Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant

My bass idol is Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant. He's the guy who opened doors for me in a way nobody else did.

I got to interview him when I worked for Bass Player, but then the editor was changed, and the article was killed as "yesterday's news."

When I wrote Ghosts and Ballyhoo, Shulman's gatekeepers never let me contact him. They thought I was an insane stalker.

It was so strange that this musician who'd brought me such joy kept being associated with pain and failure. The two times I tried to incorporate him into my work, I was thwarted in the most brutal way possible.

Nobody knows what goes on after we die, and nobody knows if there's any kind of intelligent force running the show. I believe there is, but that's only a belief. I never try to push my beliefs on anybody.

Still, I like happy endings. Therefore, here's something that I hope you'll enjoy. It might mean something, or it might not.

Either way, it's art.

http://www.thomaswictor.com/watch-for-patterns/

 

Like you, I never tire of listening either. I can't pick a favorite album. It too forever, but I worked out "Mister Class and Quality?" Diabolic bass line. Shulman said all he did was following Minnear's left hand on the keyboard.



Ha!

 

If you want, PM me the story. As the forum's resident crank, I love weird post-Abrahamic pseudo-religious chatter about synchronicity and stuff. Especially "stuff." I can talk about "stuff" all day!

Make sure your message contains hippy dippy necromancy stuff (Hey, my favorite topic again!) and other forms of "me me me." It'll be even better if you throw in a creepy obsession with Scott Thunes.

 

I was asked if I could provide the content of the interview with Ray Shulman that was killed.

I gave the transcript to the Gentle Giant Home Page. If you haven't read it, here it is.

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Ray_Shulman_interview_by_Thomas_Wictor

It's not often you get to interview your idol.

 

And now you know!

If I entered a stadium with a million people, within fifteen minutes a guy would come up to me and say, "You're that freak who wrote all those books I bought, aren't you? I've read every single word you've ever written, and I just want to tell you how much I despise you."

Two reviews of GHOSTS AND BALLYHOO reviewed me instead of the book. The second time I decided to use part of the review as a blurb.

There are only four people on the planet whose opinion of me I care about. And as long as people keep reading, they can hate what they read as much as they want.

 

Scroll down to the fifth blurb.

http://www.thomaswictor.com/books/ghosts-and-ballyhoo/

Couldn't have asked for a better plug.

 

There's a link to an interview I did with him, and there are links to his music. Plus, you're free to make your own contributions.

The best line he ever played, in my opinion, is on "The Moon is Down." It's pretty much a solo. For some reason he never repeated this approach on any other album, which is too bad.



From what I gather talking to Ray and reading what he's said, he regarded the bass as strictly an ensemble instrument. His real love was violin.

He's never really accepted that he was a genius on the bass. One reason may be that he holds the instrument in disdain. After Gentle giant, he never played again, so I think he was "assigned" the instrument, and then when he charted his own course, bass didn't play a part.

 

This explains a lot about Civilian:

"This album also marks the return to Columbia Records (the first album on this famous label since the 1972 release Octopus) in the U.S. and Canada. It was cut in the L.A. suburb of Van Nuys in 1979 with former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. At 32 minutes and 41 seconds, it is the shortest album the band has ever released."

So Colombia took a band that had done songs like "Freehand" and "River" and tried to force it into the mold of a radio friendly rock ensemble, right around the time disco was dying out and New Wave was beginning.

Colombia released the following albums while Gentle Giant was recording Civilian:

Bruce Springsteen: The Darkness on the Edge of Town

Billy joel: 52nd Street

Neil Diamond: You Don't Bring Me Flowers

Elvis Costello: Armed Forces

Journey: Evolution

James Taylor: Flag

Wings: Back to the Egg

Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming

Barbra Streisand: Wet

The Clash: London Calling

Poor Gentle Giant doesn't really fit in anywhere.

 

If YOU say it, then yes, it must be true.