on-reflection-digest     Thursday, July 29 1999     Volume 01 : Number 1793



gg: Ladybirds; spleen; Coltrane; LLDoB; 2 more violinists; fork vs. teeth; Brahms; McLaughlin
Re: gg: Mark O'Connor; the next cut; more violinists; GGettogethers!; GG videos!; Gillan; Dok
gg: TFTO by BTO; Ant's jokes which are very funny!
gg: Zn; Union; Loftus' will; cheezy patches; 3am; Pagani; Tom Benson; Ragsdale; Ozone Qt; A Benjamin
Re: nongg: flexi vinyl
Re: nongg:(if you don't count a Shulman) violinists
Re: nongg: Ummagumma
Re: gg: Re: three patch sheets to the wind/The synth bores club
gg: Pontification on Ponty
gg: Floyd Connections
Re: gg: Ladybirds; spleen; Coltrane; LLDoB; 2 more violinists; fork vs. teeth; Brahms; McLaughlin
gg: Syd Barrett
gg: hot live
Re: gg: Re: NonGG: Mahavishnu
gg: Jerry Goodman, Hoedown
gg: Sadhappy, Tonedogs
gg: RE:/ Timothy Pure
nogg: Cats don't have the guts to fiddle
Re: gg: Re: Do they remember GG?
Re: gg: Floyd Connections
gg: TfTO, It Bites, Violinists...
Re: gg: Tales ... the final vibration?
gg: LIVE
Re: gg: Tales ... the final vibration?
gg: Tales ... the Anderson equation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:51:59 -0700
From: "Scott Steele" 
Subject: gg: Ladybirds; spleen; Coltrane; LLDoB; 2 more violinists; fork vs. teeth; Brahms; McLaughlin

>Well, do ladybirds like aphids?

I thought Lady Birds liked Johnsons.

>I lost my spleen

To the tune of I Lost My Head:  I lost my spleen and that's why I'm green, what's the use of trying to deny it . . .

>np-Coltrane-Village Vanguard disc 3

Where everything doubles and the scores can really change

>I haven't heard Lamb I'd like to har some more in depth comments regarding this album and whether I should buy it.

Hi Keri, you should buy it.  It's a great continuation of what they were doing on Selling England By the Pound.  Peter's last gasp with the band before he walked right out of the machinery.  Great performances by all members of the group.

>Rock Violinist Michael Dreyfus of McKendree Spring certainly deserves a hands up.  He turned this prospective country rock band into something a little closer to progressive rock.  -David Eric

Right on sir, and your comments remind me of Richard Greene who played with the Gary Burton Quartet and with his own string quartet.

>There was a turnpot in each machine which I tuned by beating 
the frequency against a tuning fork  which I held in my teeth.

I hate when I do that with a regular fork - a tuning fork must be very painful.  ;)

>I get especially annoyed when I listen to the third movement of 
Brahms fourth symphony and the next movement doesn't start
with "Tell the moondog, tell the March hare...."  ;-)

My Brahms problem is when I'm listening to Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Jan Akkerman never comes in.  ;)

>A truly fine combination of several of my favorite guitar styles.  JM was very much a part of my youthful muse.

Jee, I agree with you.  JM is the man.  It would be a much dimmer world without his inner mounting flame.  Will we see you on the one-word list?  - S.

np:  Jethro Tull, Broadsword and the Beast

scottst@ohsu.edu

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:49:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: "David J. Loftus" 
Subject: Re: gg: Mark O'Connor; the next cut; more violinists; GGettogethers!; GG videos!; Gillan; Dok

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Scott Steele wrote:

> >Scott and I have located three other fans in the Portland area via 
> >the Internet (JohnEric/JEE just recently started posting to O-R, and 
> >Jonathan Ayers has also been seen around these parts now and then), and 
> >maybe four (he says he's only familiar with the FIRST album, which he 
> >loves, so he's shy about discussing any of the others), but they were not 
> >able to make it.
> 
> Partly because I live in the sticks.  ;)

Turns out the third fan was a longtime O-R member who's just been pretty 
quiet in recent months -- James Takahashi.

> >During OUR jam, Ginny favored us with her terrific rendition of 
> >"Wreck," with Scott and Doug trying to follow along with their acoustic 
> >guitars.  (None of us could remember the lyrics, I guess, so I just sort 
> >of howled the hey-ay-ay-ays.)  Then Doug played "A Reunion" while I sang 
> >lead.  Ginny did Jethro Tull's "Sea Lion" -- I think that was the one to 
> >which she did some dancing while blowing the kaen.  Doug responded by 
> >playing the guitar line to "Thick as a Brick" while Ginny sang lead and 
> >the rest of us joined in on the choruses.  Ginny and the boys made a 
> >valiant attempt to do "Play the Game" and almost succeeded.  Doug 
> >also showed us that he can play a fair amount of "So Sincere" on the 
> >acoustic guitar, but he hadn't worked up "Proclamation" enough to do it 
> >fluidly.  Ginny knocked us out with her version of "21st Century 
> >Schizoid Man" -- barking the "verses" and then playing a musical break 
> >that I think she said came from a composition by Martin Luther -- you 
> >know, the champion of the Reformation?
> 
> "Wait until I nail the lyrics of *this* tune up against the church door!"

