Gentle Giant- Three Friends

Gentle Giant is by far the most cited Prog band that's not a household name. With an intricate style employing extensive vocal harmonies, strange chord combinations, and use of a plethora of different instruments, their music embodies all of Prog Rock's core elements. Formed by Three Shulman brothers (Derek, Phil, and Ray) along with Kerry Minnear and Gary Green, they all played a variety of instruments from guitar/bass and organ to xylophone, viola, and trumpet. They wanted a permanent drummer, and this spot changed constantly in their early lineup. For their 3rd album, Three Friends, in 1972, Malcolm Mortimer held down the drummer's chair.

This album is a concept album, about three friends who grow up together and are incredibly close, but as they age they take separate paths and no longer see eye to eye. With the creatively titles "Prologue", the album begins with a a keyboard solo and lots of wah-wah distortion. the song also features tons of vocal harmony and some cool bass. Afterwards comes the relaxed "schooldays" which subverts its complexity in quiet. However, the keyboard and bass parts go through some cool time progressions, and Phil Shulman's singing here is very strong. As the friends promise to wait for each other forever, they grow up and each get a song. The first one becomes a blue collar laborer laborer and sings "Working All Day" about doing just that. This song is sung by Minnear, and is the heaviest track to emphasize the sludge and grime of the factory. Lots of bass and guitar about here in a pretty traditional Symphonic Prog structure. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, but has a nice rhythm.

Friend #2 became an artist, and sings "Peel the Paint" about all of the little details it takes to make great art (and how menial the work of others is). This song is a festival of guitar playing, and it goes all over with the notes. This artsy chaos is quite hard to follow, but has lots to offer. The last friend becomes a rich white collar executive concerned with reputation and sings "Mister Class and Quality". Oddly, this track seems like a mix of the last two. There's also a splash of violin in there. The album ends with a title track that is almost choral. It is only 3 and a half minutes and goes by quickly.

At a short 36 minutes, Three Friends defiantly lacks in quantity and needs to deliver in quality. While the songs here are good, complex, and certainly progressive, they lack a key ingredient. Passion. Gentle Giant has gone so over the top with the intricacy that the soul of the music is pretty diminished. While this style is going to be pretty pretentious no matter what, they succeeded in creating that spark on some of their other albums, but not this one.

Three Friends has plenty of Prog's brains, but just not enough of its heart. Grade: C