Cover of Tubular Bells
Now where did Mike Oldfield go? If I had enough patience to watch the opening ceremony of the London Olympics I could have seen him there…
The hours I spend listening to Tubular Bells… Almost all of its first part is instrumental but at the end, Oldfield “invites” each instrument one by one to join the music. The last to join is of course the Tubular Bells. This brings the 1st part to a wonderful, yet still gentle climax. The 2nd part features a very musically gifted caveman and the cheerful tune of the Sailor’s Hornpipe. You’ve got to listen to it to understand.
Tubular Bells was the first record to appear on Richard Branson’s Virgin Records in 1973. Its opening theme also appeared on the soundtrack of The Exorcist.
It was nice to see how the two parts are about 20 something minutes long. Just enough to fit one side of a vinyl record.
Mike Oldfield is still active, now that I know where he is I have some musical catching up to do…
Click here to get to Tubular Bells on Amazon
Related articles
- http://www.tubularbellsfortwo.com/2012/08/video-blog-ep5-tubular-bells-for-two-in-edinburgh/
- Mike Oldfield interview: How ‘Tubular Bells’ led me to the Olympic opening ceremony (telegraph.co.uk)
- Mike Oldfield’s strange journey from Tubular Bells to London 2012 (telegraph.co.uk)
- Mike Oldfield – Mike Oldfield: ‘i Won’t Be Going Home To Britain Any Time Soon’ (contactmusic.com)
- Arctic Monkeys and Mike Oldfield climb the charts thanks to Opening Ceremony (standard.co.uk)
- Mike Oldfield performs at Olympic Opening Ceremony (itv.com)
- MeFi: A Most Tubular Guy (metafilter.com)
- Mike Oldfield says Olympic ceremony role an honor (khou.com)
- Tubular Bells: Michael Oldfield and an amazing prog-rock supergroup, live 1973 (dangerousminds.net)
- Mike Oldfield – Mike Oldfield Tackles Domestic Violence On Comeback Album (contactmusic.com)
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