Gentle Giant - So sincere
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- German TV ZDF 1974-Live Brussels film studio Derek Shulman ( vocals, saxophone, recorder, bass, percussion) Ray Shulman (bass, violin, acoustic guitar, recorder, trumpet, vocals, percussion) Gary Green (guitars, recorders, vocals, percussion) Kerry Minnear (keyboards, cello, vibes, recorder, vocals, percussion) John Weathers (drums, vibes, tambour, vocals, percussion)
Can you imagine the sound check?
"OK, give me the Xylophone... No, the other Xylophone... No, no, not that one either, I mean the other one, next to the timbales!"
I need the violin, the thing with strings. No, that's a guitar, it's made of wood. Nope, that's an acoustic guitar, you bow it. No, no, no, that's the cello, it's a little smaller. Damnit, that's the Shulberry, forget it!
Exactly, What a nightmare!
Why sleep when you can just listen to Gentle Giant all night.
The fact that they're able to have so much fun while playing such complex music just goes to show you how deep these compositions are in their consciousness. They reached a musical mecca, retired, and cashed in on the record business. Unlike most of the prog bands they switched teams before selling out completely and help to produce some of the biggest acts of the 80s. It just adds to their mystique. Obviously some of the smartest musicians to date.
John Weathers is such a mythical creature
Gnome or elf?
@@philweingart9523 Giant! He literally looks like the giant hahaha
he's also one hell of a drummer -- but I know you know that ;}
The Bonham of Prog
47 Years gone. And they're still the most talented & true progressive band ever. So frigging cool!
No they're good but there's a couple that can out do them. Zappa certainly can. However, they still remain my top three favorite groups. Wish they would had lasted longer. Saw them back in 70 or 71.
@@tixximmi1 Zappa although good & certainly talented never made music that sounded as cool as GG. That's my opinion. no hard feelings.
@@Stevesupcom I would put The Adventures of Greggery Peccary up against anything GG ever did. Zappa wrote so much music that whatever the "cool" you like is there somewhere. Zappa's albums are now at 104 with many of them double albums, about a dozen are triple and a few quads too. Oh in Greggery Peccary Zappa even wrote the 3 typewriters in. GG never played the typewriter or the zither. They were good but Zappa is a whole other level. I got to see GG once and Zappa over 20 times.
@@tixximmi1 I will definitely listen to that. I never really got into Zappa. But I'm sure it's great.
@@Stevesupcom Listen to all of the instrumentation and sound effects. When asked, Zappa said one of the best groups out there who went beyond the boundaries was GG. Studio Tan is a great album to dwell on.
I saw them in NYC in the seventies. Incomparable. Not only the virtuostic performance, but the COMPOSITION. How the heck do you CREATE music like this? When I heard them play So Sincere live I about fell on the floor.
Right: a song beginning so avantgarde-stylish and ending in an incredible drum battle, that's unique until today. BTW: this TV-session went on air in 1974 not in a midnight hour but on a sunday noon, I still can record it, I was 17 years old then. Those were the days!
You know your band is awesome when everybody is joining in for the drum "solo".
Loved it then love it now I’m 70 years old walking with headphones on my iPad beautiful spring day on Long Island NY 2023 April 12 my legs in pace with the rhythm 🎶 it rules!
Every live performance of GG is like a master class. I can get lost in them for hours. So much fun.
I'd only just found out about them, but now I've heard just 3 of there pieces from different time periods, I'm absolutely hooked. I'm a huge King Crimson and Dream Theater fan but honestly this band is performing music that I've never heard before. An absolute treasure of a band and very exciting to the ears. Such a shame that the masses want what some corporate executive thinks is great music instead of music that actually is great. This is really marvelous composition and improvisation combined to give something truly original. Absolutely amazing.
You wrote, "Such a shame that the masses want what some corporate executive thinks is great music instead of music that actually is great."
Ironically, the vocalist in this band, Derek Shulman, went on to be a major record company executive, first a VP for Polygram and later the CEO of Atco records. He was quite successful there. Apparently he knows both what sells and what works musically, and has no difficulty producing either one.
