Mike Oldfield
British musician and multi-instrumentalist
Mike Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer.
Quotes
edit- I want not to panic. I want to be comfortable in my body and my life. I don't want to keep thinking that I don't belong here, that I have ended up on the wrong planet, completely alienated. (from Changeling)
- In this world, everything has a pulse or a vibration. This sound is unique to each living or non-living thing and in itself creates a music that no-one can hear. I believe that this has a very powerful resonance with, and a deep effect on, our lives. What would happen if we took this further and applied it to bigger things, more powerful things; like an entire solar system or galaxy say, what would that sound like?
Musica Universalis is the ancient theory that every celestial body, the sun, the moon and the stars, has an inner music. This is a harmonic and mathematical concept derived from the movements of the planets in the solar system. The music created is inaudible to the human ear.
Music of the Spheres is my interpretation of this theory. Every planet and every star; the whole universe has music within it that no-one can hear. This is what it would sound like if it was set free. This is Music of the Spheres. (from the introduction to Music of the Spheres)
The Telegraph Interview, 10 june 2009
edit- The biggest problems were to do with... well, to get that successful when you're so young, it attracts hangers-on, parasites, people who want to feed off you. I thought people actually liked me, but they actually liked my money. I'd probably say to my younger self, get yourself a whole collection of lawyers. Which is what I have now. I don't have any friends; I just have lawyers. At the last count I had about 15 different sets of them for all kinds of problems. And you can trust them because you're paying them. I know that sounds very negative, but that's the world we live in.
- When I was younger I had an incredible sensitivity; I suppose there were too many brain cells, or they were organised in the wrong way, and they've either reorganised themselves or I've lost lots of them through alcohol and substance abuse. I can get along without being terrified now. Maybe I've just got used to it.
- Everything on Tubular Bells was done on the first take – it was lovely, so spontaneous. I had such a long time to prepare it, and I had just one little chance to do it, and now I listen to it and it has a lovely spontaneous energy. It's got mistakes, and I could easily have cut them out, but I left them on.
- If it was a horrible thing I was known for, like some horrible pop song, it would annoy me, but it doesn't. I'm proud of it.
- On Tubular Bells
Song lyrics
editChildren of the Sun (1969)
editStrangers
- We're looking
For the strangers
With sunlight in their eyes
Who lived on Earth
When Man was new
When Time was
Just a coloured dew
That grew inside their mind...
Lady Mary
- Hey, cool princess
With your eyes hanging
The milk of the moon
Hey, pretty princess
Take me down to your cave in the dawn
And you're gonna be a queen
When the stars water
Heaven with tears
And you gonna love me
When all our
Golden lands are free.
Children of the Sun
- I watch the boats go by
As the evening colours of the sand
The rain is bringing tears
From my lover's land
I watch the silver stars
melt in love with the sea
I cry to the wind:
– Bring back my lover to me! -
A lover for all seasons
- Come, take my hand
And wander in the willow river
Glistening the blue bells
Come, take my flesh
And wander in the sunny corn
That shimmer stills at snowfalls
'Cause I love you lover
I love you, like I love
The Four high Seasons.
Riversong
- My moon shines so softly
On the hair of my killer
Pours flowers on his head
Help me, give him some shelter!
Come, lie by the river
Rest your head, don't you fear
Sleep softly, my baby
They won't find you here.
Banquet on the Water
- Don't wanna know your name
You're just my lover
Just wanna spend the night
Walking beside you on the water
You look like my lover
But you're words are cold
You say words like him
But thinking has made you grow old.
Balloons
- Little bluebird's
Fluttering into my hand
Sun falls in love over the land
I will live forever
Just you wait and see
No matter want you do
To my bluebird and me...
Midsummer Nights Happening
- Sunlight falling bright
Over village garden walls
Moonlight shower's gold
where leaving waterfalls
People walk in splendour
Under trees hung in starlight.
Love in Ice Crystals
- Oh, my love
You're searching
For your name
Beside the sea
Of dwells and dreams
Where Shadows're dancing
For your glance...
