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Gentle Giant is hard to get into, but worth it.
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Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
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Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 01:25
Originally posted by Guldbamsen Guldbamsen wrote:

It’s a little funny. Every time a prog band divides opinion...someone suggests that it’s because the band is too complex/prog for the casual listener. Never fails.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve read that comment in threads about Gentle Giant or ELP. I don’t subscribe to that though. Personally I had some trouble getting into Gentle Giant...but that was because I thought they sounded like Robin Hood prog. I had all these images of men in Peter Pan-like tights dancing quaintly about whilst singing their polyphonic odes to maids without teeth.
Nowadays I really dig their first couple of albums...not because I got accustomed to the complexity..nah because I reconciled with Robin’s flair

Robin Hood prog is spot on, that's exactly how I viewed Tull at first LOL! Clap

Spot on about the "complexity" argument, as well.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Points: 23104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guldbamsen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 03:17
Yeah that Robin Hood tag also went down a treat with a buddy of mine who bought the 4 first records yet had incredible difficulty in describing what he was hearing. I believe he said something about jester music meets rock and I mentioned Robin Hood

The complexity thing is weird in that it really is relative to where people are coming from. Gentle Giant IS complex music compared to say Dolly Parton or Right Said Fred..but stacked up against Rachmaninov or Charles Mingus...not so much.
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Points: 23104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guldbamsen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 03:19
Originally posted by Mascodagama Mascodagama wrote:

Originally posted by Guldbamsen Guldbamsen wrote:

Personally I had some trouble getting into Gentle Giant...but that was because I thought they sounded like Robin Hood prog. I had all these images of men in Peter Pan-like tights dancing quaintly about whilst singing their polyphonic odes to maids without teeth.
I think most of us would admit we didn’t really click with GG until the first time donning a pair of green tights and cavorting around our apartment to the strains of Raconteur, Troubador.


Thanks for a good laugh Simon. Very nice way to start a rainy tuesday.
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Points: 874 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Enchant X Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 05:51
I rarely like gentle giant the first time I listen to a CD but the second time they hook me in .. its a funny band in that way there's much to digest.  Tongue
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Points: 20671 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 07:49
For me they were definitely 'hard to get into'....bought Acquiring the Taste at college ..it had been out for a year by then but I saw it at the local record shop in Bloomington, Indiana at IU.
I thought  it was interesting but  quirky....didn't play it as much as other albums. Took me many years to 
acquire the taste (that was for Psychedelic Paul). I own the first 8 up to and including Interview, but I still have to be in the mood to play them.
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Points: 1366 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dopeydoc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 12:31
I've been telling my friends for almost fifty years now that is I were to be left on a desert island with only one band's albums, it would be GG. Still true today.
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Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2020 at 12:41
In a Glass House is still their supreme entry for me. TPATG is a close second. What a powerful band!

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Points: 52834 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 04 2020 at 06:49
Started with Octopus. Thought it was just OK. Put it aside for about a year. Listened to it again. Bought the rest of their discography. Enjoyed every studio album they made, from start to finish.
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Points: 10 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klobb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 04 2020 at 11:26
They were sort of an acquired taste for me because I kept trying to get into them via Octopus and their self-title album, but the Power and the Glory, it grabbed me immediately and I haven't looked back since.
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I've always thought Gentle Giant's difficulty was overblown. In fact, I find most of their work much more accessible than many other prog bands, such as King Crimson. Their music can be quite elaborate, but they also write great, catchy riffs and can lay down a nasty groove. 
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Points: 881 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote tamijo_II Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 07 2020 at 00:02
Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Loved them the instant I heard them. One of my all time favorite bands. Welcome

This
Same person as this profile:
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Originally posted by musical_simpleton musical_simpleton wrote:

I've always thought Gentle Giant's difficulty was overblown. In fact, I find most of their work much more accessible than many other prog bands, such as King Crimson. Their music can be quite elaborate, but they also write great, catchy riffs and can lay down a nasty groove. 

Agreed. My ears also enjoy complex meter and time signature work, so GG for me was like the ground floor standard for a decent band LOL LOL.

Again, IAGH title track showcases all of their strongest points IMHO. That groovey rock riff that comes in about 2/3 through is arguably the best riff they've ever had. Gary Green was on FIRE on this record. Musical masters, to say the very least.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Points: 12 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LilithFC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 10 2020 at 16:42
Yeah, I was like 12 when I first evoked interest, I saw their work from recommendations via Spotify, (Probably because I was listening to Frank Zappa, and King Gizz), and at first this was when I first listened to Prog and I was like: "What is this?? This sounds like full on Medieval sh*t", but I listened to Proclamation, and I was just groovin' to it.
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dr prog View Drop Down
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Points: 2528 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote dr prog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2020 at 02:22
Was easy for me. Catchy, complex, clever   
All I like is prog related bands beginning late 60's/early 70's. Their music from 1968 - 83 has the composition and sound which will never be beaten. Perfect blend of jazz, classical, folk and rock.
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Points: 7951 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HackettFan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2020 at 11:10
I went backwards, liking them when I first discovered them in the 80s to disliking them greatly. They are worthwhile in that there are some things they do well: complex polyrhythms and harmonies, and medieval music, for instance.

Edited by HackettFan - March 11 2020 at 16:31
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Points: 7251 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hellogoodbye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2020 at 05:01
Not a band I play very much, but I like their first three albums. School days is a marvelous song.
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Points: 3629 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote miamiscot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2020 at 08:50
I loved GG from the first. Never found them "difficult" to be honest. Just awesome!!!
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Points: 4462 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Argo2112 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 16 2020 at 14:21
OK, I may have just found the album that brings me on board with GG.
 Just listened to In a Glass House all the way through.
 For me this was the prefect combination of weird & accessible .
 Really like it a lot! 
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Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 16 2020 at 18:35
Originally posted by Argo2112 Argo2112 wrote:

OK, I may have just found the album that brings me on board with GG.
 Just listened to In a Glass House all the way through.
 For me this was the prefect combination of weird & accessible .
 Really like it a lot! 

My favorite GG record Big smile.

The title track is my favorite. The rock riff in the second half is one of the best math rock riffs, somehow still attaining melody and balls, ever.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Points: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pancho253 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 24 2020 at 22:07
I had the same problem at first, but after a month or so I started to really like it after octopus.
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