But I think you have to admit that "the masses" can't understand this music, and in fact some of us don't, either. It's a stretch because it's so dissonant. Analysis aside, the human soul craves assonance, and non-analysts will gravitate in that direction.
@@philweingart9523 Yes the constant need for repetition and similar sounding vowels etc in song structures is certainly prevalent but to be honest I think it's more laziness of listening. Good listening can be learned but someone has to have the patience and develop the ability to really hear something properly. With repetitive jingles, it simply takes less brain power and there's not much difficulty of comprehension required. Myself, I label a lot of commercial music after a song Frank Zappa wrote called 'A Little Green Rosetta.'
So glad to see newcomers to this band. I've been listening to them since 81. I was blown away then and still am.
You will travel deeper and deeper into the music of Giant now that you "get it." Welcome my friend! We all went through he same experience with them. That's why Giant fans are the most loyal on the planet, because we all learned to "Acquire The Taste." Once you do, you'll never look back. Giant forever!
Should have seen Zappa. He's the GG of the GG's. There is an interview when asked the question, which groups impressed you, Frank said GG. That stamped it for me!
It's probably 12 people like me listening to it 100 times over
They were the funkiest of all the great Prog groups!
As a musician, I listen to GG and wonder (a) how anyone could conceive of a piece like this (b) how on Earth everyone remembered their parts!
GG , More popular now that Ever before !!! : )
incredible, love the percussive jam session..gentle giant deserve so much more recognition
Rest in peace Ray Shulman.
Kerry Mennear is a monster!
Crumbs! I went to the premiere of ITCoTCK last year and thought that everybody in the audience was superior to all other mortals by some distance. But now I am not so sure. How could it be that the people in the audience for this concert knew about the pure magnificence of GG before me???? They really are the prog rockers prog band.
Magical. Not just a band, musicians.
+Justin B i only consider something "band" if all members are musicians.
So . . . no drummers?
@@lo0ksik well there's the entity of the collective effort of the musicians, then the merits of the individual musicians outside that context
I have friends who love Gentle Giant but just can't stand this song. Most people can't understand it. But, Gosh, how I love it!
Best live performance, I've seen form a music group . Hands down.
Truly jaw-dropping! Especially layered over a pure funk-groove!
Hands down seems appropriate only for group choices though, not individual?
Love this! Gentle Giant was one of the greatest live bands I ever saw!
I saw them in Chicago in 1976, and decided, on that very night, to become a professional musician. And I did, and I still am 45 years later, and I've had an incredible life -- and it all started because my friend Sven took me to see Gentle Giant one summer night, all those years ago. That was the greatest night of my life. Kerry Minnear and Ray Shulman are my heroes to this day.
Simply They were geniuses
but anyone lucky enough to see this live remembers gasping at the light show along with this monster piece of music. Still my fav live event ever... and no throwing sticks around either, haha
I saw them live in1977. My jaw is still on the floor.
So funny hahahah good one
Ray Shulman is great and impressive!!!
some of the best bass lines ever written
God of the 4-Strings: Bass & Violin
I remember when a guitar player friend of mine "turned me on to" the FREE HAND album back around 1973. It turned my life inside out. I collected Jazz, Classical, Funk, Rock, everything out there, but nobody blew me away like these guys. Seek out their music and you will see what I mean.
Simply one of the most amazing display of musicianship Ive ever seen
saw them at a club in denver 1974
called ebbits field the place held maybe 150 people packed.....amazing band ....love the time signatures
same here! Three of us (three friends, as it were...), all seated in that section off stage left, so we were behind Kerry Minnear (to the delight of my keyboardist friend/musical partner). Among the most striking things about them was how much fun they were having, all while playing this very complicated material.
Trivia detail: guitarist Gary Green met his wife Judy at Ebbets Field (she worked there, I think as a waitress). Not sure whether it was the 1974 appearance or an earlier one.
