My post here the other night on the restored and upgraded footage of Genesis in Paris in 1973 prompted my long-suffering pal Jody Bottom to tweet out:
Well guess what—I do have something else to pop up: a fine tribute collaboration of Gentle Giant’s “Proclamation.” There may never have been a more purely proggy band than Gentle Giant, and they were (are) a challenge to listen to at times. Actually many many times. Indeed one of their first albums is called “Acquiring the Taste,” and even Wikipedia says “Gentle Giant’s music was considered complex even by progressive rock standards.” Fans of GG included Frank Zappa (see below.) Or, as someone reminded me the other day in the comments section:
This video offers a fan collaboration from a year ago that shows off the full spectrum of what made Giant unique and compelling to certain refined sensibilities (like mine?). Certainly “Proclamation” is typical of how “busy” GG songs are; it takes while to pick out some of the individual musicianship, all the while second-guessing some of the unusual changes that appear in many of their compositions—some more successful than others. One thing I can’t tell about this video is that it seems these musicians have laid their tracks on top of, or alongside, the original studio recording, but the result is exuberant.
The fun part of this video for real GG aficionados is the cameo appearances of the surviving members of the band. See if you can spot them:
Chaser: Frank Zappa on GG (scroll to the 40 second mark):
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