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captainjjb Group: Members Posts: 310 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 07 2006, 12:42 Can someone point me towards an explanation (or offer one) for how/why Mike did the Don Alfonso song? Back to top

The Bell(end) Group: Members Posts: 1051 Joined: July 2005 Posted: May 07 2006, 12:55 Probably just a relief from complicated long pieces, On Horseback is another example. Was Don Alfonso before or after his mother's death? -------------- When the night's on fi-ya, do you need love's arms to hold yew? :D Back to top

yanouch65 Group: Members Posts: 680 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 07 2006, 13:31 He was drunk..... -------------- Ray said : "it is a shame you don't play" manintherain said: "You´d better ask Mr. Y who was first" yanouch65 says: "I am in love with Scotland" Back to top

yanouch65 Group: Members Posts: 680 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 07 2006, 13:31 He was drunk..... -------------- Ray said : "it is a shame you don't play" manintherain said: "You´d better ask Mr. Y who was first" yanouch65 says: "I am in love with Scotland" Back to top

larstangmark Group: Members Posts: 1767 Joined: Mar. 2005 Posted: May 07 2006, 15:04 He still hadn't lost his sense of humour. -------------- "There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste" Mark E Smith Back to top

bee Group: Members Posts: 1227 Joined: Jan. 2004 Posted: May 07 2006, 16:49 I think this 'piece' is just showing us another facet of Mike's character, and actually it does it rather well. Forget the video ( excellent though it is ) and just listen to the music. It's simple, rhythmic, the words are amusing and then you get this amazing guitar playing ~appearing and building from nowhere. It's just perfect Oldfield, & I love it like nothing else. I'm really hoping there's some of that kind of guitar playing weaving in and out of the forthcoming album. I can't play the guitar at all but I could listen to that kind of playing forever! -------------- ....second to the right and straight on till morning.... You heard me before Yet you hear me again Then I die Till I call me again Back to top

captainjjb Group: Members Posts: 310 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 07 2006, 17:45 I really just didn't know where the piece fitted in to his history.  What year was it written?  Who is playing on it?  (is that DBedford on vocals?) Hell you're right about the guitar though, fantastic, typical Oldfield "hot bath" stuff, great. Also, is it an original composition?  It's really a very good song, especially after a few pints. Back to top

Piltdownboy on horseback 22 Group: Members Posts: 1548 Joined: Sep. 2005 Posted: May 07 2006, 18:15 It was made in 1975, and I don't believe it's a song by Mike himself. I think it was a much older song. But I might be wrong. Yes, I'm surprised at how good a guitarplaying that song goes. The vocals are funny! Only the lyrics could give away that they were drunk   -------------- "And now we're going to play Platinum!" Back to top

captainjjb Group: Members Posts: 310 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 08 2006, 02:03 I got my kids to watch the Don Alfonso video over the weekend and have typically created a monster, they can't stop asking for it now!  Also they love In Dulci Jublio with him playing all the instruments (actually quite educational in it's own way).  Maybe I should try them with Millenium Bell....mmm, maybe not. Back to top

larstangmark Group: Members Posts: 1767 Joined: Mar. 2005 Posted: May 08 2006, 03:41 Quote (captainjjb @ May 07 2006, 17:45) I really just didn't know where the piece fitted in to his history.  What year was it written?  Who is playing on it?  (is that DBedford on vocals?) Hell you're right about the guitar though, fantastic, typical Oldfield "hot bath" stuff, great. Also, is it an original composition?  It's really a very good song, especially after a few pints. It's in the tubular.net FAQ; "An earlier version of Don Alfonso appears on Lol Coxhill's album Ear Of The Beholder (1971). Both he and David Bedford sing the same verses and chorus - with some funny mistakes where they forget the words. It is just them and a piano (like "Speak"). The songwriter's credit goes to Ted Waite and the publishers are Lawrence Wright Music. However, Mike decided to list it as "traditional". The song is probably no older than the Second World War. " -------------- "There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste" Mark E Smith Back to top

