Hey everyone, I just wanted to share with everyone an essay I wrote on "Gong" for my religion course, "Death as a Fact of Life", a course on spirituality, religion, death, life and all else in discussion.

Life as a Fact of Death

Brian Travers

            This essay is inspired by years of interest in the topics of spirituality, life, death, philosophy, and my being a very strong musical hobbyist.   I have chosen to research this specific topic in the hopes of furthering my understanding of these ideals, how they are presented through music and art, and a chance at sharing them with others.  The content herein is vast, deeply insightful and has been overall a very pleasurable, important and exciting experience in learning and understanding.  I hope I have and may continue to further my knowledge on this subject matter, and that you, the reader, may be intrigued, inspired or just simply interested in the views presented here.

            I actually began my research into the entire mystery of life, death and spirituality very early in my life, around the age of twelve or so.  Perhaps not with the full intent of actually researching anything, I found myself thinking long and hard in awe and wonderment to what, at the time, was a stunningly fresh bit of say, “food for thought”.  I never quite fell into any category of religious faith although I was built up on grounds of Christianity to which I still base many ideals and morals on in my life.  So, I was left with a good bit of freedom in my questioning things; slowly stepping out of the young frivolity of childhood and becoming more and more intrigued by these enormous mysteries.  “What happens when I die?” I would ask, and even more so, “What does life mean for us, me? What is the purpose, meaning…what exactly is going on here?” and so forth.  These questions run through the minds of, if I can assume with fair certainty, all human beings on this planet at some point.  A truly beautiful, wondrous, albeit sometimes frustrating, experience it has been to engulf myself in this idea and questioning.  Being given the opportunity to actually research this has been something of a revelation of its own.  Although I have indeed thought about this for years, to enforce upon myself a written, research driven explanation is to come to a brand new knowledge in itself.  The ideals put forth here, for which I have researched thoroughly, have become more so than ever the fundamentals for the way of life that I have chosen to pursue.  Putting that content into written word has become all the more meaningful for portrayal and understanding.  This I have done with full respect and regard for the beliefs of others, and with a strong construct of these beliefs; spiritual, religious and all else.

“Now if you want to know just how to tune into the vibes of the planet, nobody else can tell you, everybody got there own way to do it” –

(Eat That Phonebook Coda – Angel’s Egg)

            The focus of this text is on a scarcely known band whose music encompassed an entire cultural belief on ideas of spirituality, “God”, life, death, and passionately insightful answers to the aforementioned questions of my teenage years.  This culture entails the life and times of the Hippy scene of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in America as well as the rest of the world.  This band is the center of my research on this enticingly deep topic; this band is simply known as Gong; a progressive rock band born out of France in and around 1967, finding their “sound” and legacy in the city of Canterbury in South East England.  This city would give birth to a cluster of bands involved in similar styles of psychedelically driven jazz and musical innovation, including The Soft Machine, Caravan, Egg and Matching Mole to name a few.  “Progressive Rock” is a genre of music which truly found itself in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  The genre, at its base, includes musicians interested in fresh musical ideas and innovations. Another essential descriptive element of progressive rock is that it contains a vast array of other musical genres jumbled together to create unique and often inventive sounds.  Most all bands in Canterbury at this time were involved in progressive music and would often interconnect with one another.  The history of Gong and the Canterbury scene is extremely vast and lengthy, but giving a brief explanation is quite important to support their strong connection to the culture and beliefs of the time.

Gong was formed by guitarist Daevid Allen, an Australian musician turned French residing hippy commune member with a fiendish love for impoverished, musical, drug, love and peace driven lifestyles.  Co-founding the band was key fellow hippy member Gilli Smyth who, alongside Daevid, remains a strong element in the band to this day for her inventive “space whispers” and poetry.  The two would later meet with sax and flute player Didier Malherbe who would also become and remain an outstanding part of the band.  A few respectively insignificant affiliates, regarding the entire repertoire of the band’s legacy, were also involved in early recordings and sessions.  Essentially, the original combination of Daevid and Gilli would be the basis for bringing an entirely unique experience of musical insight to the world, or at least to their fan base. The band would later gather some ingeniously talented musicians of the time, a feverish cult following, and an incredibly deep artistic insight into life, death, and spirituality through a loving, peaceful and often humorous method.  Coming off as almost hazardous to the average Joe, perhaps equipped with blinders and ear plugs, the sound and experience that was “Gong” embodied the Hippy conceptions for an entire way of living and believing, and they did it with sheer style and outrageous attitude.

