Sunday, December 11, 2016

Gentle Giant - Three Friends


Been a little quiet around here lately. Mostly been listening to things too new to share / things shared elsewhere. But this one's been on repeat for a month or so. I'd never paid GG much mind - kind of lumped with a bunch of unheard British prog I didn't think I needed to listen to. Everyone makes mistakes.

From wiki: 

"This was the band's first concept album, and was based around the theme of three boys who are "inevitably separated by chance, skill, and fate" as they become men. Over the course of the album, the three friends travel on from being childhood schoolfriends to become, respectively, a road digger, an artist, and a white-collar worker. In the process, they lose their ability to relate to each other or understand each other's lifestyles."

Easy to make the analogical leap across the pond...

Really love the jazzy opening to "Schooldays" and the vocal arrangement, the multitracked touches to "Working All Day"... solid through and through.