It's a great fit, conceptually, 'cause Luther, man, you know, he kinda 
split.  


> >All in all, a splendid evening.  We're planning to get together 
> >Wednesday for dinner downtown before Scott's show with the Gone 
> >Orchestra at a club called Satyricon.
> 
> That was another great evening at a good restaurant with people with 
> excellent musical taste.

Jonathan and JohnEric both made it to the dinner, along with their spouses, 
and James showed up at the door of the club.


> Unfortunately the Gone show was marred by a schedule change - 
> everyone in the band thought we were hitting the stage 
> at 9:30 and about half the band left before the actual 11:30 starting 
> time.  Of course when half the Gone leaves, you still have a 6-piece 
> band or so.

While various members of the band were digesting the bad news -- old 
folks like us are less inclined to stay up past midnight anymore -- and 
milling around the door to Satyricon, one of them made a remark about the 
"Goners."  I observed that in the end, we're all Goners.


> >Tonight I hear Scott is luring Ginny into the recording studio with 
> >her kaen to lay down a track or two with the G.O.  But don't quote me on 
> >that.
> 
> The first piece we recorded was kaen, didgeridu, and percussion - what 
> a great moment.  Ginny is now Gone.

Yep.  I dropped her at the airport this morning and she winged south.  
While she was getting showered and dressed, I pulled out the mandolin my 
wife gave me for my birthday a year ago, which hasn't gotten a lot of 
play even though the tuning and fingerings are the same as my fiddle;  
I've been a little befuddled by trying to manage a fretted fingerboard 
and coordinate picking.  But I managed to pick out a GG melody -- 
something that never occurred to me to try before -- which got Ginny 
humming "Memories of Old Days" the rest of the morning.

Hope she drops back into O-R on a regular basis later on.


David Loftus

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 17:00:55 -0700
From: "Scott Steele" 
Subject: gg: TFTO by BTO; Ant's jokes which are very funny!

>If you haven't heard the original vinyl on a good deck or the Japanese HDCD remaster (copies available in Munich apparently!), you ain't heard nuthin' yet.

Gnr, gnr, b-b-b-baby you ain't heard nothin' yet.  Gnr, gnr, here's somethin' you're never gonna forget, gnr gnr, b-b-b-baby . . . 

>>Scott and Barbara laid on a huge spread of vittles,

>Did you have to move them off it to eat the stuff?

ROFL!!  Get up you two, we're hungry!!

>I bet those teens thought you were a wierd bunch. Did they ask you to turn that row down?

They were so glad I didn't strap them down to the straight-backed chairs for another Univers Zero session.

>> Scott and I have located three other fans in the Portland area via the Internet

>Ah! that's where I've been going wrong. I have been using  a divining rod.

Careful, you'll attract something besides a GG fan with that gnarly little thing.

>Seriously, it is a buzz to share these moments with fekkow fans aint it?

Ain't it is?  It sure was!!  - S.

np:  Zony Mash, Brand Spankin' New

scottst@ohsu.edu

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 17:38:26 -0700
From: "Scott Steele" 
Subject: gg: Zn; Union; Loftus' will; cheezy patches; 3am; Pagani; Tom Benson; Ragsdale; Ozone Qt; A Benjamin

>"Undead is whoever can wait eternally in ambush ready to seize with a delurk!"

You got me Zn.  Good to see you.  Where you been?  (I feel like the O-R doorman.)

>np: Dregs - NYC '81

'at's my lad!

About the Union tour:

>It was nice that it was "in the round" too.

That was the best part.

>All this and me agreeing with Rich too. Maybe I'll even understand the mammierants in future :-)

At the risk of sounding like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway:  Where is the nun?

>They're the only people who will look at your "Little Brown Bag" and "Giant for a Day" lollipop and laugh the RIGHT way.

I want David to put me in his will for his GG memorabilia and posters.  ;)

>(Now that digital guitar effects boxes are so popular, guitarists are suffering from the same disease, flying through dozens of cheezy patches instead of exploring the subtleties and variations of a single sound setup.  I think it's a very bad thing because the listener loses all context of the instrument, and without context it becomes just a collection of funny noises.)

