View source for The Power and the Glory

{{otheruses|article=The Power and the Glory}}
{{album
| year=1974
| inFirstTwelveAlbums=6
| isOfficial=yes
| isLive=no
| isCompilation=no
| image=Tpatg.gif
}}

== About the Album ==

A concept album about power and corruption. (Rumors that the album is actually about Watergate are reportedly untrue.)

Some CD releases have a bonus track, [[The Power and the Glory (song)|The Power And The Glory]]. [[Ray Shulman]], in Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press (April/May 1976), tells the story:

:"WWA said, 'Now boys, you've got to be commercial, you've gotta make singles. Now you run away and write us a single.' So we did three atrocious numbers. This song's the worst--'You've got it lads!'--and we went into the studio and handed over the tapes when we came out. They put it out, we yelled at them, and they gave it back--took it off the market."

The song was the A-side of the single, and it was indeed widely available in the USA from import dealers. (Thanks to Biffy the Elephant Shrew for this info.)

=== Musicians ===

[[Gary Green]] - guitars

[[Kerry Minnear]] - keyboards, cello, vocals

[[Derek Shulman]] - vocals, saxes

[[Ray Shulman]] - bass, violin, vocals

[[John Weathers]] - drums, percussion, vocals

Other liner notes:
 
   All tracks licensed from Polygram Special Products
 
   Special thanks to engineer: [[Gary Martin]]
   All titles composed by: [[Shulman, Shulman and Minnear]]
   Published by [[Alucard Music]], Ltd.
   Album produced and arranged by Gentle Giant for [[Alucard Productions]], Ltd.
   Recorded at [[Advision Studios]], London.
   December '73 thru January '74.
   Studio time, Hotel reservations and other niceties
   our secretary Joanna and friend Glen.
   Cover design produced by Cream.
   CD Package: [[Phil Smee]] at Waldo's Design
   Co-ordination: David G. Hemmings
   Album directed by Pat Meehan Snr.

== Track List ==

# [[Proclamation]] (6:48)
# [[So Sincere]] (3:52)
# [[Aspirations]] (4:41)
# [[Playing the Game]] (6:46)
# [[Cogs in Cogs]] (3:08)
# [[No God's a Man]] (4:28)
# [[The Face]] (4:12)
# [[Valedictory]] (3:21)
# [[The Power And The Glory]] (2:53) (bonus track on some CD releases)

== Lyrics ==

{{lyrics permission}}

''- submitted by Marshall Wood''

=== Proclamation ===

{{otheruses|article=Proclamation}}
Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 1.
 You may not have all you want or you need
 all that you have has been due to my hand,
 it can change, it can stay the same,
 who can say, who can make their claim.
 
 2.
 The situation we are in at this time
 neither a good one, nor is it so unblest
 it can change, it can stay the same,
 I can say, I can make my claim.
 Hail ........ Hail ........ Hail.
 
 3.
 Unity's strength and all must be as one,
 confidence in you hope will reflect in me
 I think everyone not as my nation for
 you are my people and there must be no change.
 It can change, it can stay the same
 I can say, I can make my claim.
 Hail ........ Hail ........ Hail.
 Hail to Power and to Glory's way.
 Hail to Power and to Glory's way.
 Hail to Power and to Glory's way.
 Hail to Power and to Glory's way.
 Day by day.
 
 (repeat verses 1 &amp; 3)

=== So Sincere ===

Lead vocals: [[Kerry]], plus [[Derek]] on choruses
 
 Hear, he'll do it all for you, you will see it,
 wise and knowing what to do, what to be
 and every word is ........
 
 Lies, he only tells the truth, for he means it,
 means, not anything he says, eyes unseen,
 but everything is ........
 
 So sincere, so sincere, so sincere, so sin.
 
 Yes, that is to say no, understanding
 wrong, he makes his promise right, with your hand
 you'll never know why.
 
 So sincere, so sincere, so sincere, so sincere.
 
 So, sincere his thoughts so full, always empty
 Good, or maybe things are bad, so sincere,
 and every word is ........
 
 So sincere, so ........

=== Aspirations ===

Lead vocals: [[Kerry]]
 
 As the dust settles, see our dreams,
           all coming true
 it depends on you,
 If our times, they are troubled times,
           show us the way,
 tell us what to do.
 
 As our faith, maybe aimless blind,
           hope our ideals and
 our thoughts are yours
 And believing the promises,
           please make your claims
 really so sincere.
 
 Be our guide, our light and our way of life
 and let the world see the way we lead our way.
 Hopes, dreams, hopes dreaming that all our
           sorrows gone.
 
 In your hands, holding everyone's
           future and fate
 It is all in you,
 Make us strong build our unity,
           all men as one
 it is all in you.
 
 Be our guide, our light and our way of life
 and let the world see the way we lead our way.
 Hopes, dreams, dreaming that all our sorrows
           gone forever.

=== Playing the Game ===

Lead vocals: [[Derek]] (verses), [[Kerry]] ("My thoughts never spoken...")

 As I hold the key to the back door
 of the world I feel my
 Hand touching bounds never had before.
 I can view the power of my position and my
 eyes can see more than anyone in any place,
 I'll play the game and never ever lose.
 
 I'm the king in fighting competition
 and the other pieces
 are there for my art and my tactics now.
 All my games are won before they're played for
 I have planned that no opposition can stage a fight
 I'll play the game and never ever lose.
 
 My thoughts never spoken only the
 visions inside my head the truth never broken
 within my silent words left unsaid.
 
 I will steer the helm of all the nation
 as the captain
 take my rewards for all the good I'm doing now,
 and no words that I'm the knave will alter my
 philosophy for if any are heard, the games started
 again I'll never ever lose.

