Gentle Giant - Cogs In Cogs/Proclamation (Live) Reaction
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Reacting to Gentle Giant - Cogs In Cogs/Proclamation (Live)
Challenging but rewarding prog.
All rights and music: Gentle Giant, Alucard Publishing Ltd
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Original video: • Gentle Giant - Cogs in...
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I've been OBSESSED with them! Apparently Zappa was a huge fan, one can see why! So underappreciated.
In a way Zappa's interest is not surprising as both he and Kerry Minnear started as percussionists.
Ray Shulman is such a bassist.
But Ray would switch off to play other instruments as a multi-instrumentalist. Often during those times, Derek would step back to play the bass.
I'm 34 and I've just discovered that band. Absolutely mind blowing! I'm now a huge fan. These two songs are one of my very favs. Thanks for the review.
The drummer gets me every time. I want that guy on a tshirt.
This band excites me. I bought all of their albums recently and love it to bits.
GG one of Classic Progs greatest Gems !!!
A band that members of Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Nektar, Zappa and other great artist loved to see Live when the could back in the best time of music !!
All are multi-instrumentalist with major skills for the musical complexity and Odd time signatures, but that's Classic Prog !! : D
The drummer wasn't a multi-instrumentalist though. When he rehearsed for the part, he says he went in expecting a lot of amateur blues players. During the interview, one of the four had an idea and they all jumped up, picked up instruments, and started playing.
@@WilliamJones-sf5pt John Weathers plays Drums, all percussion including the Xylophone, Guitar on "Old Days" Live and sings. Not bad 👍🎶🎼✌
@@ronniefarnsworth6465 OH he is great for sure. Those were his words which I read on one of the special double CDs with lots of stuff on them. He did play the xylophone, but not like Kerry Minnear.
One of my all time fave Progressive Rock bands and ALL TIME fave album "Power and the Glory". I didn't get it AT ALL when I 1st bought the album in 1982 when I was just starting to buy my own Prog and Rock albums. It was WAY over my head.
But a few years later, I took it out of my collection, listened to it, and it was so damn complex but just freaking brilliant :D. This album had me more than ready for other "RIO (Rock in Opposition)/Avant-Garde" bands, and especially more contemporary obscure avant-garde prog "metal" bands.
Also, Spocks Beard, Kansas, Steve Wilson/Porcupine Tree, Haken, Neal Morse and Echolyn are hugely inspired by GG.
Together they played over 30 instrument, one of the best proggband ever, period.
Yes you missed it !! The Top Prog Bands Loved them !!
YES!! Well done reacting to this. Have always loved this band, the demented weirdos of Prog Rock, so uncool that they're cool.
I'm sitting here listening to The Power and The Glory remixed by Steven Wilson. It sounds much much better than that live version I just reacted to. What an interesting band!
To be fair, Steven Wilson production is a fast-track to make almost any music sound better.
Ah well
Saw them in Germany in 1971, simply brilliant.
Some of the best prog musicians everrrr … very popular amongst other prog musicians! Thank goodness Steven Wilson is remixing the albums
Saw them at least four times. THE greatest prog band of all time. Yes may be my overall favorite band, but GG...nothing like them. If I could ever go back in time and see one concert, it would be them.
I here you man 5 times for me from 1974' to 77' in Boston & NYC : )
5 times for me! What great times!
One of the all time best drummers playing and Jim is talking about camera angles.
Forgive me…. I’ve learned a lot in the intervening five years.
@@JimNewstead No worries.
I love the low-key audience sort of trying to tap their feet to the beat. Thank God I was alive while these guys were around!
Challenging is a good way of describing it.. An amazing band
They are so good live because they are just that good. Soooo tight and perfectly played and everything you hear is live from an instrument live. They truly are on another level!
I believe the saying is that your favorite prog bands favorite prog band is Gentle Giant.
Every gentle giant reaction always has me laughing my ass off.
The loon on drums - John "Pugwash" Weathers, the nearest thing to a "giant" in the band, and maybe Mick Fleetwood's Welsh cousin?
Gentle Giant is so underrated as a band. I put them in my top 3 prog bands of all time behind Yes first then Kansas followed by Gentle Giant. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks Jim for playing this. I saw GG once in 1976 when they opened for Yes. Huge fan of both bands. Check out Echolyn The Cheese Stands Alone.
