Was watching some video of GG and the visual impact of this band is awesome too. The band members could all be cast members on Big Bang Theory. The drummer wears coke bottle glasses and Oakland A's gear. The keyboardist whales away on this homemade contraption that looks like an old microwave. The lead singer looks like one of the BeeGees in a white jumpsuit. You wouldn't expect the 2 genres to go together but they're the only prog band that makes you wanna get up and dance. Totally funky prog. And then in a split they ditch the electrics for classical instruments and start singing madrigals. So much fun to watch!
I grew up listening to the live album
Playing the Fool, and I always imagined what it must have been like to see these guys in concert. Switching instruments and genres all the time, the heavy, funky side, the acoustic/classical side, everything you mentioned. Then when I got one of their videos (GG on the Box), it was somehow just what I expected, yet nothing like what I expected. They're an amazing band.
I listened to the first album for the first time about a week ago. Thought it was good. I did a binge buy on album duo packs (covering the first four albums) and the Chrysalis Years set that collects the final five studio albums, so all I'm missing is In A Glass House and The Power And The Glory. I... think those are the names, anyway.
If you like anything about either the early or later stuff, you need to get those last two middle ones, often regarded as two of their best. GG started off very raw and adventurous, maybe a little
too crazy for my taste, but a lot of people like that. And the last three albums ditch the strings and winds and stick with basic five-piece rock in 4/4, in a deliberate attempt to sell some albums. They had a strong cult following, but were never really big, which is a shame, because they were so unique. But even as they streamlined things, there was still some real intensity to their music, and the final album,
Citizen, is great, one of their best.
I bought the first pressing of the Octopus vinyl, great album. I just need to sit down once, and listen to a couple more albums. IMO this is a vinyl band, ie not a band where you put a ton of cd's in the car's stereo, and blast then on the way to work. You need to be focussed to digest the music.
I hear what you're saying, but I spent 20 years listening to these guys on vinyl, and love the fact that I can blast them in the car on the way to work! I've absorbed and digested them, now I just enjoy them.