I had a teacher in high school who saw these guys in the 70's. He said they we're some of the best act he'd had ever seen. The only concert he said he liked more was Jimi Hendrix
I can verify that. The night I decided to become a pro musician was the night I saw GG at the Riviera Theatre (Chi), 1975 or 76. Even though I am a keyboard player and Minnear is my hero, I actually decided on my life's path during the dual acoustic guitar duet with Ray and Gary.
"The Greatest you've never heard in your life"
Never saw a guitar and bass player so perfectly locked into each other, having so much fun and making it look easy!
And Ray always has that little cat-that-ate-the-canary smile.
Very few prog bands were ever this funky.
I’ve just discovered these guys about a month ago. I listen to the studio albums and I was impressed by the musical complexity and multi instrumental stuff already, but these live performances are insane! Especially this one where they all hop on the percussion? Holy shit! No other band will ever be like them, period.
Congrats for discovering the greatest most epic legendary genius band ever
Yeah, I've known about their music for more than forty years and have a copy pf their amazing live album from the 1976 European tour, Playing the Fool. Just wish I had been a couple of years older and had gotten to see them playing live, they actually gigged in my hometown on that tour and people who went to see them at that show were predictably in awe. A stellar band that didn't get one-tenth of the recognition or sales they would have deserved. 😸
I saw Gentle Giant three times and I must say they’re the greatest band all genres ever. It’s the band at lesst listen to once or more every week sometimes day and night. I’m a musician and composer playing fusion, progressive rock, blues rock and more guitars and basses ans sings and as a band I think GG is one the the highest level and then comes bands like King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, Greenslade Weather Report, Return To Forever and Miles and Coltrane etc...
Just love tunes and sond songs and they are such lovely guys.
Gentle Giant should do a Reunion still be the greatest.
Absoutely agree with you a gazillion percent-they are/were the greatest most legendary genius criminally underated band ever
Finely and brilliantly controlled chaos; I love Gentle Giant. This song is perfect, I wish I was able to see it live in 1974 (on tour with YES if I remember in the US, can you imagine) - they look like they're going to explode!
The audience is not worthy.
Brilliant musical wizardry from the finest band ever to have graced a stage. The evening I spent in their presence (Interview tour, 6th May 1976 at Warwick University, supported by the Dutch band Solution) was one of the most memorable of my life. Pure enchantment, amazement, exuberance and joy!
Never have I seen a prog band be so Avant-Garde yet so Funky, and look so awesome doing it!
Every Gentle Giant song I hear live improves upon the original... rare... and John Weathers' expressions while drumming literally made me burst out in a random laugh lol
Jeremy Ewing - yeah, I loved watching his and Rays expressions. Saw them several times- I'm so fortunate!
Yes, the live versions are different and rock much harder. That was one of the highlights of seeing Giant in the day (before the live album came out), it was so exciting to hear how they rearranged and rewrote their music for live performance. I can't think of another band that did that so extensively
How brilliant can get? Nobody ever reached these heights. They were fantastic.Time has proven and will continue to enhance how great they were. Glory be.
GG looks like there having a hell of a lot of fun on this one, especially during the drum/percussion solo!
I remember this percussion solo from the Seattle show at the Moore Theater. Thanks for letting me relive it! It was the 2nd time I'd seen them. First time was when they were opening for Tull's TAAB tour.
2fois live. Souvenirs merveilleux.
Hairy men creating musical heaven
WOW!!!! Is this the greatest band of all time or what???
The Power And The Glory - - I think about this album's message a lot lately.
Maybe the greatest band EVER !
Maybe? No without a doubt the greatest ever-not even close-they stand alone on mount everest
Even amongst their contemporaries in English prog rock, they were incredibly virtuosic.
God, I love the Giant.
They are/were the greatest most epic legendary unique genius band ever
Well that's it. Number one. I have loved a lot of bands to death, and I've heard this (the album, not this video, I have NEVER seen this video before!!!!!) and loved Gentle Giant before, but seeing this now, that's it. They are, and will remain forever, number one.
