Live (Playing The Fool)  (78:09)
	01	(A) Just The Same-(B) Proclamation						11:17
	02	On Reflection						06:27
	03	Excerpts From 'Octopus'						15:38
	04	Funny Ways						08:31
	05	(A) The Runaway-(B) Experience						09:31
	06	So Sincere						10:18
	07	Free Hand						07:39
	08	Sweet Georgia Brown						01:21
	09	(A) Peel The Paint-(B) I Lost My Head						07:27
Civilian  (32:51)
	01	Convenience (Clean And Easy)						03:13
	02	All Through The Night						04:22
	03	Shadows On The Street						03:15
	04	Number One						04:46
	05	Underground						03:48
	06	I Am A Camera						03:32
	07	Inside Out						05:51
	08	It's Not Imagination						04:04

Disk One (c) 1977 Chrysalis Records Ltd
Disk Two (c) 1980 Chrysalis Records Ltd

Playing The Fool - The Official Live (1977)

About the Album
One of the greatest live albums ever recorded. Enough said. :-) Recorded on Gentle Giant's European tour, September and October 1976. Liner notes are available from the Castle CD and the Terrapin CD. We also have the promotional materials from Capitol Records from the album's release.
Sweet Georgia Brown (a.k.a. Breakdown in Brussells) was played spontaneously during an equipment breakdown....

Learn the secret behind some audience noises.

Musicians

Gary Green - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar, alto recorder, descant recorder, vocals, percussion

Kerry Minnear - keyboards, cello, vibes, tenor recorder, vocals, percussion

Derek Shulman - vocals, alto sax, descant recorder, bass, percussion

Ray Shulman - bass, violin, acoustic guitar, descant recorder, trumpet, vocals, percussion

John Weathers - drums, vibes, tambour, vocals, percussion

Other liner notes:

A Gentle Giant Production
Recorded (au naturel) on European tour
September to October 1976
Remix at Advision Studios, London.
Engineer: Paul Northfield, assisted by Trevor,
Peter and Frazer (Maison Rouge Mobile) and
Ken Thomas in London.
Live mix: David Zammit, sound system built and
supplied by Recording Studio Design, Cheshunt, Herts.
Original sleeve: Design and production
Murray Carden and Geoff Allman for Spoken Image
(airbrush Chris Clover)
Compact disc package by Phil Smee at Waldo's Design

Track List
The vinyl and Castle CD releases have the following tracklist.

Just The Same / Proclamation (11:13)
On Reflection (6:24)
Excerpts From Octopus (15:35)
Funny Ways (8:35)
The Runaway / Experience (9:31)
So Sincere (10:22)
Free Hand (7:40)
Breakdown In Brussells [a.k.a., Sweet Georgia Brown] (1:15) [omitted from the Castle CD release)
Peel The Paint / I Lost My Head (7:35)

The Terrapin Trucking CD release has the same music but split into more tracks:
Introduction (does not appear on any studio album)
Just The Same
Proclamation
Valedictory
On Reflection (rearranged)
The Boys In The Band
Raconteur Troubadour (acoustic guitar instrumental)
Acquiring The Taste (rearranged for acoustic guitar)
Knots
Organ bridge (does not appear on any studio album)
The Advent Of Panurge, part 1
The famous recorder quartet (does not appear on any studio album)
The Advent Of Panurge, part 2
Funny Ways
The Runaway
Experience
So Sincere
Drum and percussion bash (does not appear on any studio album)
Free Hand
Sweet Georgia Brown (does not appear on any studio album)
Peel The Paint
I Lost My Head


Lyrics - submitted by Todd Fiske after painstakingly listening to the album and noticing that the lyrics differ from the studio versions. He even included the speaking and audience noises (in parentheses). Thanks Todd!!


Playing The Fool

The theater photos on the cover are of the Palace Theatre in Manchester, England. According to a fan, GG never played there! (Thanks to "Andrew".)

Also on the cover, the poster in the lower left quadrant has GG on tour in Summerland September 31st. There are only 30 days in September.