EeToN Group: Members Posts: 845 Joined: Sep. 2001 Posted: May 08 2006, 14:31 I was quite surprised when I heard the same melody in a very old Vangelis collaboration while collecting Vangelis' rare works. The (instrumental) track is called 'One Day in Zappion' and he made it together with Zoe Kouroukli back in 1966 on a single called 'Oldies but Goodies', it's just slightly longer than one minute. BTW, Oldies but Goodies is also a funny song. I also like Don Alfonso, clever lyrics, very good arrangement and great guitar playing. -------------- If I were music, I would be Enigmatism. Back to top

captainjjb Group: Members Posts: 310 Joined: Feb. 2006 Posted: May 08 2006, 16:58 very interesting replies, many thanks for these.  I'll try to check out the other version (Lol Coxhill, blimey thats a name from the past for me).  I met David Bedford way back in 1983 and bored him to death (probably) talking about how he'd done the Incantations arrangements for the live Orchestra on the Exposed tour (his opening comments "it was a pain in the arse") It's obviously a very silly song, but typically MO makes it sound bloody marvellous.  Indeed the only track I really don't like from this era is the William Tell overture, which seems rather stilted to me, a bit slow and dull. Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: May 08 2006, 18:10 Mike said on a Dark Star interview that it was a silly tune and don't know why fans like it. -------------- "But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014 "I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011 Back to top

moonchildhippy Group: Members Posts: 1807 Joined: Dec. 2004 Posted: May 08 2006, 18:29 Quote (larstangmark @ May 08 2006, 08:41) Quote (captainjjb @ May 07 2006, 17:45) I really just didn't know where the piece fitted in to his history.  What year was it written?  Who is playing on it?  (is that DBedford on vocals?) Hell you're right about the guitar though, fantastic, typical Oldfield "hot bath" stuff, great. Also, is it an original composition?  It's really a very good song, especially after a few pints. It's in the tubular.net FAQ; "An earlier version of Don Alfonso appears on Lol Coxhill's album Ear Of The Beholder (1971). Both he and David Bedford sing the same verses and chorus - with some funny mistakes where they forget the words. It is just them and a piano (like "Speak"). I don'tknowfor sure why Mike decided to record Don Alfonso, but I would say that it's Mike's sense of humour   .  If the plan was hatched one night after drinking copious amounts of booze, or smoking copious amounts of cannabis I can only speculate.   Quote The Bell(end)   Posted on May 07 2006, 17:55Probably just a relief from complicated long pieces, On Horseback is another example. . Precisely Bell(end),I couldn't have put it better.   I think Don Alfonso is one of those tunes that creeps up on you,for me after a few listens it had grown upon me  .   Love the lyrics  and the video   , so hilarious,always makes me smile.   For a tune that isn't meant to be serious it features some great guitar build up by Mike,( I tend to think of most   comedy songs as "disposable". BTW there's a song by Kevin Ayers and The Whole World "Hat" (previously unreleased) recorded 20th May 1970, Hat features the line(s) "I'm Don Alfonso I work for Oxo",sung to the tuneof Don Alfonso. Lol Coxhill was saxophonist for KA&TWW    .  This versionof "Hat" can be found on the 2003  CD reissues of  KA&TWW "Shooting At The Moon" album.  A wordof warning here this CD is "Copy Protected"( as is much of EMI's catalogue) ,so I've found out since buying it, so  it may not play on your CD player, despite playing on mine,which is 13 years old(time for a  second player methinks),so my CD player predates Copy Protection by a few years.  AllI askis that CD's will play in my CD player. -------------- I'm going slightly mad, It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad If you feel a little glum to Hergest Ridge you should come. I'm challenging  taboos surrounding mental health "Part time hippy" I'M SUPPORTING OUR SOLDIERS BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!! Back to top

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