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ELP vs Gentle Giant

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Poll Question: Which band do you like more?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
35 [41.67%]
37 [44.05%]
11 [13.10%]
1 [1.19%]
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 12 2018 at 16:17
I put both equally. Although ELP does get a bad rap these days I find their first four albums to all be among the top 100 best prog albums ever made. I would maybe put about the same amount of GG albums in the top 100.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dellinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 12 2018 at 20:59
Originally posted by Dr. Occulator Dr. Occulator wrote:

Originally posted by Dellinger Dellinger wrote:

Originally posted by For Nobody's Bush For Nobody's Bush wrote:

Gentle Giant=fun and human connectiveness, ELP=overly serious and a trite pompous.


ELP = Overly Serious... and what about "Nutrocker", "Are you Ready Eddy?", "The Sheriff", "Benny the Bouncer"?


Problem is, those songs are pretty much rubbish. Their good stuff is the serious stuff.


Yeah... well, some of them. I do like Nutrocker, and don't find Are you Ready Eddy nearly as atrocious as most people seem to take it. But indeed they did much better stuff. However, they did these songs, which are not serious at all. In general, I don't like attempts at comedy on music, so if a band is serious it's no problem with me (actually, these sort of attempts at comedy are perhaps what bothers me most about ELP, and not only these short songs, but some similar parts within longer songs).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Blaqua Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2018 at 06:02
Originally posted by progaardvark progaardvark wrote:

I think Gentle Giant was more the more consistent of the two, though ELP was better at their peak. I gave GG the nod.
I agree, however I voted for both equally 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote micky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2018 at 06:22
harder vote than one might suspect.. comparing the first 4 of ELP to the first four of GG.. for both dropped significantly after..

ELP by a hair... not as consistent .. but the highs were higher.. and with multiple highs.. and even the lows were highly entertaining.
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2018 at 08:00
The first ELP album is one of my all time favorites for  a number of reasons.......and the next 3 ain't bad either.
While I do like several GG albums (especially the early ones...) none of them rank in my all time top ten favorite prog things......so I'll give the vote to the Three Amigos.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iancat87 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 09:49
I think Gentle Giant is better: their classic era had a string of consistently good or better albums. ELP's classic era has like... two high points in the debut and Brain Salad Surgery, but I think the rest is largely crap.

ELP always felt like they were trying to showoff, instead of writing actually good material. GG is goofy and fun a lot of the time, but the whimsy is appreciated. But seriously, I think their output is consistently better than most of ELP's work.

re: whimsy -- Let's not forget that King Crimson were Donovan fans and used to cover "Get Thy Bearings" in their early days.
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dr wu23 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 12:46
^Really...Donovan fans..?  Fripp...? Never read that anywhere but they did  cover that one song.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iancat87 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 12:58
Gotta start somewhere. Obviously they were all Beatles fans too.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 13:03
This turned out to be closer than I thought it would be.
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dr wu23 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 13:08
^Everybody was a Beatles fan..........but did you read that about Donovan or are you speculating because they covered that song...?

btw...I saw Donovan at a small local folk club in Valparaiso Indiana in 1996.....we spent some time talking to him after the show and he signed some albums for us. Nice man.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iancat87 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 13:17
^Maybe "fan" is a strong word to say about Fripp and the gang in regards to Donovan. But I really wouldn't be surprised if they appreciated his music enough to call themselves fans when they were so young back then.

So I'm speculating a bit, but I mean... they thought enough of him to cover "Get Thy Bearings." Just speaking as a musician myself, I wouldn't include a cover in my set unless I really liked the song and thought enough of the artist.

On the other side of this speculation is the counterargument that they covered it because they liked it and needed something "relevant" in their early live shows to clue in some new audiences.

*edit: Also good on ya for hanging with Donovan. I'm not much of a fan of the guy, but I always dug some of his stuff.


Edited by iancat87 - May 02 2018 at 13:18
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ForestFriend Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2018 at 15:53
I've always thought the inclusion of Get Thy Bearings had something to do with the fact that Pictures Of A City has almost the same sax riff. Almost seems like a little prank they're playing on the audience, e.g. "didn't they already play this song?".
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mortte Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 03 2018 at 02:24
Maybe Donovan wasn´t as much covered in the sixties as Beatles or Dylan, but quite much anyway. Just remembered Vanilla Fudge´s great cover from the "Season of the Witch" and Purple´s cover from "Lalena". And Butthole Surfers did "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in the nineties.
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dr wu23 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 03 2018 at 09:08
^The Fudge's version was certainly the creepiest...but I always liked the version from Super Session with Cooper Bloomfield and Stills.
Also ck out Hillage's version of Hurdy Gurdy Man from L.


Edited by dr wu23 - May 03 2018 at 09:15
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote iancat87 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 03 2018 at 09:10
^Super Session rocks, so underrated and overlooked.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote zwordser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 03 2018 at 13:10
Hmm... first time I think I've ever voted "both equally", but it was my first impression, and the more I think about it, Yeah they're about even!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 2 hours 26 minutes ago at 22:04
ELP
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