In Valedictory, right after the break at the word "Hail," the bass and keyboard play each other's parts as played on The Power and the Glory. This, according to Kerry (allegedly), gave the piece a harder, driving rhythm suited to a live performance. (Thanks to Bob Finger.)

In Excerpts From Octopus, during the acoustic guitar version of Raconteur Troubadour, the main theme from Acquiring The Taste is played.

In Excerpts From Octopus during the recorder quartet, there is supposedly a quote from On Reflection ("still you stay, tied in your way"). (Thanks to Mikko Pellinen.)

Phil Merrigan reports that he thinks parts of the drum bash and vibes solos in the live So Sincere come from No God's a Man: "you can sing 'After all the things are said, No god's a man, No god's a man' in the last part of the drumming. Just sing it in your head and try to fit it to the rhythm. It works for me. As to the glockenspiel trio, at one point the three play in unison. I am sure the musical phrase is from a GG song. My hunch was that it was inspired from no god's a man...." Anyone else hear this?

There's a reason by why the audience made some noise during So Sincere.


Kerry Wags It?
From: Jeff Oliver
Date: 28 Feb 96 15:11:14 EST

A small footnote to the Playing the Fool album. During So Sincere when the band starts into the glockenspiel part of the drum bash, the audience breaks into applause, which most people probably know was when lights went down and the white chaser lights started twinkling around the screens in front of the amps. Towards the end of the same section the audience reacts again with some whooping. As I recall, Kerry was playing the vibes at the right of the stage, side on to the audience, and he wagged his backside as he played. Can it be that we have a recording of an arse getting applauded?



Gentle Giant: Playing the Fool
Castle Communications (ESSCD006)
UK 1976

there have been many releases of this album on CD; the amazon links are to the domestic release on One Way Records; the cover shown is from the out-of-print Castle Communications (France) release.

Derek Shulman, vocals, alto sax, descant recorder, bass, percussion; Ray Shulman, bass, violin, acoustic guitar, descant recorder, trumpet, vocals, percussion; Kerry Minnear, all keyboards, cello, vibes, tenor recorder, vocals, percussion; Gary Green, electric, acoustic & 12 string guitars, alto & descant recorders, vocals, percussion; John Weathers, drums, vibes, tambour, vocals, percussion

Tracklist:
1. Just The Same / Proclamation - 11:17
2. On Reflection - 6:25
3. Octopus / Boys In The Band - 15:37
4. Funny Ways - 8:33
5. In A Glass House - 9:32
6. So Sincere - 10:19
7. Free Hand - 7:39
8. Peel The Paint / I Lost My Head - 7:30

total time 76:52

Bob Eichler:
I'm one of those heretics who think that Gentle Giant's music is maybe just a little overrated. Yes, they're obviously very talented musicians, but their brand of "ultra-complex just for the sake of being complex" music seems a little too dry for my tastes. And if anything, this live album just highlights that dryness - having heard the studio versions of the first album and Free Hand, I much prefer the studio material. The thing that bothers me most about the live album is the vocals. On the studio albums the vocals are pretty good, but live they seem awfully strained.
Still, after listening to Playing the Fool a bunch of times, it has started to grow on me a little. It is impressive that they could pull off all the complex, interlocking parts involved in most of their songs. And the performances are mostly tight and energetic. But this disc didn't make me want to run out and buy more Gentle Giant albums.
In the end, I guess it just comes down to taste. The band has everything a prog fan could want, but it just doesn't work for me for some reason. But don't let that stop you from giving them a try.

Sean McFee:
One of the premier British progressive acts, the good news about Gentle Giant is that what they did in the studio, they pulled off live. In fact, those who find their studio work overly clinical may be pleased to know that there is an energy level and warmth here that may not otherwise be present.
The material here is drawn from many of their mid-70s albums, with particular attention paid to Free Hand and Octopus. I find the material from Octopus to be greatly improved here. There are also a couple of tracks from The Power and the Glory and In a Glass House. Songs are often rearranged to some extent, with long instrumentals replacing parts of the studio versions.
This album makes an excellent introduction to Gentle Giant. It shows the band's formidable chops, offers a representative cross-section of their career, and is different enough from the studio versions of the songs to allow for continued enjoyment once the entire catalog is picked up. High recommendation.