Amen Don, that's why I use five stomp boxes and no digital catch-all grab bags.

>It's more the sort of music you'd reach for at 3am as you're finishing a bottle of scotch alone, and have started to find Tom
Waits way too commerical and upbeat for your mood.

What a great image, thank you Bill O'R.

>Hey, has anyone mentioned PFM's Mauro Pagani?

>Definately worth repeated listenings....

I think someone did mention him.  But he's definitely worth repeated repeatings.

Tom Benson, one of my favorite rock violinists because I own Giant Tracks, says:

>David Ragsdale - replaced Steinhardt in recent Kansas (tho
		Robbie's back now. Has a solo album I
		haven't heard, "David and Goliath."

David and Goliath is not a very good CD.  Ragsdale needs a songwriter and producer.  One needs to be a bigger Ragsdale fan than me to enjoy this CD.  But he sounds good on Freaks of Nature by Kansas.

>Hollis Brown - In Ozone Quartet (formerly Cloud 9). Try "Fresh Blood."

This record rocks.  The instrumentation is violin, guitar, stick, drums.  These guys are mean - they sound great.

>I just got jealous that Julius J. Saroka got his own subject title.

;)

>Remember that these are only my opinions, so please try to keep the bashing down to a civilized level. :-)

We can't bash you!  You're too good of a player.  ;)

>np-- finneus gauge: one inch of the fall

This is a good one, eh K?  It's better to hear Scott McDarby O'Gill on Finneus Gauge records than on his own, it mollifies the ersatz Holdsworth quotient a bit.

>soon to play: more of those annoying mixolydian scales on guitar
*with* the proper fingerings this time...sigh

Think McLaughlin while you do this - mixolydian can be fun.

>So I've been watching this thread for several days and I'm somewhat perplexed (okay, I'm like that 24/7) that Jean-luc Ponty's name hasn't come up.  Okay, so not really "rock", but certainly fusion, and I've seen Grapelli's name in here as well as Urbaniak...

JLP will go to heaven based on JLP Live (1978) alone.

>All went well.  Thanks for coordinating!  See you later.  I do wish Jan and I could have caught Scott's band.

Me too Jee.  What are you doing Saturday?  We're floating down the river.  - S.

np:  Gary Willis, Bent

scottst@ohsu.edu

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 21:01:38 EDT
From: Claudio666@aol.com
Subject: Re: nongg: flexi vinyl

In a message dated 7/29/99 12:58:20 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
staffba3@gsd.harvard.edu writes:

<< Worst case of this was RCA's Dynaflex discs which were designed to be 
superthin >>

When I was runhning a record store, we called it "Dynawarp" because we got so 
many returns...

Claudio

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 21:02:58 EDT
From: Claudio666@aol.com
Subject: Re: nongg:(if you don't count a Shulman) violinists

In a message dated 7/29/99 9:02:34 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
Tom.Benson@compaq.com writes:

<<  The original question asked for fiddlers BESIDES JL Ponty, 
 Jerry Goodman, etc, etc... >>

OOPS!!!  Sorry for the stupidity.  I wish I could say it won't happen again, 
but...

Claudio

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 21:08:18 EDT
From: Claudio666@aol.com
Subject: Re: nongg: Ummagumma

In a message dated 7/29/99 5:26:09 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
YURCHGE@mail.northgrum.com writes:

<< You must have a recent remaster. Ummagumma was an early release for Pink
 Floyd, after "Pipers at the Gates of Dawn", "A Saucerful of Secrets".  One
 of the first PF releases, in which Dave Gilmour, guitarist appears,
 replacing Syd Barrett. >>

Thank you.  I have the vinyl.  I was just asking if this remaster has been 
around since 1994...cool package though, original poster that came with the 
album, though folded several more times...today he brought home the double 
live "Pulse" which is also lovely, but I'm going broke on his shopping trips! 
 Methinks he's buttering me up for something...

Claudio 

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 99 21:09:45 -0400
From: kiirja 
Subject: Re: gg: Re: three patch sheets to the wind/The synth bores club

>On a similar topic, does anyone remember the differentiation between white 
>and pink noise? I seem to think that pink was filtered (but can't remember 
>how) and white was not.
The "color" of the noise is determined by the bandpass filter it is
sent thru. White noise is higher frequencies, pink is mid frequencies,
grey is low frequencies. When we managed to really barf up some
awful noises we called it "black" noise...or sometimes "smog".  ;-)

I apologize if I am inaccurate in any of my descriptions of ARP
products. There are many cobwebs and layers of dust between my 
tenure there and today. It has literally been 19.7 years since I played 
an ARP. Once in a while I run into one at someones house, and the
sight of them always sends me into a nostaglic trance! ;-)

kiirja

nw: The Avengers '65: The Correct Way to Kill  "Mrs. Peel! We're Needed!"

