Prologue

Hey, all!  My name is David, and this week I’ll be hijacking, er, “curating” OWOB with a feature on the band Gentle Giant.

For the curious and impatient, here’s some raw stats on the group: English progressive rock, active 1970-1980, 6 members (became 5), 3 brothers (became 2), 11 studio albums, 0 hits, and a few rabid fans left to show for it.  Their lack of commercial success was due primarily to the brand of music they played - an extraordinary complex, uncompromising, thorny, and dissonant variety of prog.  Yes, it’s going to be a lovely week indeed.

But what you get in exchange, I’d argue, makes it worth it.  Namely, among other things - 

1. Mind-bending genre hopping (and genre twisting) over those 11 years, everything from hard rock to british blues to jazz to 20th century classical music all put through a fine filter of weirdness.

2. Incredible musicianship, and I really do mean incredible - all the band members sang and played multiple instruments at a professional level (guitars, keyboards, trumpet, sax, xylophone, violin, and cello to name a few) and would often switch instruments with one another mid-concert!

3. A real sense of humor, believe it or not, which was a prized rarity among 70s prog acts.  The band was dead serious (and very pretentious) about their music, but very playful within it.  The end result of all this is

4. An utterly unique sort of music within the rock canon.  No one has sounded or ever will sound like this band.  It just takes a little work (and a fair amount of tolerance) for the listener to get there.

Finally, a quick but necessary disclaimer, if only for my own sanity.  In case you’ve somehow not noticed by now, I am not a great or natural or polished writer like so many of this site’s previously featured authors.  I’m hoping to make up in enthusiasm what I lack in ability, but things might get rough out there.  I ask for your patience and understanding.

If you have any feedback, comments, or criticisms, I’d love love love for you to shoot me a line here.

On with the show!

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