Published on Feb 12, 1997
One of my earliest memories is going out shopping with my mom
(who is partly – oh, hell,
totally to blame for me being the music junkie I am today)
to find a record. The film
The Exorcist had just come out, and people all around the
country found the film’s title theme to be a haunting, but
beautiful, piece of work. The record where it came from,
Tubular Bells, was almost impossible to find in our area,
but Mom got her hands on a copy. And the rest, they say, was
history. (I went on to wear out her copy, replace it with another,
and buy myself a copy which sits in the Pierce Memorial Archives
“Hall Of Fame.”)
It escaped notice of many people that, had it not been for one
Richard Branson and his fledgling Virgin record label,
Tubular Bells never would have seen the light of day, having
been rejected by all the major labels. And that, kids, would have
been a goddamn shame. This record is one of the best
all-instrumental works I have heard since A&P brought back
their classical record collection.
The whole album is one song, split into two movements. Oldfield,
known only in his native Britain at the time, came up with this
astounding project, one which took balls the size of cantaloupes to
conceive and produce. I mean, he needed to write segments of music,
in all styles and flavors, that blended together almost seamlessly.
It had to be flawless – and he
almost pulled it off – we’ll get back to that thought
later.
The portion of
Tubular Bells best known to many is the first movement, the
actual theme music from
The Exorcist. The opening piano line, quickly melded in with
an organ and bass line, immeditely captures the listener’s
attention. Oldfield played all but a few instruments on this one,
and he is able to handle each one’s nuances with astounding skill –
it seems like he has an entire orchestra at his command. (He would,
a few years later – check out
The Orchestral Tubular Bells.)
A work this expansive is extremely hard to quantify in terms of
success (like I mentioned in an earlier Jethro Tull review, how
does one determine what movement is what? Was that the fifth or the
ninth?), but the first side flows from one concept to another with
remarkable precision. One minute it is a mandolin chorus leading
the tune, the next it is wild fretting of electric guitar. The
first side closes with the magnum opus, with Master of Ceremonies
Viv Stanshall (in the only real vocal appearance on the album)
introducing the instruments – including, of course, tubular
bells.
The second side has some of the more “natural” music – with more
of a folk rock feel, especialy in Oldfield’s use of guitars and
piano. (The “vocals” of Piltdown Man, which sounds like Oldfield
after a rough night at the pub, was always a favorite of mine as a
child, and is still enjoyable today.) The free-form movement near
the end is interesting to hear as it unfolds, though sometimes it
seems like Oldfield is having difficulty bringing his work to a
close.
Ah, the close – a country, hoe-down that builds itself into a
frenzy. Here is where Oldfield makes the only mistake on the entire
album. This short portion of music sounds the most out of place –
it is almost as if he figured he’d featured all the other types of
music in
Tubular Bells, may as well throw some country into it.
Wrong. Still, this is a small flaw in an otherwise incredible
work.
Oldfield never seemed to top
Tubular Bells, not for his lack of trying. (He made a
terrible mistake a few years ago when he released
Tubular Bells 2, which seems to rework his master piece
measure for measure. Avoid this one at all costs.) But if he were
to be remembered for only this album, it’s a grand way to be
remembered.
Tubular Bells is nothing short of a masterpiece, one flaw
and all, and should be in everybody’s collection.
As for myself, I know what Mom is getting this Mother’s Day –
I’m going to update her copy of
Tubular Bells to compact disc.
Editor’s note: I finally got around to reviewing Tubular
Bells 2
four years after this review ran… did my opinion about that
album change? Guess you’ll have to dig up that review to find
out.)