Giant virgin acquires the taste

[rael74]

After about 25 years of hearing the band’s name, but never actually hearing them, over the last 6 months I have been getting to know Gentle Giant. I thought I would make my thoughts on them to be my first posting on this forum.

To put this in context, my own musical collection is vast Amon Duul sits nicely next to Abba, Bartok next to the Beach Boys, The Commodores next to Comus etc… you get the picture.

My growing exposure to Giant however is seeing me increasing view them as one of, if not the greatest bands ever. Despite not knowing a chorus if it jumped up and bite them in the codpiece, their musicianship and song-construction skills are at times surpass their peers like Yes and Crimson.

My favourite albums at the moment seem to be Free Hand and Three Friends. I have just watched (for the umpteenth time now) the German TV show video and it is just perplexing the sheer volume of talented musicianship on the stage.

Here is assessment of the band thus far:

Imagine a song where band members playing five different songs simultaneously (songs all based around medieval cord sequences), then imagine and albums worth of this sort of song on tape. Cut the tape up and scatter the thousands of pieces back together – there you have part of Giant album. Moreover, they can play it live, note for note. Each band member playing every instrument and looking incredibly sexy at the same time.

I’m not sure how things would have turned out if I’d have picked up Gentle Giant instead of The Lamb 30 years ago (thus starting my on this incredible path we are all on) but I’m glad I’ve finally discovered them now.

[Gerhard]

Wow, I totally misread that thread title, nice double entendre...

Congrats on your discovery, certainly a lot to love across their catalog.

[Gazoinks]

Join the club! I've always liked Octopus, but I've only recently started really delving into the rest of their stuff. Definitely lots of good stuff there. I love that their stuff is really complex, but that it's also generally fairly concise (for prog at least), with all those overlapping parts. Their albums are all so short!

Great live band too, must have been a lot of fun to see them back in their heyday.

[trurl]

Glass House and 3 Friends are the be all/end all for me...

[progeezer]

Great live band too, must have been a lot of fun to see them back in their heyday.

Trust me (seen them 4 times), Three Friends, with Gary Green & Malcolm Mortimore, is an incredible live band as well, and certainly do the GG catalogue proud.

[Sputnik]

My growing exposure to Giant however is seeing me increasing view them as one of, if not the greatest bands ever. Despite not knowing a chorus if it jumped up and bite them in the codpiece, their musicianship and song-construction skills are at times surpass their peers like Yes and Crimson.

Depending on how you "define" Prog, I think a good case could be made for this. I still really love the classic period Yes, ELP, KC, etc. But GG scratch a certain itch for "in-depth/complex" Prog, without going super overboard or losing a basically "song-oriented" approach.

My favourite albums at the moment seem to be Free Hand and Three Friends.

Three Friends is one of my most played GG discs. My overall favorites are PatG and Freehand, but maybe I'm a little burnt out on them, so I often find myself reaching for Three Friends when I'm in a GG mood. But I love everything from AtT through Interview, and like at least some material on all their albums (though I'm not a huge fan of GfaD).

Enjoy your discovery of this band. It was my discovery of GG back in about 1990 that got me back into Prog; or what I call Prog, anyway.

Bill

[WytchCrypt]

After all these years (saw GG open for Yes in '76) the 2 albums I often come back to are Acquiring the Taste & Three Friends

[presdoug]

My favorites that I consider most worth it are Freehand, and The Missing Piece.

[eporter66]

Freehand & Three Friends are my favorites, but I really enjoy most of the bands output. Just the other day I played Interview and then Civilian. GG took some time to grow on me, I found Interview at a record collector sale at my college (back in 1989), and recognized the name from being a fan of most of the other prog bands I was into. I am sure glad I bought that album!! Enjoy discovering all their music, it is so great when you are getting into a band, and you can let all this new music wash over you!

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

Octopus is a sentimental favorite. Saw them three times around the time of Power and the Glory and Free Hand- These two got a lot of play.

Never listened to Three Friends that much.

[chalkpie]

One word - In a Glass House.

[Phlakaton]

One word - In a Glass House.

