As they were preparing for the
Three Friends tour, drummer Malcolm Mortimore was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and unable to play for several weeks. John Weathers was brought in to play for the tour, and eventually was asked to stay on permanently. Mortimore had a great deal of finesse and subtlety, which worked well with Gentle Giant, but Weathers had a more dynamic approach which provided the power and contrast that they were looking for at the time. Also, he actually looked like the band mascot.
The new album was originally going to be another concept album. There would be one track for each member of the band, the instrumental "The Boys in the Band" for the group as a whole, and "Dog's Life" was for the roadies, with whom they worked very closely and for whom they had great respect. Eventually the concept was abandoned.
According to the story, Phil Shulman's wife Roberta came up with the title as a pun on "octo opus" -- eight musical works.
The album was released in the U.K. with a striking cover painting by Roger Dean, who was starting to gain popularity due to his work with Yes. As with
Three Friends, a different cover was chosen for the U.S. release, for reasons unknown.
Octopus (1973)
Original U.K. Release
(click for full painting)U.S. Release
Gary Green: Electric Guitars, Percussion
Kerry Minnear: Piano, Hammond Organ, Minimoog, Electric Piano, Mellotron, Clavinet, Harpsichord, Regal, Vibraphone, Cello, Percussion, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Derek Shulman: Lead Vocals, Alto Saxophone
Phil Shulman: Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, Mellophone, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Ray Shulman: Bass, Violin, Viola, Electric Violin, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
John Weathers: Drums, Bongos, Varispeed Cymbal, Xylophone
----------
1 The Advent Of Panurge (4:40)2 Raconteur Troubadour (3:59)3 A Cry For Everyone (4:02)4 Knots (4:09)5 The Boys In The Band (4:32)6 Dog's Life (3:10)7 Think Of Me With Kindness (3:33)8 River (5:54)----------
The pattern of each Gentle Giant album having its own character, even to the point of starting differently, continues. The words and music for
The Advent Of Panurge start immediately, with no introduction of any kind. In fact, almost every song on
Octopus starts abruptly and has a definitive ending as opposed to fading out. This gives the album a very concise, immediate feel. Gentle Giant continued to condense their music, the sprawling, experimental works of the early albums were already a distant memory, replaced by complex, often polyrhythmic arrangements flaunting a different side of their musicianship.
Panurge is another character from the work of Francois Rabelais. Continuing the story of Pantagruel started with "Pantagruel's Nativity" from
Acquiring the Taste, here we meet Panurge, who becomes Pantagruel's close friend and lifelong companion. I've never reads the books upon which the lyrics are based, but the lyrics are said to be very close, quite faithful to the stories told in the books.
Raconteur Troubadour dives deep into the medieval genre in both meter and instrumentation, then of course takes a left turn into modern prog for a spell, before concluding. At only four minutes, it's a deceptively complex piece. But then, that can be said of nearly every Gentle Giant song. These are, once again, rather short, concise compositions.
The lyrics to
A Cry For Everyone are somewhat nihilistic, inspired by the literature and philosophy of Albert Camus, but it's a rocker from start to finish. Another four-minute gem.
Knots is, in some ways, the quintessential Gentle Giant song, intricately weaving vocal and instrumental parts as only Gentle Giant can. When later prog bands such as Spock's Beard cite the Gentle Giant influence in their vocal arrangements, this is the song they're thinking of. According to the liner notes: "R.D. Laing, an eminent psychologist, has stimulated us by his intriguing, logical, poetic riddles into composing this latter-day madrigal - and something of a musical jigsaw." That description tells you almost nothing about the musical work, but once you've heard it, come back to the description and see how perfectly it fits.
As mentioned earlier,
The Boys In The Band is an instrumental, meant to showcase each member of the band. In the original concept, this song was for Gentle Giant as a whole, including engineer Martin Rushant who provides the laugh and coin spin which starts the track.
Dog's Life "A backhanded tribute to our roadies; our musical parody could only be drawn to a wily old dog. Surely two more unmatched sounds as the Regal (a medieval reed organ) and string section could not be found, but they seem to successfully convey the whine of both dog and roadie." Gentle Giant freely admit that they sometimes combine sounds that should not work together, and make them work. This is one of those times. And as applicable as the description is, the big surprise is that this is actually a nice little song, one of the more melodic pieces on the album.
Think Of Me With Kindness is the Kerry ballad on this album, a personal song delivered in his sweet tenor, with a nice mellophone solo by Phil. The arrangement is kept simple, as befitting the topic and the mood.
River closes the album with a rocker, but it's an offbeat experimental rocker. The Varispeed cymbals, with effects, evoke rushing water, while the pitch-bending guitar and violin give things a dirty, backwoods feeling. Derek provides the main vocal, with Phil providing the contrasting voice during the bridge.
----------
After all this time, and even after growing up during the 70's, it still surprises me sometimes how short albums were back then. At 35 minutes, this was toward the shorter side of average, but only by a little. Of course, bands usually released one, sometimes two albums per year back then. So compared to nowadays, it works out about the same. Albums are twice as long now, but bands usually only release new albums every two years or so.
But Gentle Giant were always a different sort of prog band. Where most prog bands were by this time starting to spread things out and experiment with longer songs with multiple movements, Gentle Giant went the other way. Their compositions were dense, packing a lot of music into relatively short tunes, but still with tastes of various genres, their signature ecletic instrumentation and odd time signatures, and impeccable arrangements. Even as I write this, it strikes me that I think of Gentle Giant tunes as "compositions" rather than "songs". Obviously, they're both, but there's so much going on, so much work has clearly gone into these eight songs, that they truly are eight works of art. Eight musical works, an oct-opus.
Gentle Giant only existed for ten years, during which time they released 11 studio albums and one live album, so we're already into "the middle period". The strings, saxophones, and brass appear a bit less frequently, and the songs are more concise. Many fans cite
Octopus as their favorite, and it's easy to see (and hear) why. Every song carries a punch, starts and stops on a dime, makes its statement and leaves. The sole exception is Kerry Minnear's ballad, which provides a beautiful contrast and a much-needed break.
My college roommate and I dug into the Gentle Giant back catalog the best we could. In 1980, there was no Internet, no real way to know exactly what was out there, but he happened to find a Columbia release of
Octopus with the "octopus in a jar" cover. The cool thing was that the record jacket was contoured; the edges followed the odd curves of the side of the jar. Probably a collector's item now, but I happen to know he sold it long ago.