Civilian (1980)
Gary Green: Guitar
Kerry Minnear: Keyboards, Cocals
Derek Shulman: Vocals
Ray Shulman: Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
John Weathers: Drums, Backing Vocals
----------
1 Convenience (Clean and Easy) (3:13)2 All Through the Night (4:20)3 Shadows on the Street (3:18)4 Number One (4:38)5 Underground (3:47)6 I Am a Camera (3:32)7 Inside Out (5:51)8 It's Not Imagination (4:03) ----------
Giant for A Day! did not sell as well as the band had hoped. Gentle Giant's popularity -- more of a cult following, actually -- continued to grow, but very slowly. Stymied by their continued inability to break into the mainstream, yet conceded to the reality that their brand of esoteric rock was simply never going to become popular, the band could think of no better course than to continue with their stripped-down approach to writing and instrumentation, and hope for a hit single. They seemed to be making some inroads in the United States. A hit single there could lead to album sales and increased exposure, and that could be all the break they needed. After ten years and as many studio albums, they were still looking for that break.
Derek Shulman had effectively become the band's manager. He convinced the band to move to Los Angeles to get a better feel for what it was that they were trying to do. 1979 was the first year of the band's existence in which they did not release an album. After the move and subsequent acclimation period, they spent five months writing what would become
Civilian, released in February of 1980. This was their last shot. It was truly do or die for them at this point.
I like this album a lot. Certainly the most of the three later, vocals-guitar-keys-bass-drums albums, and more than many of the earlier albums. It is consistently clean and tight, yet overall hard-hitting throughout. Some of the Gentle Giant of olde was back, and the feeling of desperation in the band translated into an immediacy and intensity not felt on a Gentle Giant album in quite some time.
Civilian is not a concept album per se, but as always, the songs reflect a lot of what the guys were experiencing and thinking about at the time.
Convenience (Clean and Easy) is a direct commentary on American consumerism, the mentality and culture which promotes excess and waste. Its frenetic beat conveys the fast pace of life in Los Angeles in the late 70's.
All Through the Night is another rocker, but of the slow, driving type. The theme is the drudgery of working all night just to pay the bills. I love the main guitar riff.
After the opening one-two punch,
Shadows on the Street slows things down. You guessed it; it's the mellow Kerry piece. The ubiquitous keyboard riff is like a major-keyed version of the "Free Hand" riff. I remember playing this album in the car with my son one time, and he saw the title and said it sounded scary. "Shadows on the Street" could be scary. But no. It's a quiet, reflective tune, evoking an empty street at 3 in the morning, and the shadows from the streetlights, high and far away on every corner.
Number One closes the original Side One of the album with another rocker. The band members have widely varying feelings about this album, having all gone through upheaval and having dealt with it to varying degrees of success. John Weathers considers it a strong album, however, and this is one of his favorite tracks. And it shows; his performance on this song is great, and keeps it driving.
I turned the record over, and when it got to the chorus of
Underground, I realized that I'd heard the song before. But it was an almost
deja-vu feeling. I realized that I was standing in my bedroom in my parents house, and the last time I'd heard this song, I was standing in almost the exact same place a year before, listening to the same stereo. But during that year, I'd graduated from high school, gone off to "summer camp" (ask me about it some time), dropped out, returned home, started at Michigan State that fall, and dropped out in the spring. I first listened to this album in early 1981. I was practically a different person when it had come out in 1980, when the local radio station had played this song as some kind of thing featuring new music. The boys had done it! Someone played one of their songs on the radio, and a year later, someone out there listening recognized it. Unfortunately, me buying all of Gentle Giant's albums between 1978 and 1981 did not save the band. In fact, they had already broken up by the the time I bought this album.
Okay, here's the problem with
I Am a Camera, and it has nothing to do with the song itself. Well, it kinda does. Let's back up. My favorite band (of all time!) Yes had broken up, but then they surprisingly got back together, replacing the irreplaceable Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman with... The Buggles. You know, "Video Killed the Radio Star"? Anyway, the new Yes released an album called
Drama which was actually really good, but my least favorite song on that album is easily "Into the Lens" because of its ridiculous refrain "I am camera, I am a camera, camera camera". So I was kinda sick of that phrase, and here's another song likely written about the same time and recorded about the same time and it's called "I am a Camera". I do kinda like this song, but it also bugs me.
Inside Out is another slow driver. I get what they were going for with this one, and the atmosphere is cool and the harmonies are great, but it never quite works for me. Probably because it too has a silly refrain "Do I need lifting?" Seriously, how can any teenaged boy say the words "Do I need lifting?" with a straight face?
It's Not Imagination is, as always, the rocker to close out the album. As the album opened with a song directly commenting on American life, so does it close. No, it's not imagination. Everything is about sex. Sex appeals. Sex makes things popular. The thought of it, the images of it, everything about it. We like sex. It's everywhere. It's not imagination.
The album closes with a very short track, the words "That's all there is". Each word is taken from a different song and the four are spliced together. "That's" is from "I am a Camera", "All" is from "All Through the Night", "There" is from "Heroes No More" (unreleased, included as a bonus track on some CDs), and "Is" is from "Inside Out".
----------
I know a lot of people don't like this album, but most Gentle Giant fans feel that they went out on a high note, or at least a relative high note. They alienated a lot of their fans (which weren't particularly numerous to begin with) when they switched to the more streamlined approach starting with
Interview, and the newer sound, simpler, more Punk, or New Wave, or American, or something, just didn't gain a lot of new fans.
Kerry was married now and had a wife and young daughter back in England who he couldn't wait to get back to. Ray never really liked America and was also ready to go back. Derek had felt that the move was necessary. John was on board, and presumably Gary as well, as they both stayed in the area and continued to work in the music biz for years afterward. But the writing was on the wall. The new album was not the big break they had hoped for (sound familiar?). It had been over 10 years, and they were Zero for Eleven (twelve if you count the live album, considered a classic now but not a great seller at the time).
Derek and Kerry met for lunch one day and found that each was considering what he was afraid to suggest to the other. That it was time to end the great experiment which was Gentle Giant. They agreed that it was the best thing, and announced it to the rest of the band. This was the summer of 1980, only months after the release of
Civilian. Gentle Giant was over.
Topic: The Gentle Giant Discography (Read 13535 times)
