David Bowie, 1974

David Bowie

Photo: Terry O'Neil/Getty Images

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"Space Oddity": 7 Facts About David Bowie's Cosmic Ballad | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

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Investigate these seven intriguing facts about Bowie's spacey first hit single
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Mar 9, 2018 - 6:26 pm

Earlier this year, the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame officially announced its 2018 class of inductees. The list includes classic recordings such as Public Enemy's "Fight The Power," Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," and the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black,"  among others.

Also among the class of new inductees is David Bowie's singularly spacey early hit, "Space Oddity."

Originally released in 1969, right around the time of the momentous Apollo 11 moon landing, the song captured the sentiment of our global fascination with humanity's strange journey to reach the stars. Paired with a profound arrangement of orchestral backing tracks and touches of classic '60s British whimsy, the song also cemented the beginnings of what would become Bowie's trademark "far out" persona and career-spanning incorporation of cosmic motifs.

In celebration of the song's induction into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, let's dive a bit deeper into the history of "Space Oddity." So take your protein pills and put your helmet on, because here are seven intriguing facts about Bowie's spacey, psychedelic first big single.

1. Bowie Initially Had Trouble Finding A Producer

In the two years following the lukewarm reception for his 1967 self-titled debut, Bowie had grown wiser and weirder (in the best way possible) as a songwriter, but still found trouble landing a producer to work on his new batch of songs. Beatles collaborator George Martin turned down working on "Space Oddity" out of hand; meanwhile, Tony Visconti, who would later become a lifelong production partner for Bowie, claimed the song was "a cheap shot" at the impending Apollo 11 mission. Though Visconti did end up contributing some arrangement work to the song, he delegated the project to eventual Elton John collaborator Gus Dudgeon.

2. BBC Delayed Its Release Due To Astronaut Safety Concerns

"Space Oddity" was released on July 11, 1969, just five days before the launch of the Apollo 11 moon mission. Unfortunately, due to concerns over the song's less-than-optimistic lyrics regarding the fate of Major Tom, the BBC actually refused to broadcast the song on-air until the Apollo 11 astronauts had safely returned from their mission. Because of this delay, the song was essentially kneecapped at its outset and had trouble building momentum on the charts. Nevertheless, by September 1969, the song was able to gain traction on the U.K. singles chart — becoming Bowie's first single to do so — eventually climbing to No. 5.

3. Success Upon Re-Release

While "Space Oddity" eventually charted well in the U.K., it initially hit a brick wall in the U.S., failing to climb crack the top 100 following its 1969 release. Oddly enough, despite Bowie's debut album having been released as a self-titled LP, Philips Records (Bowie's label at the time) released his second album in November 1969 also under the title David Bowie. When the album was finally re-released internationally by RCA in 1972, it was renamed Space Oddity to reflect the success of the single. It was with this release that "Space Oddity" hit the mark in the U.S., where it climbed all the way to No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Bowie's first stateside hit.

4. A Stellar Lineup Of Collaborators

As is often the case with anything touched by Bowie, the team of creatives assembled to help launch the rocket that "Space Oddity" was truly cosmic. Playing the distinctive mellotron sections on the track was a then-little known session player named Rick Wakeman, who would eventually find worldwide success with the progressive rock outfit Yes. In charge of the fantastic string arrangements that signal the blastoff of Major Tom's interstellar tin can was the late Paul Buckmaster, a classically-trained arranger and composer who went on to contribute GRAMMY-winning arrangement work to recordings by Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Nicks, and countless other members of classic rock royalty. Also onboard was the multitalented Visconti, who helped arrange the track's flute and woodwind sections, despite his misgivings about signing on as overall producer.

5. The Continuing Adventures Of Major Tom

The song's protagonist stands tall among the cast of unforgettable character that Bowie brought to life in his songs across his prolific career. And while "Space Oddity" envisions Major Tom's journey as a pseudo hippy-inspired tale of escape from the material shackles of living on the ground, Bowie's later references to the character in 1980's "Ashes To Ashes" and 1995's "Hallo Spaceboy" reframe the narrative in a darker light. To cement this connection, Bowie also reused some notable set pieces from the "Space Oddity" music video as backdrops for "Ashes To Ashes."

