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The absolute Kings of multi-instrumentalists. I saw them live twice and I'm still astonished how quickly they changed instruments without missing a note. Incredible and far too unknown for their skill level. Musician's musicians. Most people do not realize that music is applied mathematics, but Gentle Giant is applied trigonometry and calculus.
Well said and on point.
Almost everyone knows the formula E=MC2, but few people know how to apply it or even just how to explain it.
That's What My Big Brother Bob Describe Them!!
They only Had 1 Electronic LP&was awesome.This is the Main Event of Thier Greatness!
I was so lucky to play with Gary Green (guitars) and Kerry Minnear (keyboards) on a GG convention. It was just amazing because they were so kind and friendly (I'm not a very good musician…). Not only are these people incredible talented but they are so nice and simple…
What an incredible experience, you are very fortunate!
@@dbc7772011 Yes, this admit totally, as I'm not a very good musician ! :-D And I think of Ray Shulman, GG's bass player and composer, who passed away a week ago.
I am joining this channel to encourage the growht of the Gentle Giant apprciation society! Such a great band!
RIP Ray Shulman
What an amazing band Love me some Gentle Giant
Kerry Minnear on keyboards was classically trained. The Shulmans were R & B artists. Gary and John (guitar and drums) were blues musicians. Dark horse Ray Shulman (bass, violin and kitchen sink) was the glue that linked Kerry's classical music with the others' more modern stuff. They all shared an enthusiasm for funk and Zappa, and I think this is evident in the results. I love Crim and Yes, but of all my 70's heroes, I still play GG the most. It's cool that you dig their music too, John.
Astonishing musicians, criminally underrated band and collection of albums.
The guy at the keyboards (that also occasionally played cello and sang) was the band's main composer Kerry Minnear, PhD in composition from London Music Academy. They certainly teach their students well at the London Music Academy... Kerry was indeed a genius of composition. Practically all this vocal and almost all instrumental extravaganza on the stage was created by that humble thin guy beyond the keyboards.
Can you imagine the rehearsals? Insane. Intimidating. England produced phenomenal musicians. PhD in compositions......well, no wonder. They were WAY before the times.....still.
Here is Kerry Minnear in short: th-cam.com/video/qvvEdrcyuOY/w-d-xo.html
Kerry is a true genius. Song after song, intro after intro, more incredible each time.
The first time I was ever exposed to the music of Gentle Giant was when they opened for Yes in Denver back in the 70s. We were told 'I think they're some kind of heavy metal band.' LOL
My memory is hazy since that was almost half a century ago, but they opened either with this song or with Proclamation. All I remember was that by the time the initial shock from the incredible A Capella intro subsided, they were on to the electric parts and now they were a rock band. I was blown away.
Gentle Giant is unique and amazing, and they are still my Gold Standard of live bands. Simply incredible.
:)
Yes and Gentle Giant?! I’m jealous, what a night!
Insane amounts of talent in this band.
The also practiced a little, even on days when they didn't want to?
R.I.P. Ray Shulman. Violin/Bass. My favorite band. Astonishing.
Around 74-75 Zappa was asked if there is any new music he did find interesting. The answer was Gentle Giant.
No one...ever...will sound like GG. The absolute best band I ever saw in concert and the greatest prog band of all time. Man, this brings tears to my eyes seeing them again.
I'm Brazilian my first contact with GG music was listening to this song... 30 years ago.. extremely hard to put in words how great is It.
One thing I noticed just now: When they do the second run of the fugue, it's not that each of them sings their own line and double's it on their instruments. No, each sings one line, and at the same time double the line of one of the other singers!
not exactly ... John plays along with Derek, but Ray and Kerry play and sing the same line. I don't think anyone double's Gary's vocal line.
The studio album including this song, “Free Hand,” recently got the Steven Wilson treatment, and sounds even more glorious. Worth a full album listen for sure. GG were a phenomenal band.
I was fortunate to have seen Gentle Giant in concert. They opened the show. What performers! I’d never heard of them before. I paid money to see the main act. I was so impressed (blown away) by Gentle Giant that (try as I might) I can’t remember who the headliners were.
Godspeed Ray Shulman you'll be greatly missed !!! 😢🎸🎻🎺🎶
Ray Schulman, What a bass player!
My ultimate hero and favorite of al time-easily the most obscenely criminally underrated of all time.
If you're delving into Gentle Giant, it's important to understand that Live GG and Studio GG are practically two different projects -- both extraordinary. I really recommend comparing this to the studio version before moving on to other tracks.
If you're digging this, you might swerve over into some Van der Graaf Generator and Henry Cow (not to be confused with the apparently unrelated composer Henry Cowell -- also worth tracking down).
EDIT: Ah, I see you've taken in some studio work already.
Found them in the early 70’s and have seen them live many times. Extremely talented multi-instrumentalists and always were amazing to see live!
