A Giant Crab Comes Forth


A Giant Crab Comes Forth is the album of the band The Giant Crab. It was released in 1968 by MCA's Universal City Records. Giant Crab evolved from Ernie and the Emperors, a popular local band out of Santa Barbara, California.

Personnel

Giant Crab was formed around three Orosco brothers, Ernie, Raymond, and Ruben, all originally from the group Ernie & The Emperors. They added the stylings of brothers Dennis and Kenny Fricia to complete their line-up for their debut album. It also included a title track narrative by radio DJ, Johnny Fairchild.
The album leads off with an unusual tone, a narrated in the style of a news report by Johnny Fairchild. Fairchild was a local DJ from the Santa Barbara, California radio station, Radio K.I.S.T. He is given credit for the band's first radio air play. Fairchild's narration in the title track encompasses the titles of all the tracks in the album to follow. The words from the title track are written on the back cover of the original LP, in the style of a track listing. They are as follows:
The album consists of 11 original tracks, written primarily by Ernie Orosco, and four cover songs. Their take on Joey Levine's "I Enjoy Being The Boy" is the band's version of "I Enjoy Being A Boy", a song popularized by The Banana Splits on their TV show. Their version of "Lydia Purple", a cover of The Collectors is one of three versions of the song that were released by different bands that year, and it is arguably Giant Crab's most complicated arrangement on the album. The band chose "Hi Ho Silver Lining" as a single, likely because a version of the song was already a hit in the U.K. for The Jeff Beck Group.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "A Giant Crab Comes Forth" – 2:18
  2. "It Started with a Little Kiss" – 2:30
  3. "Directions" – 3:03
  4. "Watch Your Step" – 2:37
  5. "Intensify Your Soul" – 2:30
  6. "Enjoy It" – 2:04
  7. "Hot Line Conversation" – 3:00
  8. "I Enjoy Being the Boy" – 2:45
Side two
  1. "Lydia Purple" – 2:42
  2. "Groovy Towne" – 2:37
  3. "Thru the Fields" – 2:39
  4. "The Chance You Take" – 2:44
  5. "Believe It or Not" – 2:54
  6. "The Answer Is No" – 2:59
  7. "Hi Ho Silver Lining" – 2:30
  8. "Why Am I So Proud?" – 4:07

    Resurgence and reissue

Although "A Giant Crab Comes Forth" failed to gain commercial or critical success upon its first release in 1968, it has made a more recent comeback in popularity.
The album has recently seen two new CD releases on separate labels. Kismet released a version with an identical track listing and running time to the original release, with the addition of new liner notes. Estrella Rockera released the album with a bonus track cover of Rain's "E.S.P.".