6. Teasing The Legacy

Bowie's relationship with "Space Oddity" took turns of its own across the nearly 50 years of his career that would pass between its recording and release in 1969 and the singer's untimely death in 2016. Despite the song's popularity with Bowie's fans, he rarely if ever played it live after the mid-1970s. During his 2004 A Reality Tour, however, he would often tease audiences by strumming the first few chords of the song, before breaking off to ask the crowd with a wry smile. "You remember this one …but we're not playing that one," said Bowie. Clocking in at 112 show dates, Bowie's A Reality Tour was the longest tour run of his entire career, and though he teased the song often, not once during the tour did he ever play it in its entirety.

7. The First Music Video In Space

In 2013, while stationed aboard the International Space Station, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield posted a video of himself performing "Space Oddity" aboard the ISS in orbit around Earth. The video has the distinction of being the first music video ever to be shot and performed in outer space. Upon Hadfield's return to Earth, he revealed to the U.K.'s Telegraph that Bowie exchanged messages of praise with him for making the film (though the two were never able to meet face to face). "For [Bowie] to have [seen] it performed in a place he’d always dreamed of, and in a way that was sensitive to the ideas of the song, gave him great joy," Hadfield explained. "[He] loved the song and that was the best reaction for me."

"Fight The Power": 7 Facts Behind Public Enemy's Anthem | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

Alejandro Escovedo, 2018

Alejandro Escovedo

Photo: Nate Hertweck/Recording Academy

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Alejandro Escovedo On New York, Lou Reed, David Bowie & More

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On the brink of his May residency in NYC's East Village, Escovedo talks songwriting, future plans, and how "Velvet Underground stole my whole consciousness"
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
May 2, 2018 - 6:09 pm

Tonight in New York's East Village, acclaimed songwriter Alejandro Escovedo begins his May residency with the first of five shows in the neighborhood. The gritty, vibrant streets exploding with character and nuance suit his music perfectly. I tracked him down during rehearsal at the Bowery Electric, just a few doors down from where CBGB once stood, to ask him about his New York heroes, the making of his latest masterpiece Burn Something Beautiful, and what surprises he's got in store for his May residency.

"I lived right around the corner," says Escovedo, reflecting on the East Village vibe. "I used to watch the Cramps cross the street every day to go to breakfast, which was at two in the afternoon, and they were amazing, it was just like this movie that opened up in front of you that was incredible. I just have so many memories here, and every time I come back I gravitate to the Lower East Side."

On this particular return to NYC, Escovedo has mapped out an ambitious month-long residency exploring a variety of formats and incorporating a fascinating list of guests such as singer/songwriter and musical historian Richard Barone, Nuggets collection compiler and Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, and New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. The residency kicks off with a show at Coney Island Baby on May 2 and closes with a special all-star band at Bowery Electric on May 30.

"Back in Austin at the Continental Club, I would do residencies. I would always do something different, whether it was acoustic or feedback with strings," says Escovedo. "The idea came to do one here when Jesse [Malin] and I were playing a lot of gigs together … I love the intimacy of these places, and I thought this would be a great place to do something like that. … I thought, 'Well, let's make every week a little different.'"

"We're going to pick the songs together," says Barone, who works and performs with Escovedo often. "We'll be using our own songs with songs by artists we admire to tell our stories. It's a biographical show … I'm going to do one of Alejandro's songs that I always loved because I think it talks about both of us … it really tells our story."

GRAMMYs

Alejandro Escovedo and Richard Barone
Photo: Nancy Rankin Escovedo

"Richard and I have always had that connection," Escovedo says, talking about his mutual admiration for Barone, his long history with each special guest and teasing the residency's finale with a knowing smile. His ambition harkens back to how the city of New York originally grabbed his heart.

