Tubular Bells
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Mike Oldfield album. For the percussion instrument (also known as chimes), see Tubular bell.
| Tubular Bells | ||
 |
||
| Studio album by Mike Oldfield | ||
| Released | 1973, 25 May | |
| Recorded | The Manor House, autumn 1972 – spring 1973 | |
| Genre | Progressive Rock | |
| Length | 48:57 | |
| Label | Virgin | |
| Producer(s) | Tom Newman, Simon Heyworth, Mike Oldfield | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mike Oldfield chronology | ||
| Tubular Bells (1973) |
Hergest Ridge (1974) |
|
Tubular Bells is a record album, written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield (and later orchestrated by David Bedford for the Orchestral Tubular Bells version). The late Vivian Stanshall provided the voice of the "Master of Ceremonies" who reads off the list of instruments at the end of the first movement.
Contents |
[edit] Significance
It was the debut album for Oldfield as well as the first album to be released by Virgin Records. The opening theme, used in The Exorcist, gained the record considerable publicity and is how most people have probably first heard the work. It was also used in the 1979 movie, The Space Movie, and in a television advertisement for Volkswagen in 2003. The cover design was by Trevor Key, who would go on to create the covers of many Oldfield albums, and was inspired by Magritte's "Castle in the Pyrenees".
Mike Oldfield played most of the instruments on the album (see below), often recording them one at a time and layering the recordings to create the finished work. Many of his subsequent albums feature this technique. Though fairly common in the music industry now, at the time of the production of Tubular Bells not many musicians made use of it, preferring multi-musician "session" recordings.
The coda at the end of Part Two, the "Sailor's Hornpipe", was originally created as a much longer production, with Vivian Stanshall providing comic narration as an obviously-inebriated tour guide showing the listener around the Manor House where the album was recorded. It was cut from the final version for being too strange to be put on an unknown artist's first album, though it can be heard "in all its magnificent foolishness" (from the liner notes) on the Mike Oldfield Boxed set, which features completely remixed versions of Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn and several shorter tracks.
Tubular Bells is the album most identified with Oldfield and the reverse may be true as well as he has frequently returned to it in later works. The opening passage of the title track on the album Crises is clearly derived from the opening of Tubular Bells. The opening is also quoted directly in the song "Five Miles Out" from the album of the same name and the song also features his "trademark" instrument, "Piltdown Man" (referring to his singing like a caveman, first heard on Tubular Bells).
The "bent bell" image on the cover is also associated with Oldfield, even being used for the logo of his personal music company, Oldfield Music, Ltd.
Tubular Bells can be seen as the first of a "series" of albums consisting of Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998) and The Millennium Bell (1999), leading some critics to suggest that Oldfield was like Quasimodo — "chained to the Bells". Finally in 2003 Oldfield released Tubular Bells 2003, a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells with updated digital technology and several "corrections" to what he saw as flaws in the first album's production. This version is notable for replacing (the late) Vivian Stanshall's narration with a newly recorded narration by John Cleese.
Other versions include a quadrophonic version in 1975 ("For people with four ears", as the sleeve said; the quad mix was later used for the multi-channel part of the SACD release), an orchestral version in the same year (the Orchestral Tubular Bells with David Bedford), and different live recordings; a complete one can be found on the double live album Exposed from 1979.
Tubular Bells stayed in the British charts for over five years, reaching the number 1 spot after more than a year and taking there for one week the place of his second album, Hergest Ridge, thereby becoming one of only three artists in the UK to knock himself off the first spot. It sold more than two million copies in the UK alone and according to some reports 15 to 17 million copies worldwide. The album went gold in the USA and Mike Oldfield received a Grammy Award for the best Instrumental Composition in 1975.
