Pot Head Pixies

What are Pot Head Pixies? you might ask; If you don't know who the Pot head Pixies are, then you have never heard of the Gong Band, nor of Daevid Allen, or the Planet Gong. If tyhis is the case, then it is a great shame, for this means you have missed one of the greatest alternative psychedelic jazz glissando phenomena this world has ever seen. Storytelling genius is what you can call the anthology of albums by Daevid Allens Planet Gong. The story of the Pot head Pixies and the Planet Gong is both an amazing Fantasy journey, as well as a Social satire and spiritual guide to astral travel. Ecology is also of course and underlying issue within the Myths of the Green planet Gong. The Pot Head Pixies, who are the inhabitants of the planet Gong, are green pointy headed "Piskies" (Allen)
, who never die, rather enter into a cone shaped being called an octave doctor when they are old, and then exit rejuvenated again. The PHPs (abbreviation for Pot Head Pixie, not a web code language) fly around in vehicles called "Flying Teapots" (allusion to flying saucers).

 

The most famous of all the productions made by this group of friends and relations who we call Gong, is of course the Planet Gong trilogy of three albums all dedicated to telling us the story of Zero the hero and his adventure with the inhabitants of the green planet; Gong. These three albums are called, respectively; Radio Gnome Invisible (flying teapot), Angels Egg, and You.

Daevid Allen has also made a host of albums and rock poetry as solo projects.

His ex wife, who was a singer with the original line up, also made some albums, under the name "Mother Gong" She made her name using the Planet Gong character "Shakti Yoni"as her pseudonym, and making some absolutely heavenly rapturous noises which became her trademark, known as "Spacewhispers". She started as she was in Paris and began to make poetry with the band "Soft Machine" which was the creation of her later to be husband, and creator of Gong, Daevid Allen. The album "Mother" was perhaps Gilli's most enchanting album.

Taliesin - Mother (Gilli Smyth)

 

Mother Gong toured internationally in 1979-1981 and 1989-1991, either headlining or supporting such artists as Bob Dylan and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Smyth appeared as a solo performer and lecturer at the Starwood Festival in 1992 and 1993. She has also done voice-overs for commercials, taped children's books and other books and poetry, given workshops on voice projection and voice as a confidence raiser, and has performed for many women's groups. (wikipedia)

Gong band are by no means over, they have now Released a New Album for 2010 called "2032" and are going on U.K. tour.

Gong - Master Builder

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a concept album featuring David Byrne and Brian Eno. The album has been the source of hundreds of remixes by other artists and D.J.s and has become such a reference for alternative artists to use as a base, that the creators of the album have set up a website for artists to remix this music as they wish! This is perhaps one of the most inventive and original albums of all time, and deserves a lot more public recognition than it has had.

This is the first time complete and total access to original tracks with remix and sampling possibilities have been officially offered on line. In keeping with the spirit of the original album, Brian and David are offering for download all the multitracks on two of the songs. Through signing up to the user license, and in line with Creative Commons licenses, you are free to edit, remix, sample and mutilate these tracks however you like. Add them to your own song or create a new one.
Album Info;
Released     February 1981
Recorded     August 4, 1979 – October 1980, RPM Studios, New York City, New York; Blue Rock Studios, New York; Eldorado, Los Angeles; Different Fur, San Francisco; Sigma, New York
Genre     Experimental music, Art rock
Length     39:40
Language     English, Arabic ("Qu'ran")
Label     Sire
Producer     David Byrne and Brian Eno


Go to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Remix site>>>>
Go to Album Site>>>>

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a 1981 album by Brian Eno and David Byrne, titled after Amos Tutuola's 1954 novel of the same name. The album was re-released in expanded form in 2006.

Receiving strong reviews upon its release, My Life is now regarded as a high point in the discographies of Eno and Byrne. In a 1985 interview, singer Kate Bush remarked that the album "left a very big mark on popular music," while critic John Bush describes it as a "pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience, and Third World music."

Byrne would tour to promote his collaborations with Eno in 2008 and 2009 and release the live EP Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno featuring a performance of "Help Me Somebody" in 2009. (Wikipedia)

Download Songs from the Album;
Brian Eno My Life in the Bush of Ghosts ;
Regiment | Mea Culpa | America is Waiting| Help Me Somebody | The Jezebel Spirit | Very Very Hungry |  The Carrier | A Secret Life | Moonlight in Glory | Pitch to Voltage | Vocal Outtakes | Come with Us | Mountain of Needles | Two against Three | New Feet | Number 8 Mix | Defiant | With Tin Foil |

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Keep returning to see the page grow,as i add more MP3 Music download links regularly

Robert Calvert - we like to be frightened

Here's a rare Rob Calvert song which i myself have not heard so often - although i am a self professed Robert Calvert fan. Rob Calvert was one of Britains greatest Rock Poets, who unfortunately died too early from a heart attack. His contributions to the band Hawkwind were indispensable and left lasting impressions on the science fiction acid rock bands' projected image of futuristic psychic warriors from another time.
The man was somehow a genius of alternative viewpoints, and liked to place reality into different perspectives, and view it from a less conditioned way of looking at things. Or perhaps 'reconditioned" is the word, for he did indeed reprogram his world with his visions of alternative realities. The worlds he created with his poems and lyrics have become almost real in the minds of those who have absorbed his Cosmology into their brains. Surrealistic and Quirky are the worlds which Robert Calvert projects with his Poetry. I believe he is an individual who cannot be likened to any other personality, with perhaps the exception of the Sci Fi author Philip K Dick, who was also rather schizo and addicted to amphetamines, which is something that could perhaps also be said for Rob.  Philip K. Dick was then author of Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and A Scanner Darkly (which was made into a movie with Keanu Reeves), and The Zap Gun

I became a real fan of Rob Calvert when i heard his two concept albums, "Lucky Leif and the Longships", and "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters".
Lucky Leif was an album about an alternative Earth, where the Vikings managed to reach America, and how America would now be if it had been so.

Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is a concept album that takes a tongue in cheek look at the Nazis, and the second world war.

Download Rob Calvert Mp3s 

Lucky Leif and the Longships Album;
The Making of Midgard | Voyaging to Vinland | Ship of Fools | The Lay of the Surfers | Brave New World

Robert Calvert also appeared with many other Prog Rock bands of the seventies and early eighties, such as Amon Duul in their 1989 album, - Die Losung
The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock   Classic Rock Presents Prog (Jethro Tull, Pentangle, Fairpoint Convention... John Martyn, Number 12 2010)

 

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Calvert

This is an amazing piece of Prog Rock Poetry with the same name as the Cult 60s Bible of the Hippies "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land is a connotation to thos epople who are either born before their time, oor feel that their thinking and worldview is different to that of the general conditioned minds of society, and does not feel at home in this enviroment.
The book by Heinlein portrays the world from the point of view of a Human being who grew up with aliens on another planet (Mars). This is a massive Social Satire and Critique of the values which Human Society places on things, and how importand things are neglected and unhealthy things are promoted. The concept of right and wrong, justice and mercy, compassion etc is also turned on their heads and viewed from an alternative perspective. I wonder if Rob Calverts song refers to these things?