Eric Porter:
This may be an odd choice for the first Gentle Giant review, but this is my all time favorite live recording. Recorded during their 1976 European tour, the band displays so much energy on this disc, all the while the challenging arrangements are played with astonishing skill. Gentle Giant for some reason have always been kind of second tier in the prog community, and it is a shame, as this may have been one of the most talented bands our beloved genre ever produced. This is a great place for the uninitiated to begin. The opening "Just The Same" jumps out of the speakers and rocks like few prog bands ever have. Then all of a sudden you get the subtlety of "On Reflection" with the members playing vibes, cello, and recorders leading into the vocal arrangement. You get a medley of cuts from "Octopus" (some really excellent acoustic guitar in the begginning) as you do with "In A Glass House" (includes "Runaway"). The songs do deviate from their recorded versions at times, so you do not get a regurgitation of studio tracks. This is the band at their peak, and I don't think it gets much better than this.








Civilian (1980)

[ Tracks / Lyrics / Releases / Reviews / Cool Stuff ]
About the Album
This album shows Gentle Giant's "rocking" side with short, simpler tunes. Some fans hate this album. Others like it, claiming that even though it is more pop-influenced than previous Gentle Giant works, it is still a good album. An essay is available from the Truck CD liner notes, and an article from Musician Magazine discusses the politics behind the album.
Civilian was Gentle Giant's final album, not counting the compilations and live albums released after their breakup.

The bonus track Heroes No More appears on both the One Way and Terrapin CDs. The Terrapin track is taken from an old cassette recording, but the One Way track comes from the original master tape.

Musicians
Gary Green - All guitars

Kerry Minnear - Keyboards, vocals

Derek Shulman - Vocals

Ray Shulman - Bass, acoustic guitars, backing vocals

John Weathers - Drums, backing vocals

Other liner notes:

Words and music by Gentle Giant
Recorded August-November, 1979

Thanks to: Skinny Bishop for providing fine vintage equipment, etc.
Sibecor Corp. for their Norman guitars, Yamaha drums and Rotosound strings

All songs c 1980 Alucard Publishing Ltd.

An Onward U.S. production engineered and remixed by
Geoff Emerick at Sound City, Van Nuys, California
Tape operator: Torrie Swensen;
Bijou Studios, Hollywood, California
Second engineer: David Zammit;
Wessex Studios, Highbury, London
Second engineer: Mike Shipley
Design: Nancy Donald/Ginger Canzoneri
Photography: Dan Weiner

Track List
Convenience (Clean And Easy) (3:14)
All Through The Night (4:20)
Shadows On The Street (3:18)
Number One (4:39)
Underground (3:48)
I Am A Camera (3:33)
Inside Out (5:51)
It's Not Imagination (3:59)
Ending of the album ("That's All There Is")
Heroes No More (4:25) [bonus track]

Lyrics - submitted by Jerry McCarthy


At the end of the album, four words are sung: "That's all there is." (Some CD and vinyl releases are missing this ending, unfortunately.) This sentence was created from music that appeared in four different songs on the album. The words were extracted from the songs and then spliced together.
The words come from: "I'm your security, that's what they say" (from I Am A Camera, 1:38), "All through the night" (from All Through The Night, various places), "Now they're mine no more" (from Heroes No More, 1:29), and "Everything is spinning 'round" (from Inside Out, 4:27).

This information was uncovered by Daniel Barrett and Marc Caroul.

Civilian

Allegedly, Ray Shulman played an 8-string bass on most of this album. He didn't play it live however. On most other albums he played a Fender Precision. (Thanks to Pekka Ranta.)

On the album cover, the word "Civilian" is very hard to see. It is the red shading in the words "Gentle Giant." Also, several people seem to be holding guns (bottom left, top right, and left side 2/3 of the way up). (Thanks to Richard Beck.)

On the cover, everyone has a blue collar, probably symbolic of "blue collar workers." (Thanks to Paul Sipio.)

