30-disc studio & live box coming from Gentle Giant

sorry to the CCM ordering folks. if deepdiscount.com ever gets em in I ordered it from there with a discount code 297 shipped to my door.

gonna post a big long rambling review of sorts in a moment.

 

ok i spent the last few months not just enjoying this set but also listening to my various bootlegs and other releases in chronological order been a wonderful journey. here are my quick thoughts on the box more on content than sound quality sorry people who keep asking about that:

I have no strong feelings about the remastering. I think it is a shame that they left off so much good bonus material though. Sure scraping the barrel is doing just that but under construction has loads of great stuff and there is good material to be found on scraping the barrel that could have been amended to the single discs. In my world we have one extra disc with the early recordings from under construction (throw on the bbc session with city hermit there) then each disc would be amended with choice demos and outtakes to fill each disc up.


A quick take on the live shows. Note I am no audiophile so this is more just about what we actually have and what is missing, with just general thoughts on sound.

Winchester 71

Already out of course. A essential document despite its weak sound. I have one other bootleg from 71 but it is a much shorter set with none of the rare tracks contained here.


Essen 72

I have a bootleg of this they sound quite similar but run at slightly different speeds. I have to say I can’t really decide which is correct. But the bootleg oddly fades out between tracks and is missing some in between song talk. So point to the new version however the new version also has a distortion towards the end of plain truth that is not apparent in the bootleg.


I have several bootlegs from this tour one in particular from a few weeks later in italy includes Giant so I think would have been a better choice. I did pay close attention to the queen on these other bootlegs (also have one from Switzerland) and indeed as described in the boxsets booklet they put in bits of each countries national anthems. Makes me think a nice bonus would have been to collect various editions of the queen even if atrocious sound would have been fun to hear the variations as a bonus.

New orleans and los angeles 72


Both of these shows come from the first US tour with black sabbath. I don’t really see the need for two complete shows. The new orleans has very good sound being a soundboard recording and is unreleased before now wheras Hollywood bowl is famous for the firecracker incident and is a complete show. Personally I think they should have made a combined show putting the remainder of holly wood bowl onto new orleans where it cuts out and then having the firecracker portion as a bonus. Most hardcore fans probably have the Hollywood bowl bootleg anyways.

Additionally the booklet mentions that perhaps every song off three friends was performed live at some point. While I understand if there are not examples of all of them around I do have a decent bootleg from April 72 cheltenham that includes a cracking version of schooldays. And given it was never performed later seems a song that really would have merited inclusion. I also have one from Germany that has peel the paint. As an encore. So I think a nice solution for this would have been include the Cheltenham show and then throw on the queen and peel the paint from Offenbach to have a hybrid show with three three friends tracks.


BBC set (included on the new orleans disc)

Very nice to have this and it bridges the gap between their first BBC session and the glass house era one that follows it on totally out of the woods. But speaking of totally out of the woods it really feels like at the least the set with city hermit should have been on here. Maybe a one disc highlights of BBC sessions with no duplicate songs could have been appropriate for this set.

1973-01 Viacenza.

As one of the last shows with Phil and a rare version of panurge with him and played on its own this certainly merits inclusion. I have not heard any other shows from this era.

1973-10-19 Torino

A fairly common show making the rounds on the bootleg circuit and included on scraping the barrel MP3 archive. Good to have for fairly clear sound evidently from a soundboard though maybe it is just me but it doesn’t sound that great there are several dropouts and dips in quality. I have some other shows from this period that include in a glass house as a encore so perhaps one of those encores could have been put on here to provide a more complete look at this tour, and maybe save a disc later.


1974-04-05 Munster

The book mentions this is a alternate source compared to earlier bootlegs I do not have earlier ones to confirm or deny. As an example of the second leg of the glass house tour with runaway/experience rather than runaway and way of life it merits inclusion. And it has glass house so solves the issue of the prior disc. But ultimately runaway/experience was maintained for several future tours so there isn’t really anything totally rare here to require a additional disc. If it was between this and covering other areas that are missing from here I say drop it…


1974-11-22 St Gallen

A nice representation of the early power and the glory tours the final appearance of nothing at all. The booklet says this is largely unheard and indeed I do not have this in my bootleg collection. I have one from a few days later so nice to have something new. The main problem is it is lacking a supposed encore of mister class and quality / peel the paint which I have not heard. The tour history seems to indicate it may have been on the tape so if it was left off to keep it on one disc or have the umpteenth performance of plain truth that would be awfully disappointing. But ignoring that this is a good inclusion.