"When I was a kid in high school and that first Velvet Underground album came out, in our little town, Huntington Beach, California, you could go to any party amongst our group of friends and that record was playing, and we'd listen to it from the very beginning to the very end," says Escovedo. "Growing up, my friends all wanted to travel to Europe … [but] I wanted to go to New York because the Velvet Underground was from New York."

Lou Reed's influence on Escovedo's work is clear, yet never feels imitative. As Barone puts it, "There's a Lou Reed song for every emotion." He and Escovedo produced a remarkable tribute to Reed during SXSW 2014 following his death.

"There's something about the way Lou Reed wrote about New York and what I was feeling at the time that made me want to experience that more than I wanted to experience the hippie thing that was happening in California," says Escovedo. "That's not to say I didn't have interest in Buffalo Springfield and Love and all those bands. I did, but the Velvet Underground totally stole my whole consciousness."

Escovedo finally made it to New York in 1978 with his band the Nuns after they opened for the Sex Pistols' historic last show at Winterland in San Francisco. His arrival in New York was, well, epic.

"We had the consummate New York experience. We lived in the Chelsea hotel," he says. "One of the first nights we were here I sat at a table with Deborah Harry, all of Blondie, the Nuns, Andy Warhol, [photographer] Francesco Scavullo, and George Clinton. We watched the Heartbreakers play at Max's Kansas City. And that was kind of the beginning. Our first gig was at CBGBs — there's David Byrne, there's David Johansen. Everybody was there."

This punk-rock sentiment manifests itself in Escovedo's songs even today — however, in a way that feels fresh as opposed to nostalgic. Case in point, his song "Johnny Volume" has a foot firmly planted in East Village legacy, but the other kicks forward with lyrics like, "I'm going down to Max's, Fender Twin on 10/ I'm going back to St. Mark's Place, start all over again."

"I wrote it in Portland," says Escovedo. "It was actually Scott's initial song idea, and then we completed it. It's about Johnny Thunders coming back and wanting to get it right this time — not that he got it wrong, but he wanted another shot at it. 'I'm feeling so better/ It's time to make amends,' and 'if you see me on the corner, I'm waiting on a friend' was a reference to the Stones video we all saw [that was filmed] in the East Village."

"Johnny Volume" is a live-wired cut from Escovedo's latest album, 2016's Burn Something Beautiful, which offers an exhibition in rock songwriting, production and arrangement. The album was produced by former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and his Pacific Northwest-based partner in crime, bassist Scott McCaughey.

"When I made Burn Something Beautiful," says Escovedo, "I think I got back to where my heart really was with rock and roll, and I think I needed Scott and Peter to do that, and all the musicians who played on that record. … It was liberating."

Escovedo also talks with reverence and candor about his experience working with legendary producer Tony Visconti on his three albums prior to Burn Something Beautiful. Visconti is best known for his work with the incomparable David Bowie, one of Escovedo's heroes.

"[Bowie] passed away on my birthday," he says. "David had been a major, major influence on me. Not only did he teach me about music, he taught me about art, and books, and theatre, and cinema, and mime, and Buddhism, and [he] taught us how to dress, [and] also how to be a man in a different way. He suddenly opened a door to a world that made it okay to be flamboyant, to be an actor in a way."

With equal parts imagination from Bowie and storytelling from Reed, Escovedo says his songwriting process is all about honesty and imagery.

"This last record that I just finished, which is a concept record, it's telling a story and so people say, 'Well, the verses don't rhyme,' and then I go back and I listen to Lou — he's telling a story," says Escovedo. "The images are more important than whether the meter is correct in a poetic sense or lyrical sense. It's more about the impact of the words and the story and the images that he creates.

"I really don't worry about the craft as much as I worry about making sure that I'm honest about what I'm trying to say and true to what I'm trying to say and not being pretentious in any way."

"What sets [Escovedo] apart is how he continues to grow as an artist without losing track of his core musical identity," says Barone. "He experiments … but it never loses that ethos of the punk era."

Looking forward, Escovedo says he's writing a book with San Antonio-based author John Phillip Santos, telling his story in what he calls a "mythical memoir." But he isn't done making music yet.

