Finding the Good Earth

“The owner of this album is entitled to rights over one square foot of the earth situated at Llanerchyrfa in the County of Brecon, Wales". That’s the somewhat unusual offer that Manfred Mann’s Earth Band made in 1974 when they released their high-octane, prog-rock album The Good Earth.  If you applied to register your claim by the end of 1975, you too could be the proud owner of a square foot of earth on a remote hillside in Wales.

Keyboard player Manfred Mann enjoyed huge success during the 1960s with a string of hits including 5-4-3-2-1, Doo-Wah-Diddy, and the Mighty Quinn. In the early 1970s, it was time to move on to a different style of music. And a very different style of album.

Fans such as Terry Strong, from Caerleon, were captivated by the music, and were doubly intrigued by what seemed to be the free offer to top the lot: a plot of land in the Welsh hills. Like many thousands of fans, Terry sent off to claim his plot. And like many thousands of fans, he heard nothing more about it.

So, was it all a gimmick to sell records? “I’m really not that stupid,” declares Manfred. “As if anybody would buy a record they don’t like just to get a free plot of land”.

Whatever the reason (many see the band  as pioneers in ecological awareness) the Good Earth acres have entered rock mythology, even though very few fans have ever seen them. Not surprising when the album contains only very scant details about where to find them. And in the intervening forty-years, the landscape has changed considerably, after being planted with row on row of sitka spruce.

It seems that very few people, if anybody, can know which particular square foot has been assigned to them. But as Euron discovers, the Good Earth still has a place in the hearts of prog rock fans and nature lovers.