Octopus

Octopus is an album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant, released in 1972. It marked a change in drummers from Malcolm Mortimore to John Weathers. The new line-up of the band delivered the Octopus album later in 1972, generally considered to represent the start of the band's peak period. The hardest and most "rocking" Gentle Giant album to date, Octopus was allegedly named by Phil Shulman's wife Roberta as a pun on "octo opus" (eight mu... more

Octopus is an album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant, released in 1972. It marked a change in drummers from Malcolm Mortimore to John Weathers. The new line-up of the band delivered the Octopus album later in 1972, generally considered to represent the start of the band's peak period. The hardest and most "rocking" Gentle Giant album to date, Octopus was allegedly named by Phil Shulman's wife Roberta as a pun on "octo opus" (eight musical works, reflecting the album's eight tracks). In 2004, Ray Shulman commented '(Octopus) was probably our best album, with the exception, perhaps of Acquiring the Taste. We started with the idea of writing a song about each member of the band. Having a concept in mind was a good starting point for writing. I don't know why, but despite the impact of The Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia, almost overnight concept albums were suddenly perceived as rather naff and pretentious." The album maintained Gentle Giant's trademark of broad and... less