Album By Album - Slow Motion

[Nick Nation]

I must stress that my thoughts on the audience were based on gigs in London or nearby - Southend, Norwich, Ipswich, Birmingham etc, all easily hitch-hikeable in those days, so may not reflect what was going on elsewhere.

You don't get many hitch hikers these days...that's something that's changed. It used to be quite an adventure!   

[Nick Nation]

The album cover is mid-blue. Man are not a mid-blue type of band.

[Olly Goodwin]

...But Man did aspire to be a Rick Griffin type of band.
I'm looking forward to Mr. Nation's short but colourful review of MD.......

[Jules]

The album cover is mid-blue. Man are not a mid-blue type of band.

Yes, on balance I think I prefer the reddy-brown albums.

[Jon M]

Slow Motion?
I really like this lp, the first really good studio lp after BGTY, and especially side one which is as good as it gets.
Sure, it does not sound like a typical Man lp but musically it is full of ideas and changes in direction, starting with the intro to track one. It really is a treat and that variety has kept me listening to it ever since. Yes, there are a couple of weaknesses, the fluffed guitar solo already mentioned and the shrill arrangement of ’one more time’. Lyrically it is downbeat with a despondent look to the future, ‘ a knife in every back’, consistently and at times entertainingly so but this does not interfere with the quality of the music, instead providing a continuity across the album. The one lyrical exception is ‘Rainbow Eyes’ which I still find excruciating and perhaps it should have been left as an instrumental.
It remains a very good and entertaining lp, one of Man’s best, third after BGTY and DYLIHN in my view.
I doubt if Terry ever worked harder or better on an lp and certainly not on the next one, WC; the quality of his drumming lets you know that you listening to Man.

[Rob the Organ]

But perhaps most importantly, the was the first album without a third big writing contributor (previously of course Clint, Phil and Will, and Malcolm).

...and as I have been participating in this album by album series of topics, and getting my narative into shape for that Shindig! piece, several times it has struck me what an important ingredient Clint was.

A founder, a mover and shaker, we all know that...as do we all know him as a strong writer, lead singer and cherish his throaty Hammond work. But it goes deeper than that.

Clint seemed to have the knack of being the glue that held a band together, despite being one of the notable faces who bailed out twice. Look at late 1971 when he started to lose interest: the band went on to some dizzy heights as a live act in terms of the legendary four piece on Truckers/Padget, and coped without his by then inconsistent stage presence, but did they have a studio album in them? No, it fell to bits. And look to whom Micky flocked after it fell to bits...

With Clint back on board they delivered BGTY, a studio masterpiece. Much of the knocking of this band into shape as a unit was done in the IP&N period, Micky & Terry slotting in along the way but with musicians of this caliber even getting a three-man alliance in tune with each other and providing the later additions with a cohesive nucelus to fit into would be (was) sufficient spadework and doubtlessly inspired Will to churn the songs out for this fine new act.

Move on a year to early 1973: Clive had gone again. The songs on BITF aren't as strong and the band - as had the early 1972 line up, big time - relied upon strong live renditions of older material and improvised jams to flesh out their recorded output. By the new year they were no more.

By 1975, Clint's part in the Man tale was all but over - yet STILL United Artists thought him worthy of a solo release; Brand X reeks of the creative attitude that helped MACBFGU take shape; Summer Song showcases a rather soothing and not unlike Brian Wilson structure and compositional maturity. And witty lyrics aside, Hold Your Ferret Aloft is EXACTLY what the BGTY follow up just might have sounded like: that same languid vibe, Phil's electric piano well to the fore...

So then - did Clive really leave twice for a rest or loss of interest...or could he see when a great line up was starting to fragment anyway and not want to be around when it finally imploded? Twice?

[Nick Nation]

Definitely the second time, he said as much on the Voicepants vid. The first time I don't think so...

[Rob the Organ]

Definitely the second time, he said as much on the Voicepants vid. The first time I don't think so...

Probably right. But the knock on was the same: Clive leaves; live band works around it somehow; studio matters suffer.

[Colin Salter]

I bought this as soon as it came out and took it straight to a friend's party without even listening to it. Banged it on, was loving it and then that slowdown at the end of You Don't Like Us tripped us all up. Too tricksy.
Terry's hihat work on Hard Way to Die, along with the piano part, was an amazing hard-soft rhythm section. Grasshopper felt like the sort of ballad filler Black Sabbath used to inflict on us occasionally. Rock'n'Roll You Out and You Don't Like Us I really liked, not filler at all but good rock n roll. Bedtime Bone had a great proggy jazzy vibe with an edge of evil about it. One More Chance has its moments (a knife in every back!) but the chorus with the slide guitar was too screechy for me. Rainbow Eyes was just hippy-drippy nonsense. Day and Night was fun but very much a Deke solo track, better suited to Iceberg than SM.
Definitely more ups than downs, and the whole saga of the cover art made you feel good about the band, still breaking rules.

[Davey]

 ...this was also the 1st Man lp i bought, around the turn of the century,after seeing
a picture of it in the mid 80s in a new musical express rock encyclopedia from '79 ,which i re read for ambience over the years...i liked the quirky chord changes of Hard way to Die , again the song and production sounded like something you might have heard on the radio , but the lyrics " i don' t like you ..." not many top 10 hits w/ that sentiment...this record was around at all the used record stores...the encyclopedia says that  "Slow Motion became one of the most played albums in U.S. that year " circa '75 when they were touring America (and that it charted in 4 European countries)... that may be a bit of hype, but it made the encyclopedia, which could be very withering at times...the outro to Grasshopper is sublime...i listened to the rest of album intently , looking at the cover etc...at the time i also dug the changes in You dont like Us during the lyric" if you want some rock n roll " and the melodic riff bet. lyrics in Bedtime Bone...that riff also sounded like it could have been on the radio; music of the times...a hit without the accolades...but other than that , i let the album drift to the backburner...it was probably a year later that i saw a re issue of Revelation in a psychedelic revival type record store on newbury st. in boston and picked it up...now many years later, i can listen to Slow Motion from front to back and really enjoy it although it isnt totally my cup of tea...i think its a well produced and cohesive album ... If there is something silly in a particular song usually it is mitigated by something cool...i dig the lines " she stole my fender, and she kicked me out " and " now you dont want to know me 'cause im dirty and stoned " from Rock and Roll you Out...i think Rainbow Eyes is well produced... i eventually bought a prototype poster of the cover which is in my avatar...i was renting a music rehearsal space called ironically flood studios , as water came leaking down the wall and slightly damaged the white surrounding the full pic...well i wasnt going to sell it any way...im going to try and get a frame surrounding the pic to hide the water marks, as the picture itself is still ok, theres a framing place around the corner that says they can do it...i had lost my original copy , and the replacement one had Dekes liner notes in the middle...does anyone know what Deke was on when he wrote those ? if i had read those in the 1st place i wonder if would have got another Man album sooner; or later  ... in 2010 i brought the encyclopedia with me to the Micky Jones tribute shows and got Deke,Terry, Ken, Will, also Richard Treeces,John Weathers, Nik Turner,and Tony Mcphees autographs...that was fun... btw thanks to Tony Smith and John Bannon for putting me up and and putting up with me on that trip - peace...