Gentle Giant - Ohio Runaway (2021)

SUPERB 1975 BROADCAST RECORDING FROM GENTLE GIANT S HEYDAY The band's first album was the self-titled Gentle Giant in 1970. Combining the collective band members' influences of rock, blues, classical, and 1960s British soul, it was an immediately challenging effort, although it has sometimes been criticised for having a slightly disappointing recording quality. Gentle Giant was followed in 1971 by Acquiring the Taste. This second album showcased a band who were developing rapidly. Far more experimental and dissonant than its predecessor, Acquiring the Taste was shaped primarily by Kerry Minnear's broad classical and contemporary classical music training.

It also showed the band expanding their already impressive instrumental palette progressive rock standards. Gentle Giant's next recording was Three Friends (1972). This was the band's first concept album, and was based around the theme of three boys who are "inevitably separated by chance, skill, and fate" as they become men. In March 1972, Mortimore injured himself in a motorcycle accident. To fulfil tour obligations in April, Gentle Giant hired John "Pugwash" Weathers. Weathers was a harder-hitting player who also sang and played melodic percussion and guitar, further expanding Gentle Giant's instrumental performance options. Because of Mortimore's extended convalescence, the band opted to formally replace him with Weathers at the end of the 1972 April tour. The new line-up of Gentle Giant delivered the Octopus album later in 1972. The band's hardest-rocking album to date, it maintained their distinctively broad and challengingly integrated style. The release of Octopus is generally considered to herald the start of Gentle Giant's peak period. Their efforts seemed successful enough to get 1975's Free Hand into the Top 50 of the album chart in the USA. Shortly before the release of Free Hand the group toured the US, and on 27th January 1975 they performed at Cleveland s legendary Agora Ballroom, where they gave what is often referred to as the finest show Gentle Giant ever played. Recorded for live FM broadcast in the local area, this superb show is now available for all fans to hear via this new CD, containing as it does the full concert recorded over 45 years ago.

Tracklist
1. Cogs In Cogs (03:09)
2. Proclamation (05:02)
3. Funny Ways (08:50)
4. The Runaway/Experience (09:52)
5. Excerpts From Octopus (13:28)
6. So Sincere (14:43)
7. Introduction (00:56)
8. Cogs In Cogs (04:02)
9. The Runaway/Experience (10:07)