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 99 21:18:01 -0400
From: kiirja 
Subject: gg: Pontification on Ponty

Ponty-fication! ;-)

>"Aurora" (76) have to be absolutely seminal modern violin works.
This is another on in my Top Ten! I saw Ponty 4 times,  in 76 and 77,
at a small venue in western MA,, where I was able to sit 20 feet away 
from him each time. Mesmerizing performances, each one. 

I think Steurmer was the guitarist for three of the gigs. Best 
performances
I ever saw until I saw Earthworks a few weeks ago! 

kiirja

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 11:46:11 +1000
From: Michael_Taylor@rta.nsw.gov.au
Subject: gg: Floyd Connections

Hi
I was just wondering if any one has an opinion in regards to the Syd Barrett
Solo albums. I have got all of Pink Floyd on CD and much prefer the early
Floyd that is up to say Animals. I have toyed with the idea of lashing out on the
Syd Solo's but have not heard them.   I have been told to save my money but
surely someone that was involved with the early Floyd can not be all bad ?



Mick

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 19:05:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: Re: gg: Ladybirds; spleen; Coltrane; LLDoB; 2 more violinists; fork vs. teeth; Brahms; McLaughlin

Scott, I'm embarased to say that I'm not sure what the One-word list is.

JEE

- --- Scott Steele  wrote:
> >Well, do ladybirds like aphids?
> 
> I thought Lady Birds liked Johnsons.
> 
> >I lost my spleen
> 
> To the tune of I Lost My Head:  I lost my spleen and that's why I'm
> green, what's the use of trying to deny it . . .
> 
> >np-Coltrane-Village Vanguard disc 3
> 
> Where everything doubles and the scores can really change
> 
> >I haven't heard Lamb I'd like to har some more in depth comments
> regarding this album and whether I should buy it.
> 
> Hi Keri, you should buy it.  It's a great continuation of what they were
> doing on Selling England By the Pound.  Peter's last gasp with the band
> before he walked right out of the machinery.  Great performances by all
> members of the group.
> 
> >Rock Violinist Michael Dreyfus of McKendree Spring certainly deserves a
> hands up.  He turned this prospective country rock band into something a
> little closer to progressive rock.  -David Eric
> 
> Right on sir, and your comments remind me of Richard Greene who played
> with the Gary Burton Quartet and with his own string quartet.
> 
> >There was a turnpot in each machine which I tuned by beating 
> the frequency against a tuning fork  which I held in my teeth.
> 
> I hate when I do that with a regular fork - a tuning fork must be very
> painful.  ;)
> 
> >I get especially annoyed when I listen to the third movement of 
> Brahms fourth symphony and the next movement doesn't start
> with "Tell the moondog, tell the March hare...."  ;-)
> 
> My Brahms problem is when I'm listening to Variations on a Theme by
> Haydn and Jan Akkerman never comes in.  ;)
> 
> >A truly fine combination of several of my favorite guitar styles.  JM
> was very much a part of my youthful muse.
> 
> Jee, I agree with you.  JM is the man.  It would be a much dimmer world
> without his inner mounting flame.  Will we see you on the one-word list?
>  - S.
> 
> np:  Jethro Tull, Broadsword and the Beast
> 
> scottst@ohsu.edu
> 
> 

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 22:08:53 -0400
From: "David and Stacey Shur" 
Subject: gg: Syd Barrett

> I was just wondering if any one has an opinion in regards to the Syd
Barrett
> Solo albums. I have been told to save my money but
> surely someone that was involved with the early Floyd can not be all bad ?
> Mick

I have The Madcap Laughs and Barrett on vinyl.  I do not recommend them.
There is almost nothing similar to the brilliance of Piper at the Gates of
Dawn.  The history of these albums has been exhaustively written- in a
nutshell, Dave Gillmour orchestrated these recordings in an effort to "make
up" for taking over Barrett's job as guitarist.  There is little soloing by
Barrett, and the song structure of many "songs" has no logic.  In fact,
Gillmour reports that songs changed each time Barrett played them.  There
are some interesting moments, but not many.  On one album, you even get to
hear Barrett attempting to play his guitar and sing, to no avail.  Hold your
money.  I play these albums every decade or so, and confirm they are almost
useless.  -David Eric

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 22:26:25 -0400
From: Daniel Potvin 
Subject: gg: hot live

 Hey people

 I just bought a live album from Gentle Giant called " out of the fire - the bbc concerts  ".
 Wow this live is awesome i highly recommend this one it's a most for GG fans.
 this live is so good i have been listening to it 3 times and i think i'll listen to it one more time
 this live sure blew me away. 

