Gentle Giant. . Whatever happened (merged several similar threads)

I had not seen the band before that. However, I had been a fan for at least several years before that. For whatever reasons, they did not seem to play that much around the Southern California area over the years as that would have been the distance I would have traveled to see them. When I saw them, they seemed very "up" for that performance. Perhaps they knew ahead of time that this might be their last tour of the area. Who knows?

 

This is interesting:

https://www.spincds.com/coming-soon/three-piece-suite-cd-blu-ray

Blu ray isn't for me, but a standard CD would do.

 

I have a friend who just stumbled across a copy of Gentle Giant "Playing The Fool" test pressing, it's a double like the album but he seems to think the material seems different and perhaps an acetate, has anyone else happened across this piece? Or if this just happens to be a on a GG fan's list I can put you in contact he is mostly just looking to trade for something rather than sell it. He is active on reddit and vinyl collective but not a member here

 

Anyone know if there is a planned 5.1 release for In A Glass House? This remains my favorite GG release. Of all the recent 5.1 releases by all the prog groups, the GG albums remain my most played.

 

Can't find a general Gentle Giant Q&A thread, so I figured I'd ask on this one. Based on the opinions and statements I've seen on this forum, this band sounds like they are awesome! I really like the transitional psychedelic-to-prog era of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s and it seems that this band sort of fits into that period. I've heard a few songs on the Sirius Deep Tracks channel and the music sounds pretty good. Any suggestions on where I should start with this band?

 

Acquiring The Taste was the album that made me a fan. Based on what you mention, it might work for you as well.

 

Since you like the transitional aspect of that era, I would start with Gentle Giant's first album and move forward chronologically. I love every album up through Interview (including the live album, Playing The Fool).

 

That's Phil, Derek, Tony Ransley (drummer with Simon Dupree & The Big Sound), Kerry and Ray.

Gentle Giant prove they’re still a huge draw as they’re inducted in to the Guildhall’s Wall of Fame

 

The middle stretch of Octopus/Glass House/Power & the Glory/Free Hand is the most praised. GG steadily evolved/devolved from very eccentric to very mainstream, so starting right in the middle with P&G will probably have the best results.

 

Thanks for the responses, dudes! Sadly have NOT been able to find any Gentle Giant in town, at all. I am making do with what is online starting with the first and it's... well it's like nothing I've ever heard, that's for sure. Wow!

 

Just harking back to the sixties pre GG for a mo....

Derek got into trouble when supposedly off sick from school he was seen in the crowd at Portsmouth Guildhall attending The Beatles 1963 concert !

later they formed Simon Dupree & The Big Sound (probably got the 'Dupree' from Champion Jack Dupree) and produced by Dave Paramor recorded at Abbey Road in 1966-69 for EMI's Parlophone alongside The Fab Four

Derek was 'Simon Dupree' on lead vocals (plus sax on records), Ray on lead guitar & bass guitar, Phil on brass instruments (notably trumpet) and extra percussion...plus Peter O'Flaherty on bass guitar, Eric Hine on keyboards, and in the picture with them above Tony Ransley on drums & percussion - they were indeed a 'Big Sounding' group


many Sgt Pepper instruments were laying around at Abbey Road then hence the mellotron on 'Kites', the brass instruments and harmonium on 'Like The Sun Like The Fire', and the band moved from their initial very 'blue eyed soul' scope towards a more unusual type of imaginative pop not unlike what the second incarnation of Manfred Mann with Mike d'Abo and Klaus Voorman were making then - they even covered Mike Hugg's 'Each And Every Day' (later on 'Mighty Garvey' in 1968) as 'Daytime Night time' for a Parlophone single

first single was a cover of 'I See The Light' in 1966 featuring Phil on brass and Derek 'Simon Dupree' on strident lead vocal plus a driving electric organ by Eric Hine

'Reservations' was another single and closed that 1967 Parlophone album; 'Without Reservations' issued just after 'Sgt Pepper' (PMC /PCS 7027) as Parlophone PMC 7029 / PCS 7029 - it's bottom right hand corner on EMI's pink album innersleeves rear side of 1967 showing the group members standing and sitting in front of boarded up derelict houses - probably in Portsmouth !

on the famous 'yellow/black' Parlophone label it's pretty scare in both mono and stereo now and kicks off with a driving medley of 'Sixty Minutes Of Your Love' / 'A Lot of Love' and features tracks such as 'Love', 'What is Soul ?', a mock calypso 'party' stance on 'Amen', plus 'Who Cares', 'Teacher Teacher' singles; 'I See The Light', 'Daytime' and 'Reservations' (each of which had featured non-album 'B' sides)

an unusual notable track was; 'There's A Little Picture Playhouse' - which points towards GG with it's interesting tempo changes, Derek's distinctive vocal, and the vibes intro that sounds very 'GG'-ish and clearly looks beyond just 'blue eyed soul'

'Without Reservations' featured glowing sleeve notes by noted Disc Jockey and Beatles friend Alan 'Fluff' Freeman ('not arf !') and it charted in the UK album chart reaching no.39

not bad for a new band yet to really score a big hit

Derek famously loathed that big hit when it came 'Kites' (UK no.9 in 1967) feeling it just wasn't their style being a pop/psychedelia number with a Japanese actress Jaqui Chan speaking a passage (very 1967) ...but their style then began to change

'For Whom The Bell Tolls' made no.43 in 1968 and again saw a more adventurous pop style

'Part of My Past' and 'Thinking About My Life' (with Phil bashing kettle drums) were unsuccessful but notable later singles

they then recorded the infamous 'We Are The Moles' part 1 and 2 which was of course credited as The Moles - and some thought it was The Beatles ! but no it was Simon Dupree and co...