The Greatest band few have heard...Giant fan since the 70's
I was lucky enough to see them a few times in the 70’s in Toronto.
The power in their passion and rawness is palpable, for the music they make and the instruments become them!
Back in the day. These guys we're brilliant. Same with King Crimson. Way ahead of their time.
Gentle Giant wrote some of the most complex music. You need to listen to them repeatedly and intensely. I think there are better songs of their's to listen too, but all their albums were great. I'm in my mid sixties so I brought them as they came out.
Gentle Giant! My favorite band! These are not good songs to introduce GG though. I suggest a reaction to the song "Free Hand" played live in 1978 (easy to find in TH-cam). Give them another try. It's an acquired taste ;)
Acho que é a minha banda preferida também.
yeah, give them a 2nd, 3rd etc. listen. all their early albums are outstanding in some way.
I’ve got loads of Gentle Giant in the collection now!
Timeless music..!
Musical gynastics. Master craftsmen. Kerry Minnear is the greatest at playing monumental solos on a xylophone and he is the keyboardist.
I hate to say it, but the old live versions are more for long time fans that want to smile. They pretty much stink if you want to hear what's going on. Look for some of the Three Friends covers. There are also some very good collaborations on TH-cam that include a lot of the original members. The best way to understand GG is by listening to CDs or better yet, LPs. Thanks for the review!
Definitely worth re-listens - but get the studio versions: both songs are from a concept album called "The Power and the Glory" - and are played out of order here. I *highly* recommend getting the album and listening in order: there is a story being told that is well worth paying attention to. This year (2021) a remix of "The Power and the Glory" by Steven Wilson was released - it does (as do the majority of Wilson's remixes) an excellent job of emphasizing the individual instruments while keeping the whole intact - I'd recommend that, if you can.
The live performances always have a bit of extra added to each song. You may not love it right away but bits of it are going to float through your mind until you give in and listen again.
You are right that it is very hard to understand Gentle Giant the first time you hear them. The take several listens to understand their incredible brilliance. It took me about 4 listens to finally get them.
I am probably in the minority of most teens in the states in the 70s that loved this band. A lot of prog bands get criticized for being sterile or overly serious. I think Gentle Giant had a lot of heart and soul. I also think that they look like they are having a ball.
One of the most outside the box creative bands of any genre Never got the props they deserved Another band with that kind of out of the box sensibility is Van Der Graaf Generator
Power and the Glory is probably one of their more challenging albums. One of my favorites, but it definitely required repeated listening. Maybe try In a Glass House, Octopus or Three Friends instead. Or their live album Playing the Fool, which has much better sound than this TV show.
They were actually fairly popular in the US Midwest at the time. I saw them several times in Chicago and they really were a fantastic live band.
They were as big as Yes and King Crimson if you were a prog muso in that era, as I was.
it's always interesting to see "musical afficianados" listen to GG for the first time. Although up to speed on music in general, they are normally pretty bewildered by GG's and not quite sure what to make of it all. They know there's something there but they can't quite fathom what it is. As Jim says, he needs to listen to it agisn :)
Your reactions and comments are very fun :D Gentle Giant were very popular (in the prog scene, at least), I always hear them talked about with Yes, Crimson, Genesis, Camel, etc. I don't think Mr Bungle is similar to Haken at all. You should check out the song 'Knots' by Gentle Giant, I see this as the song that influenced Cockroach King by Haken the most. I'd love to see your thoughts on The Door by Neal Morse.
I bought the album when it came out as a high school sophomore after hearing Proclamation on the radio. Cogs In Cogs blew my teenage mind at first listen and I got the odd siggies, 15/4, 5/8, 7/8, instantly. It made me think, from that moment on, that I was a proghead through and through and this was gonna be my favorite kind of music. It is ;)
It's not fair to compare Giant to the blockbuster prog acts of the 70s (except maybe to King Crimson), Yes, ELP, Floyd, Rush, etc., but they weren't a cult band. They toured regularly in the States; I saw them five times and they were on major labels. They also toured with Jethro Tull, who they thought were great blokes; Tull and Giant have a musical affinity -- they toured with Yes and thought they were a bunch of arrogant jerks, LOL. They never broke through to that higher level of popularity, despite going New Wave in the late 70s, and this broke up the band. Other bands from prog's Golden Age which approach Giant in musical sophistication, Egg, Hatfield and the North, National Health (all British) you had to hunt around in import bins for. I first heard of Hatfield and the North at a Gentle Giant concert.
