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You take the acclaim, don't you think it's a game. | You take the acclaim, don't you think it's a game. | ||
== | == Liner notes == | ||
[[ | <cite> These liner notes are reproduced with the kind permission of the Terrapin Trucking (UK) Ltd. Transcribed by Seong-Woo Kim. </cite> | ||
= Free Hand - Liner Notes from the Truck CD = | |||
Originally released in September 1975, [../free.hand.html Free Hand] was Gentle Giant's seventh album, and their first for the Chrysalis label. Their move to Chrysalis followed a brief and less than satisfactory spell with Phonogram subsidiary World Wide Artists. Although their eighteen months with WWA had seen the release of two excellent albums, [../in.a.glass.house.html In A Glass House](1973) and [../the.power.and.the.glory.html The Power And The Glory](1974), both of which had done much to enhance the band's reputation, the relationship had quickly soured. It was with a profound sense of relief, and at considerable expense, that Giant finally extricated themselves from their contract and moved on. | |||
Giant had supported Chrysalis stalwarts Jethro Tull on a European tour some years earlier, and had been impressed both by Tull's music and by label boss Terry Ellis. "We really liked them as a band", keyboardist Kerry Minnear later revealed, "and basically they were about the only real friends we made on the road. It was through this relationship, and getting to know Terry, that the eventual move to Chrysalis came about." Once released by WWA, Giant approached Ellis, sensing a sympathetic ear. A deal was quickly finalised. | |||
Inevitably, these unsettling events made their mark on Giant's music. Throughout their later years, Gentle Giant albums featured many songs which dealt with all aspects of life as rock musicians, and not surprisingly [../free.hand.html Free Hand] has more than most. The title track is a defiant parting shot at WWA, and an expression of the optimism which swept through the band once their problems were resolved. [../free.hand.html#MOBILE Mobile] looks at the uncertainty and insecurity of life on the road, whilst [../free.hand.html#JUST THE SAME Just The Same] concerns itself with the pretentiousness of the music business, and the frustrations of being regarded as something other than you are simply because you become famous. Even [../free.hand.html#ON REFLECTION On Reflection], an apparently personal account of a failed relationship, could be re-interpreted in the light of the group's recent difficulties. | |||
Putting their troubles behind them, Gentle Giant embarked on extensive tours of North America and Europe, plus a short tour of the UK, to promote the release. Within six months they had recorded a follow-up, [../interview.html Interview], which was again the focus of hectic promotional activity. Looking back on this period early in 1977, vocalist Derek Shulman remarked "Terry made us work, and the whole buzz of playing live came back. We started talking again, enthusing as we had done before [../octopus.html Octopus], (their fourth album, recorded late in 1972). The live recordings made during the band's 1976 European tour, released early the following year on the double album [../playing.the.fool.html Playing The Fool], bear witness to Giant's new-found inspiration. | |||
[../free.hand.html Free Hand] was to become their most successful effort; in America it peaked at No. 48, their best placing in a run of chart albums which stretched from [../octopus.html Octopus] in 1973 to [../the.missing.piece.html The Missing Piece] in 1977. In Britain, where their following remained fiercely loyal but relatively small, [../free.hand.html Free Hand] made a fleeting appearance in the lower reaches of some album charts, the only one of their twelve albums to do so. Their new label's publicity drive, some favourable airplay, and the attention of one or two rock journalists(most notably Phil Sutcliffe of 'Sounds') all helped, but in retrospect the album's success was well-deserved on its own merits. It was, perhaps, more commercial than previous releases, but still had the complexity and polish fans had come to expect. | |||
The incredible range of Gentle Giant's music is evident throughout. From the intricate vocal fretwork of [../free.hand.html#ON REFLECTION On Reflection] and the delicate medieval flavour of [../free.hand.html#TALYBONT Talybont] to the Celtic-tinged rock of [../free.hand.html#TIME TO KILL Time To Kill] and the jagged rhythms of [../free.hand.html#JUST THE SAME Just The Same], all those diverse elements which made the band so strikingly original are skillfully blended and perfectly executed. | |||
Another opportunity to compare the new material with earlier efforts came with the release of [../giant.steps.html Giant Steps - The First Five Years], a Phonogram retrospective issued late in 1975. Drawing from all six previous albums, this collection demonstrated that these elements had all been present in Giant's music from the outset, but never before had they been brought together so convincingly. | |||
[../free.hand.html Free Hand] is the only one of Gentle Giant's Chrysalis-period studio albums which has previously been available on CD, and then only in the States. Now, along with the other four - [../interview.html Interview], [../the.missing.piece.html The Missing Piece], [../giant.for.a.day.html Giant For A Day] and [../civilian.html Civilian] - it is being given a long-overdue British CD release. The band's music, with its tonal range and painstaking attention to sound quality, was made for CD. [../free.hand.html Free Hand] sounds as fresh today as it did on first release, a fitting tribute to the compositional skills and expertise of five dedicated musicians. | |||
- [[Alan Kinsman]]. Many thanks for their assistance to [[Kerry Minnear]] and [[Ray Shulman]]. | |||
== Reviews and Ratings == | == Reviews and Ratings == | ||