'Broken Hearted Pirates' (with Dudley Moore on piano) was at best a jokey record and flopped in 1969

Elton John (then 'Reg Dwight') stood in for an unwell Eric Hine on a UK tour

final Simon Dupree single on Parlophone was 'The Eagle Flies Tonight' which again failed to chart

EMI wanted them as pop group they then saw themselves as a white soul band - however the 'Shulman-King originals penned then were actually moving away from their soul influence and were far more imaginative - as were the arrangements too - than either straight pop or soul music idioms ...as the 'Giant' within them began to grow....

after a few TV spots in UK and across Europe they split up in 1969...and the three Shulman brothers then reconsidered their position - the rest is GG history

a 2CD set 'Part of My Past' plus the earlier compilation release titled 'Amen' later re-titled on CD as; 'Kites' on See For Miles records are worth grabbing if you see them ...as is that 1967 Parlophone album in mono or stereo - for a taste of where GG was musically conceived...

It's notable that in 1970 they initially retained the core six piece group set up when moving from Simon Dupree to GG - Derek on lead vocals plus Sax, Phil on brass instruments & percussion, duly recruiting Kerry Minnear on keyboards as Eric Hine had been...and in turn Martin Smith/Malcolm Mortimore/John Weathers on drums as Tony Ransley had earlier been - with Ray then switching from guitar to bass/violin with Gary Green coming in on guitar

- thus instrumentally the basic group set up of GG was just as 'Simon Dupree' before them had been...clearly the sixties outfit were the foundation upon which the brothers constructed GG for the seventies

Even back in the sixties from 1966 onwards the unusual arrangements, use of brass instruments, mellotron, woodwinds, a piping electric organ, emphatic percussion etc on the records of Simon Dupree & The Big Sound hinted they had the talent, imagination, and scope to move way beyond just pop and soul music...and were perfectly capable of progressing even further.......

.........in Giant strides !

 

I've read online fans of Yes and KC espousing those bands' virtues
while slamming GG with complaints of,

"They play too many notes."

Lawls.

 

yeah like Lennon-McCartney wrote too many hits...!

 

If they think Gentle Giant play too many notes, they must really hate Frank Zappa!!

 

Does anyone know why the drummer made those odd facial expressions while playing?
My guess is some sort of heath disorder.
Nonetheless, his playing of the drums was stellar.

 

To Billo: great post; thanks for sharing all these details I ignored re. Simon Dupree & The Big Sound! Was ''Simon Dupree'' tacitely known from the public as a stage name? A bit like Alice Cooper at some point, where everybody knew it wasn't really Vincent Furnier's real name? Or were his brothers known likewise as Ray and Phil Dupree?

...Just ''Derek on lead vocals plus Sax, Phil on brass instruments & percussion'' should read Phil on brass and sax, as he actually did most of the sax work. Many people think sax is brass, where in fact it's in the woodwind family.

 

Hey, so great to see Phil!

 

Just wait till you hear, as pbuzby suggested, their second album Acquiring the Taste!

 

Derek played both alto and soprano saxes after Phil departed on 'In A Glass House', and later tenor sax on 'Power And The Glory', plus sax on the first track on 'Free Hand', and a few tracks on 'Interview' etc during both WWA and Chrysalis eras

one problem was that Phil (like Mike Pinder in The Moody Blues in 1978) wanted to become a proper family man and actually be there for his wife and children, plus (again along with figures like Mike Pinder) was feeling pretty shattered indeed 'burnt out' from all the touring - Phil was about ten years older than his brothers - and for these guys who were going from the early to mid sixties by the mid to late seventies they must have been pretty drained from such a demanding lifestyle

to us music lovers these departures (Stuart 'Woolly' Wolstenhome from Barclay James Harvest was another) which came in the seventies were very disappointing as each classic band were duly affected notably re the direction of the music thereafter - BUT we do need to think of the guys themselves and their state of mind and health plus entitlement to a decent lifestyle etc...

GG lost something unique when Phil left but were certainly strong enough to go on and have a fine era with both WWA and Chrysalis tho' I think once they began narrowing down the instrumentation, reduced the adventure in their musical scope, and gave most lead vocals to just Derek (with the odd often shorter song sung by Kerry) and attempted to become more 'mainstream' that GG began losing what made them so special

Really they started to become somewhat 'fish out of water' by abandoning the more complex style - on the first side at least of 'The Missing Piece' with it's shorter songs (tho' I really like 'I'm Turning Around' which deserved to be a hit single for them !)...however side two with longer songs was more like them on that turning point album, then 'Giant For A Day' and 'Civilian' were supposedly more easily accessable but many GG fans found them rather disappointing compared to how fascinating the first eight more adventurous studio albums and the live double set had been

a lot of rock acts - Jethro Tull, Moodies, Yes, BJH, Chicago, etc all 'narrowed' their music to more radio friendly easily accessable music in the late 70's / 80's which a lot of older fans found hard to take...but it kept them selling records and going

for GG that 'more commercial' road was difficult as the brothers knew from their 'Simon Dupree' sixties days...hence probably why they called it a day in 1980

 

Great analysis. I actually like The Missing Piece quite a bit -even more than Interview (sacrilege!). I never warmed up to Giant For A Day and Civilian.

 

While I'm not a diehard fan of the group, I love the album The Power and the Glory, sounds like a mix of classic Genesis and Jethro Tull all rolled into one great album!

 

You may enjoy Free Hand too, as it's similar to Power And The Glory.

 

It is a stunning album!

 

THX!