Having had the life-changing experience of seeing Giant open for Black Sabbath in September 13th, 1972 in Portland I totally immersed myself in Three Friends. However, I was also undergoing some family drama at that time and missed the release of Octopus in December, to me this was a 1973 album. Once I got though all the turmoil of moving out of Mom's house and moving in with my dad, and getting through that awful freshman year of high school, I finally got a chance to pick up a copy of their fourth studio album (although to me at that time it was the second, the first two were not released stateside until after the very moderate success they had in the US starting with the third album).
Octopus is most people's pick for the best Giant album, and while I place Three Friends and The Power And The Glory ever so slightly ahead of it, it is a truly magnificent record and securely placed them in the top echelon of the great Prog bands of the 1970's (although decades would pass before this was widely recognized).
The copy I purchased in 1973 had this cover as it was released in the US
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The top of the "jar" being jigsaw cut where the blue background is in the above image. However, I VASTLY prefer the Roger Dean UK cover
"There coming over Charaton Bridge / Look do you see the man who is poor but rich"
"The Advent Of Panurge" opens this album and is inspired by "The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel" by 16th century novelist François Rabelais.
Gargantua and Pantagruel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panurge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There was no more "developing" of the Giant style here, it is in full bloom, the nothing-like-it-in-music vocal layering, Minnear's multitudes of keyboards. I never really understood the bridge section with improvised dialog in different languages, but that section would be replaced by an incredible recorder section on future tours, a high point of their amazing shows (this will be reviewed here when I get to their live album)
The second track on the album is "Raconteur, Troubadour"
When I was trying to explain why I loved this album so much to one of my friends in 1973, I described how this song structure reminded me of machinery, how it's beat so wonderfully mechanical. I was met with "oh, you don't want your music to sound mechanical" without even hearing the song or any sense of doing something different than everyone else. And I ran into this a lot in my youth, most of the people I knew had very pedestrian early-'70's taste and almost everybody just thought I was weird. I'm ok with that.
Then the closest thing to a rocker on Octopus, "A Cry for Everyone", inspired by the work and beliefs of the Algerian-French writer Albert Camus.
They never really played this on future tours (in fact the entire album would be condensed into a 15-20 minute medley, again this will be reviewed later). I love the round interplay between Keyboardist Minnear and Guitarist Gary Green here. One thing that's the closest thing to a negative on Octopus is here, a fairly clumsy bridge segue that can be found on several songs, as mentioned on the first track. There's a stoppage of everyone but Minnear, who plays a pretty disconnected Synth bridge that somewhat pulls the energy of the song away, but it's short and they get right back on track after.
Then side one concludes with the centerpiece of the album. I have never ever, before or since (with the exception of a track on a future album, the last great studio Giant album) heard any song by any other artist quite like "Knots"
This vocal stylization is all Giant, baby. Plus the melodic percussion. This is the no-doubt-about-it high point of this great album for me. "Knots" is inspired by "The Book Knots" by the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing.
Side two opens with a laugh and a spinning coin, then the instrumental "The Boys in the Band"
This would be the opening of the Octopus medley that they played on future tours.
Then comes a backhanded ode to their road crew, "Dogs Life"
I have to wonder if they had to hire a new crew after this was released. It is not exactly complimentary. But I love it
Then comes, for me, the closest thing to a down moment on Octopus, "Think of Me with Kindness"
I certainly don't mean to sound like this is anything but a lovely lovely ballad, it absolutely is, but I think they have done a better ballad on the first album ("Funny Ways"), and the quiet song on Three Friends (Schooldays) just unmercifully OBLITERATES this. Again I like it, it's not a skipper like many songs on their Pop-Giant albums, but IMO it sits below the level of the rest of this album.
Then the finale
I love the pedal effects Green uses on his guitar on the opening salvo, in fact parts it sound more like Minnear's keyboard than a guitar.
Again, I don't agree with most that this is the absolute greatest Giant album, but it's a solid nine out of the Giant scale ten. Next is a 10/10, The Power and the Glory.