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Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Jan. 28 2008, 09:49 With the current layout of the forums I'm never 100% sure about where to put new topics. Also, there isn't a Children of the Sun album topic. So, @ admins, if you think this doesn't fit here, please move it. At the end of "Branches", one of Mike's so-called "Guitar improvisations" [which to me aren't improvisations at all, but let's not go into that... ] on the second disc of Children of the Sun, Mike sings: «Bah bah black sheep, have you any wool?», then stops, says "Nah!" and the track ends there. What is this? A nursery rhyme? A folk song? An original composition? And does it have any relevance with the rest of "Branches" ? If you don't know what I'm talking about, I shall post a sound clip. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

a_r_schulz Group: Members Posts: 425 Joined: Sep. 2001 Posted: Jan. 28 2008, 10:53 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bah-bah-black-sheep/ Probably Mike's sheep just got its shearing... Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Jan. 28 2008, 11:09 Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe... Thanks a lot, Andreas. Mystery partly solved... i.e. what does this sheep have to do with "Branches" ? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Jan. 28 2008, 11:23 I actually think that the names to these peices came later (ie Mike didn't name them at the time).I think the mean sheep is just Mike being daft.The cool thing about all 3 tracks is they contain references to later pieces.The most obvious being "A sad song for Rosie"which is the bagpipe theme from Ommadawn.This kind of blows the theory detailed in Boxed that Mike and Paddy got drunk and came up with the track together.This version is from 1970!There's Amarok references in both "Brances"and "Mrs Moon and the tatched shop" too. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Jan. 28 2008, 14:42 @ The Caveman: the tracks are actually from 1968 (not 1970) as, AFAIK, they were recorded simultaneously with the Sallyangie album. I agree with you about the silliness of the sheep reference (Mike, evidently not knowing what to do next, thought it good to throw the sheep into the thing... ) and about all the references to Ommadawn and Amarok - confirming my impressions that the tracks weren't improvised, but fully rehearsed and most probably written down before recording. Mike was 15 years old at the time... and I don't think that, at 15, one can be reckless (or confident) enough to commit to tape something so complex without having at least rehearsed it. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Jan. 30 2008, 09:29 I read from the actual packaging that they were recorded in 1970.   I think (don't quote me)that the pieces are a mixture of imporvised and planned.In Changeling Mike expalins that he would improvise on improvisations,in that he would build a piece on an idea and build adding new ideas and so forth.  Regarding the daftness of it one of does end with a crazed version of Three Blind Mice as well so i reckon it was purely out of daftness (or alcohol or what have you).I mean would you sing this in a folk club in Reading? -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Jan. 30 2008, 09:58 Excuse me for hitting again on this, but I think you're getting it wrong about the date... 1970, as I take it, is the recording date of the two last tracks on the bonus disc, which were recorded by Sally outside of Sallyangie (the band was already over in 1969, AFAIR), which do indeed sound very different from the rest of the album - and from the rest of the bonus disc. Regarding the improvisations, I quite agree on Mike's idea of building up pieces starting from single ideas - almost nine minutes of TB Part 1 are built that way. As for "Three Blind Mice", a slightly twisted version of it is featured in Mike's lyrics [which are completely different from Sally's!] in "Chamaleon", an album track on CotS - so maybe those words were still running through Mike's head while he was recording "Mrs. Moon"... and the beers did the rest. Also, when he 'sings' the rhyme, he's strumming so loud that his guitar gets slightly distorted... yes, the mood is definitely alcoholic. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: Jan. 30 2008, 10:28 Actually that makes more sense so i guess you are right. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Bassman Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: Feb. 2008 Posted: April 09 2008, 08:57 "Branches" is WAY too good to have been buried on a bonus disc.  I love how tuning down the strings is actually a part of the composition. BTW, "Baa Baa Black Sheep" is a nursery rhyme (...have you any wool?  Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full...). Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: April 10 2008, 02:47 The 3 peices 'improvisations' are all to good to be buried definately.Maybe it's time that a collection of pre-TB oldfield best of was made.I think this has been discussed elsewhere.Several tracks on COTS stand out.A Midsummer Nights Happening for example.The whole album has a naive charm throughout (Balloons for example-15 years later this same young man would write Moonlight Shadow yet here he singing about giving doves "Soft Creamy Cheese").  By the way my kids replaced singing the traditional Baa Baa Black Sheep with the truncated version upon hearing it.Reminded me of endless singing of nursery rhymes at school -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 10 2008, 16:28 Quote (Bassman @ April 09 2008, 14:57) I love how tuning down the strings is actually a part of the composition. BTW, "Baa Baa Black Sheep" is a nursery rhyme (...have you any wool?  Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full...). I think Mike is tuning down the strings during the piece because the next section he's going to play features a different guitar tuning from the one he's been using up to that point - indeed almost nothing in the pieces is played in the standard tuning. The Elements booklet says that Mike, when he was around 14, used to play two 15-minute compositions in folk clubs, where he'd do all sorts of weird things with his guitar strings. Apart from this: "Oh my sword I pull, kill ze bull, yes sir yes sir three bags full..." (from Don Alfonso). Mike does love nursery rhymes, doesn't he? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

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