Wherein I post three songs for your enjoyment, much like a disc jockey. Some songs you already know, some maybe not. I actually landed on a few songs whilst sitting at the beach listening to my iPod Shuffle. To these ears, they sounded pretty good together. So here we go.
I am just going to quote here directly from the ever-handy Wikipedia about the first band: Gentle Giant was a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members.
All of the band members, except [drummer) Malcolm Mortimore, were multi-instrumentalists. Although not commercially successful, they did achieve a cult following.
This is a cool little song I’ve always dug by them called “Peel the Paint.” This is from their 1972 album, Three Friends. Guitarist laying it down here is Gary Green whose sound is atypically bluesy for this genre:
Spotify link (Steven Wilson mix)
One of my favorite Hendrix songs from Axis: Bold As Love is “If 6 Was 9.” I see no deeper meaning in it than “I am my own man in this world” and so:
White collared conservative flashing down the street,
Pointing their plastic finger at me.
They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high, high.
Wave on, wave on
Spotify link (no YouTube that I can find)
A while back, I posted a song by John Batdorf and James Lee Stanley, both American folk singer/songwriter/guitarists. It’s from their all-acoustic cover album of Stones songs called All Wood and Stones.
I was never really a big fan of the song “Ruby Tuesday.” But I am a big, big fan of artists who get me to hear the song as it really is. Love what they’ve done here with it. (When they sing “Goodbye” here, to my ears the harmonization sounds very similar to Pink Floyd’s on “Goodbye Blue Sky.”)
Music Enthusiast - At the junction of rock, blues, R&B, jazz, pop,and soul 
Nice selection here. Love Axis: Bold as Love, of the Three JH albums I think it’s my favouite
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Yeah, that tune popped up on my iPod and I said, man, that sounds good. Can’t find Hendrix studio stuff on YouTube anymore.
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Never got around to GG. All I knew was they had great album covers. The song you posted sounds good. Might have to dig deeper into these guys. The Jimi tune is a no brainer. He never gets old.
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Yeah, the Jimi tune came up and it just felt refreshing. Always one of my favorites.
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Try ‘Free Hand’ or ‘Interview’ CB.
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Will do. After what I heard I figured it would be up your alley.
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Yeah, long-time favourite progressive band.
🙂
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Gave ‘Free Hand’ a listen. I like it.
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Nice ‘n’ varied.
Been meaning to pull together a Gentle Giant post for ages.
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Go for it. Lord knows I’ll never get to it and they should be better known.
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Gentle Giant, one of my favourites. I thought I’d heard something about them recently and I was right. There’s a Steven Wilson remix of songs from their first three albums, including Three Friends, due out on 29th September. More info here: http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Three_Piece_Suite.
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Yeah, the Spotify link on my post is actually the Wilson remix. Why that’s there so much in advance of the album, anybody’s guess.
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I don’t know John Batdorf or James Lee Stanley but out of sheer madness I searched for Ruby Tuesday on Spotify. Many versions of the song came up – too many to look through them all – but Batdorf and Stanley don’t seem to be there. There are, however, versions by The Co-operative Funeralcare Band and Water Closet. (No, I haven’t listened to them.)
Oh, wait! James Lee Stanley is a few entries down from those. I can rest easy now. 🙂
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I dig their whole album. I could have picked any tune but I liked that they got me to like ‘Ruby Tuesday.’
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