“You can kill my body baby, but you can’t kill me” –

(You Can’t Kill Me – Camambert Electrique)

            The ideas presented through Gong’s lyrics are that of a strong belief in some form of “Life after Death”, an awesome “Consciousness” and strong moral emphasis on love for one another.  Gong puts forward strong spiritual themes often while also recognizing and referencing various religious fundamentals or ideas.  There is a sort of relief taken through the music from societal constraints, and there is much emphasis put on spiritual understanding and freedom for the mind.  Gong provides this emphasis extensively through not only lyrical aspects, but their signature spacey, psychedelic jazz sounds which enshroud the mood of the music.  The hippy way of life was of strong influence for this, and the band’s ultimate legacy shows the true love for this lifestyle.  A sudden boom in free thought, breaking away from societal norms, and a strong interest in exploring consciousness culminated to birth the hippy youth movement in the mid 1960’s in San Francisco.  The lifestyle gradually found its way over land and sea alike, and an entire culture of connecting minds found peace through common spiritual beliefs, music, a distaste for money and capitalistic society, and strong foundations of respect, love and happiness.  The hippy (counter)-culture found its way into the mainstream for quite sometime, but was, and still remains, quite an underground movement.  We find this especially true when regarding the staggering amount of bands, musicians, and icons so infrequently discussed, credited or regarded as important in history by popular consensus.  Considering the fact that the “Baby-Boomers” are not all living in hippy communes today and loving poverty, it is safe to assume the hippy culture had its fair share of flimsy followers.  That’s not to say they weren’t all “hippies”, just not quite as deep of believers as some.  For a time, the media had its grasp on hippie culture and turned hundreds of thousands onto its fashions, music and laid back lifestyle.  The deeper ideologies held in the culture were, of course, not followed so intensely by everyone.  Alas, the beliefs are still (and always will be) feverishly stirring on the Planet Gong, and in the minds and hearts of all those who follow, “hippy” or not.

            Gong begins their music and lyrical outburst rather instantaneously upon the arrival of their first few albums to stores; “Magick Brother” in 1969, “Camambert Electrique” in 1971 and the soundtrack album “Continental Circus” later in that same year.  The philosophy taken by the band is quite apparent at them telling you “This Record Doesn’t Exist” upon opening the gatefold to “Magick Brother”, congested with various humorous, outrageous and apparently nonsensical drawings and writings.  There is quite a care-free outlook on life present yet somehow contained in pretty intense, intellectual and deeply insightful thoughts.  The music of “Magick Brother” lets one know this is a true hippy band, with various fundamental hippy concepts running through most of the songs.  With the objections to the big business world, love for money, the “ego” and so on, the hippy conventions are very clear.  “Camambert Electrique” is also drenched with lyrical philosophy and the hippy ideals and shows a band in better form.  It is apparent that Daevid Allen had a strong regard for thought, consciousness and life, but he did it with a style of strong humor and a care-free, peaceful, non-aggressive attitude…again…very reflective of the hippy outlook.  This will eventually lead to the all encompassing outflow of moral thought, ethics and spirituality found throughout the music of Gong.  “You Can’t Kill Me”, a track off of Camambert Electrique, illustrates strongly ideas on the human body vs. the mind, or soul.  Perhaps our mind is not so attached to our bodies as we may perceive, and death is but another stage for the soul to pass through.  A line from the song, “You can kill my body baby, but you can’t kill me...” derives from a strong feeling of existence beyond this “body”, or this life in general, whether it is reincarnation, different planes of thought, heavens, hells or what have you.  Daevid’s lyrics here tend to create an idea for constant “life” in the sense that there is one great consciousness beating through all of us, and thus we are all one in the same; “I’ll be being you again”, “You’re really only me if you’d only remember”.  The emphasis is on being “here and now” rather than being “there and not”.  So why worry?  This all certainly related to ideas of Buddhist reincarnation, and Gong will reference this idea of constant birth and death again in their later albums.  The lyric, “You can do what you want”, from the same track and repeated at the end of the album, ties in directly with this theme of constant life and is a call for one to be free of societal constraints to thought.  This is yet another strong hippy ideal, the freedom to make your own decisions with a wise, ethical and respectful outlook. Gong seems to be playing almost in an effort to help the listener be at ease with life, rid of fear and anxiety, and understand that there is mystery all around us and belief is free.  The visual appearance, on stage antics, and overall style of Gong are all solid proof of a strong belief in this freedom to “do what you want” and find happiness throughout.  This freedom also lends a hand in dealing with thoughts on death, especially.  Seeing as the lyrics revolve mostly around beliefs, most of this can only culminate to the final unknown.  Daevid somewhat clearly exclaims “Don’t worry about it!” on the topic of death, comforting us with an open minded outlook.  If we cannot be certain of what happens after death, then why be certainly scared or even certainly excited?  No matter what one may think, we can’t seem to find certainty, and Gong strikes at this with humor and a welcoming attitude to that great finale.

