Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To appreciate a craftsman can be seen as dying art. In the age of reckless disposability, of the ease of abandonment if something doesn’t work, seems scratched, useless or somehow out of flavour and fashion, people only see the final results and not the process.
The public seems at times so blasé about the carpenter spending weeks on building an ornate fireplace, the artist who sweats blood and questions his sanity over the smallest detail in a painting or the musician who sees things perhaps off kilter and sees a way to assemble in a different way a piece of music into a new arrangement, perhaps spending years in refining the process. In the 21st Century, all is disposable – except perhaps to Manfred Mann who takes the love of much admired tracks and gives them a spring clean, blows off the dust and makes them shine in a contemporary way. No need to dismiss, no need to forsake, Manfred Mann’s Lone Arranger is here to raise awareness to the art of remodelling and updating without the fear of rejection.
One of the great things about art is looking for the message that the artist may have placed in plain sight for the keen eyed observer to smile and nod in approval or to even think differently about the artist’s tendencies, it gives rise to the thought of inspiration. Inspiration can come in many forms though and the way that the legendary Manfred Mann takes tracks such as Free’s All Right Now, Queen’s We Will Rock You, the superb Nothing Compares To You, written by Prince but recorded famously by Sinead O’ Connor and the marvellous beauty that resides in the heart of I Heard It Through The Grapevine and gives them a beat in which to raise a glass high and with a certain smile to, for the only meaning attached to the songs that is one of rememberance and acknowledgement.
That smile that creeps across your face as guests such as the incredible Mark King, Ruby Turner, Kris Kristofferson and Viktoria Tolstoy place their considerable talents at the disposal of Manfred Mann is one in which to take great delight.
There will be those that bemoan this type of work, they might even suggest that to take a classic tune and somehow turn it around, put on a fresh look and send it out into the world is an attempt at musical relinquishment, however to keep a song in the same format forever is to cause it to become stale, dust ridden and eventually to fade to the confinements of Time. Abandonment is cruel, reckless and perhaps the most unhuman of actions but it does no harm to keep something close forever, even it means giving a new reason to breathe every so often.
Lone Arranger is just that, a reason to sing a different tune to the same song.
Ian D. Hall