Review Summary: This is an amazing live album. One of the best I’ve ever experienced.
“Playing The Fool” is the debut live album of Gentle Giant and was released in 1977. The line up on the album is Derek Shulman, Gary Green, Kerry Minnear, Ray Shulman and John Weathers.
“Playing The Fool” was recorded one year after their eighth studio album “Interview”, which is in general considered the last great studio work of Gentle Giant. It perfectly captures all the creativity and power of a Gentle Giant’s concert in their prime. “Playing The Fool” is a perfect example that demonstrates live, the group’s very complex musicianship and talent as well as showcasing versions of themes which are in some cases very modified from the original studio versions. This is even more remarkable, due to the huge complexity of the band’s music that seems to me extremely difficult to be performed live. Still, on “Playing The Fool” Gentle Giant played their complicated music with perfection.
My “Playing The Fool” version is the Castle’s CD. My “Playing The Fool” is a live album with nine tracks. So, this is the version that I’ll review. In some cases tracks are divided in two parts that correspond to songs which were played together. So, “Just The Same” and “Proclamation” were originally released on “Free Hand” and “The Power And The Glory” in 1975 and 1974, respectively. “On Reflection” was originally released on “Free Hand”. “Excerpts From Octopus” is a 15 minute medley of their album “Octopus” released in 1972. “Funny Ways” was originally released on “Gentle Giant” in 1970. “The Runway/Experience” is made of two tracks originally released on “In A Glass House” in 1973. “So Sincere” was originally released on “The Power And The Glory”. “Free Hand” was originally released on “Free Hand”. “Sweet Georgia Brown” is an original that was never released on any of their studio albums. “Peel The Paint” and “I Lost My Head” were originally released on “Three Friends” and “Interview” in 1972 and 1976, respectively.
The live tracks on “Playing The Fool” were performed in several locations all over Europe in 1976. So, “Just The Same/Proclamation” and “On Reflection” were recorded in Düsseldorf, Germany. “Funny Ways” was recorded in Munich, Germany. “Free Hand” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” were recorded in Brussels, Belgium. “Excerpts From Octopus”, “The Runway/Experience” “So Sincere” and “Peel The Paint/I Lost My Head” were recorded in Paris, France.
The sound of “Playing The Fool” is very good, vivid and close, whether the band is rocking or recreating the medieval-style a cappella vocals. “Just The Same” is a tight and punchy piece that opens the show and is followed by an equally good “Proclamation” that actually turns into “Valedictory” towards the end. “On Reflection” was totally rearranged. The middle section has been moved to the beginning and a completely new theme appears at the end of it. “Octopus” is represented by a 15 minute medley of partly strongly rearranged versions of parts from that album. It opens with “The Boys In The Band” that goes into acoustic instrumental versions of “Raconteur Troubadour” and “Acquiring The Taste” before going into “Knots” and “The Advent Of Panurge”. The latter one has been extended in the middle that further strengthens to the piece a medieval feel. “Strange Ways” features a lengthy solo on vibes and “The Runaway” and “Experience” have both been joined together. Derek Shulman is singing Minnear’s parts in the latter one and the heavy mid part is slightly faster than on the original version. “So Sincere” has been stretched out to ten minutes by a lengthy instrumental part that starts with some really sparkling guitar work from Green, before it goes into a percussive part that is much better, for my taste, than the usual drum solos you’ll find on most live albums in the 70’s. “Free Hand” is, as you might expect, hard rocking and energetic. They even dropped the quiet mid part in favour of a much louder jam. “Breakdown In Brussels” is a short instrumental that was nowhere else to be found, although nobody should be sorry for that. The album ends with a short version of “Peel The Paint” that goes into “I Lost My Head”.
Conclusion: “Playing The Fool” is, together with other greats like Genesis’ “Seconds Out”, Jethro Tull’s “Bursting Out”, Yes’ “Yessongs” and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends”, one of the very best progressive rock live albums ever. In fact, the musical quality level of “Playing The Fool” was rarely equaled. “Playing The Fool” has great live performances of very complicated and technically brilliant music. I was always amazed by the unique ability of this band to bring to their live shows all the complexity of their music in such a brilliant way. And even more impressive is the capability they have to change their original material to live versions, to the point of looking almost completely new pieces. So, the final result is that “Playing The Fool” is an amazing live album with a very good track list with a great sound quality level. The original art cover of the album has also been nicely recreated. “Playing The Fool” is an amazing live masterpiece, which is probably my favourite live album ever.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
