Tubular Bells (1973 Original) by Mike Oldfield
I listened to the Tubular Bells piece by Mike Oldfield; all twenty-five minutes and thirty-one seconds. Fans of The Exorcist movie would know this 1974 hit. Way too long to hear over and over, as I often do with my favorite tunes like Imma Be. But it’s got enough repetition to quell my over-and-overness cravings, but variation enough to exorcise boredom. Great tune.
I grew up with this selection. They played Tubular Bells all over the radio during the spring of 1974, because The Exorcist movie was big at that time, and some of this music was the movie’s theme song. Of course, they didn’t play the whole thing on the radio; just a few minutes of it. But I discovered the CD in 1989 that contained the unabridged version, and have been enjoying it ever since.
I never heard Mike Oldfield‘s LP record of this doleful yet pleasing Tubular Bells music. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a longer version until I happened across the CD in 1989. Now, I regret all of those 15 years prior that I could have owned the whole album. Darn! 
So why did Mike Oldfield call this song Tubular Bells anyhow? That’s always puzzled me because this instrument does not appear prominently in this piece until near the end, while Oldfield introduces the various instruments as they begin playing the melody. Well, perhaps this was named so, so that us music fans would listen intently for the tubular bells through the rest of the music (a fair amount too) that leads up to them, and come to like those parts as well. Well, that worked, at least for me. I like the whole song and ironically, I do not consider the tubular bells part my favorite segment either. There are much prettier sounding instruments elsewhere, starting with the piano at the very beginning.
Tubular Bells always triggers memories of a wonderful teen-aged girl I met in seventh grade: [Molly]. Details here.
February 19th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
I have several other songs (Sentinel (which sounds something like Tubular Bells with its near-identical piano motifs), Sad Moments, and Let There Be Light). Not bad music. But none of these others tops Tubular Bells IMHO.
Oldfield also did a 2003 version of Tubular Bells, in which he added some contemporary-sounding electronic instruments, more drums, and further variations on the original motif. Check it out…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEnYJzU9qcM