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
Perfect Mystery
Gong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How becomes a tree a tree
But there's something telling me
That
Nothing is for nothing is for
Nothing is for only one lifetime
Learning to be
No cops at the door
Cops at the door
No cops at the door
What a surprise!
She looked in the cupboard
And found the eyes
In the suitcase
On the Isle of Everywhere
It becomes a man to share
All and everything he cares for
Everyone is everybody else is
Slowly melting themselves
Together again
Look up in the air
The Octave Doctor's there!
And when he strokes his gong
Your middle eye comes on
What a surprise!
She looked around for Zero
But he'd lost his eyes
In a fruitcake
The song 'Perfect Mystery' by Gong is a mysterious piece. The lyrics suggest that everything in existence, such as a tree becoming a tree, is a perfect mystery. However, the singer believes that there's something telling them that nothing is for only one lifetime, and that we must learn to be. This hints towards the idea of reincarnation, that everything in the world is interconnected and that life is everlasting.
The song then switches to a scenario in which cops are at the door, and then they are not. This exemplifies the idea that life is full of surprises and how things can change in an instant. The following verse then describes a woman finding a pair of eyes in a suitcase. This is very cryptic, and the meaning behind it is left quite ambiguous, but it could suggest that the woman has found something unexpected, and this reinforces the idea that life can be full of surprises.
The final verse of the song mentions the Isle of Everywhere, where it becomes a man to share all and everything he cares for. This once again suggests the idea of interconnectedness and the need for cooperation and sharing in society. The Octave Doctor is then introduced, who when he plays his gong can activate a person's "middle eye." This is very metaphorical, and the middle eye can be interpreted as one's spiritual awakening or third eye as often referred to in Hinduism. Gong leaves the listener with one final surprise as the woman looks around for Zero but finds that he's lost his eyes in a fruitcake. This is a very abstract ending that is hard to interpret, but can be seen as suggesting the strange and unexpected nature of life.
Line by Line Meaning
It's a perfect mystery
The way things work is baffling and cannot be easily explained
How becomes a tree a tree
The process of how a tree grows and becomes what it is, is not fully understood
But there's something telling me
The singer has a hunch or intuition about something
That
Nothing is for nothing is for
Nothing is for only one lifetime
Learning to be
Everything happens for a reason and is a result of gradual learning and growth over a lifetime
Cops at the door
No cops at the door
Cops at the door
No cops at the door
The unpredictability of life and how quickly things can change
What a surprise!
She looked in the cupboard
And found the eyes
In the suitcase
Unexpected discoveries are sometimes made in peculiar and unlikely places
On the Isle of Everywhere
It becomes a man to share
All and everything he cares for
Everyone is everybody else is
Slowly melting themselves
Together again
On a metaphysical level, all beings are connected and when one shares what they care about, everyone is united
Look up in the air
The Octave Doctor's there!
And when he strokes his gong
Your middle eye comes on
An imaginary doctor who plays music that awakens one's inner consciousness
What a surprise!
She looked around for Zero
But he'd lost his eyes
In a fruitcake
Another example of unexpected and absurd events that can occur in life
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: DAEVID ALLEN, DIDIER MALHERBE, GILLIAN SMYTH, MIKE HOWLETT, PIERRE MOERLEN, STEVE HILLAGE, TIM BLAKE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Corinne Frere
on Heavy Tune
♥