PROLOGUE

Another 1970's live recording that has been issued for legal consumption in recent years. The album is a double disk set consisting of songs from an early 1974 show in Germany and a late 1975 show in Philadelphia. I snapped this album up immediately with regard to such concerns like quality due to the presence of two songs from my favorite studio album Three Friends. One was great, the other rather disappointed from a quality standpoint. The quality of the album varies from song to song. Almost all of them are very listenable but one stands out with a horrible recording.. of course my favorite Gentle Giant song.. School Days. The soft dynamics that just make that song for me are totally lost with a noticeable hiss and the group sounding as if they were coming from a transister radio. Oh well that disappointment though a major one is offset (to a point hahah) by the fiery opening track to Three Friends, Prologue. Gentle Giant sounded rather mean and aggressive and tore right through it.. taking no prisoners. Another gem.. a full (not excerpt of) performance of The Advent of Panurge. Good quality and a great performance. Love Ray Shulman's bass on that. Underrated player if there ever was one. Two final gems are worth noting. A blast back from the debut album turned into a riproaring drum solo set piece.. Nothing at All. The band gets to work out their aggression and beat persussion pieces and make sweet music. Love Gary Green riffing on this. The second gem... Plain Truth from their second album Acquiring the Taste. This one turned into a Ray Shulman violin solo spotlight. May I gush again as to that man's instrumental talent.

The album is for Gentle Giant completists but is worth noting that songs from each of their first 7 albums appear on this and quality concerns aside is a great cross-section of what Gentle Giant was about and the serious skill these guys had instrumentally. For rating this album. In my book a 3 star.. for the forum at large.. 2 star. This is an interesting album but by no means essential unless you are like I am and willing to throw money around for an import double CD album.. just to hear a favorite song performed live hahaha. 2 stars but a great listen most of the time.

Micky