Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between and The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members were multi-instrumentalists. Although not commercially successful, they did achieve a cult following. The band stated that its aim was to "expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular", [2] although this stance was to alter significantly with time. Gentle Giant's music was considered complex even by progressive rock standards, drawing on a broad swath of music including folk , soul , jazz , and classical music. Unlike many of their progressive rock contemporaries, their "classical" influences ranged beyond the Romantic and incorporated medieval , baroque , and modernist chamber music elements. In they were recognised with the lifetime achievement award at the Progressive Music Awards.

Mark Sieml
Featured channels
Gentle Giant released 11 studio albums and one live album during their career from to Gentle Giant's popularity rose again in the s and beyond, as these later releases and some new compilations and tribute albums attest. Each of these contains unreleased material from Gentle Giant's lifetime. These recordings are legal in some countries, but not in others. See my bootleg policy. These albums contain Gentle Giant compositions played by other artists, or music based on Gentle Giant samples. All Gentle Giant albums. Categories : Discographies Gentle Giant Music. Page actions Page Discussion More Tools.
Featured channels
Gentle Giant's self-titled first album was an impressive and unique debut that combined rock, blues, classical, and 's British soul. Although the recording quality is sub-par, the music transcends the medium and presents the listener with a variety of musical styles. A Tall Tale , from the original liner notes, is a story about the band and the giant. Beautiful high-resolution scan of the full fold-out cover with the crease removed, thanks to Michael Geiger. Lead vocals: Phil verses , Derek "My ways are strange".
Octopus is the fourth album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant , released in It was the band's last album with founding member Phil Shulman and the first with new drummer John Weathers , who would remain with the band until their dissolution in Octopus remains a highly regarded example of the progressive rock genre and is generally considered to represent the start of the band's peak period. Octopus was allegedly named by Phil Shulman's wife Roberta [ citation needed ] as a pun on "octo opus" eight musical works, reflecting the album's eight tracks. We started with the idea of writing a song about each member of the band. Having a concept in mind was a good starting point for writing. I don't know why, but despite the impact of The Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia , almost overnight concept albums were suddenly perceived as rather naff and pretentious". The album maintained Gentle Giant's trademark of broad and challenging integrated styles. One of the highlights was the intricate madrigal-styled vocal workout "Knots". Instead, those three tracks were upmixed to 5.