I am only 25 years old working for a major label here in America, yet despite my tender age…I grew up listening to Spirit. "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" has long been one of my favorite records. HOWEVER, reading your latest e-mail below puts everything into a VERY different perspective.

NAMELY, the first note from one of the true heroes of progressive music…Derek Shulman!!! As adventurous and incredible as Spirit and their music was…Gentle Giant is perhaps the most underrated and ignored ensemble in music history. Back in college I got turned on to Mahavishnu Orchestra and Gentle Giant in virtually the same day and to say that was life-changing would be a gross understatement.

The music of Derek Shulman and Gentle Giant is challenging, powerful, passionate, intricate, and always mesmerizing! There are few other bands that maintain a catalog of masterpiece after masterpiece. Their first six (6) records are all required listening for anyone even remotely interested in what it means to play at an incredibly high level yet never lose sight that in order to touch people your music needs to have a "soul".

If people reading this have not yet listened to the incredible Gentle Giant, make sure you run to your record store (or perhaps more accurately direct your web browser) and purchase "Octopus", "In a Glass House" (my favorite), or "Freehand"…though the truth is you can’t go wrong with anything prior to 1978.

One last note about Gentle Giant:

About two years ago I noticed that Gentle Giant will be signing at FYE here in Midtown Manhattan. I couldn’t believe that a band that had been dormant almost 25 years…and weren’t even mega-stars during that era…would be doing a signing at a major record chain. I later found out that a new line of Gentle Giant reissues through Derek’s label prompted the signing. Needless to say, I get there about 5 minutes before the signing was set to begin and the streets are packed with a line working its way around the building! This band that never had a platinum record…never a major US single…playing wildly complex music…had touched hundreds and hundreds of people enough that still 25 years later they needed to just stand in the presence of "the giant". Though it was only Derek Shulman and Kerry Minnear that showed up from the original band…it was a remarkable occasion…one that none of us who were there will ever forget!

While a Gentle Giant reunion is hard to imagine…it is still the dream of thousands of Gentle Giant fans around the world that perhaps Derek or Kerry or any of the member of Gentle Giant would consider doing a solo show or make some more timeless music. After all, the only thing more potentially crippling then having extraordinary talent…is not finding solace in sharing that talent with the rest of the world.

Derek Shulman could do a solo show at a venue such as The Cutting Room or BB King’s and sell it out immediately! Even giving the money to charity if he so desired! But then at the very minimum his music would be passed on to another generation of music lovers and we could delve once again into the heart of the Giant.

Thanks for listening!

Growing up in California, I used to go see them play even before I got my job at Columbia. Randy used to plug his guitar into what looked like a magic box. He was one of the first guitarists to really explore whatever effects buttons were available–the sounds that used to come out of that box!!!

I kind of made friends with them and used to go up to Topanga Canyon and listen to them practice.

Here are a few Randy stories that I find very precious.

Realize this is happening in the very early 70′s and artists are….well, they’re about as artist as you get!

One day Randy came to see me at my Columbia office on Sunset Blvd. (I was the local promotion person for albums in LA) and he had the masters of the long awaited Dr. Sardonicus album under his arm. He said "here Paul, I’m giving these to you." I told him that his record company was Epic and that they were just around the corner. He replied, "I don’t know them, and they scare me." I assured him that they were, in fact, very nice people and that he’d be fine. He still insisted on leaving the masters with me as he "knew I was cool" and we had become friendly over the past couple years. Imagine leaving your masters with someone just because they’re coo!! God, I loved those days!!

I finally had to get up and insist that the masters of this album needed to be given directly to Epic and then I took him by the hand and introduced him to all the people there, who as you can imagine, were beyond happy to see him as the word of mouth about the making of this album was very hot, indeed.

Before we left my office, I noticed that he was wearing a high E guitar string in his ear, looped like a big earring. I said, "Randy, isn’t that an E string hanging off your ear?" He replied, " Yeah, I always break that string on every show, and I can pull this one off my ear, and re-string it faster than any roadie can take my guitar, do it, and give it back to me!"

Randy loved baseball, and one of my other favorite conversations was when he came to visit and told me that he was going to take the summer off from touring (this is during the time of the band’s biggest popularity, mind you) to play baseball for the Topanga Canyon Baseball Team! I suggested in a nice way, that it probably wasn’t the best time to be doing this, as one of their new albums had just been released and they were enjoying very big focus. I said Randy, "What about your priorities?!" (alluding to making smart marketing moves). He replied, "Yeah, exactly, it’s baseball season!!"

It was the time when music, not marketing, was king. And, I do not share these stories to make fun in any way, because I loved Randy and Ed and that whole incredible band. All who knew Randy, knew that he possessed a precious naivete and a most beautiful heart and soul. And Randy made MUSIC.

Paul Rappaport

Amazing show — amazing evening — I still think about it forty years later! Then we climbed back into the bug and made the late night drive back to Madison.

I just don’t see that kind of passion for music anymore.

Jim Charne

I thanked him later.

What an amazing album, still love it.

david macmillan

Michael Stotter
former WQAM dj