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Godbluff vs Free Hand

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Poll Question: VDGG Godbluff or Gentle Giant Free Hand?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
45 [51.14%]
43 [48.86%]
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The Bearded Bard View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Bearded Bard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 10:29
It's not often I'd go with VdGG over GG, but Godbluff is just an incredibly good album, from start to finish, so it easily beats FH, which is very good, too, but it's not the statement that Godbluff is.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 10:46
I'm genuinely surprised Free Hand is leading...I set this one up ready to see people catapult VDGG ahead!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 11:05
For Bearded Bard.....so what exactly is the 'statement' that Godbluff is making...?


;)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BaldJean Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 11:11
Originally posted by dr wu23 dr wu23 wrote:

For Bearded Bard.....so what exactly is the 'statement' that Godbluff is making...?


;)

according to Peter Hammill the band tried to get what is called a "peak experience" on an album


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 11:30
With the right help that can be done with just about any album....
LOL
;)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mlkpad14 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 11:34
It is Godbluff this time around.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rednight Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 12:28
Godbluff tires me so, so it's Freehand!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hercules Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 12:28
Free Hand - by a million miles. It's my favourite GG album and a 5* effort.

I really cannot stand VdGG - partly because of Hamill's voice.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Bearded Bard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 13:50
Originally posted by dr wu23 dr wu23 wrote:

For Bearded Bard.....so what exactly is the 'statement' that Godbluff is making...?


;)
Well, I don't know about that peak experience stuff, but I think it's a hell of a comeback album!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dopeydoc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 15:34
GG
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote YESESIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 17:01
I like both of these albums. I'm actually starting to like Godbluff a lot, but Freehand is special so had to vote for it. I'm starting to like Van der Graff Generator more and more lately though and have no issues with the lead singer's voice whatever, in fact I like it. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2018 at 17:07
Ramble alert.

Like both, but Godbluff is more special to me. That said, I have to be in the right mindset for much of the music on that album as I can find Hammill's vocals on it to be so overwrought that it can take me out of the music. There are times when I've listened to music on it and his vocals have just jarred me out of it so much that I have stopped appreciating the music and instead felt an uncomfortable embarrassment at his theatrics (similar experience to watching a film and you are immersed and then something happens and you can't suspend your disbelief and you become analytical instead of just having it wash over you or you read a book and some bad grammar or other clunkiness pulls you out of the story and you become aware of yourself watching the page instead of the inner movie experience one can find when reading).

At other times the vocals don't bother me at all. In general, I find earlier VdGG albums such as The Least We Can Do is Wave To Each Other (my traditional fave) much easier listening.

As for Gentle Giant, the Free Hand title track, along with the In a Glass House title track, got me into GG, but I never fell for the album to the same extent as Acquiring the Taste or Three Friends or the self-titled, or In a Glass House and other GG albums despite loving various songs on the album.

Said this many times before as VdGG often gets compared to GG (and not just because of the GG with or without the VD, haha, bit in the initials), but Gentle Giant was a band I got into very quickly and was my favourite band in the mid 2000s. VdGG, apart from a few songs, took me longer to really appreciate. I still have more GG albums (I purchased all the studio albums plus Playing the Fool very quickly). That said, VdGG has remained a regular part of my diet now for many more years. For quite a few years I was so burnt out on GG that I couldn't listen to them at all, but I am enjoying GG again (especially Acquiring the taste which was long my favourite).

While GG and VdGG are often compared to each other, I think another later one also has many similar qualities -- Cardiacs. As I listened again to Godbluff earlier, I was thinking about A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (an album I was obsessed with not long ago).

Edited by Logan - February 10 2018 at 17:54
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote zwordser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2018 at 03:14
I like Free hand, but never been able to get into as much as other GG albums. 

Godbluff took a while for me; but now I absolutely love the Sleepwalkers and Undercover Man. Gets my vote.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2018 at 03:21
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

Ramble alert. 

Like both, but Godbluff is more special to me. That said, I have to be in the right mindset for much of the music on that album as I can find Hammill's vocals on it to be so overwrought that it can take me out of the music. There are times when I've listened to music on it and his vocals have just jarred me out of it so much that I have stopped appreciating the music and instead felt an uncomfortable embarrassment at his theatrics (similar experience to watching a film and you are immersed and then something happens and you can't suspend your disbelief and you become analytical instead of just having it wash over you or you read a book and some bad grammar or other clunkiness pulls you out of the story and you become aware of yourself watching the page instead of the inner movie experience one can find when reading).

At other times the vocals don't bother me at all. In general, I find earlier VdGG albums such as The Least We Can Do is Wave To Each Other (my traditional fave) much easier listening.

As for Gentle Giant, the Free Hand title track, along with the In a Glass House title track, got me into GG, but I never fell for the album to the same extent as Acquiring the Taste or Three Friends or the self-titled, or In a Glass House and other GG albums despite loving various songs on the album.

Said this many times before as VdGG often gets compared to GG (and not just because of the GG with or without the VD, haha, bit in the initials), but Gentle Giant was a band I got into very quickly and was my favourite band in the mid 2000s. VdGG, apart from a few songs, took me longer to really appreciate. I still have more GG albums (I purchased all the studio albums plus Playing the Fool very quickly). That said, VdGG has remained a regular part of my diet now for many more years. For quite a few years I was so burnt out on GG that I couldn't listen to them at all, but I am enjoying GG again (especially Acquiring the taste which was long my favourite).

While GG and VdGG are often compared to each other, I think another later one also has many similar qualities -- Cardiacs. As I listened again to Godbluff earlier, I was thinking about A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (an album I was obsessed with not long ago).

Clap Thank you for taking the time to share your analysis!

I think Free Hand edges it out for me by just a tad. It's never as close a call for me with anything GG, but this one just might be the exception challenge.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2018 at 03:27
Thought Godbluff would be a no-brainer for most here but obviously people are more fond of my eight favorite GG-album than myself.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Barbu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2018 at 17:43
Free Hand just can't compete with Godbluff.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dellinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2018 at 21:32
Originally posted by YESESIS YESESIS wrote:

I like both of these albums. I'm actually starting to like Godbluff a lot, but Freehand is special so had to vote for it. I'm starting to like Van der Graff Generator more and more lately though and have no issues with the lead singer's voice whatever, in fact I like it. 


Good you're getting into VdGG... I thought you should like them if you liked ELP and Gentle Giant and other somewhat weird stuff. And indeed Peter Hamill is a monster of a singer... some may find him difficult to like, but I really like his boldness and his will to do whatever he feels works for the music. A true prog singer.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mortte Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 12 2018 at 00:13
Godbluff
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Blacksword Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 12 2018 at 01:52
VDGG. Easy choice.

Apart from a few tunes here and there, I can't listen to a whole album of GG. I've managed toi get through Octopus a few times. That's not bad. Free Hand has it's moments, bit overall I don;t like their 'forumla'
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hellogoodbye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 12 2018 at 01:58
Hammill easily.
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