GG were consistently amazing on most every release til the mid 70s with their multi-instrumentalist polyrhymic funky classical uniquely original style.
Really respect your perspective here and do understand, these are very very challenging songs. Probably these are not quite the right ones to start out with. I’ve been discovering this band over the last several weeks and have absolutely caught the bug. I think they far outshine the other prog bands just in originality and playfulness alone. Plus their musicianship is absolutely phenomenal. The two albums that I think are a better start are Octopus and In a Glass House, both of which shift and change in the same imaginative, shape shifting manner as the albums these two songs come from… but they have somehow more easily palatable tracks interspersed. I hope you will give them the time they deserve in your ears. Much inspiration and joy will be had!
You didn't hear Gentle Giant muttered along with Yes, and Pink Floyd, or uhem...rush (lol) because you weren't muttering around with the right people. So lets just leave it at both, you missed out, and secondly, now that you have heard Gentle Giant, you at least have been exposed to something very special.
That said, why would you pick a live version of Cogs in Cogs and Proclamation? I mean, we know that you stated by responses, Gentle Giants' name was brought up as sounding similar to something (forget who). So you went out on a limb to find those two selections? You never stated that connection or lack of.. Your response seemed like an honest assessment, only a bit misguided by the song selection. You don't acquire the taste of GG in one sitting, nor would you discovering fine wine. A little help is in order. Have a listen to albums such as Free Hand, In a Glass House, and Octopus, as a source of their better work. You wouldnt play something live from "Division Bell" when trying to weigh in on Pink Floyd would you? Cheers.
Btw, reading the responses, everyone else does get it. Even the new comers. Why, because they sip the wine, and let the rest happen.
The song they were going into at the end of the clip was called "Funny Ways." Lots of strings. If you take recommendations from these comments definitely consider "Funny Ways." Different thematically but definitely with the same GG DNA.
GG is practically defying you to like their music and there's a sense of victory when it click
Cockroach King totally sounds like Gentle Giant. Would love for some Magma, or Goblin !
Glad you are doing more prog. The bogged problem is that so many of these reaction channels devolve into endless Tool, Gojira, and DTP reactions ( I'm a fan of all 3!). Or endless suggestions to " out -extreme "the last extreme band.
I think , for myself, its more fun to discover and share "new " music. My 2 cents.
Rather late to this but just to confirm that, no, that wasn't the end of the song Proclamation - it's been edited before the restart and full ending. Shame because that's my favourite bit!
Late/early/on time.... no probs - the video is here forever, or until TH-cam take it down, so comments are always welcome. Glad you still found it a few years later!
If you get a chance to listen to the entire album straight through and ending with "Valedictory", I strongly recommend it. The album's theme is the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal. Note how "Valedictory" ends with the sound of audio tape breaking and running off the reel.
You will love it in time ,brilliant,I saw them 1974 with Jethro Tull, thanks for video, John c.
It's no wonder that you havn't reacted to any more Gentle Giant if that video is all you had to go on - give them another try!
Listen with your ears, not your eyes!
I like this band it is very wacky, but great musicians. I have seen the spinoff three friends live in germany a couple of years ago they were great. But not everyone got it that's true.
It's genius music - I might need to revisit Gentle Giant soon. Really enjoyed this video. Thanks for watching!
I’ve only just seen this! It’s from five years ago!
I graduated in 1972.......... :-)
Ann Waychoff yikes!
Cool Jim. You look so young.
Chubby you mean!
The transition from the bridge at 5:16 was pretty sick
You and GG great Drummer John Weathers could be family !!! Lol : D
Maybe we are….. but no, actually we’re not!
