PA's Battle to Stardom A16: Gentle Giant v. Camel

Camel....Gentle Giant has never clicked with me.

Oh, come on, just one more for this round, please?  An artful battle: Art Zoyd vs. Art Bears....

febus wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: Wow, here we are at the last match of round 1 already! I've been looking forward to this one ever since the beginning of the tournament. In one corner... please give your round of applause for one of the most accomplished and paradigmatic progressive rock bands, master multi-instrumentalists, and some of the most talented musicians in the larger part of the 1970s prog movement, Gentle Giant! In the other corner... a Symphonic progger's absolute dream, a lesser-known underdog who managed to absolutely awe the audience back in January by consecutively defeating Magma, ELP, and even giving Genesis quite a fight until the end... let me give you, Camel! Who will win? Give your support to decide! Please: If you are not familiar with one or both of the band's material, I urge that you use the links provided and at least listen to the samples on their respective pages (or Youtube if the particular band has no online streaming). Gentle Giant's PA page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=118 Camel's PA page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=50 As always, discussions are encouraged. Recap: Round 1 A1:  Mahavishnu Orchestra v. Marillion      (24-28) A2:  Gong v. Area    (18-19) A3:  Emerson, Lake and Palmer v. The Flower Kings      (22-14) A4:  The Residents v. Tangerine Dream    (12-15) A5:  Can v. Dream Theater    (42-37) A6:  Echolyn v. Opeth    (11-18) A7:  Van der Graaf Generator v. The Mars Volta    (54-18) A8:  Samla Mammas Manna v. Radiohead      (27-26) A9:  Rush v. Tool    (55-21) A10: Meshuggah v. Kayo Dot     (15-21) A11: Henry Cow v. Amon Duul II      (17-12) A12: Soft Machine v. Magma      (23-25) A13: Ayreon v. Le Orme      (26-29) A14: Ozric Tentacles v. Hawkwind         (21-27) A15: Koenjihyakkei v. Univers Zero       (10-17) A1: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51423&PN=2 A2: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51492&PN=1 A3: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51567&PN=1 A4: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51630&PN=1 A5: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51711&PN=1 A6: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51778 A7: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51855 A8: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51928&PN=1 A9: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52011 A10: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52091 A11: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52158&PN=1 A12: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52246 A13: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52336 A14: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52411&PN=1 A15: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=52487&PN=1   That/s it Alex????...what about the Moody Blues, Eloy, Barclay James Harvest, Procol Harum, and.........Jethro Tull??/........Should have been A32, not A16

I thought about doing 32 but the task would have been too large. There will be follow-up rounds, of course.

King By-Tor wrote: cacho wrote: A quite hard choice. Two bands, which maybe not faves, still I found 1 or 2 of their albums to be GREAT! Camel: Camel(debut) and Moonmadness, while I enjoy Mirage, Rain Dances, etc.. For GG I find GREAT the following: In a Glass House and Octopus. While GG may have been complexier and broken rock frontiers as nobody has, Camel has the climax and atmosphere, which few have. I'll go with Camel. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

lol

Camel.

Hercules wrote: Camel for me by a small margin, but these two should have been seeded well apart as they are two of  the best four bands in the poll by a mile (along with Rush and Marillion).

That's a matter of taste, of course.  I know you're an old-time Progger, but I can't say how well you know all of the other choices.  Though I'm a relative newbie to the wider world of Prog (sure I've known Yes, Genesis, Focus, Gryphon, ELP. Mike Oldfield and others for  a very long time), I think that most of the bands are superb.  Personally, I'd say that (in no particular order) Henry Cow, The Soft Machine, Magma, Area, Gong, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Univers Zero and Koenjihyakkeii, ELP (though not quite to my taste anymore), Can and Amon Duul II, Samla Mammas Manna, Le Orme, Van der Graaf Generator, Hawkwind, Tangerine Dream, the Residents, and Kayo Dot are great bands that have put out outstanding material. I think the choices have been terrific, and bands listed there I would rate higher than choices of yours.

I just, particularly, hoped that Art Zoyd would find itself on one of these polls.

Hercules wrote: Incidentally, during the 70s Camel were far more popular and far bigger than GG ever were (GG were regarded as a quirky cult band with a fairly small but extremely loyal following) and were generally rated light years ahead. How times change!

I'd known that Camel has much more commercial success than Gentle Giant, and I expect that Camel is still much better known than Gentle Giant.  Camel is considerably more accessible, and GG lamented their lack of success (I think they tried to remedy that with their final three after snubbing their musical noses at the industry.  Of course, Derek Shulman became a very big wig in the industry (a suit), and Ray became a successful writer of music for commericals and a succesful producer).  So they found insustry success outside of GG.

Camel was hardly obscure.  I knew it in the '70s, but didn't get to know GG until my Prog revival this decade.


Edited by Logan - October 14 2008 at 17:11

A quite hard choice. Two bands, which maybe not faves, still I found 1 or 2 of their albums to be GREAT! Camel: Camel(debut) and Moonmadness, while I enjoy Mirage, Rain Dances, etc..
For GG I find GREAT the following: In a Glass House and Octopus.

While GG may have been complexier and broken rock frontiers as nobody has, Camel has the climax and atmosphere, which few have.

I'll go with Camel.

NaturalScience wrote: Easy one for me this time.  Camel has some good records, but GG has such a string of incredible albums that I enjoy so much more.  Gentle Giant!

Psst, where can we make predictions on how we think the polls are going to go? Akin to how college basketball teams are bet on during the playoffs. Or am I the only one who thinks this would be fun?

Avantgardehead wrote: Camel is nice... I guess... but Gentle Giant is light-years ahead.

I guess that's just the sentiment for me as well.  I enjoy Camel alright, don't dislike them or anything, but to me GG has such an incredible catalog, such a consistently excellent output.