Yes, I agree. Another highlight of this track for me is the string synth under the guitar melody before the synth solo. I always felt slightly let down by the electric piano which Kerry used to substitute for it live. The electric piano provided inferior support for the guitar there IMO. But I suppose he didn't have a string synth among his stage equipment.
I bought that "Playing The Foole" bootleg LP I suppose upon release. I have no idea HOW I became aware of it since I hadn't seen it in a store (I lived in the sticks) - I imagine that was from ads in some American or local music paper - and even less an idea WITH WHAT MONEY I bought it! 'Cause I never robbed anybody, and my folks didn't have credit cards... In hindsight I regret this puchase given how many fantastic contemporary official releases I could have spend that money on instead... I guess I just had to have it you know... I think I departed with this album in Toronto in the late 80s, to help finance the purchase of my first Pioneer CD player and those new Zappa dedicated CD releases. I miss it! That was a radio studio recording, right?
Yes, they were recorded in a studio with no audience and broadcast on a Los Angeles station, if memory serves. And then there was Amongst the Darkers from, appropriately enough, the Free Hand tour. That was broadcast live from Ultrasonic Studios in Long Island with a small audience. The broadcast included some material which didn't fit on the L.P., but the complete show came out on a bootleg CD titled Ultrasonic '75. And I remember where I bought those LPs! I must have been about 15 at the time. There was a real cool record store I visited in a friend's neighborhood, and they had bootlegs of all sorts. So when I saw the Giant boots, naturally I had to buy one. I took Foole up to the counter, where the proprietor (who happened to look like George Carlin) eyed me suspiciously and asked if I even knew what kind of LP this was. I casually answered, "Yes, it's a bootleg" and proceeded to talk to him about GG, finding that he was also a fan! He couldn't believe someone my age even knew who GG was. And then he even turned me on to Van der Graff Generator. And yes, I went back there for Amongst the Darkers. The boots were only $5 each, BTW. I sometimes wonder whatever became of that guy. He was so cool.
I remember a long long time ago buying a bootleg of Pink Floyd doing the Wall concert. It was called Kabe, and was the worst ever recording I had ever heard. I can only imagine the tape was loose when they pushed the record button ... I tended to never buy bootlegs again ... I think it cost me forty bucks in the early eighties ... I was so upset about that purchase .... (groan)
Love it. Did I read somewhere that the title was a reference to their new contract with Chrysalis which gave them more freedom than they experienced with WWA? I bought the Alucard remaster to vinyl but was dissappointed. I find my old Terrapin Truckin CD is warmer and more dynamic.
I had bought that one too... Thanks for that account. The $5 price tag rings a bell (and reassures me on my spending habits of the day, to some extent...). Given that tip, here's now how I think I remember it went, on my end. You took two $5 bills, you stuffed these along with some coupon or letter note inside a mailing envelope, and the next thing you knew two exciting Gentle Giant bootleg LPs were in for you at the post office!
Easy Reference Guide Gentle Giant - 1970 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Giant Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 Funny Ways Gentle Giant - Album by album thread live Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 Alucard Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Isn't It Cold And Quiet Gentle Giant - Album by album thread cartoon Gentle Giant - Album by album thread live '71 Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 Nothing At All Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 Why Not Gentle Giant - Album by album thread live Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 7 The Queen Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Acquiring The taste - 1971 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Pantagruel's Nativity Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 Edge Of Twilight Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 The House The Street The Room Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Acquiring The taste Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 Wreck Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 The Moon Is Down Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 7 Black Cat Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 8 Plain Truth Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Three Friends - 1972 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Prologue Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 Schooldays Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 Working All Day Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Peel The Paint Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 Mister Class and Quality Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 Three Friends Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Octopus - 1972 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Advent Of Panurge Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 Raconteur Troubadour Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 A Cry For Everyone Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Knots Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 Boys In The Band Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 Dog's Life Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 7 Think Of Me With Kindness Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 8 River Gentle Giant - Album by album thread In a Glass House 1973 Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 The Runaway Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 An Inmates Lullaby Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 Way Of Life Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Experience Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 A Reunion Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 In A Glass House Gentle Giant - Album by album thread The Power And The Glory 1974 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Proclamation Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 2 So Sincere Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 3 Aspirations Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 4 Playing the Game Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 5 Cogs In Cogs Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 6 No God's A Man Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 7 The Face Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 8 Valedictory Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Power and The Glory Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Live in 1974 Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Brussels 1974 Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Free Hand 1975 - Gentle Giant - Album by album thread track 1 Just the Same Gentle Giant - Album by album thread
Misc. Reference Kerry Minnear Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Martin Smith Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Malcolm Mortimer Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Phil Shulman Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Ray Shulman Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Websites The Gentle Giant Home Page Gentle Giant's Alucard Records catalogs in The Artist Shop Sherman Hemsley - The Gentle Giant Home Page Thanks @Dok Gentle Giant thanks @Dok
And I remember that the store had a 3rd GG boot: Playing the Foole in Wonderland. It was the same as Foole, but from a different bootlegger, with different cover art and a bonus track, "March of the Trolls". I brought that up to the counter also and asked him to play this track. Turned out to sound nothing like Giant, so I didn't trust it and left it behind. Also the rest of the LP was in mono, but with only one channel playing in both speakers. Many years later, it was confirmed that "March of the Trolls" wasn't by GG at all, but rather it was by the band of the guy who released that version of the boot.
