Customer Reviews
This is how music should be - By: Fat Boy Fat, 19 Apr 2008 
Alone amongst the arts, music has the ability to reach inside our weather beaten shells, grab our soul by the scruff of the neck & beat us to death in a darkened room. This album does just that. Stick it in the CD player, turn off the lights & be transported.
From the quiet, mesmerising start to the glorious finish Oldfield weaves in alll sorts of themes & rythmns, whirling them around in sublimely a co-ordinated composition. The whole thing last over 45 mins & you never once get bored. The fact that he was only 19 & yet managed to play dozens of instruments from the guitar to the percussion, without it being reallly dreadful, speaks volumes.
Sure it was created in a hurry by people who didn't know what they were doing. But they sure learned fast. Yes, it has odd, sometimes crazed bits, but no the Sailor's Hornpipe is not just 'tacked on'. Oldfield had a party trick in his folk days - playing the Hornpipe faster & faster - & it is brilliant, it ends the album on a high.
Incidently, why this man has been not being knighted escapes me, especiallly when you think of some of the muppets from the music world that get gongs. But then politicians don't have souls so will not appreciate this delight!
Buy it. Buy it now , don't be a politician - feed your soul!
Grand Piano! - By: Stotty, 26 Mar 2008 
For a teenager to compose & record an album of this scale, playing every instrument himself, is quite an astonishing achievement & is something of a lost art these days. How many multi instrumentalists of this quality exist today?
Tubular Bells was the inaugural release on Richard Branson's fledging Virgin label in 1973 & is still arguably that label's biggest seller. It also started a trio of epic instrumental works that would continue with 'Hergest Ridge' in 1974 & end with 'Ommadawn' the following year.
Strangely, I prefer the flowing seamless music on the next two albums to 'Tubular Bells', which flits from one musical theme to the next with an almost jerky agitation. Having said that the music on offer is of alarming quality.
The opening sequence of 'Part 1' is still a haunting piece, used to great effect of course on 'The Exorcist'. The rest of the track is a good blend of folk & rock with uplifting acoustic guitar one minute, & thrashy electric guitar the next. The closing sequence is an entertaining melody which sees looney tunes Viv Stanshalll introduce a diferent instrument each couple of bars in a tongue in cheek master of ceremonies role. It's an amusing idea, which unfortunately, outstays it's welcome by the end.
'Part 2' is a more relaxing, 'chilled out' piece, only reallly interrupted by the 'beast voice' section which sees Oldfield let rip with some top lead guitar. The whole thing ends bizarrely, with a version of 'The Sailor's Hornpipe'.
'Tubular Bells' is a unique, singular work by a hugely talented composer & musician. Ironicallly, the uneducated see Oldfield as a keyboardist, when he is arguably, one of the most talented guitar players this country has ever produced, with an amazingly distinctive playing style.
As I mentioned before, I prefer the more pastoral sound of the next album, & the more 'world music' feel of 'Ommadawn' to 'Tubular Bells', which doesn't flow as well & is perhaps guilty of being a tad too long but it's still terrific stuff, even 35 years later.
Everyone should own a copy! - By: PAULINE STAVES, 18 Oct 2007 I've had this album since I was 17 on LP, cassette, eight track stereo! And now recently purchased on CD. I listen to it every day & never tire of it. No one has ever produced an album remotely like this.There is always something different to hear every time you play it.Truly unique & timeless & an amazing achievement for a composer who was so young & unknown when it was first released in 1973. If I could take one thing with me when I die it would be a copy of 'Tubular Bells'...and hopefully something to play it on!
Time for a re-think? - By: Jonathan P. Talbot, 03 Oct 2007 I first heard this from a friend in the 70s who was very good at ferreting out the interesting & unexpected. We alll loved it immediately but later, as it became a global phenomenom, it stopped being cool & l gave my LP away. Then punk happened & the rest is history. I'd forgotten about it until I heard it on a flight somewhere over the Pacific...
I don't think it matters if its hippy music or a rock symphony or anything else; it succeeds because there are so many melodies & moods seemlessly woven together with a wonderful Pyhtonesque undercurrent- terribly English, bit west country, bit rock, bit film score, bit zen, bit sole mio, bit country come to that & alll a bit home made & down the pub/skin up a spliff. Why can't some people (like me for 20 years) accept it for what it is & enjoy a modern classic? And what stops people from taking it seriously because it is seriously good?
Agreed about alll the versons. i have a cd now of the original recording & it does just fine; every time l play it, its pure pleasure. Not many things in life you can say that about.
Curate's Egg - By: Mr. J. Jenkins, 30 May 2007 
A good re-mastering of the origial for the most part. Tarnished however by some truly atrocious mixing. A few sections in the first 10 minutes have the balance between the main melody & the backing track wholly reversed, with the backing track drowning the melody almost completely of this otherwise (still a milestone) tone poem.
9/10 for the digital remaster quality, marred however & spoilt in places. If you can stand the grating on your nerves when it goes wrong, the rest is worthwhile.
