I love it. Excellent album.
I love it. Excellent album.
I can understand that some folks would adore this record. I'm not one of them, mind you. I fall into the "good but not great" camp. There isn't enough about this old record to recommend it outside of the King Crimson legacy, IMO. Within the King Crimson legacy, it's definitely "of interest," if not "essential." It definitely ranks well above Pete Sinfield's Still, but far below McDonald & Giles in the must-have early King Crimson peripherals.
If you're looking for proto-Crimso (oh, there I did it), then it is the The Brondesbury Tapes you are after. That's a better archive release where you hear some of this, as well as the pieces of King Crimson coming into place.
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Im in the "love it" camp,
Used to play it to death (even more than some KC albums) but been a long tine since I listened to it.
Wow, I think it's the opposite with "Still" the only must-have of the 3. I always hear that one as what Crimso would have sounded like if Fripp had left after IslandsOriginally Posted by notallwhowander
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Yup. As has been note above, there are knock out tracks ("Under the Sky," "Erudite Eyes") that must be heard.
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While I picked this up due to the KC connection, it quickly became apparent that wasn't the attraction of the album. The quirky pop tunes and whimsical lyrics, along with nifty guitar and production, make it great in my book.
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And whatever happened to Peter Giles? Talk about a team player. He is uninvited to join KC Mk I, but agrees to fill in when Lake turns in his notice, and is then uninvited again to KC Mk II (or III, depending on how you look at it.) And yet based on this record and the Brondesbury recordings he seemed to put in as much effort into the band as anyone else. Did Fripp decide he just didn't cut the mustard?
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Actually he was invited to join a touring version of the Poseidon band, and was prepared to accept, but EG wasn't willing to pay him enough, so he went back to his day job. The tour, of course, never happened.
Did the aggregation for this prospective tour include Brother Mike?
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In some ways yes and in some ways no. I think it is an extension of that incarnation of KC. However, the songwriting is middling, IMO, and is vocal performance is... uninspired, is the nicest way of putting it. I find it King Crimson without the overwhelming talent, or at least the talent playing way under its potential. The sessions really needed a strong producer to save them. I found myself hanging on in tear-stained tedium waiting for the horn arrangements to kick in once more, and even those weren't prevalent enough to save the whole. But perhaps I'm selling the whole thing short.Wow, I think it's the opposite with "Still" the only must-have of the 3. I always hear that one as what Crimso would have sounded like if Fripp had left after Islands
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Hard to say. Sid Smith's book contains a puzzling account of the period by Fripp where he first sounds like he was trying to lure McDonald and Giles back into the band, but he then turns around and says that having them back would have suited Peter Giles but was a "no-goer" for him because the old tensions would just resurface.
I agree it could have been much better with a strong producer so it's a flawed gem. I think it suffers from the problem any album with such a large quantity of "guest musicians" does...a lack of continuity between the songs and no real clear identity or purpose. That said, I think about 1/2 of it is excellent (Sea Goat, Envelopes, The Piper, Under the Sky) and I personally really like Sinfield's voice
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I can see why it would appeal to those who like say Hatfield and Matching Mole , rather than those who like King Crimson, has always sold very consistently.
Assuming this is the lady who sang I talk to the Wind? Got a version of that on a double album A young persons guide to King Crimson
The Brondesbury tapes suffer from a lack of polish...The CIOGGF is superb imo...no filler like TBBT
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Agreed. After seeing it mentioned in this thread I had a listen to TBBT on youtube. I'll stick with Cheerful Insanity, it has much better sound quality to my ears
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Brondesbury is absolutely essential if you're a Giles fan...Mike that is, not Peter who i've always thought was a solid but uninteresting player.
I used to play this a lot. It’s a fun, whimsical and very English psychedelic pop album. Only “Suite No. 1” and “Erudite Eyes” (and maybe “The Crukster”) point the way towards the future. The humour, for some reason, clicks with me. And some of the tunes (“North Meadow” and “Thursday Morning” especially) ooze tea-sipping English countryside charm. “Elephant Song” is delightfully absurd.
I really love that McDonald & Giles record. It really gives you a picture of what they brought to the table with regards to ITCOTCK. It’s also a fine, and underrated, slab of classic Anglo-Prog. Still[usion] I have never heard, and don’t feel any real burning need to hear.
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The most treasured items in my vinyl collection are the stereo and mono versions of this album (never even seen another copy of the latter). Sure, it's not King Crimson, it's not prog and in places it's not even particularly good (although in other places it's very good indeed), but it's fascinating to pick up the little pointers to what was to come. I also love the upbeat vibe -- listening to this always puts a smile on my face ("She was half German, half out-of-bed, which half was which doesn't have to be said ...") and I can't say the same for Schizoid Man. I just love "One in a Million", which is much closer to the English music hall tradition than to rock.
I agree with others that The Brondesbury Tapes is a better selection of songs, and closer to what was to come. The two versions of "Why don't you just drop in", which later surfaced as "The Letter" on Islands, do rather more than hint at what was to come, they are well worth hearing in their own right. The recording quality is poor, but if you accept that and get on with it, it's very rewarding. Be warned, though -- "She is Loaded" has strong earworm qualities (or is that just me?).
A lot of love too for McDonald and Giles; not so much for Still. Peter Giles was (and doubtless is) a fine musician. I saw him live with 21st Century Schizoid Band and he more than held his own in that distinguished company.
For dedicated students of early Giles Brothers history, this 2012 article from the Bournemouth Echo may be of interest:
Not much love for Still here...
I kinda like this one:
and this one with the listing of archetypes which inspired at least two Marillion Songs..
Jsut pulled out GG&F a day before this thread was started. If judged on its own merits, it's a great little album that blends many styles into a unique 60's psych-pop classic. For years, I only liked a few tracks on the album, but each listen brings out a new appreciation of the subtleties and eccentricities. I like TBBT a lot as well, though the sound quality makes it a "historical" listen for me. As far as Pete Sinfield's "Still" and the McDonald & Giles album, I think they're both classics that I loved immediately when they were first released. Great songwriting and performances on both.
Just because it hasn't been mentioned in this thread, for real completists there's also the Giles Brothers, 1962-1967. http://www.amazon.com/1962-1967-Gile...qid=1415678829
I don't have a problem with his voice, it's just his vocal approach to most of the album. What starts as charming naivete in "Song of the Sea Goat" rapidly returns as a stark lack of musical ideas. A good producer would have had him shake things up a bit more. I will say that it was a cool thing for Lake to let him have so much freedom in recording the album, though.I agree it could have been much better with a strong producer so it's a flawed gem. I think it suffers from the problem any album with such a large quantity of "guest musicians" does...a lack of continuity between the songs and no real clear identity or purpose. That said, I think about 1/2 of it is excellent (Sea Goat, Envelopes, The Piper, Under the Sky) and I personally really like Sinfield's voice
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