Daevid Allen - Dreamin' A Dream (1995)

Artista: Daevid Allen

Álbum: Dreamin' A Dream
Año: 1995
Género: Rock progresivo psicodélico / Canterbury
Duración: 53:00
Nacionalidad: Australia / Inglaterra

Lista de Temas:
1. Dear Friends
2. High Points
3. Brothers
4. Big Daddy
5. Wotsa Use
6. Garden Song
7. Came To Find You
8. The Rapist
9. Sittin' In A Teashop
10. Fire Becomes Her
11. No One's Slave
12. Tor Song
13. Dear Friends

Alineación:
- Daevid Allen / Vocals, Guitar, Guitar, Keyboards
- Graham Clark / Violin, Guitar
Guest musicians:
Bill Bacon / drums
Tim Hall / vocals, bazooki

Antes de que termine el día va otro aporte de Alberto en este homenaje a Allen, ahora con un bastante bucólico disco en el que solamente está acompañado por el gran violinista Graham Clark, quien además toca la guitarra en este disco. No voy a hacer comentarios, pero les dejo el disco y algunas otras impresiones que paso a copiar aquí abajo.

This album of singer-songwriter material from Daevid Allen isn't as wildly psychedelic as some of his solo albums, but it's both competently performed and well-produced and is a reasonable enough collection of New Age-tinged folky songs. This time around, Allen seems primarily concerned with putting across his thoughts on a range of interrelated topics - feminism, male privilege, all that kind of thing - which is the sort of thing he's regularly expressed an interest in over the years but has rarely approached with the seriousness evident this time around. Whilst it isn't entirely my cup of tea, I think Allen fans could do a lot worse than giving this one a try.

W. Arthur

Daevid Allen is an intriguing, eccentric guy and "Dreamin' a Dream" is a look at what humans do to fill their hours, days and years. The potential, the failures, the good and evil, the small simple snapshots and the stepping back to view the bigger picture. The title of this album is appropriate thematically. Dreams of things as they exist, encompassing all the human weakness and frailty, desires fulfilled and unfulfilled, all so evident, to the bucolic visions of the hidden world--the world that could exist, given half a chance.
This latter aspect is beautifully realized in "Garden Song", where Allen sings, "for yr love is so real and so whole and so free / and a body is so frail / and so human are we / are we dreaming? / Is this the earth dreaming too? / Will we live till we die wondering why / or will we learn to grow / day by day..." The reality of being human and all the crushing baggage we carry comes through in "Brothers" when Allen rants, "you better get yr self a gal to care for ye boy / but my gal...talkin' bout...my gal / she reckons she ain't my gal...& boy! has she got anger!!! / Anger because I got expectations / anger cos I want sex-ual relations / anger cos she say I don't own her / anger cos I don't own my own boner." And as is clearly illustrated in that last line, Allen is that mad as a hatter gnome his fans love so much on much of this release, sounding sincerely demented one second and deeply introspective the next.
The depths of depravity humans so easily fall into and the devastation it can leave on the victim is brought to life bluntly, and in a necessarily uncomfortable manner in "The Rapist". The female victims viewpoint is represented by lines like, "The woman is washing her body / she is beating a path to the well / she douches and showers / each two to three hours / but she can't get away from his smell." But Allen takes no easy moral road here when he sings, "...the first lights of home have been sighted again / but the jury is getting excited / & the masculine panel is in a no exit tunnel / & she feels violated again and again." Distinctions of guilt blur and becomes one more of degrees. It's a thought provoking song and a highlight, brave in its unflinching study of its subject matter and honest in its look at how there is no such thing as an archetypal objectivity within humanity.
Luckily Allen doesn't keep dwelling on such subjects for the whole album, because he is such a creative force that he might have the listener climbing the walls or searching for the sleeping pills. Like a dream, humans possess the potential of greater good and this comes through when he sings, "i am through with the pain of lying / i had my fill of the cruelty and crying / paid my dues / in the land where the dying desert grows / and now i know / i am looking for a new perspective / listening out for a new directive / going back to the land of my mothers / i will walk with my sisters and brothers / we will share / what is good for each other in our love" (from 'No One's Slave). Striving is at least a beginning and if the bigger and better goal isn't quite achieved, it can't hurt to keep dreaming and striving for a better existence.
There is a timeless acoustic vibe through much of this album, which brings out the simple (but never simplistic) lyrics and adds to the dreamy (pun intended) bucolic feel of many of these songs. Graham Clark deserves much credit for the overall feel of this work with his violin adding a perfect counterpoint to songs like "Tor Song". And in that very song we hear, "There is no greater joy / than lost within my lover / no mystery is she / the one within my other." There is the complete potential in humanity for goodness and even if we only glimpse small aspects of that untapped potentiality in dreams it doesn't diminish that the potential exists.
As Allen writes in the liner notes "...This album is about the bittersweet tension created between love and freedom, the irreconcilably opposite poles in many a human spirit." These poles may, again, best be glimpsed in dreams when we are completely unguarded and receptive. This is one of those albums that just gets you thinking positively--and surely that is a good and beautiful thing. So tap into the collective power of the unconscious and dream a dream brothers and sisters, or as I originally wrote accidentally, "bothers and sinisters". And you know who you are...yes you do.

Godwaffle

Is kindness something to listen to?
There are no aggressions at all and the music is not particularly complex. Nothing stands out except for a special voice and the beauty of naive freak folk music. It is imaginative and friendly, but not boring. My favorite song is “Came to Find You”.

Jack Orion