RIP Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen passed away yesterday at the age of 77. He had recently been involved in a battle against cancer and only in February decided against any further surgery and announced that he only had six months to live.

I first became aware of his music and his eccentric character through the early works of the band, Soft Machine. I still have in my music collection a copy of his 1971 album 'Banana Moon' though I confess that I have not avidly purchased all of his recorded output with Gong and the various spin-offs from that venture. If I'm completely honest, some of the stuff was just a bit too far "out there" for my tastes.

Yet, as I've said on these pages before, I have immense admiration for artists who are prepared to push the boundaries and take chances with their chosen art form. Daevid Allen (occasionally known as Divided Alien) certainly fit into that category. He was one of the original anti-establishment hippies, yet despite his hippie leanings, he was also arguably one of the artists responsible for the UK punk movement. 



Don't believe me? Well think on this. Without Soft Machine and their influence on Syd Barrett, there would have been no Pink Floyd. And without the likes of Pink Floyd, what would punk have had to rail against? Musically too, there were elements of punk in Allen's output. Have a listen to 'Time of Your Life' the opening track from the aforementioned 'Banana Moon' and see if you don't agree.

Time of Your Life

Then to balance that have a listen to the following track, one of the many versions of Robert Wyatt's superb Memories.

Beautiful!

RIP Daevid.