Gentle Giant Remasters (Part 3)

A recent O-R post from Jack Skelly who manages the GG tour history website - http://ggconcerts.on-reflection.org/

Snapper Music contacted me, as well, for any humble two cents of assistance
I could give. I don't really know everything they have planned for CD
content past the original 12 albums, but I do know they are hoping to
include at least some unreleased material. I doubt there's much of anything
left as far as studio outtakes are concerned (after all, that other boxset
was called "Scraping the Barrel" for a reason), so I assume they're looking
at live material.

As for bootlegs that have never seen official release, they may indeed be
able to clean some up, but they could also try to track down better sources.
For instance, the band did some radio broadcasts for which off-air fan
recordings have been used for bootlegs, but Snapper may be able to obtain
the masters directly from the radio stations. I know they're looking into
that, but it's not a guarantee those masters still even exist. If they did,
those would probably represent some serious upgrades.

Of course, I differentiate between "unreleased" and "unheard". I'm hoping
they turn up some brand new stuff that's never even been bootlegged or
traded among collectors. I did give them a few leads in this regard to
follow up on, and I believe they are going to make an honest effort to do
so. Here's hoping for the best.

I'll tell you my absolute #1 wish, just like I told them. NEW ORLEANS 1972.

One track from this show surfaced as a bonus track on the Alucard reissue of
Three Friends, but the rest is totally unheard. They were opening for Black
Sabbath at the time, so it wouldn't be a long show, but I asked Leslie once
if the whole tape exists. She checked with Derek who says it does, but he
felt it was too short for a stand-alone release. Maybe, but it absolutely
could be included in this set. I think it is the *only* live soundboard
recording to include Phil Shulman.

If you're looking for recordings to vote for, may I suggest NEW ORLEANS
1972?

Jack

Oh, by the way......NEW ORLEANS 1972!

 

Yes that would be cool! (Anything in particular which they played at that time?)

My own #1 wish would be some decent recording from the spring '77 tour, where they performed a totally different version of "Winning" plus "As Old As Your Young", both of which songs, as far as I know, were dropped from the setlist as of the fall '77 tour.

 

I'm not sure if they were missing, but Alucard has been thus far unable to license the first two albums for release. Meanwhile, Repertoire, BGO, EastWest, Sony, and perhaps others have released no end of editions of these. I'm unsure as to whether any recent releases have used the original master tapes.

 

IIRC, Eroc mentioned the Repertoires used either 1:1 analog or digital copies of the masters. I think there are common "defects" on each release that can clue us to one digital masters set, or the other being used.

 

I'm almost 100% certain that Eroc mastered his GG releases from digital, but were they digital dumps of the original mix masters, or a later generation (European production, for example)? His version of Acquiring The Taste has a tape speed error on the title track; is this common to any other releases?

 

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall his sources were flat transfers from the masters, not production copies. Maybe a digital copy made in the 80s.
That tape speed issue is on most releases, IIRC.

 

Yes, that upsweep error is VERY common - even on old LP pressings. As I recall, it was introduced by a tape operator at some point after the earliest pressings, and somehow wasn't caught. It got into production and stayed there. My LP was a U.S. Vertigo/Mercury pressing and it had the upsweep. For many years, I thought it was intentional, especially because - yes - it was even on the CD reissues! But I eventually found out the truth. I believe the track is correct only the earliest U.K. LPs, though it's possible that early pressings in other countries are correct; I'm not well versed enough in that area to know.

If I'm not mistaken, there may only be one or two CD issues which revert back to the correct version. Maybe the most recent reissues are correct, but I stopped paying attention a long time ago. My brain just can't keep up!

 

Snapper Boxed Set survey

Snapper Boxed Set Survey

 

That would be the 2 cd collection called Dusky Voices (Edge of Twilight) of which I have.

Edge of Twilight (album) - The Gentle Giant Home Page

 

Yes, Edge of Twilight is one. I think there was another CD issue of the AtT album proper which also has the correct version of the track, but I can't remember which one. Or even if there definitely is one. Maybe someone else here knows.

 

Done!

Asked for Hi-Res sound and new surround mixes.

 

The Japanese 2009 issue of AtT on Universal UICY 94271 has the correct version of the title track. I believe it may have been re-issued again since then with a different serial number.

 

Under, "What other items would be important to you," I entered:

And under, "Please list anything else that would make this boxed set attractive to you," I entered:

Please feel free to copy and paste for your own use.

 

Giant ceramic head

 

Done!
I guess you already know what I have asked for

 

Done!
Under "Please list anything else that would make this boxed set attractive to you," I entered:
Accuracy and attention to detail in its preparation. The recent Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd boxes have been marred by careless compilation. In some cases, audio sources inferior to those available in the trading circles have been used. Gentle Giant deserves better.

And under the CD bootleg section:
If the Watford recording from 19 March 1974 proves popular in the survey, I can help. I was the taper and have recently transferred the analogue master cassette to 24bit 192 kHz. It's not a great quality recording, but my master is a bit better than the version that's circulating in the trading community. I also have some pictures from the show taken by a friend. Best wishes and good luck with the project.

 

Can anyone ID the 3 other people in this picture besides the band of course?

 

^ A couple of things strike me. The 3 non-Giant guys happen to have the looks of typical Québécois compatriots of the time. And the other one is that those 2 bottles of beer are the stock ancient chubby model, perhaps of the brand Molson, which would be local too.

Did Americans (or other countries) have that type of beer bottle in the 70s? I don't think I have ever seen one, on TV for instance...

 

Someone else said it looked like a Molson bottle. Jack Skelly thinks it might by early '75 but isn't sure. Thanks for narrowing down the geography PF.

 

As far as the province of Quebec goes, GG came here twice in 1975, in January, then in late summer. I only saw the January show, and I think Gary's hair style was shorter than on this photo.

 

^^^Those three guys with Gentle Giant have period muso heads... If they hung out with GG in 1975, one might check what the members of the Québécois prog group Pollen (whom were scheduled to open for GG in August '75, alongside Weather Report, but didn't because showtime got delayed), looked like... I tried but failed; name is too generic + another, more contemporary band from the USA has the same name.

 

What do you think? I'm not seeing it...

 

That was fast!

No, we can leave off that trail, it's not them.

If he grew a beard, the 2nd guy on the right could easily impersonate Kerry Minnear!

 

I don't know but GG did an excellent impression of Black Sabbath on the Black Box set.

 

Gary Green came through on 2 out of the 3 -

The guy in the center, that we're pointing to (and I hadn't spiked the drinks as Hak said!) is indeed Scoot Irwin, Ontario (?) area A&R rep for Capitol, who we always used to pester for albums when he came to shows. He always came through and was generally a good guy for us.

The guy in the plaid jacket looking startled is Eric Brooks, our tour manager at that time, who we originally met when we played with Jethro Tull. He had been their tour manager and lights guy, operating a home-made board constructed of plywood with giant control knobs from the side of the stage. Early days! (that's from the Scraping the Barrel booklet in the Power and the Glory chapter/paragraph.... I wonder if I should re-write some of that!) We called him Uncle Eric and he was a lovely bloke, sharing our (Derek's and my) interest in football.

I don't recognize the other guy......

Where? No clue, but must be Ontario somewhere....

I should point out that the pointing was a Shulman thing that had carried over from the Simon Dupree days, and was intended to unsettle the pointee, but purely done with love and only a little maliciousness.....

love to all
ggxxx