Music Wars: Part 3
November 25th, 2008 by joe
Taking it up to another level, folks.
It just happens that possibly the best band of the 1970s, Gentle Giant, is represented on YouTube in gloriously extravagant fashion. I have no idea why, but extremely high quality videos of these guys have survived. It’s a total anomaly because Gentle Giant was out of the mainstream, and even for those IN the mainstream they did not even have great video recording technology back then, but these are nearly pristine. Unbelievable. Thank Odin.
Here you go, CathyMac. You can pay me back later.
Proclamation, trippy stuff, I hope you can imagine, really entertaining and really hard to play.
On Reflection - crank up the volume and check out the amazing a cappella which begins about 2:10. If you have a kid interested in orchestra, let them watch this. It is beautiful … and live, bridging orchestra and rock. There have never been any other bands like this one. Nobody else did this in the 70s and nobody’s done it since.
Just The Same. Again, listening to the studio version of this is awe inspiring, such incredible talent - but here is it live and, honestly, there is not any difference. The outrageous music Gentle Giant produced was not technological trickery but a group of really good musicians.
And now you are ready for this. In A Glass House (Experience)
I hope you all enjoy these and listen to them over and over because I sure will. It is like being transported back to 1978. And if you wonder why I might be so high on Gentle Giant - these are all live. It is pretty good musicianship.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Culture, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:18 am
HOLY SHIT, JOE!!! You are now without a doubt my favorite guy in the blogosphere. I actually have two GG concerts on DVD. The Shulmann brothers were unbelievable!
November 26th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Looks like it will now be even that much harder to go up against my good friend LI in the political sphere. Knew we had a bond.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I vote for “They Might be Giants” over “Gentle Giant”.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Joe, I would bet that your wife, like mine, can’t stand this type of music. Hence Cathymac’s failure to appreciate Gentle Giant. Prog rock is definitely a guy thing.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
One of the guys looks a bit like Nigel Tufnel.
And everybody knows that the best band of the 70s was The Clash.
These guys sound like a bad version of Yes, Tull and that crappy band Supertramp.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I’m with hoobie and from my husband, a fellow progressive rocker, that is NOT progressive rock. He concurs with yes/supertramp/tull comparison.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
These guys sound like a bad version of Yes
Hobie, you beat me to it.
I’ll take Jean- Luc Ponty and Zappa.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Might be the first time that I have ever agreed with G. Stone. Zappa - right on. Loudoun Insider shows up as his usual arrogant self mistaking questionable taste with male bonding.
For something more recent you might try Phish. Godd Stuff.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Gentle Giant was very trippy folk. I am more of a Ponty and Chic Corea fan. Then there is Paco de Lucia and McLaughlin. Maha-Vishnu orchestra is something I have thought about in years.
Thanks for shaking all those memories out of my mental attic Joe. I am now going to go find some LP’s. Wow, I wonder if the record player will work. It has been years.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Supertramp?! You people are crazy. My goodness when they say Americans have become historically illiterate and culturally barren they are right. I am as big a Zappa fan as anyone but if you were around int he 1970s and never knew about Gentle Giant you were either living in a cave or young enough to be watching Saturday morning cartoons instead. The latter I will forgive.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Joe,
Calm down. Not getting hooked on ‘a long way home’ is far more forgivable than many other things.
That American culture has become coarse is something all can share in the blame. Those who coarsened it, and those who sat by and allowed it to happen.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
At least we are taking the first step in raising the bar.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Zappa was the father of progressive jazz. Or as we used to say, Jazz worth listening to.
He was also one of the best guitarists on the planet at the time. The stuff he did with Jean Juc Ponty was out of this world.
He was an idiot when it came to naming his kids but what the hell two out three ain’t bad.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Joe, I am older than you, and never been in a cave. To me, Gentle Giant is a big black bear that palled around with a kid named Mark..
Jacob, how about Weather Report ?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I like the musicianship of GG. It takes talent to pull off what they do (complexity of counterpoint with simplicity–it reminds me of Bach).
November 26th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Wow Joe, A Musicial Elitist!
Color me ignonorant and culturally baren but I like to enjoy my music, not cringe.
Have fun eating turkey tomorrow and listening to your fovorite hits!
November 26th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
onthatnote, stick that note up your ass. To each his own in musical taste.
Zappa is of course a missed musical genius. I always found his guitar playing to be a bit sloppy, but always entertaining. I’ve got several Zappa concert DVDs as well. Phenomenal musicainship all around.
Weather Report was amazing as well, but was never the same without Jaco. I think Joe Zawinul died recently.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Dan,
I do not have ANYTHING by weather report. This is not a reflection of them. They are a fusion jazz group, that is all I know. I like their sax and keyboard player.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Teen Town!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQlSSOXU6A
Jaco at his best.
Marcus Miller funked it up later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qji84EgLEio&feature=related
November 26th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Jacob, this is the only Weather Report album that I have, Mysterious Traveler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G8QxJUVUhc
November 27th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Richard Branson tells a good story about Zappa. Virgin Records was trying to sign him up in the early 1970’s. Unfortunately, Zappa was not too swift in some ways, and the Virgin guys thought it would be great fun to play a little trick on him. They gave him directions to the Virgin recording studio, which was a country house north of Oxford. Only they intentionally gave him some doctored directions.
When Zappa got to what he thought was the country house, he starting knocking on the front door. When no one answered, he started pounding on the door. Finally a very stiff and formal elderly gentleman answered the door and asked Zappa what he wanted. Zappa said he was there to talk about the recording deal and he was damn tired of waiting. And who are you anyway?
The elderly gentleman looked down at Zappa disdainfully and, with a demeaning sniff, intoned: Sir, I am the chief butler. Do you realize that this is Blenheim Palace, the home of the Duke of Marlborough? Zappa just stared and then turned and walked away. He never did sign with Virgin.
Beats me how Zappa could have mistaken a place so absolutely huge and ornate as Blenheim Palace for the Virgin recording studios. Fortunately for all us, he certainly had the musical talent.
November 29th, 2008 at 12:46 am
LI … yeah, pretty much. Not my thing.