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Site Updated on 17th November 2002
by Terry Willson

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There are many great Man tracks and there are many versions of the same song because of the number of live albums that have been issued. So here is my Top Ten - it may stay like this, but probably not. I would say that the top 5 in this list would probably not move in and out - just the order would vary. The rest - I may go - oh - minutes without listening to them but something always draws me back.

1 - C'Mon From The Album Back Into The Future
On the 24th June 1973 Man played the Chalk Farm Roundhouse, a kind of spiritual gigging home for the band, and it was there with the Pye Mobile that the band recorded the live disc for the album Back Into The Future.I have several live versions of this track, by various line up's of Man and the great thing is all of the versions are different. But to me this one, the first live recording of this track to be issued, is the ultimate.

2 - Spunk Rock from the 1st Greasy Truckers Benefit
This album was the recording of part of the 1st benefit show for a rather loose collective called the "Greasy Truckers". Nobody is really sure who the "Greasy Truckers" were, the best is guess is that they were a bunch of hippies who used to do good deeds for homeless people, squats etc. According to Deke Leonard's history of Man, Rhino's Wino's and Lunatics by the time this recording starts on the record, the band had been playing for about 20 Minutes.

3 - 7171551 From Maximum Darkness
This is my Man feel good track, the one I play to cheer me up. I would always say as well that Deke Leonard is a good guitarist and in any other band he would be the top dog, he just has the misfortune to be in a band with the greatest guitar player in rock - misfortune I would give almost anything to play on the same stage as Jones, and Deke gets to do it almost every night for 30 plus years. However Deke gets an upper hand with the pen.

4 - The Ride And The View From The Welsh Connection
Here we have the song that from the very opening just oozes class. It starts with a chugging guitar and with some slide from Mickey, then the whole band with Phil's keyboards, piano and synth. taking the rhythm. But then we have the Lyrics which for me make the song so great, pure Deke. "I was out on the road to nowhere, leaving nowhere fast behind" just a great opening line in anybodies book.

5 - Drivin' Around From Call Down The Moon
Here is a track, recorded in 1995, that takes us back to the Man of old but still very much Man of the new. On the surface this seems a normal Man type song, but what got to me was that I could just visualise this being played live, and it just took me back to those great gigs of the 70's when you just got absorbed into some classy on stage jamming before picking up on a familiar riff. This pick up, using a song from earlier in the album, showed that this was just not another song, it was there and I really saw this as a new C'Mon or Many Are Called But Few Get Up. Unfortunately this was not to be as the problems the band faced in the late 90's saw the song disappear from the set.

6 - Day And Night From Slow Motion
The first of the shorter tracks, there is a lot about this song that I really like. Firstly Deke's slide riff opening is just so catchy, you really just want to bounce along with this one. The lyrics are also once again full of great word matching and imagery. "Singing a song to an empty room and hoping that people will applaud" showing despair but hope. "Stumbling and falling and lying there hoping that someone will come and pick her up" hope again "The Devil is talking his voice is familiar then suddenly I hear that voice is mine" the self doubt, and all the time it's a song of guilt about a lost love - or is it? A great song from Deke.

7 - Kerosene from Rhinos Winos and Lunatics
Their most commercial album gives us a Micky Jones song which was featured by Micky in his "solo" career. The studio version features some really nice Keyboards from Malcolm Morley and some great vocal harmonies. In Michael Heatley's sleeve notes for the CD re-issue it states that the band feared that this song was pushing them in the direction of American style AOR and that Roy Thomas Baker used "Queen" style harmonies. Still it also featured in the set list when the band reformed in 1983. Great solo from Micky at the end - oh yes She was the whore who opened the door.

8 - Bananas from 1976 Single/Rare Man
Recorded at the Roundhouse gig that gave us the Back To The Future version of C'Mon I personally think this is the definitive version of the Man anthem to the weed. The big tragedy is that it has been cut in two and when the opportunity came to correct this on the album "Rare Man" it was not done. Still it is played with enthusiasm as it was still relatively new as a song and featuring some superb drumming from Terry Williams. Unfortunately I also think the song should have been buried a few years ago.

9 - Many Are Called But Few Get Up from 1998 At The Star Club
Now here's a different story and probably one of the, many, reasons why the band are so great. Here we have the traditional set closer at a new matured level. I believe what makes this such a great song is that it is a classic piece of British psychedelic rock and in this version the band start to harken back to their roots by introducing the track "The Storm" from the 1969 album 2oz's of Plastic...... Suddenly the song about green flies, ant's on frosted glass was developing again, one of Man's great strength's - taking a song and developing it as a live opus.