I don't think so. Once I established that I knew what bootlegs were, and that I was indeed a fan of the band, he relaxed considerably. I think my obvious young age made him concerned that I was about to buy something I didn't know about and he was afraid of any hassle that might result if I wasn't happy with the purchase. The rest of that visit and other future ones were always pleasant and he was always nice to me, even making 8-track copies for me of other Giant concerts he had in his collection. Well, 8-tracks WERE a thing then!!
I see, he worried a bit for you/forewarned you about buying a boot, not that it was Gentle Giant. That's cool!
Yeah, I think it was MAINLY about the boot, but I also think it was about the band. I suspect he was wondering how the hell someone my age could possibly know them or like them. And let's face it, that's not an unfair concern. In high school, I hung out with folks who were into Yes, ELP, Genesis and pretty much all the other prog bands. And when I would mention Gentle Giant, not a single one of them knew who I was talking about. But I'll tell you what else: every single one of them who I loaned my Giant albums to ended up LOVING them!
We were lucky here in that the French Canadians are a relatively small, focused market, and so when both Genesis and Gentle Giant first landed here in '72, thanks to the visionary and/or aware promoter Alain Simard, it was "through the front door" and with a very big impact on the scene of highschool and junior college students who already were into prog. ...And thanks also to the then-still progressive orientation of CHOM-FM in Montreal.
When you think about it, Just The Same might very well be the perfect GG track. It has everything that makes the band and their music appealing to their fans and at the same time the song is catchy enough to please people who are not normally drawn to their music.I know friends for whom that's the only GG song they can listen to. Great song.
I second this. Prog rock was very popular and important in our City in the 70s. Most bands sold out big venues here while still relatively unknown almost everywhere else in America. We were lucky indeed.
My favorite shop, on the occasions where I could get out of the sticks, was L'Alternatif on St-Denis! ...Now a Couche-Tard convenience I think... :O( They really catered to the prog (among other exciting genres) fans with their bins of UK, German, Italian imports!
Yes, you were lucky! I have a pretty clear memory of being in some recreational room at high school where there were several pages from rock magazines hung up on the wall which had various rock stars of the day. You know, Zep, Alice Cooper, etc. And one of these pages was curling upward because the scotch tape had come off, so I just took it off the wall to see what was on the other side. And lo and behold - it was the last page of a Gentle Giant article! (I think it was from Circus magazine.) I remember feeling that this page was so precious because even though it wasn't the whole article, it was SOMETHING about them, and with a live color photo to boot! And I think this goes to show how little presence GG had here in the U.S., that this end of an article could be such a revelation to me because I had just never seen any press for them here. I hope I'm not taking this thread too far off topic. Yep, it could be their most perfect track. I had said earlier that this album hit me instantaneously when I first played it, and that means this SONG hit me instantaneously by default! And with that, I think I brought things back on topic!!
But why would anyone ever fold-down a quad mix? I don't understand the purpose of that exercise; even if someone grabbed a four-track reel of tape & assumed it was a stereo pair in one direction, then another stereo pair of tracks for Side B in the other (reverse) direction, surely that would obviously not be the correct tape for any purpose, right? Four simultaneous audio tracks all headed in the same direction?
I don't really know how quad master tapes are configured or what source this tape came from. I also don't know for a fact that it IS a fold down. That's just what some have claimed. But I've never heard the quad mix, as I have neither the equipment nor the interest. Personally, I've always been of the opinion that it's an unfinalized rough mix. But there could be merit to the quad mix fold down theory based on the cataloged differences from the album's mix to both the quad and the 2nd One Way version. Clearly a mistake occurred somewhere along the chain. But where and how? The whole thing is a mystery. My thoughts which I posted about this were merely speculation, especially the idea of the quad mix originating FROM the rough mix, which I only thought of today right before I posted it. None of us know what really happened.
I'm probably putting two and two together to make 5, but i have been following this conversation, of which i actually know very little historically ... But anyhow. From what i have understood from the conversation, it seems the most likely scenario is. .... At some point in the studio they did a rough(ish) stereo and quad mix of what they had to see where they were at ... these two mixes survived but after listening they did some more editing, and possibly rerecording and then did a final stereo mix.... at that point i guess the quad idea was put aside ... Years and years later when surround became revived, somebody, who knew about these prior mixes, cleaned up what they had and put the quad and stereo mixes onto the double disc ... that i think we're talking about. With the talk of even the odd stereo and quad mixes themselves being somewhat different to each other, that seems to make the most sense to me ???
At this point, this is pretty much my theory too. I'm not sure if the quad & 2nd One Way mix are in fact different, though. I'm under the impression they're the same, but without a way to play the quad mix, I can't verify. Anyway, unless and until we ever get word from someone who was involved, we'll never know for sure how accurate this theory is.
I will try and get round to listening to them both, but little nuanced things like this aren't my forte, and time is not my ally
Maybe someone else here will be curious enough to give it a go, and of course, to let us know what they find.