With a few changes in the band’s line-up, the next three albums the band would release would truly engulf listeners everywhere in the world of Gong. This being the home of Daevid Allen’s spiritual beliefs, portrayed through some of the most inventively insane ideas ever found in the history of music and artistic expression.  This fresh idea would consist of three consecutive albums known as the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy, with a fair share of spoofing of the J.R.R. Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.  Equipped with the usual humor, a solid, fantastically strange storyline and a strong, true emitting of the Gong ideology, the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy is the bands most popular and most profound work.

“If you're a believer...
what do you believe?
Why do you believe it?” –

(A PHP’s Advice – YOU)

            The “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy gives us a much more unified insight into Gong and Daevid Allen’s philosphies than anything before it.  Daevid Allen claims he was given the vision for the Gong stories on Easter in 1966 during a full moon.  Daevid actually references the moon goddess Selene in various songs for this reason.  The previous albums hinted at the ideas of the trilogy, but never tied anything together coherently.  There is a lot of attention placed on the humor and freedom that can be “belief”, and to not get caught up in it or to ever be truly certain of anything.  This, in effect, is a belief on believing.  This is always done with an open mind, gathering and respecting other religious and spiritual views, and giving their own melding of it all through the entire storyline Daevid had created.  The views are not meant to be impending, but rather suggestions and inspirations for future, or current, followers.

            The trilogy is composed of various characters and their interractions with the protaganist, Zero the Hero, who is on a search for “heroes” after a grand vision.  After taking a “trip” to ultimately end up on the Planet Gong, Zero finds a sort of all encompassing consciousness machine dubbed the “Angel’s Egg”.  Essentially, he sees a plan here where he is to help save humanity and bring a “New Age on Earth” by helping the “Switch Doctor” turn everyone’s third eye on.  The planet is also home to various characters of which are all strong emitters of love and positive vibrations, primarily the pot-head pixies.  While all of this may sound like hosh posh at first read, there are large amounts of religious and spiritual influences in here which will be addressed.  So, Zero eventually makes it to the “Feast of Freeks” but loses himself in the simple pleasure of eating fruitcake and misses his chance at enlightenment and is then forced to continue the life and death process continually.  In the end, though, he is the real hero for what he has done, and he is by no means damned to endless reincarnations, and neither are we. 

“To pass beyond the countless worlds
The eternal wheel
The ceaseless tides of selves
Ever passing away before our eyes...” –

(Other Side of the Sky – Angel’s Egg)

            Author Rick Strassman, M.D., wrote an incredibly insightful book entitled “DMT: The Spirit Molecule” in which he studies a psychedelic drug, DMT, on volunteer patients in an effort to understand near death experience, the human pineal gland, psychological themes and mystical experiences.  DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a naturally occurring, short term yet extremely potent and powerful psychedelic found in the blood-brain barrier of all human beings, and other living creatures alike.  The aformentioned pineal gland is a quite mysterious gland in the center of our brains presumably responsible for near death experience, or other mystical concepts.  This gland is referred to as a third eye by various religions and spiritual thinkers, and even comes equipped with a retina and cornea in some reptiles.  It is interesting to note that the Ancient Greeks belived it to be our connection to the “Realms of Thought”.  This third eye, as mentioned previously, is what the Switch Doctor opens for all of the humans at the end of the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy.  Doctor Strassman studied the effects of this drug administered intravaneously, and found some stunning results sure to give anyone goosebumps.  The similarities between explanations of experiences, drug and non-drug induced, are the real shocking aspects of the results.  For example, an explanation of a near death experience being a spitting image of a DMT experience, in short.  Strassman ultimately draws the conclusion that DMT is a sort of “spirit molecule” and our connection to the soul, or spirit.  Testing has been done in the past with other psychedelics as well,  and there are a few strong groups always attempting to gain the ability to do further testing on these currently illegal drugs.  The 1960’s LSD work of Oscar Janiger, M.D., was recently published in “LSD: Spirituality and the Creative Process” and illustrates some similair themes to the DMT research but with a stronger focus on creativity testing in music and art.  Although there are countless books on these substances, the important idea here is to understand their importance to the hippes, and especially Gong and their message.  Psychedelics were assumed to have opened the minds of all who took them, give a greater insight into life and were assumed possibly reflective, at times, of death or birth.  Another book providing foundation for hippy fundamentals is the classic “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley.  The books insight into a mescaline experience, taken by Aldous himself, helped influence the minds of many people on thinking “outside the box”.  The psychedelic experience became of great interest after this and would support heavy changes in mass outlook on spirituality and religion.  These drugs have found a large home in indiginous cultures throughout the world for ages as well.  Their role in these cultures is extremely important to the beliefs and customs involved.  Many of them entheogenically utilize psychedelics to connect with other worlds/realms of thought, experience religious or spiritual fulfilment, and as healing agents for physical or mental ailments.  All of  this was and still is a strong part of the hippy ideology, and a primary reason for the actual birth of the hippy youth, open minded thought, and breaking away from disagreeable conformist attitudes.  It is also a very strong part of the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy, of course, and now some deserving insight into that subject matter!

