Craig Evans
Group: Members
Posts: 256
Joined: Sep. 2004 |
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Posted: Dec. 24 2020, 05:03 |
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Roundabout the time of Amarok, if I remember correctly, Mike said something along the lines of "I wish there was more creativity and individuality in music and not just everyone following each other like sheep playing the Blues."
That strongly suggests Mike is very much against the Blues in general. B.Blues, as mentioned above, is the only outright full-blown Blues track that Mike ever did. Apart from that there are just the occasional little nuggets or short passages of the Blues in Mike's music, most notably the Blue Saloon pieces from Tubular Bells I and Tubular Bells II, the Scot pieces which originally concluded the more psychedelic versions of Peace on the Tubular Bells demos and finally appeared more widely in Amarok. The first guitar and bass riffs in Hergest Ridge are also somewhat bluesy as is a similar bluesy passage near the start of the Crises title track. A December 1982 concert featuring Mike and the Munchen orchestra performing a one-off and apparently abridged version of Orchestral Tubular Bells ends with a short bluesy jam prior to a folk jam with Paddy Maloney and Morris Pert takes place. The aforementioned Ringscape from Light and Shade indeed has a very bluesy feel especially with the keyboard part played on a virtual Hammond B Organ, very reminiscent of Richard Wright's bluesy Hammond Organ riff's on classic Pink Floyd tracks like The Great Gig In The Sky. The main guitar riffs from Bagpipe Guitars and the title track of the Platinum title track are in a 12/8 time signature. However that's probably a more tenuous Blue connection since a lot of classic rock, progressive rock, metal, funk and the more swinging jazz numbers also utilize the 12/8 time signature.
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"It is good to be on Horseback" - Mike Oldfield "On Horseback"
"(Insert "The Thunderstorm" here)"
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