Gentle Giant

小简介
在古典、摇滚和民谣的世界里，有一片地带是属于Gentle Giant的。Gentle Giant以其中世纪骑士般的勇敢精神试图把游吟诗人的回旋曲和R&B融合在一起，多种打击乐的运用、对话式的吟唱、重型摇滚乐的结构让 Gentle Giant的音乐象一锅大杂烩汤。在乐队的六重奏中最重要的是Kenny Minnear的键盘和Gary Green的吉他，当然Gentle Giant听起来和其他前卫摇滚乐队如此不同的主要原因是Derek Schulman那非正常人类的唱法，太冷漠了以至于听起来象音乐学校里的视唱练耳或者格利高里圣咏。Gentle Giant在70年代有点晕头转向，不知该走哪条路了。那时正是King Crimson、Yes等前卫摇滚乐队的颠峰时期，迷幻摇滚穷途末路，而布鲁斯摇滚正向硬摇滚转型，摇滚江湖上风云莫测……不过Gentle Giant还有他们的秘密武器，就是不拘泥于风格而通过音乐直接捕获听者的心灵，万变不离其中，只要音乐是发自内心的就一定会感动听众。另外现场演出也是 Gentle Giant吸引听众的法宝之一，他们的表演积极向上，而且还充满幽默！当然最重要的是他们之间团结、如兄弟般的感觉，这种感觉如此真实的原因就是：乐队里真的有三个亲兄弟！
by Bruce Eder
Formed at the dawn of the progressive rock era in 1969, Gentle Giant seemed poised for a time in the mid-70s to break out of its cult-band status, but somehow never made the jump. Somewhat closer in spirit to Yes and King Crimson than to Emerson, Lake & Palmer or the Nice, their unique sound melded hard rock and classical music, with an almost medieval approach to singing.
Gentle Giant was born out of the ruins of Simon Dupree & the Big Sound, an R&B-based outfit led by brothers Derek, Ray, and Phil Shulman. After switching to psychedelia in 1967 and scoring their only major hit that year with Kites, as Gentle Giant the group abandoned both the R&B and psychedelic orientations of the previous band; Derek sang and played guitar and bass, Ray sang and played bass and violin, and Phil handled the saxophone, augmented by Kerry Minnear on keyboards, and Gary Green on guitar. Their original lineup also featured Martin Smith on drums, but they went through several percussionists in the first three years of their existence.
In 1970, Gentle Giant signed to the Vertigo label, and their self-titled first album — a shockingly daring work mixing hard rock and full electric playing with classical elements — came out later that year. Their second effort, 1971s Acquiring the Taste, was slightly more accessible and their third, Three Friends, featuring Malcolm Mortimore on drums, was their first record to get released in the U.S. (on Columbia). Their fourth album, 1973s Octopus, looked poised for a breakthrough; it seemed as though they had found the mix of hard rock and classical sounds that the critics and the public could accept, and they finally had a permanent drummer in the person of John Weathers, an ex-member of the Graham Bond Organisation.
In 1974, however, Gentle Giant began coming apart. Phil Shulman decided to give up music after the Octopus tour, and became a teacher. Then the group recorded the album In a Glass House, their hardest-rocking record yet, which Columbias U.S. arm rejected as too uncommercial. The two-year gap in their American release schedule hurt their momentum, and they werent heard from again until the Capitol release of The Power and the Glory in 1975.
Gentle Giant released Free Hand, their most commercial album, in 1976, but then followed it up with the jarringly experimental Interview. After the 1978 double-album Playing the Fool, the group went through a seeming change of heart and issued a series of albums aimed at mainstream audiences, even approaching disco, but by the end of the 1970s their popularity was in free-fall. Minnear, who had been playing an ever-more central role since the mid-70s, had already left the group when Gentle Giant called it quits in 1980. Ray Shulman later became a producer and had considerable success in England working with bands like the Sundays and the Sugarcubes, while Derek Shulman became a New York-based record company executive.