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I'm returning once again to Gentle Giant to pay tribute to Ray Shulman and to break down On Reflection, which is from their Free Hand album.

Unlisted link: https://vimeo.com/825240167/7dcf573e8b?share=copy

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On Reflection (Gentle Giant) | Behind the Score (Ep. 40)

This is "On Reflection (Gentle Giant) | Behind the Score (Ep. 40)" by Doug Helvering on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Comments

Tom (the soggy one)

Those melodic diversions in the live version were sections from other songs of theirs, I believe from The Power And The Glory, though I could be off on that. GG music was always hit and miss with me- some I loved, some grated on me like I was parmesan cheese.

Jeff Norman

I'm not always in the mood for Gentle Giant...and not everything they did works (some things seem rather..."throw this in and see what happens!")—but two things about their music can't be questioned: One, they were astonishing musicians, and two...no one ever sounded anything like them, before or since.

Bill Brinkmoeller

Gentle Giant was definitely one of those bands that wanted their live performances not simply to be them being a Gentle Giant jukebox for their adoring fans. If their studio albums could challenge you, then the live performance would challenge you in different ways. I hugely respect that, especially since making new arrangements of music as complicated as theirs would not be an easy task. Doug, you obviously love Gentle Giant. When you finished listening to Free Hand, you declared "These guys are my spirit animals." So why haven't you done an EPL with Octopus? "Advent of Panurge" and "Knots" are only two pieces from an album that will delight you every bit as much as Free Hand did.

ax o'lotl

this was so much fun, thank you! my favorite bit of counterpoint outside of bach or purcell. the other GG piece I'd love you to do a score coverage of is "His Last Voyage", also from Free Hand. I have a transcription of the piece and it makes my head hurt. would be very curious to see your take.

Edward Malthouse

Nicely done! Great episode. Thank you

Martin Broten

Great job, Doug. These guys were amazing. Definitely the "prog band's prog band".

Richard Elliott

Well done Doug. excellent episode 👍cheers

George Davis-Stewart

Completely at ease with music, with their instruments, melding influences, genres, and anything else the mood might inspire. Most interesting to behold, and rather enjoyable.

Gerard Dion

Hello again, Doug. You mentioned you were going to review ELP's Pirates next. What happened?

Fugazi

I’ve viewed this a dozen times and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a good brain exercise to remember my 3 semesters of Music Theory from decades ago. And for such a deserving band. Excellent analysis. BTW the “Celine Dion” key change in my day was the “Motown” key change.