PLAYING THE FOOL - THE OFFICIAL LIVE

I hate to go along with the crowd, but this is one of the greatest live documents of a prog band ever. Reason being, the men can damn play their instruments! AND, they don't play exact copies of the songs, they mix it up. Proof..listen to 'Funny Ways' from their first album, then play the live version...Minnear's xylophone solo is just amazing and Weathers is a monster on the drum kit. In fact, I tend to zero in on Weather's drumming, he's SO underated! Honestly, there's only so many other bands that can match their sheer virtruosity, (maybe Zappa...). On top of the playing, one forgets how well they can sing. I mean Ray can wail if he wants to. My only complaint is since this was the INTERVIEW tour, I wish there were more songs from that album. As you can possible garner, I'm in awe of this album and it doesn't ever get stale after repeated plays. They play a great mix of songs up and down the catalog, (in fact, most of their live albums have virtually the same songs). But this is the one to get. Mark it down as a MUST have if you are at all interested in Gentle Giant, but wait until you have all the albums previous. It's like icing on the best cake you'll ever taste. A true masterpiece of prog music.