Absolutely without a doubt the greatest most criminally underated band ever
They were happy while playing. Marvelous
Every one of them so talented and enthusiastic. What a performance!
I believe that was a flying mallet, Jack.
These guy were so incredible. It is true that they didn't receive the recognition that they so richly deserved. Their music is too complex for most people to follow. Like many of the finer things in life, one must "Acquire the Taste". And once one does so, nothing lesser will do.
One consolation is that the music is timeless. It is as fresh and as mesmerizing today as it was 35 years ago. The band has created a legacy that will never die.
I can only number on one hand, the number of rock bands that would have the stones to follow these guys on stage....Incredible
Brilliant! That last bit of the drum "solo" was the rhythm of "The Runaway" from "Glass House." GG mixed and matched all the time.
good ears, you're exactly right!
I can't hear it
I have seen them three times once with the Stawbs, Yes, and solo. One of my favorite bands love there work..
+Paul Baker Jealous!!!! =)
you should go see Three Friends a knock off Band of the Giant with Garry Green playing in it.
Im so grateful these videos exist! At least the germans could appreciate good music.
Love the drum quintet going on there at the end of the song! Gentle Giant was an awseome prog-rock group!
Kerry's keyboard riff from 3:22 onwards with Gary following suit at 4:29 is pure bliss.
Listen to their live album, Playing The Fool. Minnear takes that part on clavinet and proceeds to play a different rhythmic permutation of it, one after another, never the same, while Green takes his solo. It's some of the greatest keyboard playing I've ever heard, and it goes on for like 3 minutes. He was a genius, but especially with rhythm
@@jamiepastman5594 Yes I've heard it, the man is a genius for sure.
The clavinet stuff is so cool. Makes one wonder why more prog. keyboardists haven't used that very much.
Meanest clav on the planet.
@@jamiepastman5594 Yes, the variations are mind blowing!
The drummer looks like the Giant on there album cover
Maybe that clinched the deal when he auditioned.
That's why they picked him to be their drummer.
which one lol
@@redlinenantlersstudio6076 the debut
KidFlersh but they used the same gentle giant for three friends in America and probably elsewhere. That’s why I asked I know the debut has the giant.
this band makes anything possible
Love when that bad ass drum beat kicks in!
It took me 40 years to realise that at 9.00 they are playing "The Runaway" on the drums. What a band!
thanks for pointing that out. I didn't even pick up on it.
I'm not getting it
Every time I find another video of this band playing live, I'm completely blown away. These guys were on another level.
Turning into a beach fire drumming session is amazing
Extraordinary, unique, much loved and much missed.
The first time l saw this live, when zilaphone part started, the place went black with just rotating stars. The crowd oohed and aughed. Brilliant
That song is really representing the real concept of the undetected lie... And it's the live version? DANG, I'm just really pleased by that performance... ... ... When I see such a bunch of genius artists changing instruments while having incredible fun together, I just see what music is made good for!!! :) :) :)
When GG came out, they were the same ages as the guys in my band. I played with some great musicians but we would sit, listen, and marvel at this band with each album release! We held them in such awe and reverence. We just couldn't figure out where these songs and arrangements came from and forget about the tightness and musical playing ability! We wanted to be GG.
Gentle Giant is our little secret.
I love the complexity of this - truly great musicians making great music.
Again... utterly amazed they could play this live.. and lyrically on point with current the political climate in the West 45+years later.....
I can remember seeing them do this Live in Philadelphia many years ago! Such a cool band to see perform ...Multi-talented musicians for sure! The stage was packed with instruments...
72Z15SS - I don't remember the venues that I saw GG at in Phila (I'm from NJ) but I saw them several times and they were AMAZING! The venues were smaller places and we were always close enough to catch the hysterical, at times, faces that particularly Ray and Weathers made. Lol. I Loved being there for their incredible performance of this song and recently realized that the violin solo I have been looking for on video was from the song Timing. How freaked out were we when his violin started 'echoing' from behind and beside us in the audience. It was surreal and SO exhilarating. There can't have been any band (and I've seen Alot of them!) that tops these guys for sheer genius onstage. Their music was like fireworks going off in your brain. Wish I could see an audience experience Timing like they got to see this onstage transformation. Most underrated band... And they planned it that way..... Well, as far as commercialization goes.
