The Power and the Glory: Difference between revisions

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== Release Information ==
== Liner notes ==


[[CDs currently in print]]
<cite> These liner notes are reproduced with the kind permission of Terrapin Records (UK) Ltd. Transcribed by Bill Noland. </cite>
[[POWER AND THE GLORY Sound quality]] - read me before you buy this album on CD.
 
Formed in 1969, Gentle Giant were hitting something of a musical peak as the seventies moved toward their mid-way point. Ever-presents Ray Shulman (bass), Derek Shulman (vocals, sax), Kerry Minnear (keyboards) and Gary Green (guitar) had been joined by newest recruit John Weathers (drums) to form the definitive line-up. All could - and did - swap these and other, more exotic, instruments, both in the studio and on stage, making them one of Britain's most proficient and versatile outfits. After four albums on that doyen of progressive labels Vertigo, they switched to World Wide Artists for two releases of which this is the second.
 
'We tried to get a more spontaneous feel by doing it all on first and second takes,' revealed Derek of this 1974 release, which featured a relatively straightforward (for them) selection of instrumentation nearer to the rock mainstream.
 
As with all Giant albums up to this point, the majority of tracks were brought into the studio by the writing partnership of Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, and Kerry Minnear, with maybe a couple of numbers added as sessions progressed.
 
Two of the songs on this album, 'Proclamation' and 'So Sincere', were revisited on the live 'Playing the Fool', and comparisons with the originals here are interesting. 'So Sincere', particularly, was transformed into a thundering ten minute plus percussive extravaganza. 'Cogs in Cogs' also made it to the live repertoire, but not so successfully.
 
As with most Giant releases, 'The Power and the Glory' had an underlying theme, the lyrics dealing with politics and the Machiavellian attitude of those who dabble in it. The original closing track, 'Valedictory', is a reprise of the opener, 'Proclamation' - a device often used by Giant to emphasize their albums' concept format. Its heavier treatment harks back to the Giant of two or three years previously. The overall vocal arrangements and performances are certainly the band's best up to this point, with Derek Shulman outstanding.
 
A welcome bonus on this release is the title track 'The Power and the Glory' which, in typically perverse Giant style, didn't make it to the album. There was a good reason, however, it hadn't yet been written! It's only ever appeared as a single(backed by an edited version of 'Playing the Game') and on the compilation 'Giant Steps'; savour it now, as with the rest of the album, on CD for the first time.
 
'The Power and the Glory' was Giant's first Top 50 album in the States, where Capitol had snapped them up following the huge import sales of 'In a Glass House' (now available on CD as RFG CD 1001). They'd gone over contractless, showing considerable self-belief, and employed a tour manager whose contacts had brought them five nights at the Whiskey in Los Angeles. 'It was like a fairy tale,' Derek recalled. 'We had them queueing round the block. That gave us some more dates headlining around the country and "The Power and the Glory" went into the Top 50.'
 
The band then received a telegram from their management reading along the lines of 'Well done, lads, we knew you could do it!' But 'Free Hand', the following album and their first for new label Chrysalis, documents the band's dissatisfaction with those who controlled their destiny. 'It was a comment on getting rid of the management,' reveals drummer John Weathers, adding: 'It cost us a lot of money to pay the old manager off!' Giant toured the States twice in January and October 1975, and that country remains the territory where they are most highly regarded today.
 
The album might also have charted in Britain, but for thousands of copies apparently being leaked prior to official release, plus the aforementioned management problems. 'We made a big mistake,' acknowledged Weathers. 'We had a tour set up, but because of the management thing we pulled the tour at the last moment. We stiffed then in England: we were just about to break.'
 
Derek, now a US record company mogul, looked back on 'The Power and the Glory' two years later as 'too laid back, not quite the album we wanted', but confessed 'I still enjoy all our old albums'. And he should. After the 1976 success of the band's live LP 'Playing the Fool' (at the time of writing the only Chrysalis-era product available on CD), they started to take the songs on the road before recording them.
 
They'd contacted Chrysalis boss Terry Ellis, who'd been much impressed when they'd supported Jethro Tull in Europe and the States in the early-Seventies' Three Friends era. He signed them up, and they produced six more albums for the label before splitting in 1980. Capitol, who'd put "The Power and the Glory' out in America, were to remain their label there until the end.
 
The songs were getting simpler in an attempt to grab a wider audience - though, as John Weathers admits, 'the died-in -the wool fans seemed to like if as intricate as possible.' It was a gamble that failed to pay off here as Genesis - the band so often racked alongside them in the shops - got the vote. 'It was going to be them or us - we were pulling the same size crowds in America and Britain, the same people were buying our records as theirs, and they cracked it because the went commercial about two years earlier.'
 
Of the five Giant members featured here, only Weathers - who replaced Dire Straits-bound Terry Williams on the drum stool for Man - is still on the road. Yet 'The Power and the Glory', a more rounded and consistent album than its predecessor if a degree or two less intricate, stands proudly in its own right as a rewarding piece of progressive rock from one of the genre's master groups.
 
''- Michael Heatley. Many thanks for their assistance to John Weathers and Alan Kinsman.''


== Reviews and Ratings ==
== Reviews and Ratings ==

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