May 142013
I cannot make it through this clip. Three times I have sat down to continue from where I left off and my tolerance gets shorter and shorter. I wonder can anybody sit through the entire thing, especially since our old prog-expert friend tonyola seems to be lost to us?
Go ahead, Rock Town Hall: I dare you!
I tried — but failed. I thought something might get going when the drummer kicked in, but could only give it another minute or so. Did inspire me to listen to some ELP tonight!
I made it through only because the suckiness kept varying. From disjointed acoustic to horrible electric prog to pointless drum circle to glockenspiel wankfest (really didn’t see THAT one coming) and back to drum circle. I was riveted just trying to guess what they were going to suck at next!
Then I jumped to a random moment in the middle and there was some ridiculous bell duet going on. I appreciate even that some of this is tongue-in-cheek, but this might be the silliest prog thing I’ve ever seen/heard.
Cross posted with you. Rock around the glock?
I made it to 1:13. That sucks more than Lima bean ice cream. I think you have to actually try to suck that hard.
“Daddy, that’s enough. That’s enough Daddy.” – my three year old son at the 1:24 mark. I concurred
aloha
LD
What’s wrong with you guys? That kicked ass!
I concur cdm! Some folks around here…
If’n you have to do a drum solo, that’s the way to do it — get the whole band involved. I especially enjoyed the flying drum sticks.
Loved it! Thanx for posting cherguevarra.
Well, this is awkward… Sorry to mislead you jeangray, but I was being sarcastic. I thought the clip was so inherently unlikable that my sarcasm would be evident.
The nicest thing I can say about this clip is that the amount of effort that went into this arrangement is very impressive. Aside from that, if given a choice between the two, I would take the Lima bean ice cream.
Har har! That’s too funny.
Proof again that there needs to be a universal sarcastic font & that some folks are just too uptight to enjoy a good ten minute drum circle jam!
I only lasted a minute, and then I sampled a few seconds here and there. This is music that’s just designed to piss me off. It’s like they know exactly what I hate, and then they proceed to do it in extended format. I’m scarred.
When I was a surly teenager, I hated prog music because I was convinced people who played that stuff did it just to piss pop-lovers like me off. I now realize this was ridiculous rock conspiracy theory-think. Or, rather, I did until I watched the first four minutes of this video. I sincerely believe these dudes wrote music like this to make people like me angry.
Can someone please explain to me exactly why this sucks? What it is about this video that inspires anger & hate? Exactly what is it that you despise about this music? You’ve all just made statements, along the lines of “it should be obvious, etc.,etc.,” but made no real arguments for your statements beyond that. I am truly curious.
Thanks.
1. You can’t walk down the street humming it.
2. It’s as complicated as AP trigonometry
3. There is a certain smugness to the performance that is grating
4. It has a drum solo.
Thanx cdm.
🙂
They seem really smug. The music seems purposely unapproachable. Those two things are connected.
My initial response to this thread was going to be something assholishly amusing about how you couldn’t pay me enough money to share a ten million-dollar beach house with Gentle Giant. But it’s kind of true. They all come off as, I dunno, jerks in this video.
I am FINALLY getting a minute to watch this – and watch it all the through I plan to do, dammit!
This gets off to a good-terrible start with the Val Kilmer as Fat Jim Morrison on lead vocals and the string players making endless I’m Classically Trained AND YOU’RE NOT! faces.
The drummer gives off a killer Sure, I am not even remotely appealing, but note that only a man as unappealing as I am can develop the compensatory skills to make love to you like no man has ever made love to you before! vibe. Gotta respect that!
The Classically Trained violinist seems like much less of a dick when he started wanking off on the guitar instead. The Val Kilmer as Fat Jim Morrison singer, on the other hand, comes off as much more of a dick while wielding his bass.
I love how the camera lingers on the keyboardist’s puffy sleeves as his hands hammer away on that electric harpsichord (clavichord???).
For a 5-second stretch at the 4:00 minute mark the guitarist (nee Classically Trained Violinist) exudes a sort of soloing face that hasn’t been pulled off since 1978. Really good face! A few seconds later the camera pulls back to reveal a one-legged footstomp and tassles hanging off his tunic. This guy would have been snatched off the board in an early round of our old Fantasy Rock Band draft, from many moons ago.
At the 5:05 mark it becomes clear to me that the audience has not moved even the slightest. I’m beginning to think they are cardboard cutouts meant to simulate a studio audience.
The guitarist who started this song as the Classically Trained Violinist shows his truly pathetic, nerdy side during the drum jam. And where did the fifth Giant come from, the Val Kilmer as Younger Jim Morrison in the blue tunic?
Way too much delight is taken during the xylophone jam. This justifies the decision by any young musician to NOT join the school orchestra.
As Val Kilmer as Young Jim Morrison begins shaking those sleigh bells toward the end of the xylophone jam I realize he may be the only member of this band worth partying with.
NOW the audience claps! Is there an appropriate derogatory term for Belgians yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrvXoin9NcA
My pleasure (except for the part where I had to watch the video)
I easily watched that video all the way through!
I was a prog fan before punk and Gentle Giant were one of the groups I liked. I probably haven’t heard that track for over 30 years!
Great find! Thanks!