''The Missing Piece'' is the ninth

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Gentle Giant Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...

which was released in 1977. After the Interview tour this return to the studio marked a change of direction for the band with the first side of the album exploring different musical directions than the band was previously known for, including

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

and punk rock, while the second side was more in the vein of their signature progressive rock style. This was the last Gentle Giant album to chart in the United States.

Track listing

All lead vocals by

Derek Shulman Derek Victor Shulman (born 11 February 1947) is a Scottish musician and singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record executive. From 1970 to 1980, he was lead vocalist for the band Gentle Giant. Career Born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland, Shul ...

, except "As Old as You're Young", sung by

Kerry Minnear Kerry Churchill Minnear (born 2 January 1948 in the town of Shaftesbury in Dorset, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician known primarily for his work with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1980. He graduated from the Ro ...

and Shulman.

Personnel

;Gentle Giant * Gary Green –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(track 7) *

–

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(tracks 1, 2, 5-9),

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

(tracks 1, 2, 5, 7),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(tracks 4-6, 8),

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(tracks 1, 4, 7),

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

(tracks 3, 6, 8),

Clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

(track 6),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(track 8), vocals (track 6) *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

on all tracks *

Ray Shulman Raymond Shulman (born 8 December 1949) is a Scottish musician, and the youngest of three brothers in progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Shulman was born in Portsmouth. His father was a trumpet player in a jazz band, and that was the first inst ...

– bass,

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

s (track 7), percussion (track 8) *

John Weathers John Patrick 'Pugwash' Weathers (born 7 February 1947) is a retired Welsh rock drummer, best known for playing with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Early life Born in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, he moved to Swansea until, aged ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(track 1-6, 8, 9),

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(tracks 1, 5, 6, 8, 9),

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

crash (track 7), percussion (track 8), rhythm machine (track 8) There are no official instrument credits listed on the album.

Charts

Release history

* 1977, UK, Chrysalis Records CHR-1152, release date August 26, 1977, LP * 1977, UK, Chrysalis Records CHR-1152, release date ? ? 1977, Cassette * 1977, US, Capitol Records ST-11696, release date September 12, 1977, LP * 1977, US, Capitol Records ST-11696, release date ? ? 1977, Cassette * 1977, Brazil, Chrysalis Records 6307 604, release date ? ? 1977, LP * 1981?, US, Capitol Records SN-16046, release date ? ? ?, LP (re-release) * ?, US, Capitol Records 18742, release date ? ? ?, CD * 1994, UK, Terrapin Trucking TRUCKCD006, release date 15 July 1994, CD (re-master) * 1996, US, One Way CD 18469, release date 16 March 1996, CD * 1999, UK, Beat Goes On BGOCD435, release date 16 April 1999, CD (2× CD with '' Giant for a Day!'') * 2005, UK, DRT Entertainment/Pinnacle RTE356, release date 5 September 2005, CD (35th anniversary enhanced re-master)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Missing Piece, The 1977 albums Gentle Giant albums Chrysalis Records albums Capitol Records albums