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MO fan Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: Nov. 16 2002, 18:32 Hello, I have been a fan of MO music since tubular bells through to his lattest album, I have bought all the albums from records through cassettes through to CD's. Gone to his concerts in the 1980's. etc. I am such a fan that 5 out of 6 CDs in my car CD changer is MO or sally oldfield music. From the above you can see that I do not lightly darken an album by mike but..... AMAROK, when I bought it, my life changed for the worse, job, relationships, etc, any time I played it in the car it caused me grief on the road. I eventually had to ditch the cassette. I was concerned that the old catchphrase that 'some Music was the devil's' Once it had gone my life got better. Even the word AMAROK conjurers up the dark side, what does the word actually mean? Now we have internet sites and forums such as this, it would be interesting to know if any MO fans have the same feelings towards this album. I must reiterate that I am not trying to down Mikes album here or any such thing like that, but there may be dark infulences creeping into that album, the words, the story, the music. Unfortunately, my experience of the album has tanted my own judgement and I will never listen to AMAROK again. But I would like to hear what you guys think. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Nov. 16 2002, 20:19 I think that sometimes we can influence events more than we think; simply believing that something will happen sometimes makes it more likely that it actually will... It could be that your buying Amarok coincided with a single bad event and once you were convinced that the album was to blame and that you'd been hit by some unlucky force, you began subconsciously acting in ways (and giving out tiny little imperceptible signals to other people) that just made more bad things happen. I've never personally found Amarok at all demonic. In terms of content, I'd name Ommadawn as being darker than Amarok, or perhaps Tubular Bells (though I don't think I'd call either demonic - tortured at times, perhaps). More information on the meaning of the word 'Amarok' and the lyrics can be found in the FAQ (though I think one suggested meaning for the word Amarok, which isn't listed there, would be appropriate here - that meaning would be 'Happy'...). You could always try posting this question on Mike's spirituality forums - you might find people there who've had similar experiences. Back to top

timshen Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: Mar. 2001 Posted: Nov. 17 2002, 06:54 I'd say that Amarok does not make for good car listening music! The sudden clashes of sounds in various parts could easily cause you to jump and swerve the car which is very dangerous. As for 'demonic' - I wouldn't say that. I think that a lot of his anger comes out in the album (anger at Virgin/Branson), highlighted by the morse signal that spells 'F.off R.B'!! This is human anger and not demonic - demonic music comes from demonic origins (i.e. composers are demon possesed) and Mike is certainly not demon possessed (didn't he cast them out in TBIII in Outcast anyway? (oop..that was after Amarok! :-) -------------- Expect Great Things. Attempt Great Things. Back to top

maria Group: Members Posts: 928 Joined: July 2002 Posted: Nov. 17 2002, 17:10 when i read your post mo fan, i listened to amarok trying to find something "demoniacal" in it but i have to say that i remain thinking the same about it... and i'm afraid it could be just the opposite u feel about it... imho this is one of the albums which contains most energy...  anger and positive strength are melt in it. at the very beginning i feel in some bits the guitar cries... minute 7.15 a shy guitar crying there imo... amarok starts showing sadness which gradually turns to anger... and explodes, but the energy of the blow up is canalized in great moments as the drums sections. for me this is one of the most complex albums... it's full of shades, as if it were crossed by a lot of different thoughts... it's difficult making a flowing draw of it... it's full of sudden humour changes and although there are a lot of breaks, there's a line, a climbing line from the deepest sadness, through a wild anger (perfectly voiced by distorted guitars and by the piltdown man) to a kind of ironical gladness   i love the section with the daily-before-going-bed sounds... i can imagine a quiet night moment... until glasses break (great change there) in that point i imagine a gate to dreams...  someone falling asleep and the door of the dream world  opening... and chaos there, of course... i love the guitar there... this round, sweet and neverending sound maybe this album shows a fight related not only to the outside but the inside too... i think chaos is all over the composition but driven to somewhere... in this album i can see beauty born from the rage, and the try to give some sense to those things which seem not to have it at all... and this is cheerful, well at least for me... i can see hope in it...  anything demoniac in it... no... listen to the last words... margaret thatcher ones... for me there's the awareness of have gone through the death of something and its rebirth... life continuing... fresh beginnings... definitely nothing demoniacal in it imho... -------------- ...morning and evening i'm flying, i'm dreaming... Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: Nov. 18 2002, 07:52 Quote (timshen @ Nov. 17 2002, 09:54) I'd say that Amarok does not make for good car listening music! The sudden clashes of sounds in various parts could easily cause you to jump and swerve the car which is very dangerous. I do agree 100% with this!! For me,Amarok is not a demonic album,it's a moody album which reflects a bit of Mike's personality...very instable! My boyfriend told me a funny quote about it,"it's a nice present for your boss when you're out of your job!" -------------- "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

