Back Into the Future ~ Remastered + Bonus Tracks [Deluxe Edition]
This album, originally a double LP, was Man's first to chart (in the main album charts at least) and it's the first album of theirs that I bought. I was sufficiently impressed to start buying their others soon afterwards but this remains one of my favourites, primarily for the two excellent side long live tracks from the second disc. They sounded so hot on these tracks that I was soon longing to hear more of the same concert - it always seemed obvious that their whole set must have been recorded. In 1977, C'mon and Jam Up Jelly Tight were joined by Bananas, frustratingly spread over two sides of an EP issued some months after the last 70s line-up of the band had split. It was so good that my interest in hearing the rest of the concert increased further.
So now at last the great day has arrived and Esoteric have reissued the album with the entire concert as a bonus. CD 1 contains the original album in its original running order; I've reviewed the BGO reissue separately so I'll say little more on the subject as it is the bonus material that will be interesting most potential purchasers. CDs 2 and 3 contain the whole concert in (presumably) the correct running order, with CD 3 ending with 2 studio out-takes recorded a few months after the album, presumably for a single that was never issued: The Single (I'm Dreaming) was first issued a couple of years back on the Keep On Crinting compilation and is certainly worth hearing, though not that brilliant; The Symbol Who Came To Dinner (the intended B-side of this unissued 45?) is a little over-complicated but perhaps slightly better; both would have sounded at home on side 1 of the original studio album.
When I first heard of this release I was a little concerned that by reissuing the original album but also reproducing the complete original concert in its correct running order Esoteric had duplicated the live tracks from the original album. They have done this, however the entire concert as reproduced on CDs 2 and 3 has been newly mixed for this release, so they aren't exactly duplicated. The good news is that it's been far better done than the appallingly unbalanced mess on the Greasy Truckers reissue, however I'm not wholly persuaded that it couldn't have been better - particularly on C'mon, though this hardly matters given you've got the superior original mix. It does sound very live, however, and you can hear everyone clearly enough. Both the full set list and the actual performance are fascinating. Apart from Spunk Rock, the entire set is taken from the studio half of this album and its excellent predecessor Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day; while Bananas and C'mon have remained in their set ever since, live versions of A Night In Dad's Bag, Just For You and Ain't Their Fight are a rare treat as they were never played by subsequent line-ups and disappeared from their set within months. The first two, unsurprisingly given how recently they'd been recorded, sound pretty similar to the studio versions but have that extra live "oomph". Ain't Their Fight is looser and sounds like they'd been playing it for longer (Will Youatt wrote it for Be Good To Yourself). It has its moments but the vocal lets it down in places. Of the Be Good To Yourself tunes, Bananas is fabulous, certainly better than the Maximum Darkness version, and the previously unheard Life On The Road is very good too. And finally, the very familiar Jam Up Jelly Tight (almost certainly the first Man track I ever heard) has a little surprise in the shape of a couple of vocal passages that were mixed out of the original release.
So while this isn't a perfect reissue - the live mix probably betrays the limited time resources available for a project of this kind with fairly limited sales potential (the same probably goes for Greasy Truckers) and the performance has a few minor dips - it is nonetheless a highly desirable item for Man fans and seems likely to be one of the best selling of this series. Thank you Esoteric - let's have some more complete concerts please
If there was a single high point in the history of Man, between 1968 and 1976, this performance at the Roundhouse in June 1973 is a strong candidate. The entire concert is captured on this new 3 Disc Esoteric release. While the re-release of the original Back into the Future album which features on Disc 1 of the three disc set is more than welcome, it is the presentation of the entire Roundhouse set on Discs 2 and 3 which make this release the most important of the Esoteric re-release series so far. This concert represents Man at the peak of their powers and is head and shoulders above other live Man available on CD.