In All Through The Night, the lyric "Every day is the just the same" might be a reference to Just The Same. (Thanks to Paul Sipio.)

The piano part at the beginning of Shadows On The Street is very similar to the introduction of Free Hand. (Thanks to Magraith@aol.com.)

The lyric "Forget our dreams and play the game" in Shadows On The Street might be a reference to Playing the Game. (Thanks to Paul Sipio.)

The vocal melody from Convenience, when played backwards, is a direct quote from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

The final words on the album ("That's all there is") are excerpts from songs on the album.




Heroes No More (bonus track)
- from Proclamation #4
Lead vocals: Derek

They were standing there - they were so near, yet so far away.
Were they so unreal? Just a dream of someone to be one day?

There was endless fame. They were heroes, now they're souvenirs.
And through changing years I can still remember - no quite so clear.

Heroes no more -
Stay with me still.
I dream. I hope. I always will.

Now they're mine no more as they stand there in the glowing light.
I see every face like my own, but that was another night.

Now they're just a dream of the time known ever left to fall.
Soon the game begins, but those heroes yours always to recall.

Heroes no more -
Stay with me still.
I dream. I hope. I always will.









Gentle Giant - Live (Playing The Fool) / Civilian

Released: 1999
Label: BGO Records
Cat. No.: BGOCD435
Total Time: 78:14 / ?


Reviewed by: Tom Karr, April 2004
The 1970s saw the release of some of the most celebrated live rock albums, including Deep Purple's Made In Japan, Humble Pie's Rocking The Filmore and The Allman Brothers Live At The Filmore East. It was also the time of some of the greatest live releases by progressive rock groups. Yes released the triple LP classic Yessongs, ELP put out another triple set, Welcome Back My Friends, To The Show That Never Ends, and Gentle Giant released this recording, culled from several dates on their European tour of 1976. Released in 1977 as a double LP, this single disc CD re-issue is probably the best of the lot. Not too long to lose your focus and interest, but lengthy enough to contain a very good overview of the bands impressive repertoire at that point, it captures Gentle Giant perfectly on stage, and displays quite well their unbelievable musical prowess, and their ability to craft their studio work to the requirements of the concert stage.

Unlike many of their contemporaries in progressive rock, Gentle Giant had a very grounded opinion of the music business and their place within it. They tried their best to please, whether it was their management, or their label, or their rabid fans. The very extensive liner notes in the 16 page booklet that accompanies this release point out that the Giant actually used to perform shows in the USA with a large neon sign hanging behind the group that flashed the word "PRETENTIOUS." Not many 70s progressive outfits had the courage to play with the genres sore scabs and tweak the noses of the styles detractors.

Musically, this release is about as good a testament to what can be accomplished during a live performance as anything you can find. This recording has very little post-production tinkering, a few washed out harmonies and a couple of patches of keyboards were replaced in the studio, but this is pretty close to an unadulterated performance from the Giant. The sound of this live set is a delight, warm and full, with powerful and commanding playing and singing from the five band members. The recreations of the groups trademark a cappella vocals are astounding. There can be no doubt that these musicians were of the absolute highest calibre, capable of pulling off the most difficult works of their repertoire with stunning ease and authority.

All the highlights of a Gentle Giant concert are provided here. These include Kerry Minnear's vibes solo during "Funny Ways", the recorder symphony, and the drum and percussion barrage from "So Sincere." All these are variations from the original versions of these tunes, and this shows another of the Giants great strengths as a live act. They did not stick to rote repetition of their recorded works, often re-arranging, altering and linking their most popular numbers onstage in medleys, as evidenced by this CDs third track, the lengthy "Excerpts From Octopus." This medley contains nearly seventeen minutes of the 1972 masterpiece, heavily compressed and reworked into an epic alternative to the original work. Gary and Ray's brilliant acoustic guitar duet is included and sounds better than the album version. It also includes The "Advent Of Panurge", the previously mentioned "Racontour Troubador", as well as a re-arranged acoustic guitar version of "Acquiring The Taste." The medley is further filled out by the inclusion of "Knots" and "The Boys In The Band", as well as new interludes and instrumental bridges to link all the elements together. The entire medley is so impressive that I now prefer it to hearing Octopus. Indeed, the versions of the bands most well known numbers like "Proclamation", "On Reflection" and "Free Hand" are greatly enhanced by the numerous slight variations and more so by the obvious magic of live performance interplay. The demanding, stop-start, endlessly evolving nature of Gentle Giant's music was made all that more amazing by the fire that the members brought to their performance, and the confidence shown in the delivery of their enormously difficult vocal and instrumental arrangements. Another telling moment included on this live set is the bands off the cuff acoustic rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown." This spirited and extremely tight version of this Dixieland classic was performed during a brief electrical problem onstage at one of the recorded tour dates, and it shows a group of musicians able to perform and function on demand, and in a number of styles and genres. The mastery and ease which is shown by this brief moment tells volumes about the band.

