Gong are a progressive rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen… Read Full Bio ↴Gong are a progressive rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. The various incarnations of Gong, its spin-offs and related bands are collectively dubbed the "Gong Global Family".

They were formed in 1967, after Allen - then a member of Soft Machine - was denied entry to the United Kingdom due to a visa complication. Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong. This band fragmented during the 1968 student revolution, with Allen and Smyth forced to flee France for Deià in Majorca.

They found a saxophonist, Didier Malherbe living in a cave in Deià, before film director Jerome La Perrousaz invited the band back to France to record the soundtracks to his movies. They were subsequently approached by the newly formed independent label BYG and signed up for two albums (Magick Brother/Mystic Sister, Camembert Electrique and Allen's solo album Bananamoon.

Gong played at the first Glastonbury Festival and were subsequently one of the first acts to sign to Virgin Records, getting first pick of the studio-time ahead of Mike Oldfield. By 1971, a regular line-up had established itself, and Gong released their Camembert Electrique album. The UK release, put out by Virgin Records subsidiary Caroline Records in 1974, was priced at 49p (i.e. the price of a typical single rather than an album), ensuring that sufficient numbers were sold for the album to chart (had it not been barred from the charts for being so cheap).

Between 1973 and 1974 Gong, now augmented by bass player Mike Howlett and guitarist Steve Hillage, released their Radio Gnome Trilogy — three records that expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology — starting with Flying Teapot and Angel's Egg both released in 1973, and You in 1974. At a gig in Cheltenham, in 1975, Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him. He left the band, as did Smyth, who wanted to spend more time with her two children. The band also lost keyboard player Tim Blake, replaced by Patrice Lemoine.

The band continued under the control of drummer Pierre Moerlen in order to fulfil contractual obligations, touring the UK in November 1975 (as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75) and working on their next album Shamal, but Hillage and Miquette Giraudy left before Shamal was released in 1976. (They re-joined the band briefly for a 1977 live reunion.) Gong morphed into a jazz rock outfit, renamed Pierre Moerlen's Gong after the departure of Didier Malherbe in 1976. This group reformed without Moerlen in the early 1990s as Gongzilla.

The Gong mythology, however, continued from the late seventies up until the nineties in Allen's solo work, and with bands such as Euterpe and Planet Gong (a collaboration with Here & Now), while Smyth formed a separate band, Mother Gong.

In 1992, Allen and Malherbe reformed Gong and released the album Shapeshifter, subsequently dubbed "Radio Gnome, Part 4". In 2000, a 5th installment: Zero to Infinity was released, featuring Smyth, and classic line-up bassist Mike Howlett. However 2004 saw a radical new Gong line-up including current member Kawabata Makoto and former member Cotton Casino from Acid Mothers Temple. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando Allen joined on drums for the album Acid Motherhood.

Gong (Gong Ge) is a Chinese pop artist. Use 宫阁

Other Side Of The Sky
Gong Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

To pass beyond the countless worlds
The eternal wheel
The ceaseless tides of selves
Ever passing away before your eyes

All life's light that I've seen
Here before me

Hare hare supermarket!
Hare hare supermarket!
Hare hare hare supermarket!
Hare hare London bus!

Hare hare ladies' lavatory
Hare hare hare hare hare hare

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Gong's song "Other Side Of The Sky" can be interpreted as a description of the spiritual journey to enlightenment or the transcendent realm beyond our physical reality. To "pass beyond the countless worlds" suggests moving beyond the limitations of the material world and experiencing something greater. "The eternal wheel" may refer to the cyclical nature of existence, where birth, death, and rebirth occur infinitely. "The ceaseless tides of selves ever passing away before your eyes" could be interpreted as a metaphor for the impermanence of all things and the constant change that the individual undergoes during their journey towards enlightenment.

The lines "All life's light that I've seen here before me" suggests that the singer has seen a glimpse of the divine or something sublime in the world around them. The repetition of "Hare hare" and the seemingly random list of words ("Supermarket," "London Bus," "Ladies Lavatory") may be understood as an attempt to depict the absurdity of the material world when compared to the mysterious and transcendent realm of the divine.

Line by Line Meaning

To pass beyond the countless worlds
To transcend the multitude of realms beyond our own

The eternal wheel
The never-ending cycle of time and existence

The ceaseless tides of selves
The constant flow of changing selves and identities

Ever passing away before your eyes
Always disappearing before you can fully grasp them

All life's light that I've seen
Every bit of beauty and joy that I have witnessed in life

Here before me
Is all of the wonder and mystery that has ever existed

Hare hare supermarket!
A shout out to the mundane and ordinary aspects of life

Hare hare supermarket!
A repeated reminder of the simplicity of existence

Hare hare hare supermarket!
An exclamation of joy at the mundane and everyday

Hare hare London bus!
A nod to the hustle and bustle of city life

Hare hare ladies' lavatory
Another shout out to the ordinary and mundane aspects of life