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Thread: What are the best Gentle Giant albums IYO?

  1. #176
    Gentle Giant to me took the same trajectory as other prog bands. They started rooted in psychedelic or folk, experimented and got more interesting. Peaked with a few really wonderful albums, then suddenly declined in the later part of the 70's.

    I credit them for bringing in other influences like funk and groove into the progressive domain. I also like that they shunned the typical or expected 20 minute opus or epic pieces typical of prog bands of that era.

    To me their weakness was the lack of a great guitar player... not chops mind you... but a player who really served the music and enhanced it, rather than just playing over it. I also think vocally they lacked a "heart felt expression" and the vocals never really feel sincere. It's playful music, amazing technical arrangements, and more similar to Zappa than Yes or Genesis.

  2. #177
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    First two tracks are sublime, the middle two on side 2 as well - but the rest doesn't grab me at all. I feel Three Friends to be a much more even affair, with some of their best tracks altogether ("Prologue", "Schooldays", "Mr. Class & Quality/Three Friends").
    Three Friends is more coherent, then AtT, but again, first two tracks are the best. The ending is beautiful. On AtT, I love the Wreck too - blues rock mixed with Renaissance kind of music, sounds nice.

  3. #178
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    Actually, IaGH is an attemptive "loose" concept album as well - and TPatG is arguably even more of a cohesive concept album than Three Friends, albeit not a narrative but rather a thematic cycle. Still Three Friends remains the most recognizable at that, partly because of the semi-symphonic nature of several songs.
    Could you please explain what the concept or storyline of Gmlass House or TP&TG, coz I miss it alltogethe?

    AFAIK; only Intercvie and 3F are conceptual.
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  4. #179
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    The Power & The Glory plot was based on watergate scandal, if I remember well...But for me it makes no sense, or very little at best..

  5. #180
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    Could you please explain what the concept or storyline of Gmlass House or TP&TG, coz I miss it alltogethe?

    AFAIK; only Intercvie and 3F are conceptual.
    It's not a narrative, I already stated as much. A concept album doesn't have to be; this is a "progger's" misconception of the term - it's not Berlioz'ian programme composition. It's a concept album when there's an overriding and collective idea to why the music is structured, sorted and sequenced as given, and The Power and the Glory, for instance, is a thematic cycle on power struggles, political greed dynamics, social consciousness and the lot. Read the lyrics.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
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  6. #181
    Quote Originally Posted by yesstiles View Post
    Who's your favorite acapella group?
    Mine are:
    Die Prinzen
    Comedian Harmonists
    (not completely a-cappela and not prog, but I don't care)

  7. #182
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    What a great and unique band they were. While I'm pretty worn out on the "biggies" of UK progressive rock from the period 1969-76, GGiant (and VdGG and Hatfield and HCow and Krims) are heroes I'll assumingly never quite tire of.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate View Post

    I never got tired of GG
    well, as for me (as far as the Brit contributions to progressive Rock music go) I like GG a TON more than Genesis, Yes, Tull and VDGG; but nowhere near as much as Camel, Crimso, Floyd, Egg, Hatfield, Softs, Nat Health and Nucleus
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  8. #183
    Freehand
    The Missing Piece
    The Power And The Glory
    "and what music unites, man should not take apart"-Helmut Koellen

  9. #184
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    It's not a narrative, I already stated as much. A concept album doesn't have to be; this is a "progger's" misconception of the term - it's not Berlioz'ian programme composition. It's a concept album when there's an overriding and collective idea to why the music is structured, sorted and sequenced as given, and The Power and the Glory, for instance, is a thematic cycle on power struggles, political greed dynamics, social consciousness and the lot. Read the lyrics.
    Very true, and I wish more people understood this. I was mocked for saying the Rush albums Power Windows and Counterparts are conceptual in nature (despite providing links to the interview where Neil Peart himself said so.) Strong, similar themes run throughout both of those, but neither tell a beginning-to-end 'story'.

    As for Interview, count me among those who love it. I tend to view it as the last great GG album.
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  10. #185
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    Quote Originally Posted by contemplator View Post
    Gentle Giant to me took the same trajectory as other prog bands. They started rooted in psychedelic or folk, experimented and got more interesting. Peaked with a few really wonderful albums, then suddenly declined in the later part of the 70's.

