THREE FRIENDS

Gentle Giant's masterpiece has to be Three Friends. I know all Giant's fans have a different favourite, that is the beauty of their work, but i find Three Friends the most poetic and musical of all the albums. I must say that apart from the last two albums, Civilian and Giant for a Day, their work is top notch. Any of their albums from the seventies can be examples of extreme well crafted prog rock. Their musicianship is always excellent. Kerry Minnear on keyboards and percussion and composition is an absolute genius with a beautiful voice also. Ray Shulman is an sadly underrated bass player, also great composer. Funky as hell, lyrical when it needs to be, powerful when the giant kicks in. Phil Shulman and Derek Shulman provide the beautiful layering of all the voices and horn arrangements. A beautiful blending of saxes and trumpets particularly on "Working All Day" with the use of a baritone sax. Gary Green provides the guitars, alternating between the calm and precision on "Schooldays" or the rawness of the electric blues on the "Peel the Paint" drum and guitar jam. Malcolm Maltimore is the drummer and I'm delighted to say that his playing is almost perfection. The unheard breaks of drums on "Prologue" the power on "Peel the Paint" and the clockwork precision on "Mister Class And Quality". All musicians seem to be perfectly aware of the composition process and with playing their instruments, an amazing array of violins, cello, saxes, trumpets, vibraphone, xylophone, piano. Etc. One can say the story is a bit lame, yes, three friends in school are drawn apart, and we get to know the place they occupy in the society after some years. It is a pretty straightforward plot but the way it develops can say something also about the way we live our lives. First we Work All Day (we're young), then we Peel the Paint (we decide our way, we struggle, we face the contradictions of life) and then we become, hopefully a mister class and quality where the world looks at us to "give and take the orders". I know, i am also a bit lame myself. The music in the album is almost perfect. If you don't know this record, you're the only one to blame. It is a masterpiece and in my opinion is one of the most beautiful records of the 70's prog rock. 1972. What a year that was. I was 3.