GONG!!!!!!!
- andrew Ivimey
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#1 GONG!!!!!!!
Forty five years or so after I first heard 'Camembert Electrique', totally overwhelmed with Pink Bloody Floyd, being a student in the early seventies, sex and drugs and rock and roll and sociology and my own inclinations towards hendrix, Mahler and Motown (ooooooooerrrr get him eclectic middle class yahoo poncy chap or what) it was at last a snip from dear old eBay, I was back in the groove.
Thence to 'The very best of Gong' way out on the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the hard disk drive I sync'ed - amazing stuff.
Have YOU listened to Gong?
You should - its a mental health issue. Highly recommended!
Then, in the university of Gong, you may find the meaning of Life. If you don't its a very cold and dreary, meaningless, drab, boring and dreadfully dull universe. You have my sympathy but I'm elsewhere.
And as for Isabella and hearing my bloody train a comin' (never thought I'd say this) - you can keep it! - Jazzzzzzzh - my arss.
Thence to 'The very best of Gong' way out on the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the hard disk drive I sync'ed - amazing stuff.
Have YOU listened to Gong?
You should - its a mental health issue. Highly recommended!
Then, in the university of Gong, you may find the meaning of Life. If you don't its a very cold and dreary, meaningless, drab, boring and dreadfully dull universe. You have my sympathy but I'm elsewhere.
And as for Isabella and hearing my bloody train a comin' (never thought I'd say this) - you can keep it! - Jazzzzzzzh - my arss.
Philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point, however, is to change it. No it isn't ... maybe we should leave it alone for a while.
#2
In my book, Gong was always Jazz anyway.And as for Isabella and hearing my bloody train a comin' (never thought I'd say this) - you can keep it! - Jazzzzzzzh - my arss.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
- andrew Ivimey
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#3
whereas our Jimi just isn't.
Philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point, however, is to change it. No it isn't ... maybe we should leave it alone for a while.
- shane
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#4
Welcome back, brother.
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
- andrew Ivimey
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#7
That's not jazz, that's R&B; its the sort of thing Jimi Hendrix did for years on the 'chitlin circuit' before he came to Britain.
Philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point, however, is to change it. No it isn't ... maybe we should leave it alone for a while.
- Dave the bass
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#8 Re: GONG!!!!!!!
Yes.andrew Ivimey wrote:
Have YOU listened to Gong?
Quite a lot actually, what would you like to know?
DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
#9
Yep, its only self defined pidgen holes on my part. But to me Jimi played R&B and clearly wanted to stretch out to the harmonic freedoms of Jazz, he often played with other players from a mainstream Jazz background, and had a Jazz drummer in fact. But it was always a "trying to play", wheras the chaos of Gong was always rooted in the Canterbury sound that gave us Soft Machine, and they always seemed to be coming from Jazz towards anything else instead of the other way around.
But any variant of "what is Jazz"! is always a problem.
but all very very IMHO.
But any variant of "what is Jazz"! is always a problem.
but all very very IMHO.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
- Dave the bass
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#10
Gil Scott Heron pondered just exactly what Jazz was and put it to song. Dunno if anyones heard it here? (S'got a bass solo in it...so it must be jazz then... arf!)
DTB
DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
- Dave the bass
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#11
Not wishing to start a fight or nuthin' but.... according to Gong Dreaming (the book Daevid Allen has written about Gong, the band, the Foolosphy, the History, the people etc etc ) its chaos roots stem more Geographically from the student riots in Paris and musical/chemical experimentations in Paris which resulted in the development of space-whisper and glissando guitar combining in stoner jams.Nick wrote:.... wheras the chaos of Gong was always rooted in the Canterbury sound ....
Sure, Gong were often linked with the Canterbury scene/sound but their make up of musicians/PHP's was very international. Pierre Moerlen was French, Daevid Allen Australian, Mike Howlett Fijian, Didier is 'really proper French' (copyright JTS), Pip Pyle, Steve and Gilli English, Rachid Houari was (I think) Morrocan.
'World Music' ?
Good thread, one of my fave subjects.
DTB
DIET (found this timelineon a Canterbury website)
"1967
August
[24] At Dover, Daevid Allen is refused re-entry to Britain, because his visa has expired
September
After spending a short spell in jail, he settles in Paris
[11] An article on Soft Machine in the leading magazine 'Le Nouvel Observateur' makes him an instant celebrity
October
[early] Allen recites poetry and dances on stage with Soft Machine at the end of their concert at the Studio des Champs-Elysées
Allen works at the ORTF on contemporary music sound programmes with electronics composer François Bayle. He plays solo around the Rive Gauche bars, and starts working with an eccentric Turk called Tanner Celensu, who operates an echo chamber. Allen himself is evolving his "glissando" guitar technique, the eerie slide style he allegedly gleaned from watching Syd Barrett at the 14-hour Technicolour Dream the previous April. The duo is credited as 'Electric Cafe-Theatre Cabaret'
November
Gilli Smyth joins what is now called the "duo" Gong on "space whisper" (also known as 'Atlantean Temple Chants'), frequently in the company of her "soul sister" Ziska Baum, followed by a succession of, as Daevid puts it, "about eight of the maddest musicians imaginable". These include Loren Standlee and Natch Claire on the flute and one Daniel Laloux, who plays a large drum with cello strings attached to it, as well as a hunting horn. Allen later described this period as comprising of "a large number of people improvising around nothing for hours on end, completely stoned"
[19] Paris (France), Centre Américain ("Music - Pop Poets") [DA, GS & Mike Chapman, Etienne O'Leary, Mark Boyle, Beautiful Peoples]
Last edited by Dave the bass on Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
- IslandPink
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#12
'Angel's Egg' is lovely music and a lovely recording .
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
- Dave the bass
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#13
Agreed. Knowing the lyrics off by heart of this album won me 2 tickets to Glastonbury in 2000. Really. <proud smiley>
Question was, If Gong are Instruments... who plays them?
Gong were playing in the 'Jazz' tent, "thanks for having us back....!" said Daevid Allen.... nearly 30 years after 1st playing there
DTB
Question was, If Gong are Instruments... who plays them?
Gong were playing in the 'Jazz' tent, "thanks for having us back....!" said Daevid Allen.... nearly 30 years after 1st playing there
DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
#14
Yep, no argument, early Gong, Magic Brother and Camembert was more spiky, though not that great a distance from Soft Machine 1, but by the time of Flying Teapot, I think its harder to deny the link to that middle England prog sound.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
- IslandPink
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#15
That Soft Machine track is truly excellent .
It also makes me sad, when you look at the (lonely) thread I launched the other day :
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4755
It's also a shame how hard it is to find a copy of Soft Machine 1 on Vinyl .
It also makes me sad, when you look at the (lonely) thread I launched the other day :
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4755
It's also a shame how hard it is to find a copy of Soft Machine 1 on Vinyl .
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"