- Audio CD (11 Feb 2008)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Original recording remastered
- Label: Repertoire
- ASIN: B0011NT4FM
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 86,723 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This band were never truly recognised for their amazing talent and originality. Although they epitomised 'progressive music' in the 70', they never managed to break through to the mass acceptance that they deserved.
Three Friends is one of their less acclaimed albums but, for me , in the title track, it has the best song that they ever produced. Coming at the end of a sequence of songs about the different paths followed by three schoolkids, it has a hymn like quality that can bring you to tears.
There are other, equally worthy records by this great band but it will always be 'Three Friends' that I will come back to...maybe because it reminds me to think about my own schooldays and the friends who disappeared into the past.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is amazing stuff! A wonderfully crafted album by the progressive rock giants Gentle Giant. Many of their albums are good, but they're not easy listening, their music is very complex, very challenging. It's a mixture of symphonic rock, hard rock, adding some medieval influences. This is a concept album, telling the story of three friends, starting out when they're playing together as children, "Prologue" and "School Days", and followed their very different paths through the life. One become an ordinary worker, the second an artist and the third become a very rich man. The songs illustrated this, "Working All Day", "Peel the Paint" and "Mister Class and Quality". The last song "Three Friends" is a very beautiful, like a psalm, one of their best.
A very recommended album!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is often overlooked, overshadowed by the following album "Octopus". But "Three Friends" is one of the bands best. Whereas "Octopus" featured shorter, highly structured and tightly arranged songs, "Three Friends" six tracks gives the musicians room to breath and actually feature some solo spots. There is some especially fine organ work by Kerry Minnear on "Working All Day" and Gary Green shows himself to be a highly versatile guitarist, just listen to the solo at the end of "Peel The Paint". Talking of which, "Peel The Paint" is for many the outstanding track and was a live favourite. Here in its studio form, the gentle, pastoral, introspective intro gives nothing away of the rock onslaught which follows. A beautifully realised track. I am also fond of the opening "Prologue" with its mix of sax and synth and the finale of "Three Friends" with its beautifully elegiac mellotron/organ ending.
Listening to this album again, I am reminded how original and inventive this band were. They should have been as big as Genesis, Yes and ELP, but maybe many found the complex time signatures and mix of so many musical styles too hard to grasp. A shame as they have been so influential on many new bands like Spocks Beard and their music sounds so fresh and vital.
This remaster is the last in Repertoires re-issue of Gentle Giants albums which were recorded for the Vertigo label. Like those this is expertly remastered by Eroc to make it sounding so crisp and lively. It's also beautifully packaged in a mini-LP style sleeve, reproducing the original LP artwork. The fold-out insert contains lyrics, credits and an essay by Chris Welch. This is a very good re-issue of one of this highly original bands best albums. I would get the lot in this series while you can.
Listening to this album again, I am reminded how original and inventive this band were. They should have been as big as Genesis, Yes and ELP, but maybe many found the complex time signatures and mix of so many musical styles too hard to grasp. A shame as they have been so influential on many new bands like Spocks Beard and their music sounds so fresh and vital.
This remaster is the last in Repertoires re-issue of Gentle Giants albums which were recorded for the Vertigo label. Like those this is expertly remastered by Eroc to make it sounding so crisp and lively. It's also beautifully packaged in a mini-LP style sleeve, reproducing the original LP artwork. The fold-out insert contains lyrics, credits and an essay by Chris Welch. This is a very good re-issue of one of this highly original bands best albums. I would get the lot in this series while you can.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
JOLLY PROG GIANT
"3 Friends" A concept album is there best album this is what they are about quirky keyboard changes, triple vocals,proggy arrangments, complex time signatures. Read more
Published 12 days ago by KrakenProg
Three Friends
Great album great service. it was a album I had given from a mate years ago, which I misplaced, so to get it back on cd is brilliant love it.
Published 8 months ago by Mr. John Cadman
Giant No. 3
Gentle Giant's third album was a concept album: about three childhood friends and who their lives take different paths; a manual labourer an office clerk and an artist. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Numinous Ugo
another giant classic
Even by the standards of the LP era, this is quite a short album but maybe that helps it avoid some of the excesses of prog-rock. Read more
Published 14 months ago by IceBear
Gentle it ain't!
As a fan, I find this album, as good as anything they have done - end of story!
Published 19 months ago by Tim Stewart
old friends
Gentle Giant has long been a favorite band of mine as I am a listener who you might say came of age in the era where Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, the Moody Blues, to name a few,... Read more
Published 20 months ago by kwd
I like it, but!
Ok, it's a long time since I have heard this, but I am pleased to say it sounds much better than my memory. The remastering really brings the sound to life. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2009 by Redjazzty
Full of class and quality
For their third album, Giant released 'Three friends', a concept charting their lives from childhood to adulthood. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2008 by Mark Kibble
Best Available CD release of this classic
I wont go into details about the music on this wonderfull album but having owned a copy of the american coumbia release with the first album cover art, I can tell you this is well... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2008 by Peter Duff
One of their finest
I was actually quite a fan of the Japanese digipak release on Universal - although some reviewers did ask questions about its sound quality. Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2008 by Mr. J. L. Ward
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