 For those of you who don't have this live you should run to your local record store.

 Disc one - recorded by the bbc radio 1 on dec 8 1973

 1- intro
 2- way of life
 3- funny ways
 4- nothing at all
 5- except from octopus 

 Dics two - recorded by the bbc tv  on january 21 1978

 1- intro
 2- two weeks in spain
 3- free hand
 4- on reflection
 5- i'm tourning around
 6- just the same
 7- playing the game
 8- memories of old days
 9- betcha thought we coudn't do it
 10- funny ways
 11- for nobody
 12- mountain time

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 19:29:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: Re: gg: Re: NonGG: Mahavishnu

OK, so I won't be able to pick it up when I go shopping next.  Waiting :(

JEE

- --- "Drew W. Eaton"  wrote:
> 
> >Found on the net.
> >Legacy Records to release Mahavishnu Orchestra's " The Lost Trident
> >Sessions", featuring John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, et al,
> on
> >September 14, 1999.
> 
> 
> YYYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
> 
> 

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Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 19:32:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: gg: Jerry Goodman, Hoedown

For those of you who haven't heard it, the ELP tribute on Magna Carta
recordings (Encores, Legends, and Paradox)has Jerry Goodman playing on
Hoedown!  My oh my ... it put the hair up al over my body.

JEE

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 19:35:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: gg: Sadhappy, Tonedogs

Yes!!! Another Sadhappy fan!  I saw them twice in Seattle.  What do you
think of the Tonedogs?  Amy is a bit strange, but then so is L. Anderson. 
I enjoy L. Anderson.

JEE

- --- Scott Steele  wrote:
> >tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers
> 
> and you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.
> 
> >3. Tony Williams Lifetime "Emergency"
> 
> yeah baby!
> 
> >4.  Miles Davis  "Live Evil"  title says it all
> 
> John McLaughlin whips it out.  Guitar players run for cover.
> 
> >>...and the *expletive deleted* from "It Bites"...
> 
> >Just a minute here! Are you trying to say that It Bites were BAD??? If
> so, then clean your ears and listen again - especially to "Eat me in St.
> Louis"!
> 
> God forbid you should express your opinion around here, but that song
> about Sara's lost her mind sounds great right after In the Cage by the
> Lambs.  Er, Genesis.
> 
> >Anyone who can comment on Musea sound quality in general?
> 
> Thumbs up.  - S.
> 
> np:  Sadhappy:  Live before we were dead (this totally rocks my world)
> 
> scottst@ohsu.edu
> 
> 

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 22:43:36 -0400
From: Daniel Potvin 
Subject: gg: RE:/ Timothy Pure

Bert Vijn"  wrote:

> > Buy the new TIMOTHY PURE album called "Island Of The Misfit Toys". I 
>think
> > this will get my vote for one of the all time classic Prog. Rock albums 


[Daniel Potvin]  

You got that right the new album from timothy pure is great
it is one of the best albums i heard this year.

The album blood of the berry from TP is as good as the new one


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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 22:50:55 +0000
From: Toby Trott 
Subject: nogg: Cats don't have the guts to fiddle

Wacky Racontuers,

Claudio astutley observed about Mssr Ponty:
> So he sold out. Who could blame him?  You take a sculpted piece of wood in 
> one hand and a bunch of cat gut in the other and see how far you'll get.

As we so love picking the odd nit here, I feel compelled to remark: It would
be much more useful if that other hand held a stick strung with
horse-hair 
with a light coating of tree resin. The catgut would be strung on the sculpted
piece of wood, hopefully, at least until the early part of this century when
the catgut was replaced with metal strings. Otherwise, the only
potential sound
would be the "fwapp fwapp" from thrashing the sculpted wood with the
gut. 

Has anybody else caught, or better, plan on seeing the movie "The Red Violin"?
I recommend it...much more compelling story than "Star Warts: The
Phantom 
Plot"or "Eyes Wide Pfffft" or some other recent Cinematic scat. It tells
the 
tale of a exqusite red violin from it's creation by an Italian master
through 
an auction in the present where it is being sold. The tale is propelled
forward 
ironically by flashes back to the craftmans family and their lives.
Enough review. 
I want anybody planning on seeing this film to please look carefully to
see if 
metal or gut strings are on the violins in the earlier eras. I didn't
think to 
look until I was leaving the movie...just a little late. Otherwise, the
periods 
seemed to have been represented faithfully, and I found the virtuoso
18th century  
English Gentleman to have an admirable means of summoning his Muse.
Inspirational 
indeed.

Toby
who has no go-kart, graphic or plain.

@home I'm tjtrott@mindspring.com, and @work I'm trott@sas.com

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 19:55:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: Re: gg: Re: Do they remember GG?

