The Original Studio Gentle Giant, Volume 2

Album Information: Title: The Original Studio Gentle Giant, Volume 2 Artist: Gentle Giant Year: 1974 Type: official release compilation album

About the Album

This is a vinyl, Italian compilation on the Fontana label (9286874), compiled by "Ronald Thorpe." It features tracks from the second three studio albums:

• Octopus
• In A Glass House
• The Power And The Glory

There is also a volume 1.

Alterations

Side 2 of this album has numerous changes from the originals, making the title "The Original Studio" somewhat ironic. (Thanks to Yvon-Louis Trottier for this information.)

• The Runaway: For this track, five seconds have been cut at the beginning (the first "note" of shattering glass). The new track length is 7:10 instead of the original 7:15.
• In A Glass House has become a strange collage in three section:
  1. The track begins with the first four repeats of glass shattering in echo, taken from the last part of the end collage of the original album
  2. Following immediately is the last segment of the original track starting at 4:16, just before the lyric "Shadow fills the light"
  3. Just as the track is starting to fade out, the remaining sounds of echoing, shattering glass is inserted. (16 seconds of the music fade-out has been removed to insert the fading shattering noise.)
• The Power And The Glory: The track fades out about five seconds earlier than the single.
• Proclamation: With an original length of 6:47, this song is heavily edited by removing the first 4 minutes and 35 seconds of the piece, leaving only the remaining 2 minutes and 11 seconds of the track (starting with the clavinet notes after the repeated "Day by Day by Day...")
• Playing the Game: The track is truncated after 3 minutes and 2 seconds, just before the quiet segment beginning with the words "My thoughts never spoken." Then suddenly, the last segment of Valedictory appears, with a loud "HAIL" and the sound of high-speed rewinding. (Yvon-Louis Trottier writes, "I almost had a heart attack!")

Track List

1. The Boys In The Band
2. Knots
3. The Advent Of Panurge
4. Experience
5. The Runaway
6. In A Glass House (edit, beginning with "Shadow fills the light...")
7. The Power and the Glory
8. Proclamation
9. Playing the Game
10. Cogs in Cogs