Most of the music was written by keyboardist Kerry Minnear who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London with a major in musical composition. Derek the singer wrote a lot of the lyrics. The bassist and singer are brothers. Their older brother was also in the band at the beginning but left after their fourth album 'Octopus'
Rest In Peace Ray Shulman. Incredible music
gentle Giant were criminally overlooked. A phenomenal band who created some of the best music in the era of Classical Progressive music. It is so good to see young people like yourself appreciating this great music.
I saw them one time in Asbury Park in a storm - water dripped from the ceiling - There were like 100 people (if that) there - we all moved up to the stage. It was absolutely frickin amazing - so personal. They remain BY FAR the best Band I have ever seen - and I've seen plenty - of all groups, in my time Lifelong fan
I saw them in concert in the 70's....they were spectacular.....this really brings back memories....so talented...I recall seeing them switch instruments during a song...mind blowing talent and entertainers!!!!
When you know the Freehand album like the back of your hand; this live performance is even more endearing...it's note for note from studio...Such a talented Band...
Possibly the most underrated band ever.
Not possibly, definitely the most underrated band ever!
On Reflection contains, to my knowledge, the only fugue in rock music (most likely composed by Kerry Minnear, the keyboardist). GG were the only band who could take you from chamber ensemble to full-on rock band via a cappella vocals. Astonishing whether live or in the studio, they were criminally underrated. Thanks for helping to keep their memory alive.
Definitely composed by Kerry. He came out of the Royal Academy of Music. He and Ray were the only ones who could read music, IIRC. Gary definitely only played by ear - amazing considering the complexity of many of the parts.
You should check out suit fugue by Kevin Gilbert. Def inspired by GG.
Kevin Gilbert himself is criminally overlooked as well.
@@loudcat9364 Thanks for the pointer - that's absolutely astonishing. You're right, I need to investigate this music!
I have never heard a more complex and tasteful contrapuntal composition. This is a heavyweight piece of material. It's a little sad they got little attention during their 10 year band tenure selling 2-3 million albums. Today, they are growing more in popularity as their music is finally getting the attention it so richly deserves from a much younger albeit sophisticated audience. GG is my favorite band. They went places no one else could possibly venture musically except Zappa.
A great example of GG's contrapuntal arrangements, a puzzle of interwoven melodies and shifting time signatures ('Cogs in cogs' is another great example of this unique style of their compositions that you should check out.) In concert the band would create fresh arrangements of their album tracks, even constructing and mixing medleys our of varies songs and playing their parts on completely different instruments to those on their studio tracks. An uncompromising band of perfectionists and multi- instrumentalists. Only keyboard player (celloist/vocalist/xylophonist/tenor recorderist/percussionist etc. ) Kerry Minnear was classically trained, the other members had a background in R&B, Blues, and Rock. They were just so way ahead of their time, and were a fantastic live band, but although developing a small but totally loyal fan following, they never broke through into the mainstream and it's only now, with the advent of reaction channels such as yours, that they are finally getting much wider exposure. GG were together for a decade, but finally stopped in 1980.
This album, Free Hand, as Gentle Giant explains it, was in reference to their recent separation from their record company. It does have similarities to other types of breakups. One of my favorite bands of all time. Kerry Minnear, the keyboardist, was a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in composition and I forget what else. The original 3 Shulman brothers were raised in a very musical family, the father was a band leader. Ray recently passed away RIP. INCREDIBLE BAND! One of the most creative, funky, talented groups ever.
Got to see them live in the late 70s. Changed my whole approach to music.
I always loved this song. The '70s were a great time.
You hit the nail on the head with your sense that they were educated in music. Still my favorite band since 1975.
Wow... you listened to Yo' Mama and On Redlection back to back... your brain must be melted.
John Weathers takes a backseat to no other drummer. This whole group is insanely talented and creative. Quirky does not begin to describe these guys. The time changes alone are extraplanetary.
The way they go from the fusion brilliance of Free Hand to this wonderful chamber music, especially John Weathers going from pounding his drums into submission to gently and delicately playing xylophone makes it inconceivable that he's not the eponymous Gentle Giant of the band, but he's the third drummer.
Love the stunned look on your face when they broke into singing. That was my initial reaction when I saw this concert a few years ago. Some of the most brilliant musicians I've ever witnessed.
Very rarely so much talent have been together in a band!
Gentle Giant opened a lot of the Jethro Tul concerts , can you imagine that’s performance! In the 70s
Keep exploring your Classic Prog journey !!! 👍🎶🎼✌
Deep fan here. Love how GG weaves medieval, madrigal & renaissance melodies into crazy time signatures yet they come off fantastic.
Only Ray Shulman can sing acapella while playing violin. RIP Ray.
Fun fact: the first two times through the fugue parts, the 4 voices are a cappella. The third time through, instruments are doubling the voices but the person singing one voice is playing a different voice on his instrument. Incredibly difficult. These guys were so great.
Check out the whole sight and sound concert.
The most anazing thing is how they manage to pull this off with such ease.
Thank You John!!!Such an Unknown Band but So Bloody Good!Only know about 10 folk who Dig Them Here in Maine!!Our Thanks!!
such an amazing piece of music. And the original, studio recording is almost a different piece of music (the live version flips the A and B sections, and the part that was completely instrumental has lyrics). Glad you enjoyed it.
