Live Frogs: Set 2 [Live]

Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Les Claypool | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 7, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Prawn Song
• ASIN: B00005MJVS
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,549 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #6 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Jambands
  • #25 in Music > R&B > Funk > Metal
  • #26 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Hard Rock & Metal

Track Listings

1. Pigs On The Wing (Part One)

2. Dogs

3. Pigs (Three Different Ones)

4. Sheep

5. Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Musicianship, Jaw-Dropping Performance, September 6, 2005

By 

Todd and In Charge (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live Frogs: Set 2 (Audio CD)

I bought this disc unsure of what to expect: I am a casual fan of Primus, enjoyed some of Claypool's collaborations and excursions with Buckethead and others, and certainly am a big Pink Floyd fan, though Animals is not one of my favorites, so I was not sure what this would sound like.

Here's the answer: Amazing! It's a jaw-dropping showcase of top-flight musicians, jamming and grooving on an album they obviously know and love. It's clear they are enjoying every minute, and the results speak for themselves, the music recalls the album but does not mimic it, with pure inspired performances from start to finish. Indeed, I have new-found appreciation for both this band and for the original Animals, which I promptly pulled out to listen after hearing this re-imagination.

It's also a bit different from other "stunt" albums along these lines, such as Phish's live Halloween tributes to the Beatles or The Who, which are ok but have more of a loose, fooling-around kind of vibe. This is the real deal, these musicians are deadly serious about making it work, they are invested in the material and the performances and it shows. Although Gilmour and Waters have nothing to worry about as far as Claypool's vocals are concerned, this one is a winner and I highly recommend.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A testament to the universal appeal of music, March 21, 2003

By 

Sandy Starr (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live Frogs: Set 2 (Audio CD)

This album is a testament to the universal appeal of music. You can't imagine two more different bands - in terms of geographical origin, philosophical outlook and musical disposition - than late-70s Pink Floyd and early-noughties Frog Brigade. And yet the Frog Brigade play Pink Floyd's album `Animals' live in its entirety, and something magical happens.

Do the Frog Brigade even know what they're singing about on here? `Animals' is a terribly bleak album. Its three major songs are cruel dissections of 1970s British society, with lyrics penned by the miserabilist Roger Waters - `Dogs' is about mercenaries and tyrants, `Pigs (Three Different Ones)' is a portrait of three unsavoury figures in British public life, and `Sheep' is an awfully scathing, not to mention awfully patronising, attack on ordinary Joes. That's you and me, folks. The drab sepia picture of London's Battersea Power Station on the cover of `Animals' says it all (this picture is reproduced on the back cover of `Live Frogs Set 2', but with the inflatable pig next to Battersea Power Station irreverently replaced with an inflatable frog).

The Frog Brigade, by contrast, are exuberant people, American through and through, who enjoy playing protracted jams wearing wacky costumes. And yet somehow, their rendition of `Animals' works. The Frog Brigade are clearly enormous fans of `Animals' (in the sleevenotes, Claypool touchingly recounts his first encounter with the album as a boy), and have worked hard to do justice to it.

The vocals are passable, if workmanlike. But the playing is phenomenal - although even in this department, the band is careful not to overdo it. After the barnstorming version of Pink Floyd's `Shine On You Crazy Diamond' that closed `Live Frogs Set 1' (followed by Claypool's inimitable words `we'll be back in 20 minutes with more Pink Floyd than any human being should ever withstand'), I was looking forward to the Frog Brigade really stretching out on the `Animals' numbers. But they restrain themselves - oh well.

The one song where the band does seem to let go a little, and undoubtedly the best song on the album, is `Pigs (Three Different Ones)', which has some awesome instrumental passages. (Again, reading Claypool's sleevenotes I discover that `Pigs (Three Different Ones)' is his favourite track on `Animals', so it makes sense that it would be the best performed.)

What would be really nice would be if Pink Floyd fans who have never heard of Les Claypool - hell, if the actual members of Pink Floyd - buy this album simply because the prospect of `Animals' played live in its entirety by another band intrigues them. I'm certain they would love it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Les does Pink, June 14, 2002

By 

"fat_hand" (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live Frogs: Set 2 (Audio CD)

This entire album is a live recording of Les Claypool's band covering Pink Floyd's "Animals" album. This happens to be one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums, so when I happened to hear that he did this I picked it up. It definitely does not disappoint, staying relatively close to the album throughout. The musicianship is definitely on par with Floyd, and the vocals are surprisingly well done. A great effort and a great listen for any Floyd fan.