Aug 31 2006
Gentle Giant
Ya know, with as important as music is to me, I don’t really blog about it so much. Well, today’s the day. As I mentioned before, I tend to be an old fart when it comes to music, with most of my stuff being pre-1977. Jazz and funk primarily with all the spaces in between, and a peculiar love of progressive rock, that European fossil that was a mixture of rock, classical and jazz influences.
A bit of background… in the early 70’s there was a lot of interesting things going on in the European rock scene, aside from the obvious Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin thing. Bands such as Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Italy’s PFM and such were taking rock out on a limb, with extended compositions (15+ minutes), classical influences, abstract lyricism, complex melodies, many changing time signatures, tempos and styles, and musicianship that tended to be a lot higher than the average rock and roller. This came to be known as ‘progressive rock’, which, I might add, bears no resemblance to progressive political movements, or the Vermont Progressive Party, for that matter.
Now lemme state that prog rock, as I’ll call it, ain’t for everybody. It has a certain geek factor, zero hip factor, I don’t know too many women who dig it, and you almost certainly can’t dance to it. It’s not about the usual sex/drugs/good times thing, either, although personally I can’t think of a more stimulating sound when under the influence of certain psychoactive substances. Most of the time I don’t know what the lyrics are about, I just treat them as another instrument in the mix. It usually requires a bit of an attention span to get into. It is very European sounding, drawing from the rich musical traditions from the continent (although there were a few half-asssed American attempts, such as Kansas and Styx, nothing worth mentioning or listening to, IMHO). It’s almost never funky (as in funk, that other favorite and completely opposite genre of mine).
As the genre went on, it kind of overreached in the pretentiousness factor, where one started to get the impression it was becoming more about showing off musical chops and less about making interesting music, kinda similar to what happened with the whole jazz fusion genre at the same time. It’s safe to say that prog rock was definitely one of those things that the whole punk movement reacted to, and as the 70’s came to a close, most prog rock bands started sounding quite ridiculous, and either folded, or streamlined and toned down their sounds. In the 80’s many of them simply sold out (such as Yes and Genesis), and had huge commercial successes playing really shitty music.
One band that didn’t make it into the 80’s that you may not know about is Gentle Giant. They have remained more of a cult following, having never achieved the commercial successes of Yes or Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. And having a listen to thier music will show you why.
Gentle Giant was formed in 1970 by the Schulman brothers, Derek, Ray and Phil. From the Wikipedia Gentle Giant entry:
Gentle Giant was a British band considered to be one of the most original progressive rock bands of the 1970s. Inspired by old philosophers, personal events, and the works of François Rabelais, the group’s stated purpose was to “expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular.”
Having a listen to Gentle Giant is quite the experience. Amongst the band members, they could play over 40 instruments (quite well, too), from the typical rock instrumentation as well as classical and jazz instrumentation. The earlier albums were often waaaay out there, not the easiest thing to hum along to. Sometimes you’d hear odd vocal counterpoint, as in the tune ‘Knots’ (see first video below), other times medieval minstrel music mixed in with Hammond organ, is in ‘On Reflection’, from the ‘Free Hand’ album.
GG cashed it in before the 80’s got into full swing. After some great albums in the early and mid- 70’s, they made the abysmal ‘Giant For a Day’ album in 1978, a plodding mishmosh of a blatant attempt to go mainstream. Didn’t work. They had a return to form of sorts, with the ‘Interview’ album, and ended with the toned-down but ok album “Civilian”. Thankfully GG spared us the crappy love ballads, arena rock and bad haircuts that Yes delivered to us in the 80’s. I don’t think GG would have had that in them. Too much integrity, perhaps.
So, where to start with GG? I would start with the accessible-yet-interesting ‘Free Hand’. If you dig that, follow it up with ‘Octopus’, ‘In a Glass House’, and then ‘The Power and the Glory’. If you make it that far, you’ll probably figure out what else to listen to or avoid after that. Avoid ‘Giant for a Day’ at all costs.
So, let me now draw your attention to the follwing GG vids below. The first is the unusual ‘Knots’ from the Octopus album. The second is ‘The Advent of Panurge’, also from Octopus. The third, probably the most accessible of the three, is ‘Funny Ways’, from thier 1970 self-titled debut. Like I said, this stuff ain’t for everyone, but try to check out all three just to get an idea. Enjoy.
Posts