"I'm going to make another record with Peter and Scott, then I'm making a record of duets, and then I want to make one final record really encompassing the grandness of strings with distortion, almost like orchestrated metal machine music," Escovedo says. "Then I think it's time to put my feet up for a little bit. I travel hard and I've battled illnesses and whatnot, so it's time to enjoy the fresh air."

As he runs through a career-spanning set during rehearsal the day before the first show of his May residency in the East Village, Escovedo couldn't be more relaxed. He stops a song here and there to point out a string line for the guitar player to cover or to lock in a harmony part with his background vocalists, but you get the sense Escovedo is very comfortable yielding to the energy of rock and roll and putting faith in the musicians around him. He asks the band what song is next, they all casually call him "Al," and his wife Nancy hangs out close by with their pup, Suki. From California to New York, Austin, Texas, and back again — for all of Escovedo's travels — rock and roll is his true home.

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Queen circa 1975

Queen

Photo: Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images/Getty Images

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'A Night At The Opera': 7 Facts On Queen's Masterpiece | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

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The band's fourth album spawned perhaps one of the most epic rock operas of all time; get the 411 on the making of this classic LP
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 27, 2018 - 3:39 pm

"I see a little silhouetto of a man/Scaramouche, scaramouche will you do the fandango?"

The lyrics are so iconic, inevitably you'll know the song they belong to in an instant — Queen's epic "Bohemian Rhapsody."  

While the rock opera has arguably outshined the rest of the album that spawned the unlikely hit, A Night At The Opera was Queen's aptly titled fourth studio LP. Released Nov. 21, 1975, it contained other would-be favorites such as "Love Of My Life" and "You're My Best Friend." By all accounts, it wasn't an easy album to get down on tape, but it also became one of Queen's most successful and influential works of art.

Marking A Night At The Opera's latest achievement, it was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame as part of the class of 2018, an honor recognizing significant recordings that have shaped our musical heritage. To celebrate, let's take a closer look at these seven facts about the making of this classic Queen album.

1. The Marx Brothers Inspired The Title

As fans of the Marx Brothers' filmography, it seemed to make perfect sense that Queen — lead singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon — would name their fourth album after one of their films. A Night At The Opera comes from the 1935 Marx Brothers comedy of the same name, which the band reportedly watched in the studio during the recording of the LP Their 1976 follow-up, A Day At The Races, also borrowed its title from the Marx Brothers.

2. The Album Cost A Fortune

There was nothing cheap about recording A Night At The Opera, both from a time and financial standpoint. Getting the massive "Bohemian Rhapsody" down took three weeks alone, and the rest of the album stretched on as Queen worked tirelessly with producer Roy Thomas Baker. Most notably, the album cost the equivalent of $500,000 today to make in 1975, which earned the distinction of being the then-most expensive rock album ever made. This could have something to do with the fact the band recorded in six studios across the U.K.

3. Manager Drama Makes The Cut

Prior to 1975, Queen struggled to make ends meet despite having success with their three previous albums. It turns out the issue was a management deal gone horribly wrong. The band fought to free themselves from the bad relationship, and when they were successful, Mercury penned a scathing revenge track recounting the experience — "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To …)."

"'Death On Two Legs' was the most vicious lyric I ever wrote," Mercury said, according to QueenOnline.com. "It was so vindictive that Brian felt bad singing it. No one would ever believe how much hate and venom went into the singing of that song, let alone the lyrics themselves."

4. Recording "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Queen's magnum opus, and arguably their most recognizable song of all time, is the rock opera "Bohemian Rhapsody." Clocking in at more than six minutes, it defied all conventions. And while we know some of the song's references — Scaramouche is a character from the Italian clown tradition, Galileo refers to the famous astronomer and Bismillah is the first word in The Qu'ran — we may never know the song's true meaning since Mercury never revealed it. To get "Bohemian Rhapsody" on tape, particularly the choral parts, Mercury, May and Taylor reportedly sang 180 overdubs. By the end of the process, the tape had been used so many times it was see-through.

