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So yeah... It's a Friday night, I'm doing database work and listening to Gentle Giant. Great band. The use of fugues and medieval music is done very well. The early material suffers from the lack of timelessness (groovy). But works like The Power and The Glory, Freehand, Interview, and A Glass House are just fantastic. The later stuff tried to be new wave, but it was really cheesy.

Definately not crap. Not at all.

Nah, this is cheesy. My friends at the skate park would bag on me and yank on my wallet chain.

Pompous and overblown CRAP.

Not to mention that it's very "limp-wristed".

I'll admit, a fair amount if GG stuff is cheesy (even for my tastes). But they have 4 albums that are really solid, and great songs scattered across the other ones.

Pompous, yes. And rightfully so. Their use of compositional techniques (like counterpoint) is so well done. They're musicians' music. The vocal-fugue songs like "Knots" are quite interesting. Both medieval and modern. Influenced by fugues and the psychologist R.D. Lang.

Pompous? I've heard so much criticism of the "excesses" of progressive rock. I don't get it. Is it a bad thing to write complicated music that takes musical skill to play? Is it a bad thing to be influenced by classical music? I'll take pompous prog rock over boring 80's poop any day (and I'm talking to you Interpoop, Modest Muff, and Fucked Ferdinand -- shame on you all for sucking so bad and getting so much praise for it. Nice suits, though. Nice hair too.).

People who don't like the "excesses" bought into the record industry's plot to make music more cost effective. A band like Yes was a nightmare to record. They were a nightmare for live shows. The industry loved drum machines (Linn) and simple 3 chord Huey Lewis pop songs. A band like Yes adapted, and did songs about who would own up to farting in an odor free environment (owner of a lonely fart).

The Gentle Giant DVD that just came out is sick. They all play 4-6 different instruments, with virtuosic skill. Definately not crap. Although their medieval bell bottom suits are really funny... No one does this today, because no one can and it doesn't pay off. It doesn't pay off to have a conservatory-schooled keyboardist. Just loop dat shit, yo.

Limp-wristed? I doubt that. Although one of their album covers seems to advocate tossing salads, I'm sure they mean this in the most heterosexual way. Just because they dressed like Liberace doesn't mean they are like him...



Great album, and their early foray into avant-garde realms... Definately my favorite of their early stuff. Three Friends is also pretty good. The first self titled one isn't that great.

I've tried to enjoy them, but I can't. There's something about their particular combination of elements that doesn't do it for me. I can appreciate what they're going for, though.

How about those 5UUs?

exellent !!
one of the most underated rock progressive band !

as well 5UU's is exellent too ( crisis in clay is phenomenal )
I know well bob drake and dave kerman and they are huge fan of gentle giant and yes too .

5uus = NC.

gentle giant i have two albums:

free hand = NC.
giant for a day = CRAP.

split decision for now.

yes giant for a day is a big crap !
civilians too . their 3 or 4 last one are really bad compare to their 5 or 6 first

I like them. They have some really great stuff.

Compared to these bands they are the lesser

King Crimson Larks-Red Period
Peter Gabriels Genesis
Matching Mole
Henry Cow
Univers Zero
Cluster/Eno/Wyatt /early/Kraftwerk Can
Schicke Fuhrs Frohling
Van der graf generator
Yes

They are mid level prog along the lines of
Quiet Sun
Gryphon
Clearlight
are they really any better than PFM?
ELP (whom I hate)
Jonesy
Focus
Finch


As someone who admits to liking a lot of prog and someone who used to REALLY love prog/art rock, and someone who owned a bunch of their records, I always found them to be a shitty Genesis wannabe.

Compared to Universe Zero 1313, Nursery Cryme, or Starless and Bible Black, they just dont bring the quality. They have stupid singing and song arrangements that only seem complex and clever for the sake of being complex and clever.

Henry Cow could eat these fucks for lunch.

Huzzah! CRRRRRAP!