Much is made of Sun Ra & Funkadelic and their weird avant-funk.
Less respect is paid to Gong, even though their decision to force a sit in at their label (Virgin) to get their master tapes back is one of the cooler protests ever staged.
Yet their three album concept suite of Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You are based on as odd a concept as you’ll ever find:
“The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973) when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T Being is sold a ‘magick ear ring’ by an ‘antique teapot street vendor & tea label collector’ called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the ‘great beer yogi’ Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant ‘Banana Nirvana Maana’ a lot and gets drunk on Foster’s Australian Lager.”
Go ahead and make sense of that if you can!
But, like Ra and George, they are slyly funky too in places.
But, speaking personally, we prefer this one from the equally madly named but unconcepted “Camembert Electrique”… Is it just us or is “Foghat Digs Holes In Space” a bit of a groove?
[RIP Daevid Allen – Surely A great Australian, and as Todd Rundgren would have it “A Wizard .. A True Star”. If you don’t know Gong, it’s time to go and listen. Right up there with Amon Duul amongst Hippie Communes that also made good music]
-TH