@@JimNewstead Lol, Good fun !! : D
@@JimNewstead Check out that full show it's great fun, and they have many Live vids, I saw them 5 times from 1974' -1977' in Boston and NYC always a great show. : )
@@JimNewstead Hi Jim, well since I posted on Yes a couple of times this month I wanted to go back to this Gentle Giant post and hope you didn't thing I was an Arse 😉
Just having some fun and to tell you I Love how your site is growing etc. And like I brought up during my Yes postings I was lucky enough to be born at the right time to see all these great Prog & Rock bands many times often and if you have any questions on these greats acts what tours, gear, sound, songs etc I'll see if I can answer them for you !! 👍🎶🎸🎹🥁🎤🎻🎷🎛🎼✌
Amazing band and amazing song! I have been a fan since the 70,s
You need to watch the next one!
It's funny how ppl react to music that's not made to be compromising for easier listening. LOL. My head was always hoping for music out of the box. So GG hit me like a ton of ecstasy immediately with no reservations. But I grew up in the heart of the non-commercial music era.
You should have started with in a glass house.
But Jim,,, the fashion is as out of the box as the music...and isn't that the point Saw them on the same bill as Renaissance back in the day What a night yes more please
Gentle Giant suffered the same fate as Camel. Brilliant bands that never gained more than a cult following.
Giant had a better run of albums imo. Acquiring through Interview are outstanding. Every single one. Although the missing piece has always been a fun listen for me, too. Camel, Mirage through Rain Dances, bit hit and miss after that one. Nude a return to form.
You've been having some good bands lately Jim! Gentle Giant is definitely a gem.
Have you heard any Transatlantic? Would be nice to have a reaction. Be forewarned though, the longer songs are the best ones... Aso one band that should get some love is Screaming Headless Torsos
Now having watched the reaction, gotta say they were probably a better studio band.
Seth Brundle yup, quickly listened to about thirty seconds of a studio album afterwards and sounds really good, I think it was remixed by Steven Wilson.
Cameraman must have been a close friend of the drummer.
Interesting parts musically.
Ear also P-F.M Mr. 9 till 5 1973
You might listen to Curved Air and Soft Machine. These were the first.
Yes, this music was truly, genuinely, interesting. Challenging!! A decent word for this.
MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA
Dreams
If
These groups were far more appreciated in Europe than the U.S
The Flock
And they all delivered live, no process, no lip-sync. I can say, from experience, those were the days.
I listen to proclamation to clean my ears after 8 hours of a "safe for work" playlist (shitty pop).
some kansas or boston please.
Way to go, but to really know them you need to listen to In a Glass House, Octopus and Three Friends at least.
Alienate away. Art is not, or should not be, determined by commodity aesthetic mammonism..GG was not as comercial as the bands you note They were quite well known among proggers,, particularly college going proggers, and musicians. When I was in college we talked about them and listened religiously to them. We saw them as musically more "progressive" than more commerically oiriented bands like Yes. later Floyd (after Barrett), Crimson, who kind of dropped away after the first album, and even Van der Graaf, a band I find more interesting that the previously cited.
When I saw that concert for the first time (years ago, when I was studying music) the constant feeling was what the hell is going on here? and those parallel dissonances? And those repetitions/inversions/ostinatos? what is the f&%ng tempo? the live shows were particularly "disturbing" _sonically speaking_ if you don't know them and this is your first approach to the band, you won't get it. Only after several attentive listens does one begin to understand what is happening.
From that point of view, it's music much more geared towards other musicians (or people with "very very eclectic ears"), requires careful listening. Beyond all that, each member is a multi-instrumentist; the harmonizations that the keyboardist (Minnear) does are amazing; the swing/groove that they give to each piece (especially live) is always contagious.
It's definitely an "acquired taste".
Doesn't look like you revisited GG. That's a shame. They grew more melodic as time went on. One of my favorite bands since I discovered them at 16 in 1980, so I absorbed them almost in reverse. The first thing I heard was the single off their final album, Civilian. A VERY accessible song called Inside Out. Took me years to find all of their stuff and absorb it all.
Being that you react to a lot of heavy stuff, here's something interesting I've always been curious about. Did Krokus lift the riff in "Our Love" (th-cam.com/video/dJ8Xcr4bMfQ/w-d-xo.html) from Gentle Giant's epic AF "Peel The Paint" (th-cam.com/video/dGvPSm1opgk/w-d-xo.html)? Someone might have fun reacting to that question. They're such different bands, but lots of folks were influenced by GG.