James,

There's a pretentious 'Brit" fellow at work who thinks he's a British
music encyclopedia.  I handed him "Octopus", and he hated it.  He said,
"For an 80's band they sure sound like a rip off of Yes and Tull ... never
heard of them."  I smiled, and said very little -- that he could hear.  As
you might imagine, I brought in the King Biscuit release with Derek
sporting a British flag shirt ... then broke it to him that they started
in '70 and finished in '80 ... and they are British.  He looked defiant,
but w

JEE   

- --- James Takahashi  wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Jul 1999 23:48:16 -0400 (EDT), JohnEric wrote:
> >To this day
> >I ask way to many people I barely know if they remember GG.  More often
> 	
> >than not they don't.  I'm glad to hear another GG voice (or read one).
> 
> This reminds me of an incident at work.  A co-worker began a
> conversation
> regarding music after noticing some of the (relatively pedestrian) CDs
> sitting on my desk.  Naturally, I began asking about other musical
> interests, to which he replied, "You'd be scared if you knew what else I
> used to listen to."  I, of course, said "Try me".  So he replies, "Let's
> see... have you ever heard of a band called 'Gentle Giant'?".  So I
> close
> all the windows on my PC to reveal the Roger Dean "Octopus" wallpaper,
> and
> say "Hmm... sounds vaguely familiar".  My office mate who is well aware
> of
> my GG fanaticism then chimed in with, "You're lucky he didn't jump over
> the
> wall and kiss you."  I guess you had to be there.
> 
> Since I'm here, might as well also say that I really enjoyed meeting a
> few
> O-Rers in the flesh at last night's Gone Orchestra gig here in Portland,
> Oar-ee-gone (locals hate it when you pronounce it that way).
> Unfortunately, some sort of mix-up at the club caused a scheduling
> problem
> where only half the Gone could stay.  Nevertheless, they did an
> admirable
> job even at less than full strength, bolstered by a guest appearance by
> the
> famous Ginny Landgraf on kaen/flute/misc.  Quite a trip to be able to
> freely discuss GG with folks who share the fever.  I'll leave the full
> GGettogether report to someone else (Scott? David?) who participated in
> the
> full evening's events.
> 


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Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 23:00:05 EDT
From: Claudio666@aol.com
Subject: Re: gg: Floyd Connections

In a message dated 7/29/99 7:48:52 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
Michael_Taylor@rta.nsw.gov.au writes:

<< I was just wondering if any one has an opinion in regards to the Syd 
Barrett
 Solo albums. >>

If you can find the vinyl, they're worth owning as "Relics".  Sorry...

I can't imagine ever wanting them on CD.  There's very little musically 
redeeming on them and bear no Floydian resemblance, though you may get a 
backhanded idea of Syd's influence.  I'd never sell mine, but I can't think 
of an instance where I'd want to actually play them either.  That tell ya 
something?  I guess you just had to be there...

Syd's story is quite a sad one, and these albums are evidence.

Claudio 

"The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more"

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 23:04:19 EDT
From: Dokwebb@aol.com
Subject: gg: TfTO, It Bites, Violinists...

>I know very few here will agree with me on this, but side 2 (The
Remembering) is IMHO the crown jewel of this album.  Sure it's slow, and
barely has drumming.  But it has ATMOSPHERE -- the verses are mantra-like,
the acoustic guitar parts sublime, and Wakey does his best mellotron/moog,
duets, particularly the last one that is so heart wrenching.  One of prog's
finest, emotional moments. Too bad the critics say prog is so heartless...<

I agree Marc!  Listened to all 4 sides today and this is the one that did the 
time travel machine for me.  I love the opening melody line.

After all the talk about It Bites I pulled out my copy and gave it a spin.  
Very pleasantly surprised!  It's been 10 years and it's aged quite well!  
These guys could rock and still slip some sublime arrangements in.....

One other violinist that hasn't gotten mentioned is Vassar Clements...  He is 
someone else whose tone and style is very recognizable.  Jazz-grass fusion at 
its finest.  Of course there are a slew of others in the bluegrass medium 
that are masters....  Buddy Spicher, Benny Martin, Stuart Duncan,,,,  oops 
wrong genre...  sorry.  One last fiddler worthy of mention is Ric Sanders of 
Fairport Convention.

>Dok baby, thanks for the violinfo and I haven't forgotten you.  - S.<

Beam me up Scotty!  How long do I have to wait?!?!

np  Mats/Morgan  The Music or the Money  (if I only had a clavinet....)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 20:06:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: Re: gg: Tales ... the final vibration?