5. Making Music Video History

With its growing popularity, Queen realized they would need a music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody," largely because they didn't want to appear on the British TV show "Top Of The Pops." So the band set aside £3,500, brought on director Bruce Gowers and threw together a music video in just four hours in a space they were using to rehearse for a tour. The result was a rather simple video visually dominated by the band's singing heads. But like the song itself, the end result became so popular it's credited with helping usher in the MTV music video craze of the '80s.

6. Wayne's World? Excellent …

Remember that scene in Wayne's World where Mike Meyers and crew lip sync "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the car? That moment has become a classic music moment in film, but it also gave way to a resurgence of interest in the popular A Night At The Opera track. When the Wayne's World soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1992, "Bohemian Rhapsody" also landed at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, bringing the Queen hit to a new generation of fans.

7. GRAMMY Awards Recognition

Besides A Night At The Opera's induction into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame this year, the album earned Queen other GRAMMY recognition. Most notably, "Bohemian Rhapsody" earned the rockers their first two GRAMMY nominations at the 19th GRAMMY Awards, including nods for Best Arrangement For Voices (Duo, Group Or Chorus) and Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus. "Bohemian Rhapsody" earned induction into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame on its own in 2004 and Queen was also honored with the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

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Jimi Hendrix, 1970

Jimi Hendrix

Photo Walter Loos Jr./Getty Images

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'Band Of Gypsys': 5 Facts About Jimi Hendrix's Final Living Release | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

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A live album comprising a heart-wrenching look into the untapped potential still to be explored, Jimi Hendrix's 'Band Of Gypsys' gives just a small glance into the iconic guitarist's limitless well of talent
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Apr 23, 2018 - 10:46 am

Released just months before the legendary pioneer's passing at the age of just 27, Jimi Hendrix's Band Of Gypsys gave the world a heart-wrenching look the iconic guitarist's limitless well of talent still to be explored.

Clocking in at over 45 minutes with a tracklist just six entries long, Band Of Gypsys marked a departure of sorts from Hendrix's traditional brash, psychedelic hard-rock sound and a transition toward the more blues-oriented improvisational sounds that were both the foundation of the guitarist's roots and the new direction of his musical goals. Ultimately, the album would lay the groundwork for the elements of proto-funk fusion that would come to define the next decade of popular rock.

In honor of the album's inclusion with the 2018 class of GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inductees, here are five intriguing details about Band Of Gypsys that you may find surprising.

1. First Recording Without The Experience

Prior to Band Of Gypsys, all of Hendrix's studio releases were recorded with the same core musicians. Together with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix introduced himself and his band to the world as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The trio released all three of the albums — 1967's Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love, and 1968's Electric Ladyland — that made them icons of psychedelic rock over a period of less than 16 months. But by late 1969, Hendrix was still under pressure to come up with a follow-up to Electric Ladyland, as well as to satisfy a contract dispute with a former manager that stipulated another LP of material be released. As Redding had departed the group for personal reasons in late 1969, effectively disbanding the Experience, Hendrix sought out frequent jam partners Billy Cox (bass) and Buddy Miles (drums), and the Band Of Gypsys was born. The band's 1970 live recording at the Filmore East in New York that became Band Of Gypsys was Hendrix's first-ever recording released without the Experience as his backing band.

2. The Woodstock Connection

As well as serving as a frequent jamming partner when Hendrix was in the mood to explore his more blues and R&B-leaning tendencies, bassist Cox also played in the interim backing band that took the stage with Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969, loosely known as Gypsy Sun And Rainbows. Following his rejoining with Hendrix to help form Band Of Gypsys for a series of shows in 1970, Cox would continue to play with Hendrix as a member of the Cry Of Love band. With original Experience drummer Mitchell rounding out the lineup for the Cry Of Love trio, the group would eventually be known unofficially as the New Experience, leading later fans of the band to incorrectly believe that Cox was an original member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. As of today, Cox remains the only surviving member of Hendrix's three main backing bands (the Experience, Band Of Gypsys, Cry Of Love).

