Tubular Bells
This musical piece was mentioned multiple times in the first few chapters of my current read - "Losing my Virginity", an autobiography of Richard Branson. So I decided to pop by Youtube and try to understand this track that helped its record label made money many years on, even when the composer himself retreated away from the limelight.
I got to say this. I was blown away by the track:
Just a note: It has no lyrics and its 48 minutes long (there's a middle portion where there's a voice explaining the name of instruments behind). You could call it a totally unconventional piece of music in a time period where The Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones dominated the music scene. There isn't even a specific genre for Tubular Bells, because he has seamlessly pieced together so many different genres into this piece.
It was composed by Mike Oldfield when he was 19 years old (in the 1970s), frustrated with being a backup guitar and desperately wanted to launch his own album. Virgin Records, at that time was the newest kid on the block and wanted to sign their next big thing.
The collaboration was a match made in heaven I guess.
How can a 19 year old play so many instruments (every single instrument utilized in the piece was played by Mike Oldfield himself and overlapped multiple times to create the end product)? How is it possible a 19 year old mind can be full of so many melodies??
No idea but man this was such an amazing work of art. And if you find the opening track (first 4 minutes or so) familiar, it's actually the opening theme of the famous original The Exorcist (1973). The reason why it became the opening theme of the movie was because Mike Oldfield had been too overwhelmed by the level of fame he reached with his first album and decided he never wanted to perform live again. He retreated into the outskirts of London and there was no way Virgin Records (or Richard Branson for that matter) could persuade him otherwise. In order to distribute this piece to the USA, the record label packaged it with the movie (since it has no music video or any lyrics to go with it) and bam the rest is history.
Give the track a go, you won't regret it!
How can a 19 year old play so many instruments (every single instrument utilized in the piece was played by Mike Oldfield himself and overlapped multiple times to create the end product)? How is it possible a 19 year old mind can be full of so many melodies??
No idea but man this was such an amazing work of art. And if you find the opening track (first 4 minutes or so) familiar, it's actually the opening theme of the famous original The Exorcist (1973). The reason why it became the opening theme of the movie was because Mike Oldfield had been too overwhelmed by the level of fame he reached with his first album and decided he never wanted to perform live again. He retreated into the outskirts of London and there was no way Virgin Records (or Richard Branson for that matter) could persuade him otherwise. In order to distribute this piece to the USA, the record label packaged it with the movie (since it has no music video or any lyrics to go with it) and bam the rest is history.
Give the track a go, you won't regret it!
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