Giant for a Day! is the album on which Gentle Giant went pop — ten short, hook-driven songs made by a band trying to survive the arrival of punk. Released in 1978, it dismayed their followers, sold poorly, and remains the most maligned record in a catalogue otherwise full of wonders.

The short version

Giant for a Day! (1978) is the tenth studio album by Gentle Giant, self-produced by the quintet of Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, Kerry Minnear, Gary Green and John Weathers. Gone are the suites, the counterpoint and the vintage instruments: in their place are concise pop-rock songs built for radio, with Gary Green’s guitar to the fore and the keyboards pushed back. The sleeve invited buyers to cut out a Gentle Giant mask. Neither the singles nor the album found an audience.

A calculated gamble

By 1978 the tide had turned decisively against progressive rock. Punk and new wave prized brevity and directness, elaborate music was suddenly an embarrassment, and Gentle Giant — never big sellers even at their peak — were feeling it. The previous album, The Missing Piece, had already moved toward straightforward rock without much reward. So the band, managed by Derek Shulman himself, made a decision: they would write short, catchy songs aimed squarely at American radio, skip touring while they wrote, and record quickly. In April and May they cut ten tracks in barely thirty-five minutes of music.

The sound

This is Gentle Giant with the giant part removed. The shifting metres and interlocking vocal fugues are largely gone; instead there are West Coast harmonies, clean guitar hooks and the polished sheen of late-1970s album rock. Gary Green plays more than ever, and plays well; Kerry Minnear’s keyboards, once an orchestra unto themselves, are reduced to supportive texture; Ray Shulman’s violin barely appears. Traces of the old band do survive, in the layered voices of the opener and in a quirky wordless piece that nods back to their debut. But the record sounds like five brilliant musicians playing well below their powers, and knowing it.

The songs

‘Words from the Wise’ is the best of them, opening with all five voices and driving along on a strong backbeat — the closest the album comes to the old magic. ‘Thank You’ is a gentle country-tinged ballad whose words wink back at ‘Funny Ways’ from the debut. The spiky title track has a new-wave snap, and the wordless xylophone piece ‘Spooky Boogie’ is a distant, lighter cousin of ‘Alucard.’ ‘Friends’ is John Weathers’s only solo composition for the band, and Kerry Minnear later said he wrote ‘It’s Only Goodbye’ specifically as a single — though it never became one.

Reception and legacy

The gamble failed on every count. Both singles sank without trace, the album sold badly, and long-time admirers felt abandoned. The sleeve did not help: its cut-out mask struck many as flippant, though Kerry Minnear has insisted it was only ever meant as a bit of fun, a vision of an audience in masks, not a gesture of contempt. Gentle Giant toured North America that winter, and then the momentum drained away. Later reissue notes have argued the record was unjustly shunned, and it does contain fine songs. Most listeners still place it at the bottom of the catalogue.

The verdict

Giant for a Day! is for completists, not newcomers — start with Free Hand or Octopus, where the band’s genius is undeniable. Approached without expectation, as a late-1970s pop-rock album by five exceptional players, it is pleasant, well made and occasionally charming: ‘Words from the Wise’ and ‘Thank You’ deserve better than their reputation. But it is a sad record all the same — the sound of the most inventive band of their era trying, briefly and unhappily, to be somebody else.

Browse the bookshelf in the footer →