3. Miles Ahead Of His Time

Drummer George Allen Miles was given the nickname "Buddy" by his aunt at a young age, after the famously temperamental jazz drummer Buddy Rich. His father had made a career playing upright bass with a variety of famous jazz players, including Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker — the latter a frequent collaborator of Miles' namesake Rich.  Miles first jammed with Hendrix at an impromptu practice session held at a home owned by Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills And Nash) sometime in 1967. He would encounter Hendrix for similar one-off sessions on both U.S. coasts over the next year, but it wasn't until early 1970, just after his own band Buddy Miles Express had dissolved that Miles go the call to come join the new project Band Of Gypsys. While his time with the Gypsys remains some his most-known efforts, Miles would go on to build a truly impressive résumé, playing with artists as varied as Carlos Santana, Mike Bloomfield, jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, Neal Schon of Journey, and even Phish. Fun Fact: Miles also sang the lead vocals for the famous "California Raisins" claymation commercials in the late '80s and early '90s.

4. The Way Of The Gun

The crown jewel of Band Of Gypsys is, of course, "Machine Gun." The 12-plus-minute spacey, experimental track served as a lengthy sonic commentary on the Vietnam War — and perhaps also all conflict, whether internal and external, if one takes into account the short dedication speeches Hendrix would typically recite prior to launching into nearly every recorded live performance of the song.

Opening with sparse, blues-influenced playing that many still call the best work of Hendrix's career, the track melts slowly into a series of restrained, effects-driven improvisations that seem aimed to simulate the dissonant battlefield overtures of helicopters and gunfire, while Hendrix himself breaks down his central plea, "Machine gun/tearing my family apart/…/Don't you shoot him down/he's about to leave here." Now considered one of the guitarist's crowning achievements and painful reminders of the creativity that still was to come had he survived, the opus of radical improvisation was recorded live numerous times at various performances, but never officially tracked in the studio. It stands now as a testament to the strength of Hendrix's musical expressivity

5. A Legacy Of Funk

In the face of the huge anticipation for a follow-up record to the critically acclaimed Electric Ladyland, Band Of Gypsys initially received somewhat mixed reviews from the public over the inconsistency of some of the recordings, as well as the lengthy departures from the trademark sound that had made Hedrix and the Experience famous in the first place.  But in retrospect, it seems clear that the record, as the final creative output of an artist forever known for pushing boundaries and seeking the distant edge of the state of his craft, served instead as one of the earliest blueprints of the coming decade of popular rock music. The effects-heavy yet expertly restrained musical abstractions formed the influential basis of much of the 1970s' best-known blues-rock, while also informing the earliest experimentations in uptempo funk fusion that would later make acts like Parliament famous. Throughout the '70s, and even into the over-produced sheen of the '80s, and the eventual alt-rock revival of the '90s, the story of the sonic legacy of Band Of Gypsys is a book that is still being written to this day.

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Mike Oldfield photographed circa 1975

Mike Oldfield

Photo: GAB Archive/Redferns

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'Tubular Bells': 5 Facts About Mike Oldfield's Classic | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

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DIY recording, aircrafts, horror classics, and a Bentley? Find out how these things play into Oldfield's GRAMMY Hall Of Fame-inducted LP
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Apr 6, 2018 - 3:49 pm

Bold. Idiosyncratic. Progressive. While it's difficult to put Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells into words, these adjectives are in the ballpark.

Over the course of nearly 50 minutes, the Englishman's 1973 magnum opus fused prog rock, world, folk, classical, jazz, electronic, and ambient elements. Combined with a minimalist track listing — which simply comprised "Tubular Bells, Part One" and "Tubular Bells, Part Two" spread out over two sides — Oldfield's musical mish-mash yielded an experimental symphony of sorts.

Some of the compositions' movements are beautiful; some drip with acid-rock peculiarity. There are optimistic melodies answered by haunting musical motifs. Strange instruments intervene against the backdrop of odd time signatures. It all yields a complex, introspective listen — but one that is surely worth a stream.