            The trilogy is made up of three albums;  “The Flying Teapot” (1973), “Angel’s Egg” (1973), and “YOU” (1974).  We find throughout this trilogy, ultimately, a strive for peace and harmony for all human beings and Zero, as well as all of us, can achieve this.  The entire story is pretty elaborate and involves a lot of little moments and scenes that even the biggest fan could get lost or forget some bits and pieces.  Rather than focusing on the story bits, gathering the moments of insight into the whole belief system is more efficient.  We find the most references to belief in “Angel’s Egg” and “YOU”, the last two albums of the trilogy.  “Flying Teapot” is really an introduction to the whole tieing together of Daevid’s earlier ideas to create this trilogy.  There is a more “spacey” sound found throughout these albums as well, all adding to the great message of it all.  “Angel’s Egg” kicks off lyrically with a strike at organized religion with Zero exclaiming “…I'm so sick of God and these bishops that talk of divinity” in the second track, “Sold to the Highest Buddha”.  The lyrics here show an even stronger emphasis on spirituality vs. organized religious belief than ever before.  The Planet Gong apparently has no room for corruption of its ideals, and seems to be shunning here certain historical paths of Catholicism.  Taken from the eighth track, “Oily Way”, Gong shows their hippy views on peace with “Time for the end of…Hate! War! Death!”, and their disdain for the capitalistic world in “You big daddy in your big sick city, gotta choose to loose your games now”.  All of this referenced on previous albums, but now coming out in full force and in perfect harmony with an elaborate storyline.  The fictitious “planet” that is the Planet Gong is meant to be a sort of utopia, where peace and love reign constantly, possibly residing on the dark side of the moon.  This is truly set forth by “Love Is How You Make It”, the twelfth track on the album.  This song basically encompasses the band’s ideas that love can save humanity, while also helping one cope with all of life’s questions and problems. 

“Everything you give to share…when you come together, then you’re one with lovers everywhere, everywhere...” –

(Love Is How You Make It – Angel’s Egg)

            The ideas taken in by the band on “love” are very reflective of Christian ethics, to use a close example.  The teachings of Jesus Christ involve very much the same basic morale of the hippy movement.  The strong sense of love and understanding brings us to “YOU”, and the idea that we are all as one, one in the same person, and to love and help one another always, friend or foe.  “YOU” is the last album in the trilogy and probably the band’s most popular and most widely respected work.  The album finishes the story of Zero, and has an all surrounding foundation that is “everyone is everybody else”.  This philosophy is born out of the belief that we are all human beings under one same mystery of life, and we are born into this life pure of mental corruption or experience.  Due to this freedom in birth, we should not subject one another to criticisms or attacks, but rather help one another in a sense of strong compassion.  Ideas on compassion held through Gong’s lyrics are all very reflective of Christian ethics and Jesus Christ’s early teachings as well.  Also leaning towards Daevid’s ideas on cycling births and death, or reincarnation, many times he references “being” other people.  This again is trying to evoke the idea that we are all one in the same boat, and if we can learn this we can find peace in full understanding and love.  Other bands of the time regarded this idea whole heartedly, with one Barclay James Harvest entitling their fifth album “Everyone is Everybody Else” in 1974.  That album made a great attempt at conveying this idea and emitting heavy feelings of compassion and love.  In the final track on “YOU” entitled “You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever”, the last words of the trilogy, “You are I or I am You” show this philosophy in full form. 