[edit] Track listing
- "Tubular Bells" - part one – 25:36
- "Tubular Bells" - part two – 23:20
[edit] Progression of part one
Part one opens with a soft piano line in 15/8 (alternating 7/8 and 4/4), eventually played verbatim by organ and glockenspiel, later joined by a different line by bass guitar. An occasional punchy organ chord, first heard at about 1:02 in, accents this piece, accompanied by a different piano melody (chords and variations of the anchor line), followed by flute (which segues into a section of 4/4-7/8-7/8-4/4, but still two bars of 15/8 in nature) and an electric guitar line, the latter entirely in 4/4.
After the electric guitar line ends, a softer, fast guitar line ("speed guitar," as listed in the liner notes) takes over, only to be interrupted by an acoustic guitar line overlaying the original piano phrase. A gentle glockenspiel/piano piece takes over, but is later replaced with a fast piano section, occasionally accented with organ chords.
The mood of the first 6 minutes is soon replaced by edgy electric guitar and, afterward, a sinister organ chord, with various changes in pitch and duration. But, once again, a more refined, carefree section ensues, dominated by acoustic guitar and piano, eventually returning to the soft riff first heard just past four minutes into the piece.
A 3/4 variation of the original theme comes next, followed by eerie bass and organ playing, segueing into a bluesy shuffle on electric guitar. Once again, when it looks like the piece will be serene (when the nasal choir intervenes), another edgy guitar line ensues, with Oldfield incorporating both 4/4 and 7/8.
After that, a more folky acoustic line plays (with background tambourine), but is suddenly cut off by the tolling of bells. A weary acoustic guitar line follows, breaking into the eight-and-a-half minute "Finale" section, commencing with a double bass line in 5/4, polyrhythmically played with a 4/4 acoustic line. After the bass and guitar unite into the 4/4 line, the acoustic guitar tacets and is eventually replaced by soft pipe organ notes (usually lasting four or eight full beats) while the bass line plays.
After the 10-bar bass phrase is repeated several times, Stanshall introduces many of the instruments appearing in part one up to then, beginning with the keyboards, followed by glockenspiel and all guitars before the tubular bells are announced, the ensemble becoming more dynamic and full as more instruments are said. Finally, after the tubular bells enter, a wordless feminine chorus starts to sing. Farther down, the Finale ensemble fades out to an acoustic guitar solo, which takes up the remainder of part one.
[edit] Progression of part two
Part two begins where part one left off; a soft, simple piece, this time, beginning with bass guitar and working up with other guitars and keyboards. The opening time signature is 6/8, but a later line plays a similar melody in 3/4 on various instruments, beginning with guitar. The opening section builds for five minutes before the second section starts, a 4/4 section on acoustic guitar, with accompaniment on organ and female chorus.
At around 8:48, the piece becomes edgy and surreal again, as the "bagpipe guitars" enter the piece (electric guitars with added effects to give it the bagpipe-esque sound), playing a 12/8 piece of sorts. About 11 minutes in, the intensity of the section builds as the guitar pitches increase and a heavy piano "roll" plays, climaxed by a sudden ascending glissando on the piano.
What comes next is one of the more unusual parts of the entire album. Tympani rolls and drum kit commence this part, highlighted by unintelligable "lyrical" screams by a then intoxicated Oldfield (in rebellion to how Richard Branson wanted him to include at least one part with lyrics to release as a single; at the time, Oldfield was not interesting in adding lyrics to his music), listed in the liner notes as the "Piltdown Man". Oldfield's yelling is countered by various phrases on piano, guitars, and the "Moribund chorus," with this piece abruptly ending on one loud shout nearly 16:30 in.
As expected, another quiet section ensues, a 12/8 piece mostly dominated by guitars and organ. This section gives an excellent insight into the psychedelic, spacey side of Oldfield (a similar sound to that of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour), which would also be present in his third album, Ommadawn. After about five minutes, an optimistic organ line plays, segueing into a climatic arrangement of "Sailor's Hornpipe".
"Hornpipe" begins with just one guitar playing at a moderately slow tempo, but quickly mutates into a gradually accented piece with multiple instruments (including an unlisted violin), ending with two loud, accented notes. In live performances, Oldfield would reach incredible tempos and "Hornpipe" alone became a staple of his concerts.
