Tubular Bells

do you reckon anyone has ever listened to all of it?

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I have. Used to spin my dad’s vinyl copy of it when I was younger

He’s got a lot to answer for

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Yes. I have multiple times. It’s a work of art. Love it.

Of course. But has anyone ever made it through either of the sequels?

I listened to it the other night. Well actually I watched a BBC performance of it.

I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to only listen to bits of a work like that, even though the portion near the end is a bit annoyingly repetitive.

It’s not his best work though. I prefer Incantations.

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I bought Tubular Bells II when it came out in the early 90s. Liked it a lot back then but haven’t heard it in ages.

did it really come out in the 90s? huh.

Many of Oldfield’s fans seem to prefer II to the original TB. I haven’t heard II.

I know that TBII was Oldfield’s way of giving the finger to Richard Branson after departing his Virgin label. Branson had been trying for years to get him to produce a Tubular Bells II for his label to release. Oldfield waited until leaving the label before creating said work. Instead, his final release for Virgin was Amarok, a work that contained no breaks, therefore no real way any portion could be extracted and released as a single… as well as, at one point in the work, a message in Morse code saying “Fuck you Branson” (or something similar).

Yep, by that time Branson and Oldfield had well and truly fallen out.

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I’ve listened to the original a fair few times.

But mum had the orchestral version so I’ve heard that loads. It’s not really at all whimsical in that version, it just sounds like if Vaughan Williams scored a cheesy film, I guess?

Yeah, I dig it.
Also seen Jean Michele Jarre.
Love pomp.

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Hergest Ridge is way better.

Moonlight Shadow is better anyway.

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I think this was the album that taught me that listening to music when stoned was awesome

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Goes on a bit doesnt it

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it’s probably terrible, I’d hate to listen to it now

It’s not good. Initial idea is great but he’s goes off in all sorts of wrong directions after that.