Paragong
Camembert Psilocybin Flashback
Porquoi Dormons Nous?

So, there are a billion different variations and permutations of the band Gong. There’s the original Gong, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, Planet Gong, Gongzilla, Mother Gong, New York Gong, Gong Maison, and so on and so forth. More Gongs than a Neil Peart drum set, that’s for sure.

One of the strangest, and shortest-lived, Gong variations was Paragong. In early 1973, Gong founders Daevid Allen and Patti Smyth quit the group. They were burnt out, and Gilli had just given birth. They needed a break. Drummer Laurie Allan and bassist Francis Moze decided to cut loose at the same time too. This left just three members of the group, guitarist Steve Hillage, sax/flute player Didier Malherbe, and keyboardist Tim Blake.

The remaining members changed their name to Paragong and just kept on keeping on, recruiting bassist Mike Howlett and drummer Pierre Moerlin to make the group a five piece once more, with Hillage picking up vocal duties. They immediately started playing new shows with this new line-up, but only in France. They really didn’t have time to tour internationally, because Daevid and Gilli quickly returned to the group, only taking two months off. I guess they weren’t that burnt out after all. And with that Paragong became Gong again.

Paragong’s existence was extremely short, but the band’s time as Paragong was instrumental in their later sound. This is when Pierre Moerlin joined the group. You don’t have Angel’s Egg and You, two of the group’s best records, without him. And when Allen and Smyth would cut out again in the late-70s, it would be Moerlin who would take control of the group, transforming it into a jazz fusion group, and changing the name to “Pierre Moerlin’s Gong” along the way. I’m not a huge fan of that version of the group, but you can definitely hear the seeds of that sound in this recording, with it’s emphasis on improvisation and occasional forays into jazz territory.

Because Paragon were only around for two months, and they only played a few shows in France, there aren’t that many documents of their existence. I think this live album might be the only official recording of the group. It’s only two songs, but, being a Gong show, those two songs make up a full set thanks to extensive improvisations, jams, diversions, and freak outs.

If you’re a virgin to the wonderful world of Gong and you like what you hear on these tracks, I suggest giving some of the group’s other live recordings a try. They’re very similar to this one in terms of energy and style, focusing less on goofball lyrics and more on musical improvisation, but still within the confines of a psychedelic rock show, no extended jazz solos or anything like that. You can’t go wrong with Live, Etc., it’s probably the best document of the classic Gong line-up, even better than most of their studio albums. Also, Planet Gong’s Floating Anarchy 1977 is a great one, although Planet Gong are really just Here and Now under a different name, forming to…okay, that’s enough talk of Gong side-projects for one night. Maybe next time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2020 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Gong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.