Manfred Mann's Earth Band ( B1 )

Manfred Mann's Earth Band is 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 despite a short hiatus in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the Earth Band continues to perform and tour.

History

Formation

Keyboardist Manfred Mann started in the 1960s with the self-titled band that had such hits as "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn" and then moved on to jazz fusion-inspired Manfred Mann Chapter Three before forming the Earth Band in 1971. In his 2003 autobiography, Klaus Voormann, an associate of the Beatles and a former member of the group Manfred Mann, alleges to have inspired the Earth Band's name by having suggested several times throughout the 1960s that Mann's soft pop style of those days had to become "earthier" and rockier, not least because of the seemingly effeminate image of Mann's earlier band which had led to a number of close encounters with violence, particularly in Ireland. According to the officially approved version, however, the name was chosen at the suggestion of drummer Chris Slade in September 1971, and is related to the ecological movement ongoing at the time.

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