1975-01-27 Cleveland

The majority of this was available on playing in Cleveland but this edition reinstates mister class and quality so we at last get that represented in this set and that is most welcome. A nice show of the power and the glory north American leg. The book mentions the studio session recorded in west hollywood (partially released as live in santa monica) potentially having the entire masters so maybe this would have been a good opportunity to make that more presentable and complete but this one is good.

1975-11 Basel

Another show that had not gotten a wide bootleg release before this set so that is nifty though shows from the same period are not rare. This one similarly is mentioned to not necessarily be complete which is frustrating though presumably what it is missing is on reflection which isn’t rare though being a early performance of it may have been more worthwhile than another runaway experience. The sound is quite good although it felt like there was tape slowdown at the very end derek's voice seemed a bit too deep. Still a good show from the short free hand era which would blend into the interview period in short order.

1976 playing to fool expanded

The bulk of the discs concern the 4 shows recorded for playing the fool with reportedly everything available presented over 4 discs. It all sounds fabulous of course but it is 4 shows that were the same setlist performed with the idea of making a unified live album. And of course playing the fool is a seminal live album so these are things we know quite well. Its annoying that this preponderance of interview era stuff likely nixed the possibility of a earlier 76 show so a live take on give it back is missing from this box set. This seems like it would have been a good place to have a expanded GG at the bicentennial with the bootleg sourced encores added back into it (the booklet mentions these have been found). These discs feature much of what is already on playing the fool so maybe a solution to save discs would have been to make a alternative playing the fool consisting of a complete show of tracks not included on the album. If you remove all the original playing the fool material you are left with 2.7 hours but we could further cull it some by removing some more of Dusseldorf previously released on under construction to get it to a level manageable on two discs. I do have to add one of the most frustrating elements here is the Brussels show which is tagged onto the end of Dusseldorf it only features the last three songs and not for once a repeat of its playing the fool contribution breakdown in brussels. But, that would actually be the most interesting thing to hear in context sure we love the band rocking on all cylinders but hearing everything screw up and them flinging out sweet Georgia brown to cover up would have been a nifty moment to have. So I do applaud the work done on making these sound great and get them out within this box but I cannot help but being a little disappointed with it.

1977 pinewood rehearsal

This one has been around the block a few times on the scraping the barrel mp3 disc and memories of old days cd (out of order for reasons no one can say). This is its best presentation yet in cd quality and in order so nice to have as it is a good showing of the early 77 tour which debuted 4 tracks from the missing piece as well as the excellent just the same playing the game medley. There are some decent recordings from the tour proper that maybe would be more authentic but this is a cool tape and sounds rather decent.


1977 Chester

A unreleased soundboard of a less covered period makes this perhaps the most exciting inclusion in the set. Definitely the best sounding 77 show (unless you include sight and sound but technically that is 1978) I have heard importantly includes the new face plain truth drum bash medley and the slightly adjusted excerpts from octopus that only appeared on this tour and were not included on the sight and sound concert. However this show is missing mountain time whether that is because it was not played that night or because they wanted to keep it to one CD is unclear but the disc does run a healthy 78 minutes so seems some editing may have taken place to keep it there which is a bit frustrating if so given mountain time live does not appear on this set another omission that could have been solved with including a blu ray of the two DVDs that have been released before. Regardless this is a great inclusion.

1980 Roxy

Of course you gotta include the final show. This has been released before as last steps though this is slightly different edit including a sing along bit cut out of the original release I spent a little too long comparing the versions I also noticed there was more talking after free hand however sacrificed to make room for these are 20 seconds of ambience before the show and perhaps more importantly the intro to its not imagination about how it is about subliminal messages, and a bit of a halfhearted drum coda to the bash. and similar bits elsewhere seems a fair trade. and evidently slightly better sound. I love the civilian shows and this is a great example. Suppose a argument could have been made to release the full new haven show that was partially released on memories of old days but hard to argue against including their final performance.


