Musicians: Octopus lineup: 1. Kerry Minnear – keyboard, vibraphone,
percussion, cello, moog, vocals. 2. Gary Green – only guitar very
disappointing. 3. Ray Shulman – bass, violin,
guitar, keyboard, percussion, woodwind,
vocals. 4. John Weathers – just the drums,
well what do you expect from a drummer,
brain surgery 5. Derek Shulman – vocals, sax,
flute, alto sax, recorder, soprano sax,
lots of sax. 6. Phil Shulman – vocals, sax naturally,
trumpet, mellophone, keyboards, acoustic
guitar, mandolin, and a Gentle Giant.
Tracks Listing:
CD. One
1. The Advent Of Panurge
2. Funny Ways
3. Peel The Paint
4. Acquiring The Taste
5. Cogs In Cogs
6. The House, The Street, The Room
7. The Boys In The Band
8. Schooldays
9. Raconteur Troubadour
10. Wreck
11. Nothing At All
12. Why Not?
13. Playing The Game
14. Mister Class And Quality?
15. Three Friends
CD. Two
1. Proclamation
2. A Cry For Everyone
3. Isn’t It Quiet And Cold?
4. Plain Truth
5. Knots
6. Alucard
7. Aspirations
8. Pantagruel’s Nativity
9. River
10. The Face
11. The Moon Is Down
12. Edge Of Twilight
13. No God’s A Man
14. So Sincere
15. Think Of Me Kindness
16. Valedictory
Gentle Giant were one of
the first bands to manage to successfully
merge medieval madrigals with snippets
of classics into some of the most unique
sounding progressive rock. They created
a style of almost traditional sounding
early English music that seemed to hop
around, taking in all their influences,
from verse to chorus. Gentle Giant have
been labeled as one of the most complex
groups of any age.
“In Britain it’s not been low profile,
it’s been no profile”, that’s how Derek
Shulman once summarized the career of
Gentle Giant, one of progressive rock's
best kept secrets. There is no other band
quite like Gentle Giant, held in the highest
esteem by their fanatical fans, but meaning
little to all else.
What accounts for this strange inconsistency?
When the Shulman brothers, Derek, Ray
and Phil, decided to reinvent themselves
after an unsatisfying two hit career as
“Simon Dupree & The Big Sound” (their
biggest success coming with 1967; U.K.
top ten hit “Kites”) as the nucleus of
“Gentle Giant”, whilst adding the superb
Gary Green on lead guitar and the classically
trained keyboard player Kerry Minnear
(drummers came and went during the first
four albums).
Vowing to go their own way, they signed
with the prestigious vertigo label, home
of many great progressive rock outfits
of the era. They decided to concentrate
on compositional quality, rather than
use clichés and flashiness to please the
masses. As a result they created a strange
and wonderful music that may not appeal
immediately to the ear, but like fine
wine, sits in the soul and slowly ferments
into something pleasureful. This turned
away potential fans who did not have the
time to listen closely.
“Edge of Twilight” is a double C.D collection
concentrating mainly on their first four
C.D’s of uneasy listening which basically
invited the listener to “Take us or leave
us“ something that was certain to get
up the rock presses collective nose.
That they remained an underground cult
band for most of their eleven year career
from 1969 – 1980 was due to the antipathy
of the music press which steadfastly refused
to grant them column inches despite their
burgeoning reputation at fan level.
The secret of Gentle Giant longevity is
in the variety, depth and beauty of the
music. Their influences spanned rock,
jazz, blues, renaissance, 20th century
classic music, and the just plain outright
bizarre. Between them they played over
30 instruments, even in their live shows,
adding strings, brass, woodwinds harpsichord,
and homemade percussion to the usual rock
line up. All band members sang (which
is finely shown on the song “Knots”, where
their voices is all they use forsaking
all instruments), with lead vocals mainly
shared between Derek for the hard rock
songs, Kerry for the ballads, and Phil
for the in-betweenies.
Of the four albums this compilation brings
together “Gentle Giant” was a strong debut
album, tinged with elements of blues and
1960’s British soul. The music is strikingly
original ranging from rock ensemble to
string quintet. “Acquiring The Taste”
was perhaps Gentle Giants most experimental
album. The liner notes state that the
bands goal was to “expand the frontiers
of contemporary popular music”, which
sounds a little pretentious now in 2001.
“Three Friends” encompasses many styles
as it follows the lives of three school
friends, and was Gentle Giants first concept
album. The title track, in my opinion,
represents their most beautiful work.
“Octopus” is a harder rocking album (with
the addition of hard bashing drummer John
Weathers). The many stand-out tracks on
this album make it a favorite of most
fans.
“Edge Of Twilight” gives you over two
and a half hours of Gentle Giants unique
sound, so is excellent value, especially
with the excellent 16 page booklet that
comes with it.
