Hey guys 🙂
Gentle Giant is one of those bands who have a lot of great songs in a wonderful run of albums in the 70s. Me and
@Mrs. Waffles posted a bit about their debut in her listening log, but I thought they might be a fun subject for a thread of their own.
So post and discuss your favorite Gentle Giant related stuff!
A song I really like is Playing the Game from the album The Power and the Glory.
And someone's made an awesome 8-bit cover of it!
Wonderful band, I first discovered them through
@Comus 's thread on MB back in 2009. One of those bands that climbs up my all-time favorites list more and more every year. They really have a way of getting under your skin.
They have a really fascinating way of layering these various interlocking parts and making it make perfect sense. In particular Kerry Minnear's keyboard parts are super unique for a prog band I think, less about noodly solos or epic chords and more about bouncy syncopated two-hand riffs and little twiddly flourishes. Definitely a treat for the keyboard nerd in me.
And yeah, I think their career was super consistent and they put out a large amount of classic material in a comparatively short time. So many great songs across that run. It's hard for me to even pick a favorite song, though I think I might go with "River" the last track on Octopus. That's just a perfect prog song and a great closer.
I would rank their albums as follows.
Self Titled
Octopus
Free Hand
The Power and the Glory
Acquiring the Taste
In a Glass House
Interview
Three Friends
The Missing Piece
Civilian
Giant for a Day
But those change frequently really. And the first two are more or less tied, I like them both for different reasons; the self titled feels like a pure distillation of their basic sound elements done super well, while Octopus is more extravagant and goes farther into more ambitious composition.
I saw them every year from Free Hand until they broke up. The Sight And Sound concert is a really good representation what they were like live. They did a whole lot more radical rearrangments to cover for the loss of Kerry's voice than you might realise.
The last GG song I had a craving for listening to was Prologue. It might be an underrated track in the grand scheme of all things GG? Or maybe not 🙂 great album opener!
And since its release on youtube, I've watched this rendition of School Days a few times by Gary Green's band Three Friends.
They play it well 🙂
I posted a catalogue review of every Gentle Giant album, and every GG song, on MB
https://www.musicbanter.com/album-reviews/72986-gentle-giant-catalog-review.html
Quote from: Paul Smeenus on Nov 24, 2023, 05:24 AMI posted a catalogue review of every Gentle Giant album, and every GG song, on MB
https://www.musicbanter.com/album-reviews/72986-gentle-giant-catalog-review.html
Three Friends might be underrated, but it definitely has its defenders 🙂 For me, it never gets better than the first two tracks (which are both great).
Here's a performance of the brilliant Knots from Octopus!
Three Friends is a good album, though it doesn't have as many of the standout moments for me as most of their others. Probably due for a relisten, been a while since I listened to the full thing.
One big highlight of that record for me is that rad psychedelic guitar solo on Peel the Paint.
Anyone else here like those Kerry Minnear sung ballads? 🙂
Some probably think of them as a bit soppy, but I love a good ballad and a nice male falsetto like on A Reunion or Think of me With Kindness.
Aspirations from The Power and the Glory is probably my favourite.
I tend to think of On Reflection from Free Hand as one of the more ultimate GG songs. It features a bit of medievalry, a range of instruments, intricate interweaving vocal parts, a taste of rock.
Here they are performing it 🙂
I dabble in prog rock so you have me interested. Prog can sometimes fall under what I call "The gloss" which most certainly doesn't ruin music for me but I prefer "The edge." Better "The gloss" than "The sheen of unartful mediocrity." You think I'll like?