NB. These tracks won't be appearing in any order (a la Fluff Freeman countdowns), as we decided that was too hard to work out and made our brains hurt. We'll also try to link to some online version of the track for further study and academic research....
So here we go....
Well, I thought I would get this over and done with at the start...Mike Oldfield will turn up a lot more often and with more credibility if/when we do Albums. He's not best known for his ability with 3 minute singles, being more at home with 25 minute tracks, but he did occasionally turn out singles (he was being forced to by Virgin) that were really good (INMHO).
'Five Miles Out' musicifies a near fatal plane journey in a light aircraft over the Alps. By this time Oldfield had a band and they were being transported to a venue when they were hit by a terrifying storm. Unlike most of his singles (with lyrics that sound like 6th form poetry) this one describes something real; it also cleverly weaves in themes from side A of the album (the 20-odd minute instrumental; listen carefully, and you can also hear, in the first 20 seconds, the theme from Tubular Bells, which turns up, semi-concealed, in lots of his work).
So, I'm kicking things off with a song that has been stuck in my head for over 20 years. Here's the video which, despite being the beginning of Oldfield's use of early computer equipment - with which he fiddled for years like a teenager in his bedroom on a ZX81 - actually looks like a video made by a teenager fiddling in his bedroom on a ZX81.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Can you please explain to me the term 'musicifies'? It mystifies me.
As for the song, well....the singing is what one ought to expect from a man who writes instrumentals.
But the video is indeed a thing of rare beauty. Sort of.
Good start, pal. It can only go up from here.
Unless, of course, you intend to blog about a Yes track.....
Well he avoided singing until the late 80s for what he felt were obvious reasons - which is why most of his bits are either shouting or through a vocoder (those were the days - Frampton Comes Alive!)
And, regarding your Yes remark (obviously edifying) MO did team up with Jon Anderson on several occasions.
Ahhhh! This song is redolent of summer holiday evenings with my Dansette (later replaced with a panasonic tunrtable) & the gatefold LP.
Frampton Comes Alive - now you're talking! 1976, we salute you.
MO & Jon Anderson? What did they do together? It slipped me by entirely.
Maybe we could just pause for a moment's silence in memory of the gatefold sleeve - surely one of the great artistic losses of the CD and post-CD era.
Indeed.......................
eg. In High Places; Shine (which was another of his rare really good singles)
Post a Comment