Subj: on-reflection-digest V1 #1835
Date: 8/27/99 6:01:06 AM Pacific Daylight Time
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on-reflection-digest Friday, August 27 1999 Volume 01 : Number 1835



gg: Re: GG <-> Yes
gg: Re: Re: GSYBE
gg: Radio play...
gg: Re: Was Sky, now Yes
gg: Re: Steve Morse w/Kansas

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Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 09:57:29 +0100
From: "Ant"
Subject: gg: Re: GG <-> Yes

- -----Original Message-----
From: Dan Weese
>There was a happy synergy between the Roger Dean artwork and the whole Yes
>sound, which propelled their idiosyncratic sound into the hippie world.

Agreed.


>Yes was
>also made to sound lots better than they actually were by the work of Eddie
>Offord, their engineer. The reality of Yes: the terrible rows, Wakeman's
>drinking, etc. was widely known, but somehow ordinary record buyers never
quite saw >much beyond Jon Anderson and the theatrics. The marketing of Yes
revolved more
>around the conjured image of Yes than its musical content.

It didn't make any difference to me that they had rows or got drunk. So
what! If anything it added to the rock star appeal. Yes Eddy Offord is a
clever lad but even their sound was just so all round different. It was a
flavour you'd never tried or knew existed before. Not Just Jon's voice but
Chris' toppy bass sound, the wonderful organ, later synth textures, clear
crisp drumming and Steve's singing guitar. The fact that they were great
musicians/writers and arrangers and was no factor either.


>Gentle Giant was a word-of-mouth band. Everyone who bought Gentle Giant
was
>introduced to GG by a friend. GG appealed, and continues to appeal to
>musicians, because of the technical excellence of the compositions and
>consummate showmanship of GG. Unlike Yes, there was no cohesive image with
>which to market GG:

Well as stated in the latest Mammie poll, me discovering GG was a happy
accident. There wasn't even word of mouth but Yes was a word of mouth thing.
I never heard Yes on the radio till Owner of a Lonely Heart. I think there
is a lot of showmanship and excellence in Yes too.

It's a bit like going through your parent's drinks cabinet as a teenager.
There's blue curacao and a single malt whiskey. The curacao tastes nice and
sweet, it has an appealing electric blue colour, you like it immediately.
You taste the whisky, it knocks your head off, it leaves a funny taste in
your mouth, you decide to leave it alone but later decide there was
something curiously rich about it's depth of flavour and decide to have a
another go. It takes another few attempts to actually get to enjoying it and
most kids won't have the staying power to get to this stage. Now both drinks
get you to a happy state but the experience on the way is quite different.
As one who made it to the whiskey stage, I still appreciate a luscious,
fruity cocktail on certain days.




> the record industry could peddle dungheaps to the masses, but
>presented with the jewel in that dungheap, they didn't know what to do with
>it.

He he! you know how painful it must have been to pass that jewel. A real
pain in the arse.


>Excellence doesn't sell. Dumb it down. Least common denominator. How do
>you market a band which can do so many things so well? Rabelais?

Well if you are saying Yes sold shitloads and hence have no excellence, I
disagree.


>It is a pity that more musicians have not forged alliances with more
>multimedia types. The Yes, Bowie, Gabriel and Pink Floyd machines knew how
>that worked, and succeeded. GG's management should have done more along
that line.



I think that is a slight simplification. The whole thing about popularity is
a lot more organic than that. It's like when man tries to divert rivers. It
seems straightforward but is incredibly complex. Getting the masses to like
GG is not straightforward either and really, is it desirable? I wouldn't
want to deny tBitB a comfortable lifestyle but I think it is fair that they
are not destitute and are simply comfortable and not Rod Stewart-rich. As an
engineer, I strive for excellence too, sometimes I might achieve it, that's
not for me to say. I have to be away from my family for work, I have to work
long and unsocial hours but wouldn't it be odd if me and hundreds of other
hard working professionals got fame, adulation and riches for what we did
professionally during a 10 year period and were able to retire at 35 or go
on to earn more money in a career we love?

