Alan D
Group: Members
Posts: 3670
Joined: Aug. 2004 |
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Posted: Aug. 10 2005, 16:46 |
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I listened to it all again this morning (before settling on 'Far above the clouds' for my vote), and was again struck by how autobiographical some parts seem to be. I think 'Man in the Rain' as a pastiche of 'Moonlight Shadow' is clever and very deliberate. Mike, I presume, is the Man in the Rain, and the musical memory of Moonlight Shadow neatly links that idea with an important episode from his past.
'The Inner Child' is, I feel sure, the result of a fundamental and important, deeply felt enhancement of his understanding of himself. And in 'Far above the clouds' he seems to be making a kind of statement about the lifetime importance of the Tubular Bells discovery for him. Some of us may grumble about the many versions of Tubular Bells, but he's saying: 'It doesn't matter what you think. I know what I know.'
I wonder if the reason that the album as a whole doesn't quite work as well as I'd like is because these things are so very important to him. The inner child realisation is of such intensity that he tries just a bit too hard to make the music overwhelming and it becomes a bit top heavy. With Far above the Clouds I guess he feels so deeply about the importance of the Tubular Bells discovery that the music gets just a bit too grand for its own good, as he tries to express that importance. I think it's the most powerful track, and I wouldn't want to be without it, but even so, I feel there's something slightly too over-the-top about it.
But the album catches my sympathy because of these perhaps overly personal not-quite-successes. I want to nod to him and say - OK, I see. You've been places I can't go and seen things I can't see, and I'm glad you gave us the chance not only to share some of that through all those other albums, but also to remember some of it with you through this TB3 album, and feel something of how you feel about it all.
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