Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Gentle Giant
Label: DRT Entertainment
Release: 1976
Length: 73:20
Rating: 5/5
“Playing the Fool” is a double live album from the incorrigible prog-rock jesters Gentle Giant, one of the most unique bands of all time. It’s also the only official live document released during the lifetime of this legendary group, so for that fact alone it enjoys cult status among fans.
Even among their fellow prog rockers, back in the mid-seventies when the scene was teeming with bands whose main creative commandments were unbridled sonic experimentation, intricate multi-part harmonies and the use of odd time signatures, Gentle Giant were seen as real oddballs. Besides their wild crossbreeding of rock, jazz, folk and classical music, one of their defining traits was a cheeky sense of humor, usually drawing its inspiration from the adventures of Rabelais’ famous family of literary giants, made up of Gargantua, Pantagruel and Panurge, and they weren’t afraid to poke fun at the social problems of modern English society either.
Despite their musical vision, excellent humor and perfect, above all versatile, command of some instruments totally unconventional for rock music, the band often ran into incomprehension from the critics of the day, since they resisted any kind of sonic commercialization for a long time. The first step in that direction, at the end of the seventies, also marked the band’s gradual decline and collapse.
“Playing the Fool” was made during their best period and released just as they were hitting the artistic peak of their career. The recordings come from various shows on the middle of a European tour in 1975, where they mostly presented the then-current album “Free Hand” (1975). Gentle Giant’s live shows were a chapter all their own, and thanks to witty improvisations that often completely reshaped the structure of an individual song, many classics came off even better live than in their studio versions.
The live recording opens with “Just the Same”, a meaningful satire on the wrong turns of the music industry, and just the right starter, packed with their trademark rhythmic polymers, unexpected swerves into symphonic motifs and a heaping helping of juicy jazz-fusion improvisation. The excellent atmosphere of the hall, which you can feel in every single performance on this outstanding live album, works in their favor too. The first track from “Free Hand” is followed by the first track from the album “The Power and the Glory” (1974).
The excellent version of “Proclamation”, with Derek Shulman’s paranoid vocal outbursts, is a biting satire of dictatorship and absolutism, built on wry jazzy rhythmic patterns, bluesy guitar phrases and protective dissonant vocal harmonies. Next come skillfully combined and played excerpts from the legendary album “Octopus” (1973), their most beloved and, in most people’s opinion, best work, which also marks the high point of this live release. The first half of the recording closes with an extremely heartfelt rendition of the classic “Funny Ways”, which comes from their unforgettable self-titled debut from 1970.
After that, they don’t forget to return to the phenomenal album “In a Glass House” (1973), from which they play slightly sped-up and shortened versions of the classics “The Runaway” and “Experience”. Especially standing out is the considerably extended version of the “The Power and the Glory” standard “So Sincere”, which comes off even better than the original version of this incredible mishmash of instrumental brilliance and eccentricity. This live document would probably be missing something if they’d happened to forget to play the title track of “Free Hand”, with which they voiced their frustration over switching labels. It’s played “to the letter”, meaning they build on the mysterious opening arrangement in a completely unpredictable way with plenty of dramatic twists, full of hard rock mannerisms, above all thanks to punchy guitar phrases courtesy of Gary Green. A refined transition between elements of symphonic music, jazz and hard rock that still never stops fascinating.
Gentle Giant wouldn’t be real pranksters if they didn’t allow themselves one more bit of mischief and play a one-minute but supremely witty version of the jazz standard “Sweet Georgia Brown” (originally written by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard). Most people today know the song best as the theme anthem of the entertaining basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters. At the end of the album they included a performance, or rather two, that are also the biggest surprises of the entire recording: an excellent medley made up of two songs that rarely made it onto their live setlist. First they play the “Three Friends” (1972) standard “Peel the Paint” and then skillfully slide into the punchy “I Lost My Head”, which comes from the then still upcoming new album “Interview” (1976), where the first ‘calls’ of gradual commercialization had already appeared.
“Playing the Fool” is a superb live document that captures and presents the essence of a cult band with real flair, a band that, even after all these decades, never stops surprising with radical compositional innovation and instrumental brilliance. The first part of the album, through excellent and mostly extended versions of individual classics, shows a somewhat subtler side of the band, while the second part is dominated by slightly more rowdy and aggressive renditions of some long-time favorites. Both halves present a complete picture of a legendary band that left an extraordinary mark on the history of progressive rock, even though they almost never took themselves seriously, and most lovers of good music will remember them at least as much for their musical wizardry as for their jester-like lyrics and unforgettable album covers.
Line-up
Gary Green – guitar, backing vocals, percussion
Kerry Minnear – keyboards, cello, backing vocals, percussion
Derek Shulman – vocals, alto saxophone, bass guitar, percussion
Ray Shulman bass guitar, violin, acoustic guitar, trumpet, backing vocals, percussion
John Weathers – drums, tambourine, backing vocals, percussion
Production
Gentle Giant
Tracklist
CD1
1. Just The Same
2. Proclamation
3. On Reflection
4. Excerpts From Octopus
CD2
1. The Runaway
2. Experience
3. So Sincere
4. Free Hand
5. Sweet Georgia Brown (Breakdown In Brussels)
6. Peel The Paint/I Lost My Head (Medley)
