Giant Steps

In Giant Steps, Derek Shulman chronicles a truly incredible life and career in music—first as the leader of the progressive-rock pioneers Gentle Giant, then as the record-label executive responsible for cultivating and signing the likes of Bon Jovi, Dream Theater, and Slipknot and orchestrating comebacks by AC/DC, Bad Company, and more. Beginning with a young Shulman confidently telling his school teacher that he would grow up to become a pop star, this eye-opening memoir explores a Zelig-like existence on both sides of the music industry. Shulman found fame first as a teenager in the 60s group Simon Dupree & The Big Sound, then took rock music to the outer reaches across eleven albums with Gentle Giant. In the 80s, he switched gears to become a record executive, first at Polygram and then at Atco and Roadrunner, working with everyone from Black Sabbath to Dr. Dre to Pantera to Men Without Hats. Along the way, Gentle Giant would become a defining influence on hip-hop, their music sampled by many of the genre’s leading lights—including J. Dilla, De La Soul, and dozens more—and the band acclaimed by The Roots bandleader and filmmaker Questlove as one of his favourite rock acts of all time. Clean-living and career-driven in a world of debauchery and excess, Shulman is perfectly placed to explore and explain the major developments in popular music and youth culture from the 1960s to the present day, making Giant Steps a must-read for fans of prog, rock, hip-hop, and more.