MO fan Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: Nov. 18 2002, 13:27 [quote=Tati The Sentinel,Nov. 18 2002, 07:52][/quote] Quote from above message..."My boyfriend told me a funny quote about it,"it's a nice present for your boss when you're out of your job!"..... Like it, I wish I had given my AMAROK cassette to my ex - boss now, instead of just throwing it out of the car window. Doh! So far the poll seems to make AMAROK a dreary, sad, happy, questionable album but not demonic! but are you sure, Still awaiting more comments before I can judge? Cheers MO fan Back to top

oldfield_fan Group: Members Posts: 198 Joined: May 2001 Posted: Nov. 18 2002, 17:33 Quote i love the section with the daily-before-going-bed sounds... i can imagine a quiet night moment... until glasses break (great change there) in that point i imagine a gate to dreams...   Interesting... I always thought of it as a morning moment :-) To me, that part before the crash, has a "morning"-feeling to it... About demonic... no, I don't think so. I don't know much about demons, though. / Johan Back to top

raven4x4x Group: Members Posts: 1535 Joined: Jan. 2002 Posted: Nov. 19 2002, 05:30 Never listen to Amarok again? That's a bit rough, no matter what you think. Being a natural sceptic, I will of course take the viewpoint that any bad things that happened during Amarok were coincidences. It's quite strange to think that an album was directly responsable for anything in your life. I agree with Korgscrew when he says that you're probably just expecting bad things to happen. It certainly is an album that makes you think about things (for an instrumental album, that's pretty strange! ) and sometimes when I listen to it I get kind of nervous in a weird way (it's the same feeling I get when I listen to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, another album which you could say is dark). My advice would be to completely forget all this bad stuff, buy Amarok and listen to it for the music. But that's just me, I'm not a spiritual person at all. I do understand that many people are, but I cannot bring myself to believe that Amarok, or any music, is haunted in any way. -------------- Thank-you for helping us help you help us all. Back to top

TOBY Group: Members Posts: 1562 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Nov. 19 2002, 13:57 Are you mad?  Amarok is quite simply one of the greatest, if not the greatest, instrumental album ever writen. Some if it such as the vocal sections for me contain some of the most beautifull music I've ever heard. Personaly I'm not at all religious so I find it hard to relate to words like 'demonic' if you mean them in a literal spiritual sence. I think people need to stop over complicating the idea of coinsidence. ps When you talk about 'demonic' are you talking about Maggie Thatcher and her satanic influences?  Hang on.......yeah I see your point completely now.   Back to top

maria Group: Members Posts: 928 Joined: July 2002 Posted: Nov. 19 2002, 18:29 Quote oldfield_fan Posted on Nov. 18 2002, 17:33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote   i love the section with the daily-before-going-bed sounds... i can imagine a quiet night moment... until glasses break (great change there) in that point i imagine a gate to dreams...   Interesting... I always thought of it as a morning moment :-) To me, that part before the crash, has a "morning"-feeling to it... what i hear in those sounds is... there's a chaotic moment as if coming from the daily routine and a sudden break with the sound of a liquid... it recalls me the sound of the after-work cup of coffee and yes... i know what u think... coffee is a morning sound...  unless u are like me and have quite often one near u... summer... winter... mornings or nights... just like this i have on my right and then u can hear the sound of the breathing of the last cigarette and the sound of the teethbrush and very slightly the sound of the last sigh before falling asleep and then glass breaks and the guitars announced the other one, that so deep as flying in the first deep dreams of the night... it seems to me a quiet coming back home moment... until the crash and from them... pleasant dreams and kind of nightmares... melt and fighting this is a very oniric album imho... anyway...  only the feeling it gives to me -------------- ...morning and evening i'm flying, i'm dreaming... Back to top

Man In The Rain Group: Members Posts: 405 Joined: April 2002 Posted: Nov. 19 2002, 19:53 NEVER listen to Amarok whilst driving. Do you not remember Mike saying that he put in these huge surges in noise to piss off Simon Draper while he listened to it in his Lamborghini? I'm hardly surprised that you have had bad driving experiences listening to it. Now that your life is better (coincidentally) since you got rid of Amarok, you should get it again. There is no reason why you should associate the album with bad luck! There is no bad karma associated with this album, I'm sure. -------------- Hergest Ridge 165 - Ommadawn 038 - Incantations 243 Back to top

oldfield_fan Group: Members Posts: 198 Joined: May 2001 Posted: Nov. 20 2002, 18:15 Maria, I enjoyed reading your story, but I'm afraid I don't have the same associations :-) Coffee does not spring to my mind, and I've never pictured a cigarette (do you by any chance smoke? :-). I imagine a beautiful peaceful morning (to me morning fits better with the music, but it may be night too) ...at first everything seems fine, and a man is doing his usual morning procedures, but then he sighs, as if he's troubled by something. And then there's this sudden mood change. Things immediately turns chaotic. Maybe he has a flashback, or he's suddenly surprised by something that makes him lose control. (A dream is possible too, but to me it seems to be a too short period of time between brushing teeth and falling asleep ;-) Anyone else got strange associations with this part of Amarok? :-) / Johan Back to top

timshen Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: Mar. 2001 Posted: Nov. 20 2002, 21:57 I identify with what you see oldfield_fan - I too have always imagined an early morning, getting up for the days work. There is the brushing of teeth once and then a sigh, probably thinking ahead to another meaningles day, then the brushing of teeth continues followed by another stronger sigh, then an outburst of anger - to me this is physical anger where there is destruction due to feeling frustrated and trapped. This anger comes out time and time again in Amarok but is always resolved in some way through humour or beauty or just plain silliness!   -------------- Expect Great Things. Attempt Great Things. Back to top

