Is It Wrong To Like Mike Oldfield?

Just watched the BBC4 TB doc, did not expect to be quite so moved by it at all, good grief. Definitely worth watching. Watching the follow on programme now, which is the 1973 BBC Second House performance of TB. I recognise Fred Frith and Steve Hillage and Mick Taylor, but has anyone got a complete listing of who plays on that?

No Viv Stanshall in the studio, whch is a great shame, but I understand now that he might not have been the most polished of performers.

Is it wrong to want to be Mike Oldfield?

http://tmr-web.co.uk/robreedsancturay/Blank.html

his version of "All Right Now" is really bad

His playing with Kevin Ayers in the early 70s is fucking incredible...I rewind those solos over and over

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r3fPo5JsPtY

Hideo Kojima used this song in some trailers for his upcoming game, thought I would see it on this page but didn't. Mmaybe I missed it. Cool song...

the 1976 record is more about texture, it's more elegant, flows and builds more slowly, it's dreamier. it also anticipates minimalism in the way it is content to just keep cycling & repeating. the 1974/2010 mixes are trying harder not to be boring, changes the balances of the instruments more often, and pushes the stringed instruments & drums higher in the mix. some of the brass textures really go over the top in a way I personally find to be a bit too much. it's a pretty good demonstration of how a remix of a record constitutes a completely different performance of the piece; all the tracks are the same performances, but the result of the orchestration has a completely different result

1976 mix all the way for me, but granted it's the one I grew up with

I have listened to 'Tubular Bells' maybe 3 times in my life but have lost track of the number of times I've listened to 'Hergest'

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, August 9, 2011 2:00 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This record is fucking great! Thanks for talking about this you guys. Where does one find the 1976 mix? Is it only on the LP? I see there's an 'orchestral hergest ridge' which was recorded that year and suppressed but I assume that's not it.

apparently the original cds have the 1976 version (though presumably pared back to stereo, as the '76 remixes were done for a quadrophonic box set he put out), but the new ones have the '74 mix.

ok, local charity shop as TBII.
is it shit and full of crap like that sea shanty crap on TB1, or, worthy of my coin and time ?

It's Trevor horn producing iirc, but idk what that amounts to in 1992

incantations tho

http:/www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0tF6nmOhVxE

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0tF6nmOhVxE

Such a jam

Loved his autobiography - which is less about the music, than his struggles with depression.

One thing I like about that song is way the solo switches up from a knopfler-ish twangathon into that kind of screaming eagle mac attack

Am also a fan of the distinctly less pleasant follow up 'shadow on the wall' with Roger Chapman as the timbral opposite of Maggie reilly.

Singing it through in my head and it keeps morphing into the guitar bit from Hocus Pocus

Roger chapman is the roger wootton to Maggie reilly's bobbie Watson; someone please tell me the rest of Crisis plays out like an aor First Utterance

Listened to a chunk of Crises on my ride in and no it's not like Comus FM at all, it's all a bit stranger than that. Overlong title track goes a bit Battles in places, and then after Moonlight Shadow you get these two reggae-ish numbers - first one with Jon Anderson is like a skank-prog follow-up to State Of Independence, second one is an ambient dub pop song five years before The Orb got there. Weird.

There was a live in the studio take on Tubular Bells that featured several underground people including most of Henry Cow. I think it should be pretty good but I haven't heard it recently.
Kind of funny that hard leftist people are working ion a musical project with a future Tory like Oldfield.

I liked him in the Whole Wide World with Kevin Ayers too. & possibly Sallyangie

I bought Crises because I love "Moonlight Shadow" and "Foreign Affair" so much, and decided to give the rest of the record a chance. Lord almighty is the sidelong title track terrible. It's like every tasteless, tacky, bad idea of the late 1970s crammed into 20 minutes. I'm sticking with the early stuff from now on (though I will still rep for "Foreign Affair" till the day I die).

Also, surely some hip-hop producer has sampled the first four bars of "Foreign Affair" by now, right? I mean, it sounds straight up early Def Jux to me

Ha, I actually like "Crises".

Somehow, I only just realised that Kanye West sampled "In High Places" in "Dark Fantasy" (maybe because I never liked that KW album). Does he have a thing for prog rock? There was the King Crimson sample on that album too.

In High Places was previously sampled by others though.

I also like Crises - it was the album that came out during my high school Mike Oldfield craze, so I'm down for life basically.

