In March of 1998, the members of O-R, an e-mail group of Gentle Giant fans (the very creative 1970's progressive rock band) were asked to rank their favorites of Gentle Giant's studio albums.

Each vote was weighted as follows:
Number One Album - 10 points
Number Two Album - 9 points
Number Three Album - 8 points
etc.
Number Ten Album - 1 point
Number Eleven Album - 0 points

Here are the results of the survey:

Long Form GG Studio LP Poll Results!

 (60 respondents total.)

When you look at only votes for the favorite GG LP, Freehand wins HANDS down (so to speak) with 25% of the votes compared to IaGH with 20%.

Freehand

15

In a Glass House

12

Octopus

11

The Power and the Glory

7

Acquiring the Taste

6

Three Friends

5

Interview

3

Gentle Giant

1

Giant for a Day

0

The Missing Piece

0

Civilian

0

60

But wait! If we factor in the relative ranking of these albums by everyone We get a different picture

In a Glass House

463.5

7.7

Octopus

452

7.5

Freehand

449

7.5

The Power and the Glory

424

7.1

Interview

343.17

5.7

Three Friends

333

5.6

Acquiring the Taste

323.5

5.4

The Missing Piece

188.67

3.1

Gentle Giant

175.17

2.9

Civilian

110.67

1.8

Giant for a Day

35.67

0.6

In a Glass House totaled 463.5 (an average of 7.7) points to edge out Octopus and Free hand for the #1 position.

While more people think Freehand is GG’s best, Octupus and IaGH enjoy a slightly broader base of support, giving them a higher point total overall!

So, which one is #1?

Why, whichever one you voted for, of course! J

Here's my opinion:

Statistically speaking, I think we do have enough of a break to create 4 tiers of GG studio LP preference.


Tier One – The best (according to O-R)

In a Glass House (7.7)

Octopus (7.5)

Freehand (7.5)

The Power and the Glory (7.1)

Tier Two – Highly ranked

Interview (5.7)

Three Friends (5.6)

Acquiring the Taste (5.4)

Tier Three – Below average ranking

The Missing Piece (3.1)

Gentle Giant (2.9)

Tier Four – Finish the GG collection

Civilian (1.8)

Giant For a Day (0.6)

WHAT ORDER DO I BUY GG LP'S IN?
Any order you wish, of course!
But often music fans ask GG fanatics that question.
They have stumbled upon a great GG CD and ask "What's next?"

This appears to be the O-R consensus answer to that question.

First, get your hands on...
In a Glass House
Octopus
Freehand
and The Power and the Glory

Then get...
Interview
Three Friends
and Acquiring the Taste

Follow that up with a purchase of...
The Missing Piece
and Gentle Giant

And then finish up the collection with...

Civilian
and Giant for a Day.

Final observations…

Interview’s strong showing is a bit surprising because it got so few votes for the #1 position.
But it got a lot of strong *middle* and *upper middle* rankings.
Similarly, TPatG, earned much of its high ranking primarily due to strong support by voters who did not rate it as #1.

Least favorite:This picture is very clear.

GFaD was rated the lowest by far.
The next lowest, (Civilian) actually had over triple the points of GfaD!
You could even argue that there should be 5 tiers since Civilian is ranked so much higher than GfaD.

There are certain things that GG fans tend to agree upon.
Then there are quite a few others that we differ greatly on.
The rest falls somewhere in-between.

Standard Deviation is a widely used statistical measure of such variation in samples and populations.

Since we are sampling the O-R population, we use the Sample Standard Deviation to get the….

Most agreed upon ratings
 (lowest sample standard deviation)

Giant For a Day
Octopus



Most disagreement among O-R member
 (highest sample standard deviation)

Three Friends
Acquiring the Taste
Interview



Next week we should have the winners names for you.

Thanks for participating and Good Luck in the drawings!

Back to Main










This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page 1