''The Good Earth'' is the fifth studio album released by

Manfred Mann's Earth Band Manfred Mann's Earth Band are an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann. Their hits include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You (Bruce Springsteen song), For You", "Blinded by the Light" an ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

. Its opening song is a cover of "Give Me the Good Earth", written by

Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (April 26, 1943 – September 4, 2023) was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive". Wright's breakthrough album, '' The Dream Weaver'' (1975), came after he h ...

and released on his 1971 solo album ''

Footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...

'', while tracks 2 and 3 were originally by Australian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

. Early owners of each copy of ''The Good Earth'' were entitled to rights over 1 square foot of the earth situated at Llanerchyrfa in the County of Brecon, in Wales. The inner sleeve included a coupon that had to be sent for registration. This was part of the promotion activities linked to the album that had ecological inspirations. There was no swindle and thousands of fans were registered. Registration could be done on or before 31 December 1975. The album was on the US

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

charts for three weeks, peaking at number 157 on 7 December 1974.

Track listing

Side one

#"Give Me the Good Earth" (

) – 8:31 #"Launching Place" (

Mike Rudd Michael David Rudd (born 15 June 1945) is a New Zealand-born musician and composer who has been based in Australia since the mid 1960s, and who was the leader of Australian progressive rock bands Spectrum and Ariel in the 1970s. Biography Mich ...

) – 5:52 #" I'll Be Gone" (Rudd) – 3:42

Side two

"Earth Hymn" (

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. They were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group had two l ...

Chris Slade Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh drummer, who is perhaps best known for playing for Manfred Mann's Earth Band from its inception in 1971 to 1978 on eight albums, and AC/DC, for which he drummed from 1989 to ...

) – 6:19 #"Sky High" (Mann, Mick Rogers) – 5:15 #"Be Not Too Hard" (Rogers,

Christopher Logue Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011)Mark EspineObituary: Christopher Logue ''The Guardian'', 2 December 2011 was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, ...

) – 4:12 #"Earth Hymn Part 2" (Mann, Slade) – 4:18

Bonus Tracks (1998 CD reissue)

"Be Not Too Hard" (Single version) (Rogers, Logue) – 3:39 #"I'll Be Gone" (Single Version) (Rudd) – 3:28 #"Earth Hymn Part 2a" (Single Version) (Mann, Slade) – 4:13

Personnel

The Earth Band

–

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Hohner clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respo ...

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

synthesiser A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, keyboards * Mick Rogers –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Colin Pattenden Colin Roy Pattenden (born November 1947, Farnborough, Kent, England) is an English bass guitarist, chiefly known for his membership of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Career Pattenden was taught guitar but learned to play bass from tuition books ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Technical

* Manfred Mann's Earth Band –

producers Producer(s), The Producer(s), or co-producer(s) may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *Producer, a stakeholder of economic production * Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes t ...

* John Pantry –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Laurence Latham – assistant engineer * Linda Glover – design * Alan Shawcroff –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

* Re-mastered by: Robert M Corich and Mike Brown

Charts

References

External links

Manfred Mann's Earth Band – ''The Good Earth'' (1974) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Manfred Mann's Earth Band – ''The Good Earth'' (1974) album credits & user reviews
at ProgArchives.com
Manfred Mann's Earth Band – ''The Good Earth'' (1974) album to be listened
on

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Manfred Mann's Earth Band albums 1974 albums Bronze Records albums Warner Records albums {{1970s-rock-album-stub