The Missing Piece

With the live double-album behind them, Gentle Giant returned to the studio. The band had reached a kind of artistic critical mass by now, as had most progressive bands of the era; but in commercial terms, record sales had hit a plateau. Thus, change was in order, and the order was something shorter and certainly different: The Missing Piece. The album kicks off with the bright, cheerful and brief "Two Weeks in Spain," quite unlike anything Gentle Giant had ever recorded before. And that was only the start! "I'm Turning Around" is a love song, and one undoubtedly tailor-made for radio airplay. So herein lies the reality of this "new" era in popular music. It was 1977 and no one-not even Gentle Giant-was going to kid themselves that the ole prog rock would still cut the proverbial mustard. The old tricks were just that. The wryly autobiographical "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It" is simple rock ‘n' roll, as is "Mountain Time;" but who's impressed? From a progressive standpoint, the second side fares much better: Both "As Old as You're Young" and "For Nobody" contain the interplay and spark of the Giant of old, while "Memories of Old Days," clocking in at seven minutes, almost double anything else on the record. Idyllic and nostalgic, its twin guitars sound like a long-lost friend; the track would remain the perennial favorite from the album. Shortly after its release, the band played the BBC's Sight and Sound TV program, combining a curious set of older classics with new material. And, in another slight vindication for the new direction, the album did chart in the US, reaching No. 81; but as usual, it was largely ignored in the band's native England.