Davy's On The Road Again

Manfred Mann

There was something fantastic about this song.  I just loved that simple driving bass line.  I first heard it on the radio and it blew me away.  Manfred Mann was a South African so we claimed him as our own. He had a massive hit with “The Mighty Quinn” which was a Dylan song and then another with “Blinded By the Light’ which was a Springsteen Song.  Most people didn’t realise they were covers and when they eventually heard the original artist they thought they were kak compared to Manfred Mann’s versions.  Check out the hilarious bit of video on VH1 Songwriters series where Bruce explains how Manfred got the words wrong and sang ”douche” instead of ”deuce”.  Manfred’s version was so popular the pretty much everyone sings douche now.

The moment I watched this clip it was like time stood still. I never saw it at the time but seeing it now makes me fall in love with the song all over again. Check out that big Hammond slide at [1:42], goose bumps. This is off Top of the Pops and you can just see that Manfred wants to rock out, absolutely superb.
JAMES DAUBENEY