"Tubular Bells" - Classic or Dud?

Xgau is wrong as usual: it's the REALISATION of systems music's innovations (eg the moment they entered the charts)

Back in 1974, a very forward looking school teacher played our class in Leeds part of "Tubular bells" and asked us what we thought of it. Seeing as we were five at the time he/she probably didn't get much of a response. Except that I went home to my parents and said "Tubular bells" to them. So come my next birthday, I had some tapes for presents - a Wombles album, a Mott the Hoople album (presumably because my Dad liked 'em) and "Tubular bells". That poor old tape lasted about five years before it finally died on me, I must have played it all the time. I loved it immensely and it helped me along the road towards other instrumental music like (cough) Jean Michel Jarre. Well, come on, I was eight when "Oxygene" was released - gimme a break!

Since then I've worn out a vinyl copy of the LP and listened to the CD of it many times, and I STILL don't get bored with it. Now I know more about music I can figure out where Mike Oldfield nicked ideas from - Terry Riley and the rest - but it doesn't stop me loving it. Sure, I'm a strange one in that I prefer side two to side one for some reason. But still I go back to it, over and over again. So for me it's a classic, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here.

get some Steve Reich records and slap anybody who tries to recommend this pile of crap record to you. :)

if you don't know what i'm talking about check out "The Intro and the Outro" by The Bonzo Doo Daa Dog Band

the formally pompous elememnts of TB became laughable and acceptable, as i admittedly got into the Bonzos' music more, especially the weird world of Stanshall, but now i can easily handle all of side one of TB once a year, quite an improvement

that TB is arguably the fore-most reason for Virgin records et. al. revoltingly Blair-width rise is another matter -- the devil at work as the hippies played and laid

Ever hear Book of Love's cover of it? ::::shudder:::::

I liked "Moonlight Shadow"

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So? I liked it too. :) Great solo.

Best argument I have seen so far for "Tubular Bells" being a dud. :-)

(I still find it a classic though) :-)

Er, me. Not that I've managed to get through to the end of it.

I think he was quite enjoyable when he kept making instrumental "suites". His switch to more conventional pop songwriting in the 80s didn't work out that well (although "Moonlight Shadow" was nice). Anyway, he also made a great comeback with "Amarok".

okay also the very ending of 'incantations'

BUT NOT 'PLATINUM'

no

(if there's enough ether in the house)

I will.

I think I heard that Oldfield was keeping it out of print on purpose...

DUD. I do listen to the original on occasion though, makes good listening if you spin it at 45rpm.

(Twas the lsat album I wilfully d/lded, "not paying for THAT, chum" said I.

I've heard them all through 1992 god help me, here's what I kept:
hergest ridge - stone cold classic, beautiful, especially the ending. if you buy one, it should be this one, & on CD (some copies on vinyl have the original mix which was rushed out to follow up tubular bells -- he remixed it later for Boxed, and from then on all copies & all CDs contained the much superior remix)
ommadawn - a little overambitious, argh flutes, but the end of side 1, rocking
incantations - oldfield heard 'music for 18 musicians' and decided to make his own version - side 4 particularly good.
platinum - disturbing punk/disco crossover, contains philip glass cover, and 'punkadiddle', which you can use to kill people

from there on out, mike is mostly doing 'song' albums. I love the song 'to france' & 'moonlight shadow' gets stuck in my head sometimes too. five miles out is the stiffest parody of popmetal in existence, I like it, tongue firmly in cheek, I put it on, people say 'this is a joke, right?' and the answer is... 'kinda'

then, to get out of his contract with virgin, he released amarok, which is something anyone who's ever used the word 'prog' in a good way should hear at least once; people with 'good taste' will hate it, fuck you, I love it, it's just impossibly naive in the good way. that main theme which comes in for the first time six minutes in, it makes everything okay.

Giant WTF of the day: Mike Oldfield composed Hall and Oates' "Family Man"!!!

Ok, even though I had them sometime back, I just dug these records out again. Ommadawn I always liked the textures of, and am listening to Hergest Ridge right now -- the metallic Sturm und Drang theme section on side two is off the wall.

But Incantations -- man, that's a really, REALLY interesting record. Unlike some of his other stuff, it all works: the guitar solos, the orchestrations, which are of course excellent (Bedford, naturally), the Reich-ian synth patterns, and the melodies, which are among his best. Even the vocals are great, with the Steeleye Span-sung "Song of Hiawatha" particularly effective. Love it.

the vocals on those early Mike albums of course provided by Clodagh Simonds. if you like those albums, you'll really want to hear the 2nd Fovea Hex ep 'huge'

the Mike that made it to my ipod: Hergest Ridge / Incantations / Five Miles Out / Amarok / 'To France' / 'Don Alfonso'

all the fairlight stuff on 'Five Miles Out' has him neck and neck with Trevor Horn (who you know was listening to Mike, dutiful young nextgen proghead that he was). Disjunctive artificial level changes & sample interruptions, etc. Horn had the good taste to import all that into an arty Hip Hop context, the metal on 'Five Miles Out' is not concerned with such trivial matters as good taste, it is just a ludicrous good time

looks like I also ripped 'Moonlight Shadow' & 'Pictures in the Dark', good

Oldfield had expressed many times his displeasure at Virgin's lack of promotion of his works, and Amarok might have been his revenge: a completely unmarketable album that still showcased his talent as a composer and performer. Oldfield did attempt to circumvent Virgin and create publicity for the album by offering a prize of £1000 of his own money to the first person to find the "secret message" hidden within it,[1] although the competition received little coverage and consequently its impact on sales was negligible. The message was actually a piece of Morse code found 48 minutes into the piece and spelling out "FUCK OFF RB", a direct statement to Virgin chief Richard Branson.

And featuring Janet Brown as the "Voice Of Margaret Thatcher"????

Clearly it is urgent and key that I hear this.

James Brown and Margaret Thatcher both represent Evil at its worst, so I kind of like the connection. :)

Just listening to this again now and I really like it and fuiud etc.

I've got a free copy of this lying around somewhere. It came with a newspaper (think it was the Daily Mail. eek, don't know how that happened!)

Might give it a listen, I've never heard it before, apart from the famous bit in The Exorcist. Worth a go?

Yes definitely. There's a lot more to it than just the riff from The Exorcist. It's actually a lot of fun, not po-faced or new-agey at all. Also kind of unbelievable that it would be given away free with the DM, but they gave away a Prince album, so wvs.

TB 3 is very new agey though ..

not heard TB 2 ..

Well I don't actually like any other Mike Oldfield stuff apart from the original TB.

Hergest Ridge > Tubular Bells

Ommadawn > both of them

Apart from the beginning and end of side one, Dud.

the vocals on side two are ace

Ah yeah, and the growly vocals and the rock-out bit in the middle of side two. But I find the rest of it kinda... I dunno... dull?

I agree to some extent, TB has a lot of good parts (notably the bits you mentioned) but I do find it noodly and dull as an album. There are long stretches that feel to me like demos, just kinda doodly chord progressions that go on forever. But I got on a lot better with his other albums, Hergst Ridge and Ommadawn are both gorgeous and way more memorable to me than Tubular Bells, Incantations is repetitive as hell but very enjoyable, and Platinum is really good fun if nothing else.