Daevid Allen Tribute

Even after the announcement in February that Daevid Allen had terminal cancer with no more than 6 months to live, it still came as a shock to hear of his death on 13^th March 2015.

Daevid Allen was a one-off – someone who embodied the most positive aspects of the late 1960’s hippy vision and dressed it up in his own singular world vision – the planet Gong. Whilst his songs often encapsulated this vision with serious messages about the way we are treating the planet or the iniquities of capitalism, he never took himself too seriously.

Briefly a member of Soft Machine – he only appears on their very early single ‘Love Makes Sweet Music’ – he went on to form Gong with his partner Gilli Smyth and others.   Gong has never had a fixed line-up – there are even albums released under the name Gong on which Allen does not appear – but for many the line-up that truly represents Gong is the one that recorded the three albums known as the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy: ‘Flying Teapot’,  ‘Angel’s Egg’ and ‘You’. 

Gong has never really ceased to exist most recently recording the albums ‘2032’ in 2009 and ‘I See You’ in 2014, both of which are powerful additions to the Gong world view but firmly recorded and located in the present.

Choosing songs for this tribute is difficult as there are so many Gong and Daevid Allen songs I love, but one that has to be here is 'The Pot Head Pixies' most especially because the refrain 'I Am... You Are... We Are Crazy' always springs to mind when things get difficult.

  

Apart from liking the song, I've chosen 'Master Builder' from the album 'You' (the final part of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, because of its (unintentional?) allusion to 'Finnegans Wake'.

Jumping to a recent live performance of an older song, we have part of 'Radio Gnome Invisible' live in France in 2010 - Mr Allen still has it...

I'd like to close with two songs from recent albums, the final track is from 2014's 'I See You'...

The world of music is the poorer for Daevid's passing - there are too few musicians recording today whose music is a true reflection of themselves without regard for career or popularity.