Not all messages are displayed:
show all messages (22 of them)
just found it online, it looks legit... (I had heard of the radio show before, but hadn't investigated much)... it's got nearly the same track listing as 'playing the fool' though, so maybe
I agree with you, the live recordings are great... more impressive to hear people pulling off this material on a stage than in a studio
― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:06 (nineteen years ago) link
No, Chuck, "Giant for a Day" wasn't classic by any measure. "Spooky Boogie" and "Little Brown Bag" from it are two of the most conventional things in their catalog. If you're a Gentle Giant purist, you probably consider it heresy. Their string had just about run out when "Giant for a Day" was published and it was one of those records where they and the record company had glommed onto the idea that they could be a prog-punk band, or at least do some vaguely pop rock and roll. "The Last Steps" is a live record that documents it with some mixed success. You hear the band at the Whisky in LA doing punked-up shouty prog and art.
"Octopus," "Gentle Giant," "Acquiring the Taste," "Freehand" show them off at maximum. "Knots" from "Octopus" can determine whether you like anything the band does or not. "Advent of Panurge," "The House the Street, the Room" from "Acquiring" are good. The albums I like are where the guitar is most thud-like, usually when Visconti produced them early on. They didn't rock much but were capable of being violent, loud and jagged, even with a bunch of voices going in harmony.
So, I'm with Daniel Peterson.
You gonna review "Freehand"?
― George Smith, Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:18 (nineteen years ago) link
Gentle Giant
fun fact: Derek Shulman, GG vocalist, almost single-handedly invented hair metal while a big-wig at Phonogram in the Eighties.
― George Smith, Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link
four years pass...