Sentinel_NZ
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Joined: June 2021 |
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Posted: Feb. 15 2025, 02:03 |
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As well as being arguably the greatest musical genius of the entire 20th century, Mike Oldfield also stood at the vandguard of digital video creativity, reflected in his many pioneering and visually stunning music videos (and video games). Can we make an assessment of them? Not really, but at least I can nominate the best of them.
The Bell (1992). This one is the most successful, in my opinion, and paired with possibly his single greatest track. It also features a lovely understated turn by Vivian Stanshall, a far cry from a lot of the horribly tasteless stuff he put out in the preceding decades, especially the late 60s. This video is just so utterly gorgeous. Mike himself also of course puts in an excellent performance.
The Bell
The others that are all superb videos, in no particular order:
The Time Has Come https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNi1AdIYKIg
The Wind Chimes Parts 1 & 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXXKXwkARI&t=1317s
Shine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDEhcY8u1wk
To Be Free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93XqCKhIxs
Heaven's Open https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7DRHhHi7E0
Magic Touch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1qV52sXZCM
Guilty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49TTYE5N3g
Five Miles Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hRkyIszav8
Moonlight Shadow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e80qhyovOnA
Blue Peter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hXIwdXNwYA
Etude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51OJ2eT7mGw
Let There Be Light (I think this is the official video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfa1VfOY57Q
Portsmouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCf7gvmDEU
In Dulce Jubilo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCvz7uflMIU
William Tell Overture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahINCwwfks
Wonderful Land https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHAxjxJaw-g
Islands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIbAoz8ihLY
Innocent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjp09W8DJQ
Flying Start https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QDT_3jAPTBE
There are of course others which I didn't think are worth noting, partly because the songs aren't that good, and/or the video isn't really anything special (for example, Shadow on the Wall: a great song but not a great video; Crime of Passion: nice video, shame about the song).
Don't get me started on Sailing and Moonshine...in a way it's a shame that there weren't more music videos produced in the mid and late 90s and 2000s, imagine the brilliant images that could have been paired with Man in the Rain, Far Above the Clouds, Women of Ireland, and some of the Millennium Bell songs, or Spheres from a bit later on. Instead the last we saw were the highly unsatisfactory and lacklustre jaunts from Man on the Rocks.
But all complaining aside - in short, along with the greatest collection of music, he also has somewhat unheralded, a truly unique and outstanding body of music videos as well. Sure some of them at first seem a bit maybe low budget compared with other artists from the period, such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Guns & Roses, Prince, U2, Genesis,Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Queen, and so on, with their 6- or 7-figure budgets and Hollywood pedigree directors, designers and models, and perhaps they don't all seem to have stood the test of time from a technical standpoint but this again is exactly the charm and the appeal. And even having said that, there is no other video ever by anyone that is any better than "The Bell"; and there is no 80s video vixen or diva, from Debbie Harry to Whitney Houston, who looks better than Anita Hegerland in Innocent.
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