Goodbye to Gilli Smyth, aka Shakti Yoni, 83 years young. Poetess, cosmic feminist, priestess of space-whisper and founding member of the seminal band Gong, as well as her own band Mother Gong sadly passed away yesterday in Australia after a long illness, her son Orlando Allen has confirmed.
He says: "She passed amongst loved ones reading poetry and singing at exactly 12pm Australian time today. She is flying to the infinite through all the bardots as we speak so all your prayers of light, love gratitude and beaming energies are a shining light for her.
"Bless her psychedelic cotton socks, she will be in our and deeply in my heart forever. One of the strongest, most loving forgiving and powerful shakti being mums I have ever known.
"I give thanks for the blessing of her her being her example and shakti mumma presence and happy she is out of pain now and soon to be with, Daevid her dingo Virgin and all her favourite animals."
Gilli had three degrees from King's College London, where she first gained notoriety as the outspoken sub-editor of "Kings News", a college magazine. After a brief spell teaching at the Sorbonne (Paris) (where she became bilingual), she began doing performance poetry with the jazz-rock group Soft Machine, founded by her partner and long-time collaborator, Daevid Allen, in 1968. They would go on to co-found together the magical avant garde, anarchic musical ensemble band Gong and all of the songs on the albums Magick Brother and Continental Circus are listed as written or co-written by her. In her spoken-word poetry, especially within Gong's "Radio Gnome Invisible" Trilogy, she portrays a prostitute, a cat, a mother, a witch, and an old woman, and was known for wearing such costumes on stage. This became part of the cult mythology, which was written into sixteen albums that were produced. Gilli pioneered a revolutionary singing style known popularly as Space Whisper, a textural ambient cosmic voice/instrument and became known for her haunting seductive voice.
Over the decades she had continued to tour and record with various incarnations of the Planet Gong family and many other visionary acts, a floating gang of individuals and idealists trying trying to effect social change for the better.Also as a poet she had published several books of artful verse.
Her 1978 album Mother which I have just been playing stands as one of the first and most uncompromising feminist dispatches from the progressive rock universe in which she bought a very needed feminine voice ( a realm overpopulated by regressive and rather misogynist views towards women), the album's exploration of gender roles, cosmic consciousness, and domesticity remain vital and rewarding.I have posted a link below, a record that for me remains powerfully rewarding.
The Goddesses which inspired much of Gilli's work, were to her symbolic of life force,energy flowing through the invisible web of being that links all life. "Leave behind your old attitudes and celebrate being.You are always now and tomorrow afternoon. You unfold your life like a fresh newspaper and read whichever page you choose. Surf the far waves of emotion, explore mysterious dimensions from the danger of your own head." Her life's journey continues to be a source of inspiration to those who rode or are continuing to ride similar, artistic and political seas. Her legacy and that of her old lover, with whom she shared two children with and a long creative journey lives on.
with whom she shared two children and a long creative journey.
Read More: Gong Co-Founder Gilli Smyth Dead at 83 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gilli-smyth-died/?trackback=tsmclip
Read More: Gong Co-Founder Gilli Smyth Dead at 83 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gilli-smyth-died/?trackback=tsmclip
with whom she shared two children and a long creative journey.
Read More: Gong Co-Founder Gilli Smyth Dead at 83 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gilli-smyth-died/?trackback=tsmclip
Read More: Gong Co-Founder Gilli Smyth Dead at 83 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gilli-smyth-died/?trackback=tsmclip
Peace, love and light. R.I.P. Onwards and upwards.
Gilli Smyth - Mother (1978)
Tracklisting :-
I am a Fool
Back to the Womb
Mother
Shakti Yoni
Keep the Children Free
Prostitute Poem
OK, Man, This is Your World
Next Time Ragtime
Time of the Goddess
Taliesin
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