Peace, Hope, Love, and Charity ... not to forget a well told Tale or four.
 When I first heard "Tales", I was not impressed.  I am an artist, so my
first good encounter with it was with brush in hand.  I let my imagination
run with the flow of music and the word pictures.  In that way, I painted
some lovely fantasy work.  Jon Anderson said that "Tales" was not meant to
be understood so much as felt.  Peter Gabriel plays with word pictures in
a similar fashion.  I followed his instructions, and quickly learned to
love it.  

JEE

- --- Tomas  wrote:
> At 09:51 PM 7/28/1999 -0700, JohnEric wrote:
> 
> >I don't feel it contradicts the Christian faith ... this takes a broad
> >stroke approach with spiritual generalities that people can plug into
> in
> >what ever way they like.  I don't believe it was intended to convict.
> 
> I never said it "contradicts" the Christian faith.  You said people who
> like TALES get into the spiritual nature of the project; I said I love
> it
> and I *don't* get into the spiritual nature of it, so my point wasn't
> about
> Christianity per se, but that your initial presumption was wrong.  I
> think
> others have also agreed with me.
> 
> TALES may be spiritual for some, but one doesn't have to "dig" its
> spiritual side to dig the album.
> 
> I guess I have to post the original messages here some folks will see
> what
> I'm talking about (I really don't like being misrepresented...).
> 
> >--- Tomas  wrote:
> >> At 08:17 PM 7/27/1999 -0700, JohnEric wrote:
> >> 
> >> >Those that enjoy TFTO tend to get
> >> into
> >> >the overall spiritual nature of the project.
> >>
> >> Couldn't disagree more, at least for me.  As a Christian, I certainly
> >> don't
> >> get into the overall spiritual nature of the music.  I'm there for
> the
> >> music, for the mind thing, and I don't think there's a bit of filler
> on
> >> it.
> >>  It's a great album.
> 
> 
>
***************************************************************************
> * Tomas                      *  "Tolerance is the virtue of the man     
>  *
> * West Chazy, NY  USA        *   without convictions."  - GK Chesterton 
>  *
> * tomas@slic.com             *   		                          *
>
***************************************************************************
> * Howie Web:       http://www.howies.org/                               
>  *
>
***************************************************************************
> 



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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 23:04:54 -0400
From: Daniel Potvin 
Subject: gg: LIVE

 For those of you who like " JETHRO TULL " you should check out the " jethro tull in concert " CD

recorded at the hammersmith odeon, october 8th 1991 

it is bretty good

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 23:49:50 EDT
From: Biffyshrew@aol.com
Subject: Re: gg: Tales ... the final vibration?

Tomas wrote:

>Couldn't disagree more, at least for me.  As a Christian, I certainly don't
>get into the overall spiritual nature of the music.  I'm there for the
>music, for the mind thing, and I don't think there's a bit of filler on it.
> It's a great album.

As a confirmed non-believer (lapsed Catholic division), I have little use for 
the "spiritual" aspects of TFTO beyond the fact that the sublime music makes 
*my* spirit climb into the sky.  But I would advise Tomas or any interested 
Christian to look again at the lyrics of the piece; they in fact celebrate 
Christianity in terms both explicit ("Young Christians see it from the 
beginning") and symbolic (the sacrificial lamb imagery at the end of "The 
Ancient").  The line "All the passion spent on one cross" ("passion" in the 
sense of a martyr's suffering, as in a passion play) is a giveaway that the 
"Relayer" in "The Remembering" is Jesus, who "relayed" the grace of God to 
man.  These references to Anderson and Howe's own religious culture are far 
more convincing than any scraps of Hindu philosophy they might have gleaned 
from a footnote (for God's sake!) in Yogananda's book.

For myself, as for Tomas, it's the music that really does the trick.  A few 
infidels claim that it "rambles"; it does no such thing.  That is the mating 
call of the short attention span; a lazy way to stigmatize anything lengthy.  
To the contrary, the piece has far too much thematic coherence to ramble.  
Little motives, once established, are developed or at least reappear in 
various guises throughout (e.g., the E-D#-B motif that is the motto of "The 
Revealing Science Of God" and is also an important theme in "Ritual").  
Notice, for example, how the eerie keyboard lead that begins about 48 seconds 
into "Ritual" is a minor key variant of both the "Talk to the sunlight 
caller" melody (the first *sung* line on the album after the introductory 
chant) and the "Out in the city, running free" tune (from "The Remembering"), 
and later becomes the guitar accompaniment to the "Nous sommes du soleil" 
passage.  Notice how the E-minor coda to "The Ancient" ends abruptly by 
bringing back that hammering Am7 thing from earlier in the movement, leaving 
us suspended on the subdominant, which "Ritual" resolves by beginning with a 
D major chord, forming a v7-I progression across the movements.  Probably 
unconscious, but still a cute trick.

