The Good Earth  by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

In 1974, Manfred Mann's Earth Band released the fifth album of their career. Its title is The Good Earth and it comes from the opening track of the album, which is titled Give Me The Good Earth and is a cover of a song by Gary Wright from 1971.

Here, the band manages to marry jazz rock and hard rock, all under the umbrella of progressive rock. Manfred Mann and the other members of the band are responsible for the album's production. The album aimed to convey an ecological message. For this reason, there was a coupon inside the first copies of the album, which anyone who mailed it to a specific address by December 31, 1975, would win one square foot of land in a region of Wales (!) This was neither a scam nor an advertising trick, and thousands of people mailed it and won this small piece of land. Such a piece of land is depicted on the album cover, which is a work by Linda Glover.

The one and only single from the album was Be Not Too Hard, which was released on November 1, 1974. The Good Earth reached No. 157 on the Billboard chart.