GIANT FOR A DAY

Along with other progrock dinosaurs Gentle Giant were facing tough propositions by the late '70s, having practically been abandoned by their UK record representatives in favour of punk rock they also found themselves struggling to maintain a foothold in the North American markets where the enemy was the evil forces of disco. In order to meet their foes on these two battlefronts they were forced to streamline their music as early as 1978 on The Missing Piece album. It is interesting to note that for most of the latter part of the North American leg of their 1978 Missing Piece tour a punk band, Dr. Feelgood, opened for them and were habitually heckled by Gentle Giant's fans, so fan loyalty was still more or less intact at the time of the release of Giant For A Day, the band's 10th studio album in September '78.

Unlike other progrockers, most notably Genesis ( with whom they shared a common audience ), who willingly jumped on the commercial bandwagon , Gentle Giant refused to conform completely to these designs and continued to maintain their integrity as they had on the Missing Piece despite admissions from various members that they were searching for a new identity at the time. Every track on Giant For A Day Was unmistakenly Gentle Giant regardless of a rethinking of the music and they still could play circles around any of their contemporaries. This is more than evident on the powerful vocal harmonizations on the album opener Words From The Wise which manages to rock it out while at the same time nodding back to the clever vocalizations of early work. Again, as with the Missing Piece, there were attempts at singles ( Giant For A Day, Spooky Boogie & Words From The Wise ) which only leaned towards appeasing record company big shots but again went nowhere. The title track Giant For a Day was actually more representative of their older more complex material while guitarist Gary Green shines on a few tracks providing some of the finest Gentle Giant guitar lines on It's Only Good-bye where he sounds a bit like Focus' Jan Akkerman which also makes lyrical references to music on Freehand and Octopus while the quirky instrumental Spooky Boogie could be taken as a distant cousin of Alucard from Freehand, reluctantly refusing to let go of the past. John Weathers makes a compositional debut on the intimate Friends in addition to providing the vocal part while another Ballad which was written by bass player Ray Schulman for his future wife appears in the form of the acoustic Thank-you. The remaining tracks admittedly lack the depth loyal fans had come to expect from Gentle Giant with Rock Climber being another attempt at a rocker referencing groupies. The only track known to have been played by the band live from Giant For A Day was the title track which was played occassionally on the Civilian tour as the band took a break and did not tour to support Giant For A Day also turning down a request to play at The Montreux Jazz Festival during this period although some videos appeared on American Bandstand and Don Kirscner's Rock Concert television broadcasts during 1979

Even the staunchest of Gentle Giant fans would have to admit that after the brilliant 1976 Freehand album that Gentle Giant began to repeat itself and it was inevitable that a change was in order. It is unfortunate that the changes that occured over the Giant For A Day and The Missing Piece albums could not have taken a more natural musical transgression rather than a forced march into pseudo-commercialism, cover concept and all, despite all it's whimsical lighthearted intentions. All that said, it might be going off the deep end to suggest that Giant For A Day is as good a starting point as any to get into this musically diverse band even for the fact that it's considered by many afficiados to be their weakest effort. If this is the case then their previous body of work from 1970 onwards will stand out all the more. Giant For a Day contains some material that's just as worthy as any of their more complex early work and should not be overlooked for the fact that it appeared at a dangerous time for progressive rock.