Misc. Reference Kerry Minnear Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Martin Smith Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Malcolm Mortimer Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Phil Shulman Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Ray Shulman Gentle Giant - Album by album thread Free Hand anomolies (discuss over the following couple of pages) Gentle Giant - Album by album thread thanks @Dok Websites The Gentle Giant Home Page Gentle Giant's Alucard Records catalogs in The Artist Shop Sherman Hemsley - The Gentle Giant Home Page Thanks @Dok Gentle Giant thanks @Dok
The studio releases post TPATG are new to me so I don’t have much critical analysis regarding Free Hand. However, I’m feeling that the first three songs are about as strong as anything they’ve released. The rhythm section feels consistently tight and punchy. On Reflection is a contender for my favorite GG song in their repertoire, although I favor the live arrangement. They really knew how to work the vocal as an ensemble. Great stuff. The rest of the album is good too, but I think Free Hand hammers the listeners with the stringers material on side 1.
I think the band agrees with you since those were the songs from the album that they added to their live set.
So glad you are checking this stuff out mate. Although there are some stylistic changes coming, the quality of the band and the songs doesn't really drop, so much as change ... Personally I really like Missing Piece also. Giant For A Day is a hard one to fathom, but aside from the somewhat disturbing novelty, title track (which even in its weirdness to a Gentle Giant fan, still contains some really good and interesting music) most of that album is still good, it is just so weird to hear it coming from this band. I like Civilian a lot, but it is so far removed again from what the band were known for ... it is possibly one of the most radical changes in style, so quickly, that I know of from any band. The style though is very similar to a lot of bands I grew up with in the eighties, so it works for me, if I disconnect from the albums prior, so to speak. Interview, to me, is on par with anything the band had done up to this stage in terms of being somewhat oddball and creative and musically interesting. Though having said all that, I know for sure that many folks that are following this thread would disagree with me
For a long time Free Hand was my go-to Gentle Giant album. I had been told that it wiped out the preceding albums a la King Crimson's Red, but in both cases I was not totally in agreement with this. Just the Same is a fun opening track, where the R&B roots are again embraced, sprinkled with odd time signatures. Groovy sax and great vocals. On a bender a few years back, me and two friends managed to get a crowd worked up and clapping along to the guitar solo of this track. It was one of those places where you could request a song to be played, and we chose this one. Still a moment we cherish. Following this with On Reflection was always quite bold, it is an absolutely beautiful and poignant piece with some of the most impressive vocal work I have ever heard. Such a rich amount of emotion goes through you with this song. The title track balances funk and progressive rock smoothly. I don't know if Yes or Genesis could ever funk it up as much as Gentle Giant did. A pity though. Time to Kill has a mystical air about it that has long made it my favorite song off this album, brilliant keyboard songs and fantastic vocal delivery. But His Last Voyage, to me - that is the pinnacle of the beauty of Gentle Giant. The vocal melody, the gentle guitar, the subject matter - simply just a perfect song. Talybont is a jolly instrumental I must admit I haven't cared much for then and still have not warmed to that much. Mobile is an amazing closer, not too far removed from Octopus' closer River with a groovy mix of violin, keyboards, guitars, a brisk pace and fantastic vocal work. And as for Interview, for a long time I was warned off this, but the same instant I warmed to it, suddenly it was a great album, underrated in fact, and Free Hand's twin brother in some shape or other. I don't know if I agree with those sentiments, but it is close. The very loose concept gets in the way of the songs, I believe. But the opening track continues in the mold of Free Hand, with a great groove and crystalline vocals. Give It Back is my favorite song off this album, with a no-holds-barred reggae influence and a fantastic xylophone break, one of the many great quirks of the group. Design is a vocal workout that still has moments of brilliance; Another Show drags on a bit, too busy in places a la Cogs in Cogs, but still an enjoyable listen. Empty City has fallen by the wayside for me; each time I listen to it I keep thinking it's one of the group's more forgotten song, wonderful acoustics. Timing has a fun groove but seems a bit ordinary, somewhat a mixture of all the themes of the album coupled into one song. I Lost My Head is one of the group's best overall, a very dynamic track with a sensible opening with a feathery Minnear vocal and interesting string and cymbal workout. Ends with an exuberant Shulman lead vocal and a harder rocking musical surface. You forget the concept, and I sort of understand, as it is very vague and only appears in mumbled sentences as the closing of this particular track where it sounds as if it is cut off (?) near the end. The title of the album and this particular concept may have gotten in the way for this album to get a more deserving place in the Gentle Giant discography. In some points it touches close to Free Hand, but never quite makes it. It is still a very enjoyable listen and sees the group still giving it their very best, though it becomes slightly more clear which direction they were heading in.