To help prep you for the musical joyride, here are five facts about Oldfield's dead ringer for a GRAMMY Hall Of Fame-inducted album.

1. A One-Man Teenaged Show

Born in 1954, Oldfield began recording Tubular Bells in late 1972 at the ripe age of 18. Foreshadowing the work of trendsetting DIY artists such as Prince and Trent Reznor, Oldfield preferred to do the musical heavy lifting himself. Although a guitarist at heart, Oldfield played a cornucopia of instruments on the album, including grand piano, glockenspiel, Farfisa organ, Hammond organ, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, tubular bells (duh), and concert tympani, among others.

"I didn't start out trying [for the album to] be any particular thing. I just had a sound picture of what I wanted to hear," Oldfield told RecordProdction.com.

As a result, the nascent Oldfield expended an incredible amount of time and resources to finish the project.

"I worked a marathon and did over 1,800 individual takes, working 20 hours a day," he told Electronic Musician.

2. Virgin's First

Oldfield's Tubular Bells was not only his debut album, it was the opening salvo for Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. Originally, the entrepreneur tried to sell Tubular Bells to other record companies. But when labels balked at the release — likely due to its outside-the-box nature — Branson was persuaded by colleagues to release it on his new label.

In a tip of the hat to Tubular Bells' significance to his empire, Branson named one of his first Virgin America aircrafts, an Airbus A319-112, N527VA Tubular Belle.

"We've named one of our Virgin aircraft Tubular Belle and we are going into space this year," Branson told The Guardian in 2013. "I doubt any of that would have happened without Tubular Bells. I've listened to it so much, my wife won't let me play it anymore."

3. The Exorcist Connection

Some iconic music-and-film moments result from happy accidents. That's the case with part one of Tubular Bells landing placement in the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. As the story goes, director William Friedkin scrapped the original score by GRAMMY winner Lalo Schifrin and was on the hunt for replacement music. Friedkin was visiting the offices of Ahmet Ertegun, president of Atlantic Records, the label distributing Tubular Bells in the U.S., and gleaned a promo copy of the album. Upon dropping the needle on his record player, Friedkin was convinced he found the music that would be perfect for his supernatural horror flick.

Although the introduction of " …. Part One" only features briefly in two scenes in the movie, it has become synonymous with what is often argued as the scariest film of all time.

"Most music is in 4/4 time, but that curious little figure at the beginning is in 15/8. It's like a puzzle with a little bit missing. That's why it sticks in the brain," said Oldfield. "And that's why it worked so well as the soundtrack to The Exorcist — with that little bit missing everything is not quite right."

An interesting bit of related trivia? In 2014 Oldfield confessed to The Guardian that he didn't see The Exorcist until a decade after it was released.

4. A Live Performance For A Car

Recording Tubular Bells in the studio was one thing, but taking it on the road? Talk about a huge undertaking. Branson eventually set up for Oldfield to play a one-off show to perform the album in its entirety at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on June 25, 1973. Understandably reticent to attempt to recreate Tubular Bells live, on the day of the concert Oldfield got cold feet and did not want to move forward with the performance.

This last-minute problem got Branson's motor running.

"I didn't feel I could reproduce the album on a stage," Oldfield told The Guardian. "Richard gave me his Bentley so I would do it, but I later discovered the car cost more to repair than it was worth."

5. Golden Bells And Sequels

To capitalize on the momentum of being featured in The Exorcist, a single version of "Tubular Bells, Part One" was released in February 1974 in North America, rising as high as No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. At age 21, Oldfield earned his first career GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Composition for "Tubular Bells — Theme From The Exorcist" at the 17th GRAMMY Awards in 1975. As a testament to its lasting and influential impact, the recording was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2018.

Though Oldfield has admitted to being "unhappy with [Tubular Bells] since he made it," the LP has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. It has birthed sequels such as Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998), and The Millennium Bell (1999). And there may be more bells on the way: Oldfield hinted in 2017 that part IV is in the works.

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