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Playing the Fool - The Official Live: Difference between revisions
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Playing the Fool - The Official Live (view source)
Revision as of 00:49, 12 August 2008
, 12 August 2008→Liner notes
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== Liner notes == | == Liner notes == | ||
=== Castle CD === | |||
Over the years, numerous bands have been labelled 'innovative', 'stunning', or 'exhilarating' - but few can have been as deserving of such praise as Gentle Giant. Founded in 1970, they produced music that was strikingly original, littered with unlikely changes of mood and time signature and characterised by almost perverse instrumentation, but simultaneously cohesive and melodic. | |||
Giant drew inspiration from an abundance of musical idioms, fusing classical and traditional English forms with the inventiveness of jazz and the exuberance of rock. Above all, their meticulous studio technique produced unrivalled sound quality - and on stage they aimed for equal precision. During the course of a 90-minute performance, the band would play almost 30 different instruments between them, with cello, violin, vibes and recorders augmenting their more conventional armoury. They would switch from pwerful, emphatic riffs to quiet intricacy with incredible dexterity, and their ability to reproduce live the magnificent vocal harmonies and arrangements so effectively realised in the studio had to be heard to be believed. 'On Reflection' and 'Knots', the latter part of 'Excerpts From Octopus' sequence, are particularly fine examples of their skill in this area. | |||
Sadly, a pitifully small number of people in the UK took the trouble to listen, deterred no doubt by Gentle Giant's domestic image as unfathomable intellectuals. Released in 1977, PLAYING THE FOOL - the only live album of their ten-year career - might have done much to rid them of their undeserved reputation had it not been for the simultaneous rise of the New Wave. It would be some years before technical excellence would again become 'acceptable'...by which time Gentle Giant were no more. | |||
Here, then, is a largely successful attempt to capture the energy, inventiveness and spontaneity of Gentle Giant live, at probably the highest point of their career. Unlike many so-called 'live' recordings, there are no overdubs on PLAYING THE FOOL, recorded on the band's European tour of September and October 1976. | |||
Gentle Giant were never content to rest on their laurels, continually developing their ideas so that many of the numbers represented here differe extensively from their studio counterparts. This policy reached its zenith on 'So Sincere', which evolves from its original arrangement into a five-man percussion extravaganza. | |||
For the majority of their time, Gentle Giant were restricted to a small but loyal cult following at home, despite greater appreciation both in Europe and America. PLAYING THE FOOL is eveidence that they were in many respects misjudged, and were, perhaps the most underrated British band of the Seventies. | |||
''-Alan Kinsman'' | |||
=== Terrapin CD === | |||
<cite> These liner notes are reproduced with the kind permission of Terrapin Trucking (UK) Ltd. </cite> | <cite> These liner notes are reproduced with the kind permission of Terrapin Trucking (UK) Ltd. </cite> | ||