Bands or band members who follow gurus

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GoogaMooga
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Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Mar 2019, 00:45

I suppose the guru thing starts with the Maharishi in Bangor, Wales, in 1967. The Fabs took the train to meet him, and the next year they were in India with Mia and sister, Donovan, and Mike Love, in his ashram. Didn't John Lennon leave early, disillusioned?

Then there was Pete Townshend and his guru Meher Baba. Melanie also dallied in Baba's teachings. And much later, unfortunately, Bobby McFerrin quoted him in the rather stupid "Don't Worry, Be Happy".

Carlos Santana had a spiritual phase in the 70s, following Sri Chinmoy, and changed his name to Devadip Carlos Santana. That was later dropped, but we got some interesting albums out of that, not least "Love, Devotion, Surrender".

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"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Nervous Ned » 08 Mar 2019, 07:02

David Sylvian had his own guru ... to the extent that she even appeared on a track from one of his albums.
Needless to say, several years later he became disillusioned with the whole thing ... and wrote a song about that too :roll:

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Quaco » 08 Mar 2019, 07:53

"Don't Worry Be Happy" is any stupider than half of the stuff you post about?!?!
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Darkness_Fish » 08 Mar 2019, 09:15

The Residents claimed to be disciples of N Senada, and his theory of obscurity. But the likelihood is that he didn't exist.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Penk! » 08 Mar 2019, 09:51

DJ Premier supported a Guru for much of his career.
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Walk In My Shadow » 08 Mar 2019, 10:23

Cat Stevens

Terence Trent D'Arby
Beneluxfunkmeisterlurvegod


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The Modernist
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby The Modernist » 08 Mar 2019, 11:24

GoogaMooga wrote:I suppose the guru thing starts with the Maharishi in Bangor, Wales, in 1967. The Fabs took the train to meet him, and the next year they were in India with Mia and sister, Donovan, and Mike Love, in his ashram. Didn't John Lennon leave early, disillusioned?


No, Ringo left early when he ran out of baked beans and became disillusioned by the flies.

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GoogaMooga
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Mar 2019, 14:09

Quaco wrote:"Don't Worry Be Happy" is any stupider than half of the stuff you post about?!?!


Yes. As a matter of fact it is. IMO.
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Mar 2019, 14:10

PENK wrote:DJ Premier supported a Guru for much of his career.


And great they were.
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Count Machuki » 08 Mar 2019, 15:40

Ah, this is the perfect place to ask about something that's been bugging me. I spent about a week or so reading up on George Gurdjieff based on a comment I saw here about somebody following him.

Was it Kevin Ayers?

Quaco, I think I remember you mentioning this...no?
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby HotRats » 08 Mar 2019, 16:23

GoogaMooga wrote:I suppose the guru thing starts with the Maharishi in Bangor, Wales, in 1967. The Fabs took the train to meet him, and the next year they were in India with Mia and sister, Donovan, and Mike Love, in his ashram. Didn't John Lennon leave early, disillusioned?



I'm pretty sure most musicians SHOULD follow Donovan as a Guru. After all he did invent folk, taught the Beatles how to play folk guitar, invented the White Album, and probably invented Gurus too for that matter. Just ask him.

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby HotRats » 08 Mar 2019, 16:33

Nervous Ned wrote:David Sylvian had his own guru ... to the extent that she even appeared on a track from one of his albums.
Needless to say, several years later he became disillusioned with the whole thing ... and wrote a song about that too :roll:


:lol:

I remember reading the interview with David Sylvian in Mojo for the Now Playing bit at the front, and wondering whether it had been ghost written by Charlie Brooker.

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Quaco » 08 Mar 2019, 17:18

Count Machuki wrote:Ah, this is the perfect place to ask about something that's been bugging me. I spent about a week or so reading up on George Gurdjieff based on a comment I saw here about somebody following him.

Was it Kevin Ayers?

Quaco, I think I remember you mentioning this...no?

Fripp has connections -- his favorite philosopher, JG Bennett, was a Gurdjieff scholar. There's also this ...

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Count Machuki
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Count Machuki » 08 Mar 2019, 17:45

Was is Fripp? I could sweat it was somebody a bit more...fried. Thanks though.
That Gurdjieff stuff is wild - it's a lovely mix of profound and preposterous.

Plus, look at the guy:

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Let U be the set of all united sets, K be the set of the kids and D be the set of things divided.
Then it follows that ∀ k ∈ K: K ∈ U ⇒ k ∉ D

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby The Modernist » 08 Mar 2019, 19:41

Gurdjieff was tremendously influential on early 20th century thought. The counter-culture can be traced directly to him in many ways.

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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Snarfyguy » 08 Mar 2019, 22:26

Darkness_Fish wrote:The Residents claimed to be disciples of N Senada, and his theory of obscurity. But the likelihood is that he didn't exist.


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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby clive gash » 08 Mar 2019, 22:28

The cream of BCB followed our Lord and saviour J Coan to the promised land.
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby Charlie O. » 09 Mar 2019, 05:33

GoogaMooga wrote:Image

Robert Christgau wrote:On the back cover is a photograph of three men. Two of them are dressed in white and have their hands folded--one grinning like Alfred E. Neuman, the other looking like he's about to have a Supreme Court case named after him: solemn, his wrists ready for the cuffs. In between, a man in an orange ski jacket and red pants with one white sock seems to have caught his tongue on his lower lip. He looks like the yoga coach at a fashionable lunatic asylum. Guess which one is Sri Chinmoy. B-
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GoogaMooga
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Re: Bands or band members who follow gurus

Postby GoogaMooga » 09 Mar 2019, 05:46

Yeah, I remember Christgau's write-up - a classic! LOL
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck


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