Template:Cool stuff/album/Free Hand

• During the verses of Just The Same, the bass and drums are playing in 6/4 while the piano, voice, and guitar are playing in 7/4. (Thanks to Don Tillman.)
• The first section of On Reflection is a four-part vocal fugue. The last section is the same fugue played on instruments.
• In On Reflection, the last entrance of the band is accompanied by a springy wavering of the pitch (most noticeable in the electric guitar), which is likely the sound of the 24 track tape machine being dropped into "Vari Speed" mode, and the entire end section is transposed (sped up really) by a half step. Both the Studer and the Ampex tape machines, which were popular at the time of Free Hand, make this distinctive noise when you drop them into varispeed. (Thanks to Kevin Gilbert.)
• The bass part at the very beginning of Free Hand is repeated, in a different rhythm and tempo, when the "waltz" section begins (3:55 into the song). (Thanks to Daniel Cadieux.) In fact, the whole waltz section contains various themes from earlier in the song. (Thanks to Remmert Velthuis.)
• The opening melody of On Reflection and the middle ballad section have almost identical melodies. Compare "In my way did I use you, do you think I really abused you" to "I remember the good things how can you forget." (Thanks to Alex Temple.)
• The opening melody of Talybont is a heavily disguised reworking of the vocal melody of Just The Same. (Thanks to Kevin Ward.)
• Talybont is a small hamlet in Wales near to where John Weathers lived. (Thanks to Jeff Oliver and Derek Shulman.)
• Talybont was recorded as the theme song for a movie about Robin Hood. The movie was never released, but it reportedly had "quite well known players in the movie business." If the movie had gone ahead, Gentle Giant would have recorded more material for it. (Thanks to Derek Shulman.) Actually, some of that music did get recorded and appears on Under Construction.
• The electronic sounds at the beginning of Time To Kill are from the old videogame, "Pong." And if you listen closely, you can hear one of the guys whisper "go" just before the loud buzz which indicates a goal scored. (Thanks to George Seaman.)
• The middle of His Last Voyage is a three-part vocal canon. (Thanks to Mike Beauvois.)
• The bass riff in the introduction of His Last Voyage fits over the very classic rock chord progression: I, bVII, bVI, V. (Thanks to Greg Hajic.)