“It becomes a man to share all and everything he cares for everyone is everybody else is slowly melting themselves together again” –

(Perfect Mystery – YOU)

            “YOU” completes the incredible journey, and ends bittersweet with fantastic musicianship and a sad farewell to the characters of Planet Gong.  Zero is stuck in the “wheel of births and deaths” and continues there for a while, until some later albums bring him back for some rather irrelevant, or often disregarded, changes.  This original story ends off with a clear message which Gong fans, spiritual followers and religious believers alike can respect and appreciate.  When it comes to life, death, and any mystery in between, the message is to be free of fear and respect that mystery with a humorous lightness.  For the hippies and Gong this is a way of life and will help us all to love one another, respect our differences and be as compassionate as possible until we do indeed experience that great unknown.

            Through this research and exploration I have found much more than I ever had expected.  The beliefs herein have become very important to the way I handle my life and its mysteries.  After diving head first into actually researching and understanding all of this, I find I connect with it even more so and have found ideas I never knew existed.  My conceptions of death and dying have become even more relaxed than ever, and I find the emphasis on humor towards certain parts of life to be extremely important.  I feel straining the mind to “understand” is unnecessary, but to be as free and as peaceful as possible is the only way to go.  The conceptions taken from religious beliefs on compassion and love are ever more important to me, and I will continue to follow these ideals.  I have also found that the hippy boom of the late 1960’s is almost shockingly underappreciated.  I believe strongly that much of the freedom of thought and choice in today’s society sprung out of the hippy culture, and this has gone unnoticed.  Never knowing exactly where to fit my thoughts on life and death, I now know quite well.  The research done with psychedelic drugs and near death experience I found to be completely incredible, and an issue much deserving of some mass attention.  Through all of the questioning of life and death I find that the passion, music and love discussed here can help better the lives of many people, yours truly included.  Gong as a band encompasses an entire philosophy sometimes ages old, sometimes as fresh as today, but all-in-all an everlasting idea.  I am very thankful for all this has given me and the countless others affected, and hope it may continue to spread love and happiness to everyone who will grasp it!

“..And when old father time rings the chimes of my years
And I see my life turning around me
When you lay me down in your garden my dear
Will you kiss me and let me go lightly?

For a death is so real and so whole and so free
And a body is so frail and so human are we
Are we dreaming?
Is this the earth dreaming too?
Will we live till we die
Wondering why?
Or will we learn to grow
Day, by day, by day”

Excerpt from “Garden Song” by Daevid Allen

From the album “Dreamin’ A Dream” (1996)

IAO ZA-I ZA-O
MA-I MA-O
TA-I TA-O NOW...

Q: Master Builder, tell me how you make a temple?
A: Tools and moon stones, you don't really need them, you know...
Q: Master Builder, tell me what the temple's made of?
A: Deep inside you, you can build an invisible temple in your own imagination if you will

Yes.  I was intent on posting that here but completely forgot, but here it is and thanks for reminding me!  Also, thanks for reading and the kind word!!

Bibliography

1)      Strassman Md, Rick. DMT: the Spirit Molecule. Park Street Press, 2000.

2)      Dobkin De Rios, Marlene, and Oscar Janiger. LSD: Spirituality and the Creative Process. Park Street Press, 2003.

3)      Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2004.

4)      Miles, Barry. Hippie. Sterling, 2005.

5)      Roy, Maxime, and Ronald Couture. "Progressive Rock Ultimate Discography." Prog Archives. 2 Nov. 2007 <http://www.progarchives.com>.

6)      Php. "Cyber-Home of Gong, GAS and Gliss." Planet Gong. 28 Oct. 2007 <http://www.planetgong.co.uk/>.

7)      Montserrat 1973 and Other Stories. Dir. Gong. Perf. Gong, Daevid Allen, Acid Mothers Gong. DVD. DVD Voiceprint, 2006.

8)      Classic Rock Legends: Gong. Dir. Gong. Perf. Gong. DVD. Classic Rock Legends, 2000.

9)      "Gong Mythology." Wikipedia. Oct.-Nov. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_mythology>.

10)  Gong. Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy. Rec. 1973. Virgin, 1973.

11)  Hill, Brennan R. Jesus, the Christ: Contemporary Perspectives. Twenty-Third Publications, 2004.

This may be an old Biblio because I had a #12 and it was blank, I can't seem to find the complete one but it is only missing that 12th source, sorry!

Nice essay TLC.  It is cool to have that certain band whose music really speaks to you like Gong does for you.  Personally, I've only recently dabbled in Gong with a Best of Gong compilation.  Since the various albums tell a story, a compilation album probably doesn't do a band like Gong justice.

Thanks for all the comments again, guys!  Always nice to see some interest in this