The thing about MO music (and others from that era) is that they know how to finish tunes like the classical composers. Today's music just ends all of a sudden. No big finish, no repeating melody/chorus, no fade out, just a simple stop. Even the good modern songs can't finish nicely.
Uilleann Pipes - The sweeter sounding Irish equivalent of the traditional Bagpipes...Oldfield also used Northumbrian Pipes and Scottish bagpipes. For his demo's he used a Hoover Vacuum Cleaner to create the drone associated with Bagpipes 🙂
@@routemaster19 Correct. Uilleann, for elbow, in Irish language. Two full octaves, and not mouth blown (so a 'dry' reed pipes), and played sitting down. Safest instrument out there, it comes with it's own airbag!
This track completes a fantastic album from Mike, some very fluid and melodic guitar playing near the end of Part 2 The sequel, Return to Ommadawn from 2017 is worth checking out too. If you want to hear Mike singing in a more conventional way, listen to his song Heaven's Open, it has yet another wonderful guitar solo too.
Amongst most Oldfield fans this album is considered the peak of his creativity during the 1970's if not his whole career! It came off the back of a generally negative critical appraisal of his previous album "Hergest Ridge" by an industry that just wanted a second "Tubular Bells" (they would have to wait until 1992 for that to happen!). Hergest Ridge hit the No. 1 spot in the UK charts until it was displaced by Tubular Bells a few weeks later! At the time he was about only the third artist to be able to claim he knocked himself off the top of the charts - the others being The Beatles & Bob Dylan. Shortly after starting Ommadawn his mother died and this grief is felt in much of the guitar work on the album. It is generally considered Oldfield does his best work when he is depressed/has troubles unfortunately for him. When all is well in his life his work - although still pleasant and enjoyable - doesn't reach the heights of complexity and emotion that this album has. The "On Horseback" song was the AA side of the single "In Dulci Jubilo" - released at Christmas time which might explain some of its cuteness. Prior to this Mike sang on the B side to his first single "Theme to Tubular Bells" which was another folk song "Froggy Went A Courting". Mike's background is Folk music - but having grown up during the sixties with The Beatles, Rolling Stones, & especially The Shadows - this influenced his compositions to become a "Folk Rock" genre. HIs next album (Incantations) was a double album - same principle of one composition taking up a whole side. For some it was a bit too much - it was very ambitious and even more complex and contains some dazzling virtuoso playing but it didn't have the accessibility of his earlier works - plus music in the UK was changing rapidly and Disco and Punk were taking over. This led to a fundamental change in Oldfields output - and he tended to be led more by what was popular at the time rather than plow his own furrow. Occasionally though he would do his own thing and it was all the better for it! In 2017 Oldfield released a long awaited sequel to Ommadawn: "Return To Ommadawn". It showed again some great instrumental musicianship but still paled in comparison to the original. I wonder if you will reach that album in the future?
I agree with you. But don't forget "Amarok " from 1990. A very special album. Some passages sounds like typically Oldfield but others very harsh of course and the music changes very fast. So it was impossible to make a commercial single , but Mike do this intentionally because he had a dispute with producer Richard Branson who's wanted an album full of commercial stuff from Mike. But Mike did the contrary- an album with ONE song about 60 minutes- no chance for a hit-single. Nevertheless it was an absolutely uncommercial, but very good album. In my opinion the best since "Ommadawn ...
This version is NOT the original. While similar, there were more prominent pipes and vocals before. If you can, try out the live versions. Hanover and Montreux are really good.
Mike while being able to play pretty much every instrument on the planet to a high level sadly isn't a very good singer-he usually let Maggie O'Reilly & other women do the vocals-drafted in Roger Chapman from Family for one song.
One of the most beautiful album from Mike.
The thing about MO music (and others from that era) is that they know how to finish tunes like the classical composers. Today's music just ends all of a sudden. No big finish, no repeating melody/chorus, no fade out, just a simple stop. Even the good modern songs can't finish nicely.
That strange instrument is a bagpipe, played by one of the absolute bagpipe masters, Paddy Moloney. That's why it sounds so nice.
Uilleann Pipes - The sweeter sounding Irish equivalent of the traditional Bagpipes...Oldfield also used Northumbrian Pipes and Scottish bagpipes. For his demo's he used a Hoover Vacuum Cleaner to create the drone associated with Bagpipes 🙂
@@routemaster19 Correct. Uilleann, for elbow, in Irish language. Two full octaves, and not mouth blown (so a 'dry' reed pipes), and played sitting down. Safest instrument out there, it comes with it's own airbag!
This track completes a fantastic album from Mike, some very fluid and melodic guitar playing near the end of Part 2 The sequel, Return to Ommadawn from 2017 is worth checking out too. If you want to hear Mike singing in a more conventional way, listen to his song Heaven's Open, it has yet another wonderful guitar solo too.
Amongst most Oldfield fans this album is considered the peak of his creativity during the 1970's if not his whole career!
It came off the back of a generally negative critical appraisal of his previous album "Hergest Ridge" by an industry that just wanted a second "Tubular Bells" (they would have to wait until 1992 for that to happen!). Hergest Ridge hit the No. 1 spot in the UK charts until it was displaced by Tubular Bells a few weeks later! At the time he was about only the third artist to be able to claim he knocked himself off the top of the charts - the others being The Beatles & Bob Dylan.
Shortly after starting Ommadawn his mother died and this grief is felt in much of the guitar work on the album. It is generally considered Oldfield does his best work when he is depressed/has troubles unfortunately for him. When all is well in his life his work - although still pleasant and enjoyable - doesn't reach the heights of complexity and emotion that this album has.
The "On Horseback" song was the AA side of the single "In Dulci Jubilo" - released at Christmas time which might explain some of its cuteness. Prior to this Mike sang on the B side to his first single "Theme to Tubular Bells" which was another folk song "Froggy Went A Courting". Mike's background is Folk music - but having grown up during the sixties with The Beatles, Rolling Stones, & especially The Shadows - this influenced his compositions to become a "Folk Rock" genre.
HIs next album (Incantations) was a double album - same principle of one composition taking up a whole side. For some it was a bit too much - it was very ambitious and even more complex and contains some dazzling virtuoso playing but it didn't have the accessibility of his earlier works - plus music in the UK was changing rapidly and Disco and Punk were taking over. This led to a fundamental change in Oldfields output - and he tended to be led more by what was popular at the time rather than plow his own furrow. Occasionally though he would do his own thing and it was all the better for it!
In 2017 Oldfield released a long awaited sequel to Ommadawn: "Return To Ommadawn". It showed again some great instrumental musicianship but still paled in comparison to the original. I wonder if you will reach that album in the future?
I agree with you. But don't forget "Amarok " from 1990. A very special album. Some passages sounds like typically Oldfield but others very harsh of course and the music changes very fast. So it was impossible to make a commercial single , but Mike do this intentionally because he had a dispute with producer Richard Branson who's wanted an album full of commercial stuff from Mike. But Mike did the contrary- an album with ONE song about 60 minutes- no chance for a hit-single. Nevertheless it was an absolutely uncommercial, but very good album. In my opinion the best since "Ommadawn ...
This version is NOT the original. While similar, there were more prominent pipes and vocals before. If you can, try out the live versions. Hanover and Montreux are really good.
Mike while being able to play pretty much every instrument on the planet to a high level sadly isn't a very good singer-he usually let Maggie O'Reilly & other women do the vocals-drafted in Roger Chapman from Family for one song.