moonchildhippy
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Joined: Dec. 2004 |
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Posted: Feb. 04 2008, 07:53 |
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| Quote (trcanberra @ Jan. 23 2008, 10:51) | | Just listened to it a few days ago for the first time in years. I must say I agree that it seems to be missing something, for me at least. I love orchestral music but this one seems to be lacking some spark, and only livens up near the end where Mike playes a bit of guitar. |
I agree that's my favourite part too. OTB just doesn't move me in the same way as the original.
| Quote | Alan D Posted on June 26 2007, 15:10
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Quote (bee @ April 27 2004, 06:42)
It makes me sad. I think it just does not work. It has no spirit.
After reading your comment on this in another thread, Tracey, I decided to give it another listen today. And my response is similar to yours, though I'd describe the effect as depressing, rather than sad. So I've been trying to figure out why.
Back in the days shortly after the Beatles first burst upon the scene, there was a period when bland and mediocre performers would sing specially diluted versions of Beatles songs on TV variety shows. That used to depress me, then. It seemed to so completely miss the point, to take a Beatles recording and squeeze out every last trace of its lifeblood, leaving only the bare tune, and then dress it up in the sanitised, safe, and lifeless harmonies of 'established' performers.
Orchestral Tubular Bells isn't as bad as that, but I think it comes from the same impulse. Tubular Bells itself was groundbreaking. It made no compromises with existing serious musical forms. It took the sounds, rhythms, forms and instruments of rock music and made them into something intellectually satisfying, emotionally complex, and somewhat dangerous. When I say 'dangerous', I mean dangerous to what we might call the 'establishment' view of things, where an electric guitar is just a noise, and not a legitimate form of making serious music. For example, I remember having a frustrating conversation with someone back in the early 80s who simply couldn't accept that an electric guitar was a serious musical instrument, and who insisted that if MO had been truly a serious composer/musician, he'd have used an orchestra.
Orchestral Tubular Bells taps into this kind of attitude. I don't know what the actual motivation was at the time it was made, but here and now, in hindsight, it smacks of an attempt to tame a potentially wild animal. 'Look,' it says. 'We've made it into serious music at last.' And yes, all the tunes are there, and it all sounds so strangely familiar, but it's not Tubular Bells any more. It's Ersatz Bells for uncomprehending Mums and Dads. It's Sanitised Bells, made safe for those who think serious music can only be made with traditional orchestral instruments. That's why it's depressing. The whole feel of it smacks not of Mike Oldfield, but of something like a film score written by a committee consisting of Malcolm Arnold, David Bedford, and a distant relative of George Gershwin.
I wonder what Mike himself thinks about it, now? |
When I worked in the old folks home I once heard the opening bars of Tubular Bells wafting up thge stairs, but this wasn't the original, but some "New Age Chill out" cover version, I thought NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! this is NOT how Tubular Bells should sound. For me Tubular Bells should be exciting,experimental passionate, as in feeling a great deal of emotion, dangerous, I use the term dangerous to mean adrenaline pumping and risk taking, and so causing a sense of excitement. Tubular Bells was risk taking, groundbreaking and innovative   , it still makes me think WOW!!!! , even after so many listens. Like Alan said above about the watered down covers of Beatles songs, again so much of the Beatles' work was innovative and groundbreaking, diluting it just doesn't work.
For me OTB lacks the spark that is present in the original, to me OTB is safe and sanitised, it just doesn't have that excitement, that experimentation, I found that it lacks something, Yep guitars.
Alan you mention Malcolm Arnold above,I know he conducted Deep Purple's Concerto For Group and Orchestra, but as a piece combining rock and classical music this works, as Jon Lord had been a classically trained pianist from the age of 5. I think rock and classical music can work well togehter if done correctly.
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It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad
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