The sky would chance
The granting of a dream
To the restless soul
That dwells within your heart...
On Horseback - Ommadawn part 2
- Some find it strange to be here
On this small planet and who knows where...
But when it's strange and full of fear
It's nice to be on horseback.
The Rio Grande
- The sails are unfurled
And the anchor's away going home...
She heels to the breeze as she gathers her way,
And we're bound to the old country.
Then away, love, away, going home!
We're homeward bound this very day,
And we're bound to the old country...
Speak (Tho' You Only Say Farewell)
- Speak, vision of the night,
Tell me why you haunt me so...
Speak, heaven morning light,
Whisper all my heart would know.
Dawn never finds you,
Gone back to where the Shadows dwell...
Speak, my beloved, speak,
tho' you only say farewell!
Incantations (1978)
editIncantations part 2-Hiawatha's Departure
- With a smile of joy and gladness, with a look of exultation, as of one who in a vision what is to be, but it is not, stood and waited Hiawatha. Toward the sun his hands were lifted both the palms spread out toward it and, between departed fingers, felt the sunshine on his features. Flecked with light his naked shoulders, as it falls and flecks an oak-tree through the rifted leaves and branches.
Incantations part 3-The Son of the Evening Star
- Can it be the sun descending o'er the level plain of water or the Red Swan floating, flying wounded by the Magic Arrow? Staining all the waves with crimson, with the crimson of its life-blood, filling all the air with splendor, filling all the air with plumage? [...] O'er it the Star of Evening melts and trembles through the purple, hangs suspensed in twilight, walks in silence through the heavens...
Incantations part 4-Hymn to Diana
- Queen and Huntress chaste and fair
Now the Sun is laid to sleep
Seated in the Silver Chair
State in wonder
Manner keep [...]
Hesperus entreats Thy light
Goddess excellently bright
Bless us then with a wished sight
Thou who mak'st the day of night...
Crises
- The Watcher and the Tower
Waiting hour by hour.
Moonlight Shadow
- The trees that whisper in the evening
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Sing a song of sorrow and grieving
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
All she saw was a silhouette of a gun
Far away on the other side
He was shot six times by a man on the run
And she couldn't find how to push trough
I stay, I pray, see you in heaven far away
I stay, I pray, see you in heaven one day...
In High Places
- Look down from in high places
Lift up the ground
Without a sound
[...]
Check altitude
Check your heart
'n this cloudless blue
'n this starlight night...
Foreign Affair
- Drifting a dream
On a mystical sea...
A wishful emotion
A drop in the ocean
A hush in the air
You can feel anywhere
In the cool twilight
Of a tropical night...
Shadow on the Wall
- Treat me like I'm evil
Freeze me till I'm cold
Beat me till I'm feeble
Grind me till I'm old
Wire me till I'm tired
Push me like I fall
Treat me like a criminal,
just a shadow on the wall!
To France
- Taking on water
Sailing a restless sea
From a memory
A fantasy
The wind carries into white water
Far from the islands
Don't you know...
You're never going to get to France
Mary, queen of chance, will they find you!
Never going to get to France...
Could a new romance ever bind you? - Walking on foreign ground
Like a shadow
Roaming in far off territory
Over your shoulder
Stories unfold
You're searching
For a sanctuary... - I see a picture by the lamp's flicker...
Isn't it strange how dreams fade and shimmer?
Poison Arrows
- Somebody's out to get you
Hiding in the shadows
Poison arrows!
Somebody's out to break you
Hiding in narrows
Poison arrows! - What you gonna do?
Time is running out on you!
Anyway you choose
Anyway you're gonna lose...
Crystal Gazing
- Watching for a spark
It's a moonlight show
Reaching through the dark
Do you have to go? - Voices in the dark
And the lights burn low
Teach yourself the art
That you never know
Try to put a message through
To your sweetheart
Won't you like to know
The secrets of the heart?
Tricks of the Light
- I'm half a crazy man
Waiting for confirmation;
Signs keep are changing
And I need some more information. - Something tells me how
Her bright blue eyes
Are smiling;
She turns her head and now
When she wants she denies him... - Some are tricks of the light
You'll never know
Make a flickering midnight
Light into a glow...