Crises and Five Miles Out are both really good, I like 'em as much as anything he's done.

Supposedly the next album is a sequel to Ommadawn - guess I'll hold my breath

In High Places and Foreign Affair make this worthy imo. Five Miles Out has the title track and Family Man. I'm not a massive fan of the side-long suites but there are nice bits and tons of cool sounds and textures (assuming one has already accepted Oldfield's whole "thing" that is).

Discovery got re-released recently, after which I got off the bus, this is a kinda sweet little track with a hilariously over the top chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvzG9siO704

Hergest Ridge became a favorite record of mine last year, magical album

i walked up the irl hergest ridge once partly because of mike o. it is a nice spot tbh

http://www.tgos.co.uk/contentAsset/image/6ca321bf-1cbb-40d0-9fdb-51fa5f7653b5/firstImage

Discovery got re-released recently, after which I got off the bus, this is a kinda sweet little track with a hilariously over the top chorus.

🎥

"Return to Ommadawn" next week. Maybe I'm not cynical enough but my interest is piqued

Been listening a lot to Amarok this week and lol, such a strange piece. the claim upthread that it's "totally untouched by any notions of restraint or good taste" is so on the money, just "here's a thing, here's another thing, here's another thing, clap clap clap wankadoodle doo!!" for an hour straight, complete with a total "what the fuck" ending. Totally plays to all his strengths too. Too bad he never attempted anything like it again.

That's so weird, I just listened to Amarok yesterday! So many moments of "wait NO... ok yes."

First post (hi! hello!) just to add that, inspired by this thread, I put on Incantations yesterday and thought it was great. Leaner and more focused than Tubular Bells (not entirely a good thing) but less flailing than some of his later stuff. Also prompted my wife to walk into the room and say "this is a bit much, even for you".

Do people sleep on that middle period, Crises, Five Miles Out, QE2, Platinum? SO much good stuff right there.

Also the live album Exposed which brings to life some of the pieces from Incantations.

I like Incantations a lot, and Platinum too. I don't think I've listened to Crises, 5MO or QE2 though I have them on a hard drive.

Hergest Ridge is my favorite by a long shot, peak instrumental unrock IMO

Crises and 5MO are excellent discs, I probably listen to those more than any of his other stuff. QE2 is plenty enjoyable, but not a whole lotta meat on those bones.

i love the guitar solo at the end of side 1 of Ommadawn.

"moonlight shadow" is my fuckin jam!!!

Best pop song ever.

Also, "Innocent" from 1989 is a song that hardly gets mentioned. The 12" mix is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMq1gdu8AiE

Crystal Gazing is ace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XI1devNicQ

Hergest Ridge has been rocking my world of late – I’ve never understood how anyone could compare it to Tubular Bells. To me, they’re night and day.

The opening section of this is so exquisitely arranged – the melody has such a great melancholy series of turns you never want or to end. It’s almost hard to believe that the trumpet (cornet?) part on the original mix in 1974 was played an octave lower with none of the urgency and desperation that makes it so affecting.

The arrangements and production are also special. The echo of the organ and guitar melody in the opening section is disorienting and organic. I’d almost say it’s hard to believe Oldfield was only 21 at the time but then of course there’s the section on side 2 with the dozens of head banging overdubbed guitars – it’s a very 21 year-old moment, indeed.

But really, I love it all. What a record.

My favorite as well.

This last week I’ve bought two copies of Hergest Ridge – the 2010 deluxe issue because I wanted to hear it in surround (it’s great) and now the 2000 CD issue because Milton’s passionate posting has convinced me I needed to hear the 1976 Boxed mix – so I popped for a cheap copy off Discogs.

His solo on Kevin Ayers' Whatevershebringswesing is one of the most sublime moments in all of recorded music.

I watched the BBC documentary on the making of Tubular Bells last night ... pretty enjoyable. Oldfield is clearly some kind of prodigy – comping ably along through all the parts as the multitracks play, shifting from bass to guitar to keyboard with ease, not missing a beat. Seeing this sixty year-old in questionable mental health part discuss undergoing Exegesis and the high wearing off after a few years is particularly heartbreaking. It’s hard to hear the rest of his work as much more than various states of depression.

It makes one wonder what would’ve become of him had TB not been so sui generis or been released under less ramshackle circumstances.

How amazing is this video - floral fucking shoppe or what

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7K-pr9ZinY

The bonus tracks on the newest edition of Tubular Bells seem to go on forever