Gong- Flying Teapot

Gong is a Canterbury collective which over its history has been home to tens of members. Australian guitarist and vocalist Daevid Allen (ex-Soft Machine) formed Gong in 1967 after being denied entry into the UK due to visa problems. As a result, Gong was based in France, but is best considered to be a British Band. They have a large back mythology known as Planet Gong. While it was hinted at on prior albums, this 4th effort is the first of the so called "Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy", focusing on the protagonist Zero the Hero. Like many psychedelic albums, it's difficult to follow it all. The members on Flying Teapot were Allen, Steve Hillage (guitar), Gilli Smith (vocals), Didier Malherbe (woodwinds), Tim Blake (keyboards/vocals), Laurie Allan (drums), Francis Moze (bass/keyboards), and Richard Houari (percussion).

The album starts off with "Radio Gnome Invisible", a catchy little tune that uses psychedelic saxophone to lure the listener into a trip. The lyrics sound sort of like babble to me. Evidently, a pig-farming Egyptologist named Mista T Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor & tea label collector" named Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from ta certain Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Noodling and noises that stoned people make ensue! Afterward, the close to 12 minutes of "Flying Teapot" carry us away from the Canterbury scene into pure, hard edged, Hendrix-esque tripping. If you're a fan of late 60's stoner rock, this is your dream. The story here is Mista T Being anf Fred the Fish go into a cave in Tibet and get very drunk while chanting "Banana Nirvana Mañana" over and over with a guru. Good stuff.

Just for kicks, the entire story that was going on on side A gets thrown out the window, as we shift away from it, leaving them having a good ol' time in the cave. The stuff about Zero the Hero starts up, as he receives a vision of Pot Head Pixies from the planet gong. The Pixes are green with propeller heads, and they fly around in teapots. The song "Pot Head Pixes" is amongst the best pop songs in Prog history. The "I am, you are, we are crazy" chorus is extremely catchy and wonderful to listen to, and it jumps around with a pleasant Canterbury feel."The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine" is a transition piece of synth noise. Next up is"Zero the Hero and the Witches Spell." Zero does not feature here, instead there's some interesting scat vocals, Latin percussion, sax, guitar distortion, and more psychedelics for 9 and a half minutes. The story then resumes with the last track, "Witches Song- I am your Pussy". Zero the Hero offers his Fish and Chips to a cat who turns out to be the Good Witch Yoni, who gives him a potion. The story is continued on the next album in the series, Angel's Egg. "Pussy" is another very Canterbury Scene song, with lots of sax. The lyrics are also discretely sexual and the f bomb is used freely.

Flying Teapot is hard to classify. While it has the defining elements of the Canterbury Scene: it includes some of the 15 or so core members (Allen and Hillage), uses lots of woodwinds, has some jazz like structure, and has its overall feel at parts. However, there's a good 25 minutes of pure psychedelia here to space out to. By breaking the traditional structure, Gong is amongst the most progressive of the progressive rock bands. The only problem here is the ridiculous story which adds nothing.

Seaming two styles together effortlessly into a unique work of Prog, Flying Teapot earns a higly respectable Grade of A-.