ALWAYSBACK

10085 - ROLLING STONE - 50 GREATEST PROG ROCK ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, DISC 38 - GONG - YOU (1974) (2015)

Compilation By Jon Dolan, Dan Epstein, Reed Fischer, Richard Gehr, Brandon Geist, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Ryan Reed, Jon Weiderhorn (rolling stone)

For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.

**********

GONG
''YOU''
1974
44:54

1 Thoughts For Naught (Daevid Allen, Tim Blake, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen) 01:33
2 A P.H.P.'s Advise (Daevid Allen, Tim Blake, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen) 01:48
3 Magick Mother Invocation (Allen, Mireille Bauer, Blake, Miquette Giraudy, Hillage, Howlett, Malherbe, Benoit Moerlen, P. Moerlen, Gilli Smyth) 02:07
4 Master Builder (Allen, Mireille Bauer, Blake, Miquette Giraudy, Hillage, Howlett, Malherbe, Benoit Moerlen, P. Moerlen, Gilli Smyth) 06:10
5 A Sprinkling Of Clouds (Daevid Allen, Tim Blake, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen) 09:01
6 Perfect Mystery (Daevid Allen, Tim Blake, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen) 02:28
7 The Isle Of Everywhere (Daevid Allen, Tim Blake, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Pierre Moerlen) 10:27
8 You Never Blow Yr Trip Foreve (Allen, Mireille Bauer, Blake, Miquette Giraudy, Hillage, Howlett, Malherbe, Benoit Moerlen, P. Moerlen, Gilli Smyth) 11:13

Daevid Allen ("Dingo Virgin") – vocal locust and Glissandoz guitar
Mireille Bauer – percussion
Tim Blake ("Hi T Moonweed") – Moog and EMS systhesisers and Mellowdrone
Miquette Giraudy ("Bambaloni Yoni") – wee voices and Chourousings
Steve Hillage – Lead Guitar
Mike Howlett – Bass Guitar
Didier Malherbe ("Bloomdido Glad de Brasse") – Wind instruments and Vocals
Benoit Moerlen – percussion
Pierre Moerlen – Drums, Percussion
Gilli Smyth ("Shakti Yoni") – poems and space whisper

**********

ABOUT THE ALBUM (WIKIPEDIA)

**********

REVIEW/AMG
by Rovi Staff
You is the final installment in Gong's legendary Radio Gnome Trilogy, and it marks an important turning point for the band. By 1974, the psychedelic hippie/folk-rock element of the sound that was leader Daevid Allen's most important contribution was beginning to disappear. In its place was a more sophisticated musical vision that owed as much to jazz-rock fusion as to fellow space rockers like Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. Ironically, this is Gong's most "spacy" album, full of extended, ethereal passages that would inspire future generations of space rockers. The sound was equally defined however, by the jazzy flights of saxophonist Didier Malherbe and the sinuous rhythms of bassist Mike Howlett and drummer Pierre Moerlen (the band would eventually become the fusion-oriented Pierre Moerlen's Gong). Allen's songs still provide a crucial link to the rest of the trilogy, though the conceptual/mythological aspect is less crucial to You.

**********

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
By Jim Powers

Gong slowly came together in the late '60s when Australian guitarist Daevid Allen (ex-Soft Machine) began making music with his wife, singer Gilli Smyth, along with a shifting lineup of supporting musicians. Albums from this period include Magick Brother, Mystic Sister (1969) and the impromptu jam session Bananamoon (1971) featuring Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine, Gary Wright from Spooky Tooth, and Maggie Bell. A steady lineup featuring Frenchman Didier Malherbe (sax and reeds), Christian Tritsch (bass), and Pip Pyle (drums) along with Allen (glissando guitar, vocals) and Smyth (space whisper vocals) was officially named Gong and released Camembert Electrique in late 1971, as well as providing the soundtrack to the film Continental Circus and music for the album Obsolete by French poet Dashiel Hedayat.

Camembert Electrique contained the first signs of the band's mythology of the peaceful Planet Gong populated by Radio Gnomes, Pothead Pixies, and Octave Doctors. These characters along with Zero the Hero were the focus of Gong's next three albums, the Radio Gnome Trilogy, consisting of Flying Teapot (1973), Angel's Egg (1974), and You (1975). On these albums, protagonist Zero the Hero is a space traveler from Earth who gets lost and finds the Planet Gong, is taught the ways of that world by the gnomes, pixies, and Octave Doctors, and is sent back to Earth to spread the word about this mystical planet. The bandmembers themselves adopted nicknames -- Allen was Bert Camembert or the Dingo Virgin, Smyth was Shakti Yoni, Malherbe was Bloomdido Bad de Grasse, Tritsch was the Submarine Captain, and Pyle the Heap. Over the course of the trilogy, Tritsch and Pyle left and were replaced by Mike Howlett (bass) and Pierre Moerlen (drums). New members Steve Hillage (guitar) and Tim Blake (synthesizers) joined.

After You, Allen, Hillage, and Smyth left the group due to creative differences as well as fatigue. Guitarist Allen Holdsworth joined and the band drifted into virtuosic if unimaginative jazz fusion. Hillage and Allen each released several solo albums and Smyth formed Mothergong. Nevertheless the trilogy lineup reunited for a few one-off concerts including a 1977 French concert documented on the excellent Gong Est Mort, Vive Gong album. Allen also reunited with Malherbe and Pyle as well as other musicians he had collaborated with over the years for 1992's Shapeshifter album. Hillage also worked as the ambient-techno alias System 7. A number of Gong-related bands have existed over the years, including Mothergong, Gongzilla, Pierre Moerlin's Gong, NY Gong, Planet Gong, and Gongmaison. During the new millennium Gong material continued to be released, including Live 2 Infinitea issued in fall 2000, as well as numerous reissues. I Am Your Egg appeared in 2006 from United States of Distribution. Meanwhile, Gong in various lineups featuring Allen and Smyth continued to perform and record intermittently, up to final album I See You released in 2014, before Allen succumbed to cancer in Australia on March 13, 2015 at the age of 77.

**********

WIKIPEDIA (BIOGRAPHY)

**********

WEBSITE

TO THE TOP