[edit] Mike Oldfield plays
Acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, Farfisa, Hammond, and Lowrey organs; flageolet, fuzz guitars, glockenspiel, "honky tonk" piano (piano with detuned strings), mandolin, piano, "Piltdown Man", percussion, Spanish guitar, "double speed guitar", "taped motor drive amplifier organ chord", timpani, violin, vocals and of course, tubular bells.
The "lyrics" announcing the instruments are: "Grand piano; reed and pipe organ; glockenspiel; bass guitar; double speed guitar; two slightly distorted guitars; mandolin! Spanish guitar, and introducing acoustic guitar, plus... tubular bells"
There are listeners who hear it as "glass... tubular... bells!" (The actual instruments are brass tubular bells). This leads some to ponder if Vivian Stanshall (of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band fame) misread or mispronounced it as "brass" or "glass." It could also by this rationale be "...at last, Tubular Bells". Stanshall's delivery is clearly influenced by his own work in the Bonzos' 1967 track "The Intro and the Outro", which consists entirely of Stanshall introducing the members of an increasingly surreal big band.
[edit] Other performers
- Steve Broughton - percussion
- Lindsay L. Cooper - string basses
- Mundy Ellis - vocals
- Jon Field - flutes
- Sally Oldfield - vocals
- Vivian Stanshall - Master of Ceremonies
- The Manor Choir (actually Simon Heyworth, Tom Newman, Mike Oldfield)
[edit] Cover versions
- Eduward Starink made an abridged cover for an album Synthesizer Greatest (the first album in a multi-volume series) that was released in 1989. Tubular Bells appears only on the CD-version as a "bonus track". Other tracks on the album are cover versions of famous synthesizer songs but the original Tubular Bells features no synthesizer.
- Finnish one man a cappella rock band, Paska, recorded an abridged cover version for his 2005 album Women Are From Venus, Men From Anus. Paska has also performed the song at his live performances. This number may be a parody of the original work, or perhaps it is mocking the whole genre of progressive rock or new age music.
- Book Of Love opened their 1988 album Lullaby with a cover version, stretched to 4/4 time by adding stretching a note to make it danceable.
- Therapy? jokingly covered the opening theme live in 1998 as part of a medley, whiche opened with "Tubular Bells", segued into Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law", and ended with their own "Nowhere."
- Duo Sonare, a German classical guitar duo, has made a complete rerecording of Tubular Bells for two guitars.
- Paul Hardcastle based his hit single Nineteen around the piano theme of Tubular Bells
- Rapper Tech N9ne also used a similar version of the intro in the song "Be Warned", only he moved it to 4/4 time, rather than the 7/8 to 9/8 signatures. The piano intro is a slight modification of the original. Also, the bassline, although quite different-sounding itself, is a slight copy of the original bassline, only with a few notes added
Furthermore, many dance acts and other artists have used the intro to Tubular Bells as the basis for their songs. A long list can be found at Rainer Muenz' discography.
[edit] Spin-Offs
With the aid of the software house CRL and distributor Nu Wave, Mike Oldfield released an interactive Commodore 64 version of the album in 1986, which utilised the computer's SID sound chip to play back a simplified re-arrangement of the album, accompanied by some simple 2D visual effects.[1], [2].
The "interactivity" offered by the album/program was limited to controlling the speed and quantity of the visual effects, tuning the sound's volume and filtering, and skipping to any part of the album.
The software was not very successful, partly due to its unusual nature. It can be considered the first, if not only, example of commercial, albeit relatively simple, interactive computer demo or "musicdisk", while other sources consider it a "union between music and videogames".
This, combined with the low quality of the final sound output compared to the original album, despite the C64 arguably having one of the best sound chips of its era, decreed the attempt's failure. It's also one of the earliest attempts by part of a musician to release an interactive/multimedia software based on his works, before the CD-ROM era and before the first videogames and multimedia discs licensed by a music artist appeared.
