright 2017-2020 © Charles Snideren-ushttp://www.strawberrybricks.com/guide/releases/nightingales-bombersManfred Mann's Earth Band completed their first tour of the US in 1974, where they probably discovered the track that would open their next album, 1975's Nightingales & Bombers. A cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Spirits in the Night" also was released as a single, but hold this space: They'd return to the writer's well a year later for much greater fortunes. Two other covers grace the album: Joan Armatrading's "Visionary Mountains" and Bob Dylan's "Quit Your Low Down Ways." The band's talent lies in successfully turning tracks from such diverse sources into Earth Band tunes; try picking them apart from the band's own slightly funky, always hip songs, like "Time Is Right" or "Fat Nelly." The remainder of the album intersperses several instrumental numbers between the vocal tracks, highlighting the band's technical expertise: On "Countdown" and "Crossfade," Mann's synthesizer trades licks with Mick Rogers's fiery lead guitar, all over the brisk rhythm section of bassist Colin Pattenden and drummer Chris Slade. The title track, written by Rogers, is the album's touchstone, offering a kind of fusion that's as good as any other fusion-laced track of the era. The album, however, failed to chart, and the single barely scraped the Top 100 in the US. But the band's fortune was about to change: Rogers would leave the band in 1976, to be replaced by vocalist Chris Thompson and guitarist Dave Flett. The ensuing release, The Roaring Silence—spearheaded by another Springsteen cover, "Blinded by the Light"—would carry the album to No. 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, with the song topping the charts in the US and rising to No. 6 in the UK. From here, the Earth Band's music would move toward more commercial terrain; this shift provided moderate chart success over the next several years.http://www.strawberrybricks.com/guide/releases/nightingales-bombersWed, 03 Jun 2026 12:30:19 -0500