This is taken from the booklet in the I Lost My Head Chrysalis years compilation: "It was obvious that Chrysalis would want to get something out as soon as possible to capitalise on the success of Free Hand. In'terview, which was to be released in April 1976 draws a mixed response from the band. "It was under written and under rehearsed as we'd been touring so much", Ray Shulman states. "We'd left home and were a bit scattered, and writing was not as easy". In'terview IMHO was a huge miss opportunity for the band. This was their chance for commercial success following up their best selling album and they missed big time. Not only the album did not please their fan base but it failed getting acceptance in the mainstream also. Why did the band accept to release the album if they felt it was subpar ? Hard to tell but suspect poor management. It's not as bad as what the next two albums would be, but it was certainly not as good as any album before. Not without great moments (the title track is amazing...) but there were too few of them. They will never recover from it...sadly.
Me too, but it interesting all the different takes on these things. I was just listening to the 4.1 for a refresher, i think it's magnificent. Better than i thought i thought lol
I was on the road with a friend in '76 traveling around the country. We had just been in Yosemite and headed to Arizona to visit some friends in Flagstaff. We arrived in town and I spot a record store, let's stop here first! We go in and there is Interview! I snapped it up of course and it got repeated plays on my friend's stereo for a couple of weeks that October. Always a treat to come across a new Giant album by surprise and that's how it happened most of the time back in those days. I was never one to judge and compare their albums that much. They all had their flavors. Even GfaD though there was definitely something off about that one.
My plan is to get everything through Civilian and give it all a fair shake. I’m also trying to absorb In A Glass House as it arrived in my mailbox recently. There is a lot to like all around!
There are weaker moments, more perhaps in this album than in any previous ones (barring the first IMO). Yet the stronger tracks are so exciting and challenging that they elevate it, for me, among their best, most enduring work. I got it upon release, along with many of my pals, pretty much all as a UK import. Then I saw the June 28 show at the Place des Nations in Montreal, an outdoor venue, with Gary "The Dream Weaver" Wright opening (!!)... Lovely summer night - shook John Weathers' hand, nice chap, before the show... Show was fantastic, and I don't recall any bad feelings towards the new songs they played ("Ah, that new s$%t...", etc.)... I was a bit miffed when I saw that the American/Canadian version had something missing in the Chrysalis one: an inner sleeve featuring the lyrics and a cool, weird photo of the band...
This was another GG album that I discovered long after the fact. I liked how they returned to a more quirky and complex approach to their music. My favorite songs on this album are the closing tracks on each LP side, Design and I Lost My Head. I have this album on vinyl, a UK Chrysalis pressing. Scott
The only thing I never liked about this album is its front cover... A white frame is a no-no in my book...
It's an unusual cover, blue skies, rainbow, beautiful clouds and some lyrics that could peel paint with their razor sharp cynicism. Listening today and paying closer attention to the lyrics than normal, it struck me that they were directly related to Have a cigar and Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd. It was also interesting to read that they were rushed into getting this album out, much in the same way that Floyd sang "we're just knocked out, we heard about the sell out, you've gotta get an album out, you owe it to the people, we're so happy we can hardly count" ... In both cases bands that had been around for a while and as soon as they experienced success (obviously Floyd more so than Giant) the corporate screws started tightening.
I feel, while Interview, isn’t their best album, it’s damn close. I’ve always felt Three Friends was their least appreciated album.
Just for fun, here's the evaluation of each Gentle Giant album given on two different websites (5 is the perfect score). Totally subjective. Sputnikmusic.com: GG: 3.9 ATT: 4.1 TF: 4.0 OCT.: 4.1 IAGH: 4.3 TPATG: 4.1 FH: 4.0 IN'T: 3.4 TMP: 2.6 GFAD: 2.1 CIV.: 2.8 Allmusic.com GG: 4.0 ATT: 4.5 TF: 4.5 OCT.: 4.5 IAGH: 4.5 TPATG: 2.0 ?????? FH: 4.5 IN'T: 2.5 TMP: 2.0 GFAD: 1.5 CIV.: 2.0
For me ... roughly GG: 4.2 ATT: 4.5 TF: 4.5 OCT.: 4.5 IAGH: 4.5 TPATG: 4.7 FH: 4.7 IN'T: 4.7 TMP: 4.2 GFAD: 3.5 CIV.: 4.2
For me it would look like this...for what it's worth. GG: 4.0 ATT: 4.5 TF: 4.0 OCT.: 4.5 IAGH: 5.0 TPATG: 4.5 FH: 4.5 IN'T: 3.5 TMP: 2.0 GFAD: 2.0 CIV.: 3.0
Interview This track starts with the sounds of a jam in the background and then the band sitting down to be interviewed. When the track proper starts it has, to me, and wonderful and irrepressible rhythm that just draws you into it. Lyrically it basically contains typical lines of conversation from interviews the band had obviously been doing due to the success of Free Hand. We had a fantastic little musical interlude, that probably plays the part of down time between interviewers. We also get repeated lyrics that work to show the repetitive nature of roll call interviews. The next musical breakdown is wonderful with some really good rhythmic work. Part of the thing that I love about this track is the rhythmic sections of this track are fantastic. We get another breakdown that essentially works as a form of keyboard solo for Kerry, and then breaks down again into a loose string bass sound and a Choral Sitar? ... anyhow, to me it sounds great, and I think this is a great way to start the album.
