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The Roaring Silence is the seventh studio album by English rock band Manfred Mann's Earth Band. It was released on 27 August 1976, by Bronze Records in the UK and by Warner Bros. Records in the US. Like other Earth Band albums, this includes material by other composers. "Blinded by the Light", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, is a cover version of a song by Bruce Springsteen; "Questions" is based on the main theme of Franz Schubert's Impromptu in G flat Major (1827); "Starbird" takes its theme from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird (1910); and "The Road to Babylon" is based on the canon "By the Waters of Babylon" by Philip Hayes. Lyrics and melody of the intro of "The Road to Babylon" is taken from the song "Babylon" from Don McLean's second album American Pie, released in 1971.
This album marked the arrival of vocalist/guitarist Chris Hamlet Thompson, and Dave Flett who replaced longtime guitarist/vocalist/composer Mick Rogers. It is also the last album recorded with founding member Colin Pattenden.
The instrumental track "Waiter, There's a Yawn in My Ear" is based on a live recording (with studio overdubs added later). The album's cover art is a visualization of this track's title. Its main riff is taken from the Manfred Mann Chapter Three track "Fish", which was recorded for their abandoned third album. It was ultimately released in 2005 on the Odds & Sods – Mis-takes & Out-takes box set.
Nightingales & Bombers was released, and when Chris and I joined we'd done an American tour without recording. I remember, on tour, we did a few tracks from the Nightingales & Bombers album, including "Spirit in the Night." We also did "Father of Day, Father of Night," and a couple of the newer ones, what would wind up on The Roaring Silence, to see how they went down.
— Dave Flett, Prog Rock FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Rock's Most Progressive Music
There were two pressings of this album available in the U.S. The original, shown here, and a reissue from 1977 with a blue cover which included "Spirit In The Night", another Springsteen song which had previously been released on Nightingales & Bombers and was now re-recorded with Chris Thompson taking lead vocals, in between "The Road to Babylon" and "This Side of Paradise". The first CD-release (1987) of this album did not contain bonus tracks, and tracks No. 3 and No. 7 had changed places.
The 1998 Remaster release of the album had the Chris Thompson version of ‘Spirits In The Night’ added to the end of the original album sequencing as well as the single edit version of ‘Blinded By The Light’.
