The best work of Gentle Giant.

[Rick and Roll]

Very good points about three friends......Ray's bass playing is absolutely brilliant. And a great point about the drumming!

I must take issue about the feeding the family line though - Derek, with Simon Dupree (pre-Giant) really wasn't doing Giant-type stuff. And given his vocational pursuits post-Giant, I don't think he was ever comfortable blazing a trail for Prog. Giant was the perfect storm of diverse elements blending to make fantastic records. Gary can rock out (actually he can play anything), Kerry and Ray drove the sound, and Phil had his own way....sometimes it was even basic rock. I mean look at The House The Street The Room....hard rock mixed in with the Kerry pastoral sections. I Lost My Head, they could rock.

My favorite Giant tune is In A Glass House. It's got everything rolled up into one song.

[Andyyyy]

You're so right about Ray- because he doesn't play like a typical bass player, I forget to give him credit. He is as superb musician who happened to play the bass (among other instruments).

I meant to say that they felt (at that time) they needed to become more commercial to survive financially (after the fact it turned out to be the kiss of death). The Simon Dupree thing may have been an attempt at hitting the rock scene, I dunno. But the Shulmans and Kerry have classical training, which is where they got many of their musical ideas. According to the Italian interview on the DVD, they were trying to be "different". And when they did that, they were successful.