The whole concert is of a consistently high quality. There is not a bad number on this 7 track live set (8 if you count the introduction from the Gwalia Male Voice Choir). And at least 4 or 5 of those tracks are nothing short of extraordinary. The performances of "C'mon" and "Bananas" featured here are superior by a large margin to other versions released on Man live sets. After listening to this "Bananas" here you won't bother playing ever again the version on "Maximum Darkness", for example. And the quality of Man's performance on this release becomes even clearer if you compare "C'mon" and "Bananas" with the versions that appeared on the BBC In Concert release recorded on the Up for the Day tour in October 1973. The arrangements were the same, the line-up is the same but the intensity and vibe of the October performance was lacking. In June, Man were performing at their absolute best - by October the conflicts described by Deke Leonard in his liner notes were taking their toll on the music. Apart from "C'mon" and "Bananas" the set also features excellent versions of "Life on the Road" and "Ain't their Fight" as well as an extraordinary jam leading into an inevitable "Spunk Rock".
Will Youatt's "Ain't their Fight" deserves a special mention as it was a favorite in the Man live set during the previous incarnation of the group with Clive John and continued later into the live set of Alcatraz, Will Youatt's post Man group in 1976. An encore number at the Roundhouse gig, it features all that was good about this particular configuration of Man: a dark funky backbeat and unpretentious lyrics, overlaid with a dense inter-play of guitar and keyboard work.
The line-up on this recording, which has inexplicably been omitted from the sleeve notes was Micky Jones (Guitar / Vocals), Will Youatt (Bass / Vocals); Phil Ryan (Keyboards / Vocals); Tweke Lewis (Guitar) and Terry Williams (Drums). Whereas the 1972 line-up of Martin Ace, Deke Leonard, Micky Jones and Terry Williams produced tight driving rock, this album features a very different Man. "Jam up Jelly Tight", "Ain't their Fight" and the second half of "Bananas" feature wonderfully fluid, jazzy guitar inter-play work as Lewis and Jones effortlessly and spontaneously bounce licks off each other. . Compared to Man's regular second guitarist, Deke Leonard, Tweke Lewis never got the credit he deserved, probably because he only survived six months in the group. These recordings are really a tribute to the contribution Lewis made to Man's sound of the epoch. The contrast between the delicacy and subtlety of the guitar and keyboard interplay and the solidly rhythms being laid down by Youatt and Williams makes it feel like the band is trying to touching heaven with it's fingertips but with it's feet firmly planted on the ground. This music has heart as well as muscle.
None of the other live albums get anywhere close to this. The version of "Spunk Rock" on the original Greasy Truckers album (not on the awful remix on the Esoteric re-release) was a high point of the 1972 Ace / Jones Leonard / Williams line-up and one of the very best Man recordings ever - but it was a single track. Parts of "Live at the Paget Rooms" and "Maximum Darkness" reach similar peaks of intensity with the same Ace / Jones /Leonard / Williams line-up (and with the addition of Quicksilver guitarist John Cippolina on the latter) but not the whole set. Those who like the hard-rock facet of Man may prefer these sets. The Man on "Back into the Future" sounds like a different band altogether. Gone are rockers such as "Romain" and "Many are Called". In are the complex textures and more magical sound that this line-up specialized in.
This recording is without a doubt a 5 star offering that could be recommended to both Man stalwarts and newcomers alike. It is difficult to imagine Esoteric trumping this one in any future release. One minor gripe is with the inaccuracy of Deke Leonard's liner notes. The June 1973 Roundhouse concert was not on the autumn Up for the Day Tour as Deke states; the Rock at the Oval gig was in September 1972 and not in May 1973 and was played by the previous Clive John line-up. Tweke Lewis never gets a mention in the liner notes at all. A better account is to be found in Deke's book "Rhinos Winos and Lunatics". Who cares? Probably not everyone but these inaccuracies will be noted by long-term Man aficionados who like their facts straight.
Disc: 1
1. Night In Dad's Bag
2. Just For You
3. Back Into The Future
4. Don't Go Away
5. Ain't Their Fight
6. Never Say Nups To Nepalese
7. Sospan Fach
8. C'mon
9. Jam Up Jelly Tight/Oh No Not Again
Disc: 2
1. Sospan Fach
2. Night In Dad's Bag
3. C'mon
4. Just For You
5. Jam Up Jelly Tight/Oh No Not Again
Disc: 3
1. Bananas
2. Life On The Road
3. Ain't Their Fight
4. Single (I'm Dreaming)
5. Symbol Who Came Down To Dinner
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