Justawolf Group: Members Posts: 4 Joined: July 2002 Posted: Nov. 21 2002, 11:27 Quote (MO fan @ Nov. 16 2002, 23:32) AMAROK, when I bought it, my life changed for the worse, job, relationships, etc, any time I played it in the car it caused me grief on the road. Even the word AMAROK conjurers up the dark side, what does the word actually mean? Now we have internet sites and forums such as this, it would be interesting to know if any MO fans have the same feelings towards this album. I can't think of a worse record to have as I-C entertainment, unless you're falling asleep at the wheel,  and you shouldn't be driving in that state anyway. One of the stated meanings for Amarok is that it's  the Inuit word for "Wolf". I'd say Amarok was  a highly aggressive album, something that Mike was overdue to do since the end of side one of Ommadawn showed that side of his talents. It also has a highly developed sense of humour. "Maggie Thatcher" falling over as she tries dancing, for example.:D I certainly don't read it as demonic in any way. Just a wolf. -------------- "And wouldn't your life be exceptionally flat with nothing whatever to grumble at." Back to top

MO fan Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: Nov. 21 2002, 12:31 Wolf name Mag--- Thatc-- in the album (cant even say that name) AMAROK not to be played in the car at any cost Could this be reasons why the album is possibly demonic? Not yet convinced its a safe album. Cheers MO fan   Back to top

TOBY Group: Members Posts: 1562 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Nov. 21 2002, 15:26 The charm and genius of Amarok is that it contains pretty much every mood of music imaginable just like TB and Ommadawn before it. Yes some of it's aggressive or at least contains aggressive playing but most of it is simply outstandingly beautifull. I've played it lots of times whilst being in a car to no ill effect I think people are over reacting just slightly there. Just don't play it to loudly and I'm sure you'll be fine. MO fan THERE ARE NO DEMONIC FORCES IN AMAROK just Maggie Thatcher and as long as you have a cross on you and have liberaly sprinkled holly water on yourself whilst reciting the lords prayer when you listen to this section you'll be OK ps Whats wrong with wolves? What have they got to with demons? Back to top

maria Group: Members Posts: 928 Joined: July 2002 Posted: Nov. 21 2002, 16:52 what u mean with aggressive? in amarok... no man... there's a lot of strenght and a lot of changes but is this aggressive? and if it is so... i love m.o. aggressive playings and b.t.w. i would like a bit more of them soon if possible... and i drove lots of times listening to amarok and all was ok. never even a sudden break the crash moment, is this what u call aggressive? it's great, here he rides wild... and maybe one of the things i more appreciate in m.o.'s playing is his ability for scaping from the straight lines, i like he going up and down... stormy moments followed by oasis... or viceversa... just thinking in the piltdown man section in tb or altered state in tbll... for me these moments are great, u really feel riding or that in hergest ridge... those mad guitars... amarok is constantly going up and down... i think it could be the one with most nimble changes and that's great, it doesn't let u rest in one image... it's constantly jumping and i feel in it anger is used to take thrust... and the result is a strong and cheerful composition... as if he managed to take all his 'ghosts' (maybe bad chance to use this word... just thinking about human worries... ) and put them in a pile to climb it and smile on the top... ps. oldfield_fan, yep... i do (just one or two minor vices...) and about time between teethbrush and dreams gate... time is so relative... -------------- ...morning and evening i'm flying, i'm dreaming... Back to top

MO fan Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: Nov. 23 2002, 19:00 Ok, positive conclusions have been drawn from your comments and I will give it a tentative thumbs up. I have decided to borrow AMAROK off a relative and give it another hearing. I will definately NOT attempt to play it in the car, I will put myself in a blastproof room, batten down the windows, sprinkle holy water and go for it. Thanks for all yout input and if I do not come back to the site with a reply in the near future, then........ Crossing fingers, MO fan Back to top

MO fan Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: Dec. 14 2002, 18:09 Well I listened to AMAROK again and I survived the ordeal. But thats it, never again. I will just stick with Mikes other albums, where I feel safe. Thank you all for your input. Cheers, MO fan Back to top

Supersticus Unregistered Posted: Dec. 19 2002, 18:36 Hey! MO fan There is no fear to playing Amerok. I have played it for years and there is no real problem with what you are saying. I play it on a regular basis in my car and once I get out of hospital with my 3rd degee burns and trama, I will get right back into playing it. I used to play it on my Hifi, but since it has been stolen I will have to save up unill I can buy a new one. At least the burgular left me Amerok. Now dont get me wrong I still love Amerok, but am not sure it loves me. Dont be supersticus, MO fan, get out there and buy it, you can only get a better deal in life than me.   Back to top

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