=== Cogs in Cogs ===

Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 Empty promise broken the path has
 not been paved any way.
 Cogs in cogs the machine
 is being left where it lay.
 Anger and the rising murmur breaks
 the old circle, the wheel slowly turns around.
 
 All words saying nothing
 the air is sour with discontent.
 No returns have been tasted
 or are they ever sent.
 Slowly burning is the fire, rising murmur breaks
 the old circle, the wheel slowly turns around.
 
 Cogs in cogs wheel turning
 around,
 The circle tuns around,
 the changing voices calling
 circle turns around,
 the changing voices.
 Slow burning is the fire rising murmur breaks
 the old circle, the wheel slowly turns around.
 
 Cogs in cogs in wheels
 in circles slowly turn around.

=== No God's a Man ===

Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 Now the words and claims are seen as always
 the way they'll always be, way they'll always be.
 Truth is halfway true, the man is only a man
 who fails to know,
 the people shouting for him have turned now
 telling him to go.
 
 Powers that have place, esteemed positions
 telling him to cry, telling him to cry,
 Soon another song is sung,
 in turn for existing blame and then
 Apologise, conditions turn,
 then it happens all again.
 
 After all the things are said, no God's a man,
 no God's a man,
 and yet after all the things are said,
 no God's a man, must happen all again.
 
 After all the things are said, no God's a man,
 no God's a man,
 and yet after all the things are said,
 no God's a man, and then again.

=== The Face ===

Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 Sing your song, words that have to continue.
 Tell a tale, seal the screen that is in you.
 Make your peace, face to face that is after.
 Reasons plain, tears of pain are not laughter.
 Cast off the mould, buy all you've sold,
 confidence lost, pay for the cost.
 
 Choose your way, realising our mission,
 figures lay, pulling strings for position.
 Take your bows, hear the people are calling.
 Play the game, Take the blame as you're falling.
 Time to confess, clean up the mess,
 stand in the white, step in the light.
 
 Use the time, show the face that is sorry,
 for the day, questions leading to worry.
 Hide your mask, show the face that is sorry.
 Time to question, answering all their worry.
 Time to confess, clean up the mess,
 cast off the mould, buy all you've sold.

=== Valedictory ===

Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 And though the hard times,
 are really due to me, it is still in me,
 to wave all this unrest.
 Things must stay,
 there must be no change,
 anyway, time to rearrange.
 
 You must believe, that there's
 been no betrayal all that I've done,
 I've really done for you.
 Things must stay,
 there must be no change,
 anyway, time to rearrange.
 
 Hail, to power and to glory's way.
 Hail, to power and to glory's way.
 
 Must be a reason why plans
 have turned around not only in me,
 must also be in you.
 Things must stay,
 there must be no change,
 anyway, time to rearrange.
 
                      hail ...

=== The Power And The Glory (bonus track) ===
{{otheruses|article=The Power and the Glory}}
:''Transcribed by [[Dan Barrett]] (mistakes and all). This track was originally released as a single and appeared on the vinyl LP [[Giant Steps - The First Five Years]]. Recorded 26 August 1974.''

Lead vocals: [[Derek]]
 
 Run, run, the shotgun has got you in its range.
 Turn, turn away, when it's time to make a change.
 Look where you're going. try not to lose your way.
 What good is knowing you have to go away?
 Go, you make go, never know, never know.
 Time's run away, so have to go, have to go.
 Put back the ace black, you never made it good.
 Go while you can go.  Go while the going's good.
 
 ''CHORUS:''
  And the power and the glory is over, so I'll take it.
  The power and the glory is over, so I'll make it.
  The power and the glory is over, and I'll break it.
  The power and the glory is over....
 
 Face up to reason, you know it's up to you.
 Do what you can do, all that you have to do.
 Move over now, and I'll try to take your place.
 Time to remember that I have won the race.
 Go, you make go, never know, never know.
 Time's run away, so have to go, have to go.
 Pick up the pieces, to you I'll have to stand.
 Break up the power, the glory's at the end.
 
 ''(CHORUS)''
 
 Run, run, the shotgun has got you in its range.
 Turn, turn away, when it's time to make a change.
 Look where you're going. try not to lose your way.
 What good is knowing you have to go away?
 
 ''(ad lib)''

== Liner notes ==

<cite> These liner notes are reproduced with the kind permission of Terrapin Records (UK) Ltd. Transcribed by Bill Noland. </cite>

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.''

{{cool stuff}}

{{scores for album}}

== CD releases ==

{{CD releases disclaimer}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Country
! Label Information
|-
| USA
| [[Capitol]], CDP 7 91849 2
|-
| UK
| [[Terrapin Trucking]]/[[Road Goes On Forever]], RFG CD 1002<br /> (Later relabeled as TRUCKCD 002)
|-
| USA
| [[One Way Records]], S21-18468
|-
| USA
| [[DRT Entertainment]]
|}

=== Defects ===

The bonus track on the Terrapin disc is mixed slightly louder than the rest of the album.

Several people have reported that the Capitol disc has a track index error: the first two notes of "So Sincere" are part of track 1 instead of track 2. My Capitol CD does not have this defect, so I suspect that there was a bad production run that was eventually corrected.

== Reviews ==

* [[The Power and the Glory review by Dan Barrett]]
* [[The Power and the Glory review by Jason Rubin]]
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/music/gentle.htm#Glory George Starostin review]

== See also ==

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_and_the_Glory_(album) Wikipedia entry]

[[Category:The Power and the Glory|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums with Derek Shulman|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums with Ray Shulman|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums with Kerry Minnear|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums with Gary Green|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums with John Weathers|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:DRT Entertainment|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Alucard Music|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Terrapin Trucking|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Capitol|Power and the Glory]]
[[Category:Albums remixed by Steven Wilson]]