After touring with Kevin
Ayers and other assorted Liggers, Mike
Oldfield decided to branch out on his
own, becoming the first artist to single
handedly give the concept of one man band
a good name.
After an album recorded under the name
“Sallangie” in 1968 with his sister, his
next album tends to reflect a more pastoral
texture, with the seminal Tubular Bells
(73) helping to launch Richard Branson
and Virgin Records onto the International
scene.
“But what of the music I hear you Yelp.
Well, there’s fast bits, and slow bits,
orgasmic bits and passive bits, heavy
stuff and loose stuff, twiddly music,
gobbledegook, fiddly jigs, lots of swishing,
no out of tune singing, in fact no singing,
but they talk too much, there’s a Jabberwock,
a highland fling, and it’s great to do
exorcisms too.
Mike Oldfield composed it, arranged it,
produced it, and played all the instruments
including, the grand piano, farfisa organ,
bass guitar, taped motor drive amplifier
organ chord, (bet I could paw one of them)
speed guitar, African Bong, Assorted Percussion,
(what’s he do buy them by the quarter
pound) the Flageolet (that’s what it says
here) a Glocken spiel, two silly slightly
distorted guitars, guitars sounding like
bagpipes (why not just get some bagpipes?)
Concert Tympani, uncle Tom Cobblie and
all, plus of course Tubular Bells.
Does it all make sense now?? Actually
it’s devastating, so just add it to your
collection and try and work out what’s
going on where.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
