The Missing Piece: Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It
The Missing Piece: Who Do You Think You Are?
The Missing Piece: Mountain Time
The Missing Piece: As Old as You're Young
The Missing Piece: Memories of Old Days
The Missing Piece: Winning
The Missing Piece: For Nobody
Giant for a Day: Words from the Wise
Giant for a Day: Thank You
Giant for a Day: Giant for a Day
Giant for a Day: Spooky Boogie
Giant for a Day: Take Me - Gentle Giant, Shulman
Giant for a Day: Little Brown Bag
Giant for a Day: Friends - Gentle Giant, Weathers
Giant for a Day: No Stranger
Giant for a Day: It's Only Goodbye
Giant for a Day: Rock Climber
Two of the English prog rock group's LPs for Chrysalis together on one CD, 1977's 'The Missing Piece' & 1978's 'Giant For A Day'. A combined total of 19 tracks, including 'Two Weeks In Spain', 'I'm Turning Around' and ... more »'Spooky Boogie'. All tracks are digitally remastered from the original master tapes. Also features the original cover art of each record and additional sleeve notes. 1999 Records.« less
Two of the English prog rock group's LPs for Chrysalis together on one CD, 1977's 'The Missing Piece' & 1978's 'Giant For A Day'. A combined total of 19 tracks, including 'Two Weeks In Spain', 'I'm Turning Around' and 'Spooky Boogie'. All tracks are digitally remastered from the original master tapes. Also features the original cover art of each record and additional sleeve notes. 1999 Records.
CD Reviews
5 stars for the Missing Piece, 3 stars for Giant for a Day
02/02/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Gentle Giant sound of counterpoint, odd rhythms and other characteristics is kept in the Missing Piece,(the first 9 tracks) with a touch of new wave/punk thrown in.The latter tracks making up Giant for a Day are 1/3 progressive, 1/3 new wave and 1/3 pop.I am in the minority it appears in not being enthralled with the song "Two weeks in Spain". To me it sounds like something George Formby or Benny Hill would have doneIn fact some of the cuts on Giant for a Day sound like they would fit in a Vaudiville, British music hall review"
Flawed mastering
Blake H. Seybolt | minnetonka, mn United States | 06/06/2002
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Truthfully I had a hard time concentrating on the music after I discovered a glitch during the last chorus of the CD's opener, Two Weeks in Spain. I had scarcely recovered when my ears were assaulted by repeated pops and hiccups halfway through track 8, Winning. These are not flaws in the CD itself. (There on no visible marks on the disc.)It would seem BGO has done a shoddy job in mastering these tracks. I would recommend the serious GG fan look elsewhere for his CD's."
TWO "WRONGS" DON'T MAKE A "RIGHT"
50 | hermitage, pa United States | 05/31/2004
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Although it has some excellent moments, "Missing Piece" marked the beginning of Gentle Giant's decline as they headed in a "pop" direction: 3 stars. "Giant for a Day" is almost unlistenable, as far as I'm concerned, considering what these incredible musician/composers were capable of: 1 star. Putting two of the band's weakest recordings together on one CD makes it easier to avoid both? Brilliant!"
Beware - CD-R!!
Vini® | Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil | 04/11/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I already have the "Playing The Fool/Civilian", also issued by BGO, and it's fine. I also have "Freehand/Interview", which is also fine, except that it seems to miss the last part of the interview at the end of the last track. But they are both decently made and packaged. I would rather have the originals, but nowadays they are not very easy to find.
Now, I've just got this "The Missing Piece/Giant For A Day", and it's a (bad) surprise. The package is ok, but the CD itself - it's green on the bottom! It's a CD-R, unless some company started making CDs in green aluminum without letting anyone know...
So, 1 star less for that, because I'm not sure about the quality/durability of this disc. Besides, my lame, half-a-star DVD drive on my laptop can't read it very well (it happens with some brands of CD-Rs, so for me this is another evidence that it's a CD-R). I ripped it in another computer to put the music into an mp3 player. You may run into the same trouble if you buy it.
Now, regarding the music, it's cool. Not the coolest giants' stuff, but it's cool. "The Missing Piece" was the missing piece in my collection, and I regret not having bought it before. Some tracks are actually as good as most of the "Interview" tracks. Unfortunately, there's a horrible pop/crack/whatever in the first track, at 2:43, and there are some more (several ones), not so bad, but still annoying, in other tracks. It's hard to believe this is what they could get from the "original master tapes" mentioned in the Editorial Review.
"Giant For A Day" is definitely the weakest of their albums. But it still has its moments, like the title track. It's worth listening.
So, it would be a 3-star for the music, comparing to the rest of their work, but I took one star back because of the quality of media and mastering.
"
If i gave this five, the power and the glory would need ten
richtrophicherbs | Europe | 07/30/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"as always with giant, some excellent tracks (esp. mountain time). but what are we to make of, for example, "friends"? it was this track that made me not bother to listen to "civilian" until last year. (i was pleasantly surprised - giant had finally made a good mainstream album)."
Track Listings (19) - Disc #1