Gentle Giant book

Acquiring The Taste – Gentle Giant – by Paul Stump –

SAF Publishing
ISBN: 0 946719 35 7  Hardback
Publication: May 2005
224 pages (illustrated)
Price UK £16.99 US $24.95                                                    

Quite difficult a hunt for this book, even if I found Out Bloody Rageous from the same SAF publisher quite easily, I finally got hold oof it and I fell upon it by chance. I was waiting to find this book before re-examining one of the most complex progressive group ever, but I was a little wary of its author, for I had not appreciated his previous book, The Music Is All That Matters. But my fears were unfounded (actually which writer would not want to make a thorough search for a group if he was to denigrate them?) and this book proved essential at my re-appreciation of GG’s complex oeuvre and I re-wrote all of my GG reviews in the wake of finishing this book.

The book proves an essential reading for all confirmed fans, but also for more casual fans and could eventually serve as a reference and a furthering deepening tool into the exploration of the Gigantic musical universe, but might be too much for an introduction to the band. The book traces the Shulman brother’s career to the earliest and spends a chapter or two speaking of Simon Dupree And The Big Sound, before reaching the beef of the book: the GG recording career. A helpful side of this book is that Stump spends some time over every track they recorded and in some case manages to describe partly the music, casting sometimes a new light on some tracks that had gone unnoticed by this writer/reviewer.

One of the most enjoyable side of Stump’s book is his insight and general Rock culture, and small facts, background explanations on the general political, socio-cultural, economic situation of the 70’s and its effect on the “progressive rock” phenomena. Some of you might remember the two threads I created by printing short excerpts of his book for discussion. However unlike a lot of these rock books, there are way too few stories, anecdotes, prank-telling moments, as GG’s members did not seem to be major party animals. Do not look for juicy tales or tickly anecdotes, just an insightful, thoughtful story, extremely well written. Unlike many of those books retracing a group’s career, this is a professional writer (implicating a clear, concise writing style) but passionate enough to defend the band almost to a fanboy’s level (the key word being almost). Another excellent facet of the book is the explanation of the lack of major popular success that eluded the band throughout its entire career, some of it because of wrong management decisions on touring, some others depicting poor recording/production label partnership and most of the time, an unwillingness to promote the albums correctly (but the bad decisions were coming from both sides).

My only gripe is that outside of the afore-mentioned historical asides made by Paul Stump, the book is a bit tedious in its format, mentioning the recording sessions and the promotion tours, but by the time we get to the later (and less progressive) albums, the repetition of this formula is not only a bit too foreseeable, but I had almost lost interest after the Interview album. 

An essential, well researched book, about one of the major groups of the classic era of prog rock. Run for it!!!!!!