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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Jul 31, 2006, 12:41
Gentle Giant 'Acquiring The Taste'
Jul 30, 2006, 19:29
I'd certainly put a hand up for the first few Gentle Giant records. Actually all of them up to Free Hand. They were much maligned as a codpiece and sackbutt act along the lines of say Gryphon but they could actually deliver a powerful noise. Gorgeous harmonies (more Tallis than Temptations of course) and they had that core r&b and jazz thing that VdGG have / had. A lot of Miles in there too on occasion but absorbed in the same way as say Patto.

There was always a suspicion with Yes (who I much admire for a bunch of things too obscure to bother with here) that they were incapable of rocking with Bruford and Howe on board and that was the heavy price paid for the technical gifts they brought to the act. Peter Banks only wanted to rock and he got sent home with his Rickenbacker between his legs and was gently air brushed from Yes history. Tony Kaye wanted to be in Traffic so he had to go. Part of the appeal of 'Yours Is No Disgrace' (their one and only straight down the line riff Rock song) is that they make such hard work of it - only Kaye could have got a gig in Uriah Heap AND with Spencer Davies. Alan White knew how to Rock when he arrived but they soon knocked that out of him. They actually seriously swing on Yessongs but by Topographic Oceans White seems to be a mere paradiddle and ratamucue away from a nervous breakdown at all times.

Meanwhile Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford were often to be seen playing while sitting down leaving the whole of the Genesis stage to PG's costume party. Four men on stools and a fifth dressed as a flower. They could not Rock either. Not sitting down. You got the impression that they were all rather worried about being caught downwind of the audience.

Gentle Giant were more like a British version of The Band. Not ashamed of their essential Englishness and a gang of musical grave robbers as skilled as Robertson, Manuel and Danko. In touch with the core Rock ideal but not afraid of a detour that flew in the face of everyone else.

They piss all over horrible horrible nonsense like Greenslade and kick much of the Canterbury twee set to the kerb. I suspect they avoided stardom on account of being, by and large, pug ugly. No Hammill, Lake, Anderson or Gabriel boyish charm to bring a little glamour to the clamour. GG looked like sailors on shore leave sobering up after a night of drunken cross dressing. They were I believe fucking huge in Italy and er ..... Belgium.

Second album is probably the place to start. Avoid everything after 1977 and deffo seek out 'His Last Voyage' on Free Hand because it is just so damned bizarre. Emma Kirkby and Bobby Hutcherson join Steeleye Span.

Oh and one of them produced the early Sugarcubes sides. So no fool he.

Of course you have to start out Prog curious and not mind a bit of Blackadderesque tom foolery. If the very idea makes you snort into your pint of ULU snakebite and has you dribbling it out your nose and down your Joy Division t shirt then this is all best avoided. Trust me.
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