Oldfield

Posted over 3 years ago

Artist:
- PLAY
Mike Oldfield
Album:
- PLAY
- QUEUE
The Songs of Distant Earth

Tonight I was watching a documentary about the Apollo lunar missions and heard the audio of William Anders reading "let there be light..." and it made me think of **Mike Oldfield's** _The Songs Of Distant Earth_ and I realized I haven't heard this album in years. When I tried to pull it up in iTunes, I quickly found out why - I never ripped my CD to hard drive. Well, that was quickly fixed and now I'm listening to this masterpiece and introducing my son to it for the first time.

If you've never heard any Oldfield, you should. I've been a fan since I was 14 when I walked past Father Timothy's office at boarding school and some particularly strange riff from _Tubular Bells_ came drifting out[1]. It caught my attention and I ended up sitting on his sofa for the rest of the album while he did paper work and other students drifted in and out of the dorm. I bought the CD a couple years later. In college I bought _The Songs Of Distant Earth_ and _Tubular Bells 2_. All amazing pieces of music.fn1. (I've still never seen the exorcist so I don't have that connotation to deal with when I listen to _Tubular Bells_. I read the book and enjoyed it, so I have no desire to see the movie.)

Comments (6)

Add To My Trusted Moggers

vacasmagras says Thanks for posting this. I am now listening to Songs of the Distant Earth for the first time in a long time. It is very beautiful and relaxing. Now I'm curious about the Arthur C Clarke novel upon which is it based.

Permalink posted 10/17/2006
Add To My Trusted Moggers

atman says whenever I hear or read the name Mike Oldfield I automatically think Tubular Bells. An artist that has an association like that, it's weird to hear that they've actually done something else. I'll try to remember to check this out. as much as I piss and moan about having dialup.. I'm gonna do it again. Makes it hard to check out as much music as I'd like because it takes 45 minutes to download an album. I have piles of sticky notes in my desk of music to check out. If you could recommend 1 track off of a non-Tubular Bells album, what would it be?

Permalink posted 10/17/2006
Add To My Trusted Moggers

Moof says Wow - it's hard to pick just one since, like tubular bells, _TB2_ and _Songs_ are basically album-length pieces. At least TB2 and Songs have individual tracks for each song, though - lol - the original Tubular Bells is just two tracks corresponding to side one and side two of the vinyl record. Try _The Songs Of DIstant Earth_ track "Supernova." It's beautiful and fairly representative of the whole CD (as much as one track can be). If you can, also download "Magellan" which is the track right after "Supernova" and will give you a little more feel of the whole CD. I think the concept of the album is a journey from earth to a new home for man - I think. Another cool aspect to _Songs_ is that it's an enhanced CD and there's an interactive bit where you have to solve a MYST-style puzzle to unlock a little bit of interactive content and a music video (with mid-90s 3D rendering). Still, fun to fiddle with.

Permalink posted 10/17/2006
Add To My Trusted Moggers

Moof says @vacasmagras I've read some Clarke in junior high and high school, but I never read this story. Clarke was a genius, but he wasn't my favorite writer. He had a show on Discovery Channel, or something, about 10 years ago and I remember loving that, but it was because he's just such a brilliant old curmudgeon.

Permalink posted 10/17/2006
Add To My Trusted Moggers

democlez says You have no idea how freaked out I was to see a post with my last name. I forgot about Mike Oldfield for a few seconds. Anyway, I haven't heard any of his new material but I will definitely check it out. I loved tubular bells.

Permalink posted 10/18/2006
Add To My Trusted Moggers

Lester Jonze says dude, you've never seen the exorcist? wow. back in the day when i was young and impressionable, _Ommadawn_ twisted my head around backwards, still does.

Permalink posted 10/18/2006