This list of songs is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song #500 and going until I reach Song #1. When you see the song title listed as something like: Song #XXX (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song #xxx (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.
KTOM: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History.
Song #393: Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.
Mike Oldfield created “Tubular Bells” when he was still a teenager. “Tubular Bells” is best known as the opening instrumental theme for the movie The Exorcist. It has won many awards and has ended up selling millions of copies and is regarded as being one of the most creative, influential and sophisticated records of all time. But, the story of “Tubular Bells” extends beyond the mere creation of a piece of music. It is a story that includes mental health struggles, prodigy-like skills, billionaires, intergalactic space travel and Hollywood and it all started with a introverted young boy named Mike Oldfield.
Childhood should be a time of happy memories. It should be a time when fun and games were the order of the day, curiosity about the world around you is fuelled and discoveries are made that can last a lifetime. When the formative years of childhood are guided and protected by caring adults, a child can look back upon those years as having laid the foundation for a stable and contented life. However, not all children are so lucky as I was to have a loving, peaceful, happy family life as a child. A good case in point was the childhood of Mike Oldfield. Mike Oldfield had many childhood challenges that were exacerbated by domestic discord in his family home between his parents. This caused Oldfield to feel at odds with the world around him. As a result of how he felt socially, Oldfield retreated into the safety of his bedroom and in particular into the world of sounds. As a young teen, Oldfield began demonstrating a proclivity for being able to master the playing of musical instruments. He approached each instrument from an analytical point of view; analyzing how the functionality of each instrument produced various notes and the degree of ease/difficulty present to produce these notes in certain sequences or combinations. Even though he was painfully shy, Oldfield’s desire to play his instruments resulted in him becoming involved in a variety of local bands. It was as a result of being involved in one of his bands that he was given a tape recorder. Oldfield immediately took the tape recorder apart, replacing the “erase” feature and creating an additional “record” function thus, he created a multi-track recording device which, in turn, expanded the range of musical sounds he was able to create.
As his late teens arrived, Oldfield began creating the initial foundation for what was to become “Tubular Bells”. But, he realized that his ambition extended beyond the capabilities of his small tape recorder studio. His search for larger recording facilities brought him to the attention of a young entrepreneur named Richard Branson….yes, that Richard Branson. Whether or not Branson understood the mental health challenges Oldfield carried with him each day, he certainly recognized his prodigy-like talent and so he gave Oldfield access to the recording studio at his estate. With that studio came a myriad of instruments (all of which Oldfield learned on his own). Most notably, it came with a complete set of tubular bells. Over time, Oldfield played each instrument, recorded and mixed each track and ended up creating an entire album called Tubular Bells. The song that you will hear today (which is The Exorcist theme song) is merely the opening first 5-6 minutes of an entire full-length instrumental magnum opus. Since then, Oldfield has produced several variations of this album called Tubular Bells II, Tubular Bells III and so on. The original Tubular Bells album was the very first album ever released on Branson’s Virgin Music Label. The proceeds from the millions of album sales helped fund many other Virgin-related innovative projects including, all these years later, Branson’s wish to achieve intergalactic space flight.
Over the years, Mike Oldfield has had access to various forms of personal therapy. During these sessions, he came to learn the extent to which the traumas experienced as a child clouded his worldview and filled him with feelings of discomfort that were preventing him from having a happy social life and a positive sense of self-worth. As a result of his therapy, Oldfield ended up getting married and having children of his own. He has toured the world and has performed for audiences that included everyone from Royalty, to his fellow musicians, to regular folks like you and me. While still somewhat socially withdrawn, Mike Oldfield has found a greater sense of peace in his later years than he ever knew as a child. It just goes to prove how important it is to protect that valuable commodity known as childhood. Many of life’s seeds are sown during those first years of life. Fortunately, the stigma formally attached to issues of mental health is changing as time and society move along. Seeking help for the demons that haunt you is now viewed as being a positive step in personal self-growth. That wasn’t the case back when Mike Oldfield was young in the 1960s. While it took a long time for Oldfield to gain a clearer picture of who he truly was, the important thing is that peace has come to a man who had sounds for friends growing up. While he will forever and for always be remembered as the man who created “Tubular Bells”, I think his greatest accomplishment will be his own personal happiness. There is nothing more important in life than that. Good for him.
The link to the video for “Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, can be found here.
Mike Oldfield has a website that can be accessed by clicking the link here.
A link for the trailer to the movie The Exorcist (featuring “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield) can be found here.
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