Incredible musicianship !
The lyrics are quite sad. It's a common theme among the great musicians, who seem to only have time to record, tour, write, rinse and repeat. The dedication to their art is like great classical players/composers. Nice job John!
can you imagine sending back them in time to the court of Henry the Eight?
they probably would have been burned at the stakes for sorcery! lol
the guitar player plays flute, the bass player plays violin, the keyboardist plays Contrabass, the drummer plays melodic percussion.
soon, cats will be sleeping with dogs. : )
Counterpoint, it's called counterpoint.
J.S. Bach.
Amazingly creative song.....
It's worth also listening to the masteful studio version, with all the lyrics and the other vocals, by Minner, that are replaced with recorders in the live version.
Several decades ahead of their time.
Lyrics revealing the romanticism that a man may feel while the woman could care less. Check out Think Of Me With Kindness. Another song of a man holding on.
Seen them live 3 times, seen them play On Reflection twice. Kerry Minnear wrote this song and was a college drad. in composition. Try "so sincere" and "excerpts from octopus" mind blowing music. I have seen all the top prog bands of the 70s most were great. But seeing GG live is like no other they took it to another level. They say they are not prog and for the most part they are right.
The thing that always blows me away about this performance is how very different it is from the studio album version. How can they keep it all straight!?! Stunning.
Great Band !
You know you don't have to fade your videos of these bands, they don't block you for that !!
Just play them for we all can see it 👍
Bad news.
Bass player Ray Shulman passed away last week.
R.I.P.
This is 70-80s English Awesome Bands that Blew The English Beat but never really made it USA.I LOVE THEM!!&THANKS!
The lyrics you read were from the studio version, which has a whole extra sung section. It's worth listening to that version too. It's just as good, but very different.
Yeah, from that era there is Gentle Giant, then comes nothing and after that nothing and then comes the rest in no particular order depending on the mood of the day. One of a kind once in a lifetime sort of band.
Start in the 60’s with Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, Kites.
If you check a few videos you will see that they also switch instruments between the members
Gentle giant could suddenly stop in the middle of a song and all changed instruments and continued! All around baby!
GG were unparalleled by ANY band when it comes to musical inventiveness and complexity.
All were classically-trained multi-instrumentalists.
We will not see their like again.
R.I.P Ray Schulman.
Gentle Giant is the greatest. Free Hand is a great album. I saw your "Proclamation" reaction. Really fun. Do a reaction to "Knots" from the "Octopus" album, if you want to do another amazing performance by them. "Octopus" is full of great stuff. So, are "The Power and the Glory" (which "Proclamation" is from), "In a Glass House" and "Interview". Some of the stuff on "The Missing Piece" is great, too (perhaps especially if you get to know the band, I think). The three early albums, too ("Gentle Giant", "Acquiring the Taste", and "Three Friends").
Insane poly rhythms and just sheer rhythmic malarky.
Album Free hand is amazing
Dang john... your picking some good stuff ... I recommend a band named
" crack the sky " maybe a cut called Nuclear Apathy.
Now listen to the studio version!
I also preferred the album version because of Kerry’s angelic voice. Too bad they didn’t have the technology to boost his voice back then for lead vocals.
Dance music of the Tudor period.
Keep exploring the deep well of GG music. 👍
"Oy mate look at all those amplified, fancy electric instruments out there. Shouldn't we be playing rock'n roll instead?"-"But what about all that crazy shit we've inherited from Bach, Händel, Vivaldi an Mozart...?...🤔...😳...😏...😁
Without Gentle Giant, no Haken would have been possible...
And that's why I cannot listen to Haken. Their good musicians but I keep thinking they stole it from G.G.
@@bauertimeoh no... I love Haken too.
The end of a marriage or long term relationship
It's really impossible to just read the lyrics. The hockett of separate vocal lines puts together a completely separate narrative you can only experience by listening or analyzing a score.
Electric Light Orchestra got all of the accolades, but they paled in comparison.
Guess it really does matter who you know...
Are they brilliant, or are they music geniuses? I say both. No one on the face of this earth can match.
Shades of Philip GLASS!
these guys leave Glass On The Beach with his head buried under sand & decomposing kelp
@@jwc3o2 Would that beach be at Itaipu, perchance? ;-)>
Not as talented as Glass in Glass' specific range of expression. but early Rush [especially] wrote pieces where their Zepp, The Who, Yes and multiple other influences were glaringly evident. If I "heard" Glass' influence (with a very light tough) in "Jacob's Ladder" starting at 4 minutes 50, I might have been slightly over-medicated...so maybe that's why I hear it here.
...and sometimes there.
GG is/was the greatest most epic legendary genius criminally underated band ever.
Where they are learning all of this? Open question!!
hey you, millenial. this kind of music is not for you... forget about it and listen to the music of your own era... YOU CAN´T UNDERSTAND THIS MUSIC, YOU GET PAID FOR LISTENING TO IT. YOU DON´T REALLY LIKE IT.
DISLIKE