It is hard to sum this up in any other way than to restate all the praise I have already laid at the feet of this release. This is, I will repeat, one of the best of the best of the live recordings of the 1970s. This is a snapshot of a band that had everything a progressive rock fan could ask for, and much more. This is a brilliant collection of songs spanning most of Gentle Giants career to that point. This is a recording that give you much more than a rehashing of some well known numbers, more than a live greatest hits collection. This is an essential addition to any collection of Gentle Giant, and to any balanced collection of 1970s progressive rock music. If you have only heard the studio tracks of the material contained here, you haven't heard the half of it yet.

This re-issue from BGO Records is accompanied by a second disc, the 1980 release Civilian, making this a great deal for the buyer. This is a fairly obvious way for BGO to move some copies of one of the bands most poorly selling titles by attaching it to this "must have" release, and if I can ever get the first live disc off my changer, I can devote some time to listening to, and considering this disc, which I have not yet heard. Look for a separate review of that disc at a later time. Yes, I confess shamefully, I have never heard the Giants final two studio releases. But, I'm working on rectifying this sorry state of affairs, I swear!.

Rating - 5/5

More about Live (Playing The Fool) / Civilian:

Track Listing: Live (Playing The Fool): (a) Just The Same (6:08) -(b) Proclamation (5:16) / On Reflection (6:20) / Excerpts from "Octopus" (15:37) / Funny Ways (8:29) / (a) The Runaway (3:55) -(b) Experience (5:34) / So Sincere (10:17) / Free Hand (7:40) / Sweet Georgia Brown (1:15) / (a) Peel The Paint-(b) I Lost My Head (7:35)

Civilian: Convenience (Clean And Easy) / All Through The Night / Shadows On The Street / Number One / Underground / I Am A Camera / Inside Out / It's Not Imagination / Heroes No More

Musicians:
Gary Green - Guitars, Mandolin, Recorder, Vocals
Kerry Minnear - Keyboards, Vibes, Flute, Cello, Recorder, Vocals
Derek Shulman - Vocals, Saxes, Recorder, Bass
Ray Shulman - Bass, Violin, Viola, Trumpet, Recorder, Vocals
John Weathers - Drums, Percussion, Vibes, Vocals

Contact:

Website: www.blazemonger.com/GG
Note: will open new browser window

Discography

Gentle Giant (1970)
Acquiring the Taste (1971)
Three Friends (1972)
Octopus (1973)
In a Glass House (1973)
The Power And The Glory (1974/1990)
Freehand (1975)
Interview (1976)
The Official Live Gentle Giant: Playing the Fool (1977)
Pretentious (1977)
Civilian (1980)
Missing Piece (1977)
Giant for a Day (1978)
In Concert (1994)
The Last Steps (1996)
Out of the Woods (1996)
Under Construction (1997)
King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents... (1998)
Out of the Fire (1998)
Live (Playing The Fool)/Civilian (1999)
Totally Out of the Woods (2000)
Live in Rome 1974 (2000)
In a Palesport House [live] (2001)
Experience [live] (2002)
Endless Life [live] (2003)
Artistically Cryme [live] (2003)
The Missing Face [live] (2003)
Way of Life (2004)
Playing the Cleveland [live] (2004)
Prologue (2004)