+1

[The Czar]

Good timing, you should get the Power & the Glory 5.1 remix/remastered version that came out last week

[Trane]

One word - In a Glass House.

Definitely my preferred one as well

Octopus, ATT, Intervie' are next

Never really could get into 3F, and I really don't care that much for TP&TG and FH

[3RDegree_Robert]

Welcome aboard!

[Vic2012]

Rank 'em:

In A Glass House
Acquiring The Taste
Octopus
Freehand
The P&TG
Interview
Three Friends
GG

...and I think that's all I have by them. They were a hell of a discovery for me in 1999/2000, around there. Never heard of them in the 70s. GG and VDGG are "the deep end" enough for me.

[Trane]

They were a hell of a discovery for me in 1999/2000, around there. Never heard of them in the 70s. GG and VDGG are "the deep end" enough for me.

oh, I had heard of both bands in the 70's... I had Pawn Hearts and Octopus (US varsion) , but I could ne impregnate theses albums for about 15-20 years... But unlike many other albums I didn't like , I didn't get rid of them, because I knew there was something more to it... Somehow, I knew it was something I didn't "get", not something I didn't like.

Finally happened in the mid-90's for both.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I always attributed my adherence to more firmly advanced progressive rock music to the fact that I discovered GG very early on in my tenure as fan of the "genre". I think I may have started listening to GG during the same period that I got seriously into Zappa/Mothers, Beefheart, The Residents etc., thus experiencing and interpreting their artistic virtues through a somewhat different angle than the usual focus on the "prog complexity" of their work. Rather I found their music puzzlingly witty if a bit calculated (if not contrived) in its eccentricity, melodically idiosyncratic and marbled, with arrangements and general executions to kill for.

Out of the "fairly big" 70s UK progressive acts (i.e. to the right field of VdGG, Gryphon, Hatfield, Henry Cow etc, all of which I love), GG remains the one I keep returning to.

[Zeuhlmate]

I moved to a new town i 72, and a new classmate had most of GG's records which I had never heard about before.
I borrowed them all starting with Three Friends, and its one of the bands I keep coming back to often. My youngest son (13) loves them too.

Favorites:
Interview
Power & the Glory
In a Glasshouse
Three Friends
Aquiring the taste

Less favorite but almost as great:
Octopus
Free hand
Missing Piece
Same
Playing the fool

Never listen to:
Giant for a day
Civilian

[Plasmatopia]

but I could ne impregnate theses albums for about 15-20 years...

Just curious...did they ever bear children?

[moecurlythanu]

Just curious...did they ever bear children?

Sure they did. The kids were the Knights who say ne.

[chalkpie]

Just curious...did they ever bear children?

Yeah, they were short little people totally bald with beards....even the girls.

[zombywoof]

I’m not sure how things would have turned out if I’d have picked up Gentle Giant instead of The Lamb 30 years ago (thus starting my on this incredible path we are all on) but I’m glad I’ve finally discovered them now.

I heard both at the same time and Gentle Giant made much more of an impression. Welcome aboard!

[timehat]

Imagine a song where band members playing five different songs simultaneously...

I hate to be pedantic (just kidding, I love it) but while this description may give you a bit of an idea of the variegation of their robust counterpoint, it does them a disservice by implying a lack of cohesion among the parts when the compositions often display imitation and development. Gentle Giant is one of my favorite prog bands because they both exhibit a higher level of compositional craft than most of their peers while also generally not trying to prove their legitimacy qua classical music in the form of "epics", which in the cast of most rock bands tend to be meandering patchworks of unrelated material.

[rael74]

I hate to be pedantic (just kidding, I love it) but while this description may give you a bit of an idea of the variegation of their robust counterpoint, it does them a disservice by implying a lack of cohesion among the parts when the compositions often display imitation and development. Gentle Giant is one of my favorite prog bands because they both exhibit a higher level of compositional craft than most of their peers while also generally not trying to prove their legitimacy qua classical music in the form of "epics", which in the cast of most rock bands tend to be meandering patchworks of unrelated material.

I was taking the proverbial mate,
Remember Spinal Tap could do it to what it loved.
Good comeback though.