Wakeman himself may have professed disgust with the results (aw, he never had 
any taste anyway), and perhaps even more so with the slow means of attaining 
those results, but the band didn't spend ten zillion hours in the studio 
hashing out the arrangements note by note in order to come away with mere 
rambling.

Marc P. Guilbert wrote:

>I know very few here will agree with me on this, but side 2 (The
>Remembering) is IMHO the crown jewel of this album.  [snip]
>On the negative side, though, I saw this whole piece played in Boston
>during the 1974 Tales tour, and it was disappointing.  Rick had trouble
>with the moog settings [snip again]

At the "Tales" show that I saw, which came at the wag-tail end of the tour, 
they omitted "The Remembering" entirely.  The presence of a coupla nekkid 
ladies onstage during the encore (it was 1974, after all) was some 
consolation.

Your pal,
Biffy the Elephant Shrew

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 21:49:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: JohnEric 
Subject: gg: Tales ... the Anderson equation.

Well said!  I too noticed some referrences in "Tales" that made me ask the
question ... Are one or more of these guys coming from an enlightened
background that includes an origional form of Christianity in the broader
picture?  In other words, not the pasturized Western dogma we have now. 
So, my new question is this ... Does anyone know what Jon Anderson's
belief system is?  

JEE

- --- Biffyshrew@aol.com wrote:
> Tomas wrote:
> 
> >Couldn't disagree more, at least for me.  As a Christian, I certainly
> don't
> >get into the overall spiritual nature of the music.  I'm there for the
> >music, for the mind thing, and I don't think there's a bit of filler on
> it.
> > It's a great album.
> 
> As a confirmed non-believer (lapsed Catholic division), I have little
> use for 
> the "spiritual" aspects of TFTO beyond the fact that the sublime music
> makes 
> *my* spirit climb into the sky.  But I would advise Tomas or any
> interested 
> Christian to look again at the lyrics of the piece; they in fact
> celebrate 
> Christianity in terms both explicit ("Young Christians see it from the 
> beginning") and symbolic (the sacrificial lamb imagery at the end of
> "The 
> Ancient").  The line "All the passion spent on one cross" ("passion" in
> the 
> sense of a martyr's suffering, as in a passion play) is a giveaway that
> the 
> "Relayer" in "The Remembering" is Jesus, who "relayed" the grace of God
> to 
> man.  These references to Anderson and Howe's own religious culture are
> far 
> more convincing than any scraps of Hindu philosophy they might have
> gleaned 
> from a footnote (for God's sake!) in Yogananda's book.
> 
> For myself, as for Tomas, it's the music that really does the trick.  A
> few 
> infidels claim that it "rambles"; it does no such thing.  That is the
> mating 
> call of the short attention span; a lazy way to stigmatize anything
> lengthy.  
> To the contrary, the piece has far too much thematic coherence to
> ramble.  
> Little motives, once established, are developed or at least reappear in 
> various guises throughout (e.g., the E-D#-B motif that is the motto of
> "The 
> Revealing Science Of God" and is also an important theme in "Ritual").  
> Notice, for example, how the eerie keyboard lead that begins about 48
> seconds 
> into "Ritual" is a minor key variant of both the "Talk to the sunlight 
> caller" melody (the first *sung* line on the album after the
> introductory 
> chant) and the "Out in the city, running free" tune (from "The
> Remembering"), 
> and later becomes the guitar accompaniment to the "Nous sommes du
> soleil" 
> passage.  Notice how the E-minor coda to "The Ancient" ends abruptly by 
> bringing back that hammering Am7 thing from earlier in the movement,
> leaving 
> us suspended on the subdominant, which "Ritual" resolves by beginning
> with a 
> D major chord, forming a v7-I progression across the movements. 
> Probably 
> unconscious, but still a cute trick.
> 
> Wakeman himself may have professed disgust with the results (aw, he
> never had 
> any taste anyway), and perhaps even more so with the slow means of
> attaining 
> those results, but the band didn't spend ten zillion hours in the studio
> 
> hashing out the arrangements note by note in order to come away with
> mere 
> rambling.
> 
> Marc P. Guilbert wrote:
> 
> >I know very few here will agree with me on this, but side 2 (The
> >Remembering) is IMHO the crown jewel of this album.  [snip]
> >On the negative side, though, I saw this whole piece played in Boston
> >during the 1974 Tales tour, and it was disappointing.  Rick had trouble
> >with the moog settings [snip again]
> 
> At the "Tales" show that I saw, which came at the wag-tail end of the
> tour, 
> they omitted "The Remembering" entirely.  The presence of a coupla
> nekkid 
> ladies onstage during the encore (it was 1974, after all) was some 
> consolation.
> 
> Your pal,
> Biffy the Elephant Shrew
> 

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