Wow that was three times as epic as the version on Playing the Fool.
In a time of great bands and leyends....THOSE GUYS WERE MASTERS!!!!
In 1938, one of the most important cultural theorists, Theodor Adorno, critiqued music as being mindless, formulaic, and boring. He advocated instead that we embrace atonal music, music that is uncomfortable to listen to intially, but that displays true depth and virtuosity by the musicians. Had Adorno lived into the mid 70s, I think he would have approved of this song.
My mind gets blown everytime, I saw them in Boston years ago, and it amazed me how they played all that stuff so well live.....Awesome ! ;)
Most unique band ever along with van der graff
GENIOS!!!!! después de casi 50 años, clásicos del Futuro!!!!!
Thank you god of music for bringing them to our planet and ears !
It seems that the absolute genius of these guys is pulling more fans in. Their art may very well endure longer than Floyd, YES, Crimson.....all of them. The greatest are almost always unrecognized in their own time.
I think you could be right- really to find a comparable vibe it has to be the early 70's Herbie Hancock Mwandishi band- and nowadays people like Jacob Collier?
Wouldn't that be a strange irony? I'm reminded of American composer, Charles Ives who was either ignored or reviled during his lifetime, only to be finally understood and appreciated decades after his death.
well THE CRIM is packing them in all over the world, so I'm not so sure these guys are the 'GREATEST " but i still love them
Well, in Chicago at least, they could fill the Riviera Theater (greatest concert of my life), around 2500 people I think. Can you imagine that happening now? The 70's were a glorious time for great music and concerts, I saw them 3 times...
now these guys create MUSIC
They are magicians !
Saw them with Jean Luc Ponty.
I saw them open for Renaissance.
Excelencia pura. La versatilidad es increíble y pone de manifiesto a esta grandiosa banda que pone al Progresivo en las alturas.
they don't make em' like this anymore....unfortunately. many thanx for the post !
huge fan of the giants in music. no need to say more these guys made something that will never get old or boring wowww.. the energy that oozes out of these songs.
I saw them in Louisville in about 1973. They opened for Spirit and Edgar Winter.
That drummer looks like the best human hahaha his head mimics the shape of the sounds GG make.....such a brilliant song...
Saw them do this live...during the musical percussion section all went dark bar some fairy lights...magnificent performance and band..
thaT WAS UNFORGETTABLE, the whole audience gasped when those fairy lights came on, I remember it well
cant handle that thing...going back on my pathetic little guitar to play my pentatonic scale :P
Saw them once...they opened for Jethro Tull. I don't think any show I've seen since was better.
The story goes that Tull didn't want to go on after them, they were getting their asses kicked every night by the great Giant. Back in the day, all the prog bands knew Giant were the scariest and most brilliant band of them all, and hated to have to go on after them.
How they ever dreamed up some of their stuff is beyond me.Brilliant
Kerry and Ray, two complete geniuses in 1 band, that's how. So brilliant, I agree 1000 percent
When Derek drops his bass drum mallet on the organ, it creates an impromptu, dissonant accompaniment. Then poor Gary drops his drumstick. That live performance for you...
I've always loved this band. Simply one of the best. I'ts also great to see this video. I've seen GG probably 4 times in the 70s. Thanks for posting.
The duel between Kerry and Gary is amazing, with that really funky backbeat from John. I saw then 3-4 times in Toronto, first time at Convocation Hall in 73 or 74, it's a bit fuzzy.... Had every one of their lp's. I had no idea that had reformed, partially, and had toured. gonna enjoy the clips form last years shows...
That rhythm, I love how the beat falls on some of the passages, love these unusual time signatures...
This is FANTASTIC!!! THANKS FOR THE POST!!
The most insanely fun, challenging and exciting band of musicians I've ever heard or seen. So grateful to you for sharing.
Simply AMAZING...