    I credit them for bringing in other influences like funk and groove into the progressive domain. I also like that they shunned the typical or expected 20 minute opus or epic pieces typical of prog bands of that era.

    To me their weakness was the lack of a great guitar player... not chops mind you... but a player who really served the music and enhanced it, rather than just playing over it. I also think vocally they lacked a "heart felt expression" and the vocals never really feel sincere. It's playful music, amazing technical arrangements, and more similar to Zappa than Yes or Genesis.
    I agree with the second paragraph but can't agree with the third. Having been briefly involved with a GG cover band, I can tell you that first of all, aside from the improvised solos, the guitar parts were 90% through composed, and I believe many of them were actually written by (keyboard player) Kerry Minnear. They're very un-guitaristic; they don't sit well on the instrument and are sometimes harder to play than some lightning-fast Dream Theater of Frank Zappa lines. Some stuff is harder than it sounds and vice versa. I thought Gary Green was a real anomaly; here's this blues/rock guitar player who could not just play these very intricate parts, but nail them! I always figured he must've been a great reader, but when I met him and talked to him, I found out that he's not much of a reader at all and learned his parts by ear. I highly doubt that there was anybody around who could've fit with GG nearly as well as Gary did.

    And as for the vocals, I thought they were not only soulful enough, but pretty astonishing, especially with all of those contrapuntal harmonies.

  11. #186
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    ...and The Power and the Glory, for instance, is a thematic cycle on power struggles, political greed dynamics, social consciousness and the lot. ...
    Yup!
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  12. #187
    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    Very true, and I wish more people understood this. I was mocked for saying the Rush albums Power Windows and Counterparts are conceptual in nature.
    A lot of their 80s and 90s albums were, IIRC.

  13. #188
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    Quote Originally Posted by grego View Post
    The Power & The Glory plot was based on watergate scandal, if I remember well...But for me it makes no sense, or very little at best..
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    It's not a narrative, I already stated as much. A concept album doesn't have to be; this is a "progger's" misconception of the term - it's not Berlioz'ian programme composition. It's a concept album when there's an overriding and collective idea to why the music is structured, sorted and sequenced as given, and The Power and the Glory, for instance, is a thematic cycle on power struggles, political greed dynamics, social consciousness and the lot. Read the lyrics.
    I'll have to borrow it again to give it another listen (I've only got two tracks on a CDr compilation, as I do of FH)
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  14. #189
    When I was in grade school, I wrote a short story based on the lyrics of The Power & The Glory. Kinda fractured fairy tales meets GG IIRC
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  15. #190
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    I'll have to borrow it again to give it another listen (I've only got two tracks on a CDr compilation, as I do of FH)
    You may find that the "cold and clinical" feel of "The Power and the Glory" is intentional and fits the concept of the album.

    Quote Originally Posted by strawberrybrick View Post
    When I was in grade school, I wrote a short story based on the lyrics of The Power & The Glory. Kinda fractured fairy tales meets GG IIRC
    Very cool! When I was in grade school, I had no clue that GG even existed (let alone Yes, Genesis [yes, even Genesis], King Crimson, etc.).
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  16. #191
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    Quote Originally Posted by ProgArtist View Post
    Very cool! When I was in grade school, I had no clue that GG even existed (let alone Yes, Genesis [yes, even Genesis], King Crimson, etc.).
    When I was in grade school, none of those bands did exist!
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  17. #192
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    When I was in grade school, none of those bands did exist!
    <<Gasp!!!>>
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  18. #193
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    When I was in grade school, none of those bands did exist!
    same for me
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  19. #194
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    Quote Originally Posted by ProgArtist View Post
    You may find that the "cold and clinical" feel of "The Power and the Glory" is intentional and fits the concept of the album.
    Indee825528d I tend to view TP&TG and FH as "cold and clinical" (though I might have said cynical as well), but your post prompted me to re-read my ProgArchives review (dating from 12 years ago), because I didn't remember writing that on PA...

    What do you know... it turns out that I was aware of the Watergate issues related to the album back then. I simply forgot about it.
    I guess Alzheimer strikes again
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

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