I understand you're not getting Gentle Giant . Nobody understood us Giant fans in the 70's either ! We're used to it .
Maybe stop watching the video & just listen.
Just a suggestion.
Gentle Giant is not, never was, and won't ever be music for house party listening when shrimp, chicken wings, and whatever is on the barbie, lol And Gentle Giant was never in the top tier of popularity even amongst proggers. You definitely need to listen to it again as there is a lot going on. Also realize that these 2 tracks are from a concept album called The Power and the Glory. Understanding the concept may help to understand the discordance. As for the outfits, did you ever see what Rush were wearing in their early days?! As you said, fashions and attempts at fashion come and go (thankfully). Try to ignore their dress and the facial expressions and appreciate the music. Now I am off to investigate Cockroach King. (Sometimes there is no figuring song titles either.)
You couldn't think of anything to say, so you point out how they were dressed. Not very enlightening Jim
Haha! I agree! Oh the things we do when inexperienced and not very good at making videos. These early ones are where I was learning how to make videos, how to talk to camera, how to be Jim TH-camr, not Jim RegularGuy!
@@JimNewstead now I feel like a jerk, you're obviously a very cool Jim RegularGuy even if Jim TH-camr's early work wasn't his best. And, to be fair, Gentle Giant is extremely baffling the first time you hear it, it happens to everyone. Best to you!
Go back to bed.
Another Amateur. GG is music for grownups with an acquired taste.
Thats a very bad version of this song. Lots of better footage around.
Not really being snobbish here but in fact, Gentle Giant was really too complex for the average listener.
great band, they're no camel but not many are ;)
you where right when you said it was a bit of a mess it was bloody terrible. Can you not hear how bad the singers sound they seem to be tone deaf.
Must admit, not my favorite of their songs. For my money, Free Hand (the album) was the best they ever got. Love the hell out of the vocal harmonies in "On Reflection." Though that 5/4 groove in "Proclamation" was pretty good here.
As for their popularity, they're tier-2 or tier-3 prog. People kinda knew they were around. But... they were opaque in a way that didn't grab an audience.
These guys are definitely one of those artists who blazed the way for better people to follow, like Spock's Beard or Haken, but they don't hold up after better musicians took their ideas and expanded on them.
Speaking of Spock's Beard, here's a group that did vocal harmonies and the sort of dynamic stuff that GG did, but with a bit less of a folk influence. th-cam.com/video/LZ8ArciKdZo/w-d-xo.html
Linked is their live performance of The Light, first song off their first album at one of their earliest live gigs. Has that sort of dissonant > melodic progression, much like what Gentle Giant did.
Chris Check hi Chris, once again, brilliant comment. Thanks for watching and recommending. Spock's Beard is defo a band I want to check out a bit more. I've seen a couple of their videos and they seem pretty good. I'll follow your link and add to the list! Thanks again, Jim.
It's important to say that GG were an "opaque" band by YOUR standards, right? To my knowledge and taste, GG is my favorite prog band from the 70's. They managed to craft a great and unique sound, totally different from the types of popular prog of that era like Yes, Crimson or Genesis. And they payed a high prize for that: being unpopular. This has nothing to do with being "opaque" though.
Ramon Cardinali de Fernandes Mine and the vast majority of other people.
I've listened repeatedly to some of their "great" songs, and they're like the demos for other, better songs by better bands to come.
All their stuff starts to sound too similar as well. Though that I blame more on the godawful production on their records rather than any deficiency on their part.
The vocals were not good. Could not carry a tune. Could not figure out where they were going with this song. Nice reaction Jim.........
Ann Waychoff I'm currently listening to The Power and The Glory album, it sounds much better than the live recording I just reacted to. However, he's not the finest singer every, that's for sure!
still better then peter gabriel
@@@wz2001 Do I think that Derek Shulman's vocals are the best? No. But can I imagine Gentle Giant with a different lead singer? No. He was perfect for their music, imo.
They are intentionally singing dissonant intervals in the harmony parts.