Ant

Ant

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

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 10:58:57 +0100
From: "Ant"
Subject: gg: Re: Re: GSYBE

- -----Original Message-----


>>>Which, as everybody knows is by Godspeed You Black Emperor


>They're coming to Philly soon--worth checkin' out? What type of music?
>
>P-Frank


Jerry described them as an intellectual Hawkwind. They have Cello's, Violins
and Glockenspiels as well as Bass, Guitar, Drums. Instrumental,
trance-inducing repetition with dual screen, home movie type film loops for
the light show. The pieces do develop and build the dynamics up and down
with slowly evolving variations of tone and volume. There is no lead
instrument to speak of but not all the instruments play simoultaneously,
rather they come in and out although the strings are used the mostly to
drive the thing along melodically while a guitar riff can be the main focus
of the melody at other times and then a lull while the glockenspiel plinks
out a simple round. Very powerful and effective live if you don't expect a
GG complexity. You really should let it take you away somewhere which it
tends to do anyway wether you like it or not.

If it's not too dear, I would chance it if I were you.

Ant

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

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 08:02:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: mammienun@webtv.net
Subject: gg: Radio play...

I'm forunate to live in an area with a station that still plays a good
deal of prog...i.e Tull, Yes, Genesis, ELP. Not just the most popular
tunes, but some of the good stuff as well. Every now and then they might
even play Supper's Ready! In their earlier days, however, they play all
kinds of great stuff including GG. It's been a while (almost 20 yrs.)
but they were playing everything from IaGH to Civilian. One night back
in '77 I was listening late at night with the head phones on and IaGH
(the song) came on. Immediately after the DJ anounced that the 1st
caller would win the new Dixie Dregs album Freefall. They'd been playing
the title track and I really liked it so I called. It was the 1st time I
ever won anything off the radio! Later Ez Keep those votes
coming!

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

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 14:30:21 +0200
From: "Frank B. Carvalho"
Subject: gg: Re: Was Sky, now Yes

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>GG fans as well. This is a question for the Yes fans on the list, I
>suppose, but what is it that is missing in GG albums, that leaves so
>many unimpressed?

This is a good question. Let me attempt an answer.

Yes has something else. Grandeur, big symphonic arrangements, drama, pomp.
Like Genesis. 'High vibration go on...'. That is something many Yes, Genesis
and ELP
fans probably miss in GG. It is probably also the reason why the others made
it big
and GG didn't. GG was a chamber quintet, Yes was a symphony orchestra. I can

mention only a few moments of symphonic excess in GGs music. One is the last

wonderful minutes of side one of IaGH, but it still does not come anywhere
near
the first ten minutes of Tales from Topographic Oceans.

Cheers

Frank Carvalho

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>GG fans as well. This is a question for the Yes fans on the list, I

>suppose, but what is it that is missing in GG albums, that leaves so
>many unimpressed?
This is a good question. Let me attempt an answer.
Yes has something else. Grandeur, big symphonic arrangements, drama, pomp.
Like Genesis. 'High vibration go on...'. That is something many Yes, Genesis and ELP
fans probably miss in GG. It is probably also the reason why the others made it big
and GG didn't. GG was a chamber quintet, Yes was a symphony orchestra. I can
mention only a few moments of symphonic excess in GGs music. One is the last
wonderful minutes of side one of IaGH, but it still does not come anywhere near
the first ten minutes of Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Cheers
Frank Carvalho
- ------_=_NextPart_001_01BEF087.EE21E9A0--

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

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 05:57:51 PDT
From: "Brad Oldham"
Subject: gg: Re: Steve Morse w/Kansas

Hail all,

One interesting side tid-bit about Steve Morse with Kansas on the Power
tour, was that Dust in the Wind featured Morse on the violin!

Brad


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End of on-reflection-digest V1 #1835
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