Sleeve notes from the Truck CD [Terrapin Trucking (UK) Ltd.]
'In Britain, it's not been low profile, it's been no profile.' That is how vocalist Derek Shulman once memorably summarised the career of Gentle Giant, one of progressive rock's best-kept secrets.
That they remained so for much of their 11-year career from 1969 to 1980 was due to the antipathy of the music press which, with the exception of Sounds' Phil Sutcliff, steadfastly refused to grant them column inches despite their burgeoning reputation at the fan level. Not that Giant were for everyone: their complex, uncompromising music consistently polarised the Seventies rock audience. You either loved them or hated them, & despite a flood of retrospective praise since their demise that's how it remains today.
The Shulman brothers - Derek (vocals, sax), Ray (bass) & Phil (horns) - had reinvented themselves as Giant's nucleus after an unsatisfying two-hit career as Simon Dupree & The Big Sound, their biggest success coming with 1967's UK Top Ten hit "Kites". Vowing to go their own way, they signed with the prestigious Vertigo label, home of many great progressive rock outfits of the era, adding guitarist Gary Green & classically trained keyboard player Kerry Minnear (drummers varied) for four albums of uneasy listening which basically invited the listener to 'take us or leave us' - something certain to get up the rock press's collective nose.
The addition of a permanent drummer in John 'Pugwash' Weathers after the third of this opening quartet of releases, 1972's 'Three Friends', completed the jigsaw. 'We were realising we could rock as well as do nice tinkly things,' was Derek's typically blunt assessment of the difference the ex-Eyes of Blue & Grease Band sticksman made to the band. "He hit a solid offbeat & it worked ... it was very interesting because we were rather, well, prim.'
The other, final personnel change that preceded 'In a Glass House' was a departure - that of elder brother Phil Shulman, who resumed his job as a teacher. With vocalist Derek doubling on saxes & recorder, his loss was less significant than Weathers' recruitment.
'Three Friends' had been Giant's first release to elicit interest in the States & 1973's 'Octopus' had built of that. But Columbia (CBS here) were undergoing a crisis and, by all accounts, couldn't cope with the opening salvo of 'Glass House' - breaking glass metamorphosing into a heavy rhythm as the opening track, 'The Runaway', kicked in with a typical Weather's salvo. Whether or not the stylus got any further across side 1 was uncertain: what is known, however, is that Columbia didn't see it as the album to revive their fortunes ... whereupon it promptly became one of America's top import albums, selling a cool 150,000 copies!
The band decided to tour the States on the back on this unexpected underground success, selling out five nights at the Whiskey in Los Angeles & pushing their next album (on Capitol) into the US Top 50. That was 'The Power & the Glory', & is another story altogether: consult this compact disc's sister release TRUCK CD 001 for further details.
The general theme of 'Glass House' was that those who live in them shouldn't throw stones. Lyrics were, as ever, on the oblique side, & rarely the stuff of mainstream rock; 'An Inmate's Lullaby', for instance, married menacing percussion to the sanity/insanity debate. Musically, the album had a bleak, edgy feel which was reflected in the stark packaging - faithfully reproduced here in miniture. The smashing glass sound effect that opened the album was echoed in later releases with the sound of a video game ('Free Hand') & a 35mm motor-wind camera ('Civilian'), each time setting up a rhythm & warning the listener to take notice.
Musically, the tracks rang the changes, moving from the almost medieval feel of 'Experience' to the deliberately dated ambience of 'A Reunion', its brief two-minute duration conjuring visions of a 1920's Palm Court tea-room. The title track, a Celtic-tinged rocker, was perhaps a pointer to the more direct approach of the following album, 'The Power & the Glory', with particularly chilling vocals from Derek Shulman. A final reprise of the breaking glass introduction ended the album in decisive style.
'Glass House' was special visually as well as musically, from the cover design onwards - & the stage show reflected this, as John Weather's recalls. 'We did a helluva lot of rehearsing. & it was an event ... we really went overboard. For the 'Glass House' tour we had a wall with projectors behind it flashing different things which cost us a fortune, about 30,000 pounds. All sorts of neat little tricks, good lighting ... we really made a show of it. It was put together like a West End musical, there was that much & attention went into it.'
'Glass House' was the first of Giant's two LP's for the World Wide Artists label. After 'The Power & the Glory', Gentle Giant went on to record six albums for Chrysalis before their 1980 split, when Derek Shulman & Kerry Minnear decided to come off the road. Having been there from the outset, of course, they were well-nigh irreplaceable. Derek is now a US record company executive, brother Ray an acclaimed producer with the Sugarcubes & Ian MuCulloch, among others, to his credit. John Weathers is the only Giant still on the road with Welsh psychedelic survivors Man.
Under-rated on its release & only sporadically available since, 'In a Glass House' offers a satisfying taste of one of Britain's most technically accomplished rock bands.
(Michael Heatley. Many thanks for their assistance to John Weathers & Alan Kinsman)