Let's talk about... Gentle Giant.

[wateroftyne]

Thread from the dead!

 

Playing the Fool has just been reissued. Completely remixed from the ground up, with all the missing songs. I got the 2xCD / 5.1 Blu Ray version, and it's ridiculously good.

 

Gawd bless Ray Shulman. What a player. 

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Thread from the dead!

 

Playing the Fool has just been reissued. Completely remixed from the ground up, with all the missing songs. I got the 2xCD / 5.1 Blu Ray version, and it's ridiculously good.

 

Gawd bless Ray Shulman. What a player. 

 

Not convinced I like the music, but I love it that this thread exists 👍

[Bilbo]

I have the Octopus album and liked it but didn't love it. May give it another go....

[BassTractor]

36 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Playing the Fool has just been reissued. 

 

Ohw!  Thanks for that; I had no idea.
Ordered!

Been a fan for 50 years and seven months. 😀

[Treeb]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Playing the Fool has just been reissued.

Royal Mail should deliver tomorrow (fingers crossed).  Really looking forward to hearing the 5.1 mix.

[ead]

Blast from the past.  I have a few of their albums that I will dig out again.

[Alanko]

On 23/06/2021 at 10:58, EssentialTension said:

For a band that were progressive even by the standard of other prog bands, Gentle Giant surprisingly managed to retain a certain funkiness from the early Shulman days as a soul band.

I think it also helped that John Weathers would stick to a 4/4 rhythm, even if the others started playing syncopated polyrhythmic stuff. You can keep a foot tapping through some of the densest Gentle Giant moments.  
 

 

Fantastic band, usually with a really good grunting P Bass tone pinning down the low end!

 

My minor gripe is that their live setlists were fairly conservative versus the spread of stuff they put across their studio albums. There are lots of grey market Gentle Giant live albums with almost identical track lists but wildly varying sound quality. Great if you want to listen to fifty versions of Knots!