So in the end we have a whole bunch of versions of funny ways but no live versions of school days, give it back or mountain time. A little frustrating.


and lets be clear ultimately I don’t mind more gentle giant I am a rabid fan but if you are gonna leave of performances of some songs why two glass house era discs why two black sabbath opening era discs why 5 discs of playing the fool with repeats. Make it a hundred disc set if you want. I just think the set is neither here nor there not a perfect coverage of studio or live so not a perfect 100% one stop shop document that it seemingly sets out to be.


Still I have certainly enjoyed this little trip and the supplemental books are incredible.

 

In case you’re interested, Derek Shulman is a guest on my podcast “Sending Signals” this month. We talk about “Civilian” a bit, the band’s final show, jumping on Yoko Ono’s bed, whether “The Power and the Glory” single was a joke... It’s pretty cool. Available on the usual podcast platforms. Let me know what you think!

 

After my CCM order got canceled I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to get the set. But lo and behold I just snagged one from a Discogs seller for $350! It was a little more expensive than the preorder price, but now I get it next week instead of in April

 

Apparently Amazon Japan still has these in stock and the price just dropped 10,000JPY.

so i just ordered one, shipped to usa....$287...same price CCM wouldve been and probably packed better

 

Thanks! Ordered!!!

 

Just ordered one of the new repressings from Burning Shed, and the only Gentle Giant album I own (or indeed, have ever heard) is Octopus.
Hoping I love it!

 

If you like Octopus you'll like most of their catalogue.

 

I concur. Octopus was my first, and I've now heard up through Interview. Of those, the only one I don't love is In A Glass House. It's not that I don't like it, but it just doesn't click with me like the others. I know it is a favorite of many. I'm still hoping the multis can be found for a Steven Wilson remix. That might change my estimation/enjoyment of it.

 

After much back and forth and almost hitting the ‘buy’ button... I finally placed my preorder with Burning Shed.

looking forward to a GG spring and Summer.

 

I’m templ

I’m so tempted. Damn.

 

I sold off a couple lps to lessen the blow!

 

You are going to be satisfied, the mastering on all cds is excellent, that does not means that the quality of the source recordings will get better though, today I have listened to the 1976 Dusseldorf concert and it was very good.

 

Just tried to order this and my credit card company declined the purchase. When I called, they said they cannot authorize the transaction because my account is in jeopardy of being "taken over" (whatever that means). Turns out, Burning Shed recently had a data breach:

Burning Shed: Heads Up (Data Breach)

So tomorrow I have to call my credit card's security office to discuss...

 

What a mess. It’s being discussed in its own thread.

 

Would love to buy it but in these uncertain times...

 

Currently available for pre-order from Get_ImportCDs on ebay for $313.98 US (shipped)

 

This page would suggest that it is in stock on their website for $310:

Gentle Giant Unburied Treasure (Ltd 29CD+Blu-ray Box Set) [Import] Boxed Set, Limited Edition, With Blu-ray, United Kingdom - Import on ImportCDs

Remember, shipping and handling will be extra, as will tax in some states! A 10% off sale like they run a few times a year would be helpful!

 

Just got mine today. It's huge! The only album I know of theirs is Octopus, so I've got a lot of listening/learning to do.

 

Where did you order from?

 

Burning Shed, of course.

Diving into the Steven Wilson blu now!

 

Yep, mine arrived today also. So much content!

Started the first live show from 71. I’m gonna savor it all

 

Mine finally arrived today. I can foresee a GG kick that will probably last 8 to 10 weeks. The yearly Blue Öyster Cult extended marathon that starts on the first 90° day is going to have to wait until fall. 'Unburied Treasures' is one of the most attractive and sturdy boxed sets I've seen. They did a fine job with this. Glad I sprung for it!

 

Im sorry im kind of new here