Discovery
- When you want the score
When you need a helping hand
And you find closed doors
And you're back where you began
Keeping those secrets
Telling those lies...
Can anybody tell me
What's the big surprise? - How can you sleep
How can you turn away
Thinking so cheap?
Some day you're gonna pay!
You're keeping secrets
I can see in your eyes:
Can anybody tell me
Why the big disguise?
Talk About Your Life
- Talk about your life
I'd like to know
It's not easy going
Where no-one goes
And no-one knows... - Do we have to be so distant
How can you be so unreal?
What's the reason for hiding and
How this crying make you feel?
Saved by a Bell
- Saved by a bell
Suffer in hell
But you were too blind to tell!
Saved by a bell
Suffer in hell
And you made it through so well!
Shine
- Standing in a new space,
Waving at the sun...
So you probably back in darkness
To where I belong.
Just by being with you
Pictures flow out of my mind...
Have we danced before
Long ago or in another time?
Islands
- We are islands
But never too far - We can never
Be closer somehow
For the moment that lasts
Is this moment now - There's a new path
That we found just today
I was lost in the forest
And you showed me the way
Flying Start
- We took a place in the sun
To see just what had become
The warm wind blows constantly
Does the answer still blow?
Did you find your château
In that Mediterranean fantasy? - On dusty roads and tracks
Now it's the time to turn back
The warm wind blows constantly
Riding that storm
Since the day you were born
Is there somebody in? Now answer me
North Point
- The writing on the wall at North Point
Speaks to a silent room
They shut the bars down, leave you to the gloom - Somewhere far above has a new day risen
Way beyond the searchlight
(Comes a light, comes a light)
Then on a bright day at North Point
The gate was open wide
They chanced to look at what was inside
Magic Touch
- Once in a lifetime, you find that power
To break out and run from the Devil's deep clutch
All that you need (it's the finest hour)
Is to believe in the magic touch - Can't believe it, like no other
Love is a gift, and you take it so much!
You need the blue night to discover
Only true lovers have the magic touch
The Time Has Come
- Someone who knows no fear
I feel him near
The child was born to be a king
And the time has come - And now the story's just begun
A thousand years to stay
We wake each morning with the sun
To live our dreams away
When the Night’s On Fire
- I was hoping
Could you be my inspiration
Whatever should become
In the candlelight?
I was dreaming
Was it my imagination?
Tomorrow never comes
In the candlelight - I was listening
To the wind that walks the hours
I never would have heard
In the candlelight
I was hoping
Would you shelter me from showers?
I believe every word
In the candlelight
Earth Moving (1989)
editHoly
- Harmony is always when I look around me
And your smile I see
I can feel it surrounds me
A miracle I find in your company. - One glance is all that I need;
What I was searching for I've found it... - Holy, to me just one glance is holy
One touch of your heart to me that's holy...
Hostage
- You can't speak, you can't sleep,
You daren't move, you're confused.
You never talk, you can't walk
You can't feel, you're not real... - If I open my eyes just far enough
I can see what you're doing.
Go on, fight to the end, it's though enough
When you're on the road of ruin! - You're a hostage of the heart
Twisted 'round the smallest finger
Two burning eyes are tearing you apart
Turn your soul into a cinder!
Far Country
- She takes the rain, turns it to sun,
And my soul she fills it.
Where once was a desert
Rivers now run, and my storms she stills it... - She gives me hope
When there's nothing but pain;
I can't explain it:
Two different leaves
But the branch is the same...
Forever let it be!
She takes the rain...
Innocent
- I know you'll never stay the same
In time, most of us lose it,
But I'm hoping, just the same,
You'll shine and learn how to use it. - Smile to me, like the very first smile
You are magnificent when you're innocent.
Walk to me
Like the very first walk
You are from heaven sent when you're innocent.
Runaway Son
- Save me, holy mother, please save me,
I got a heart of gold...
And for your love I'd go hungry and thirsty.
I need a saviour and you're the one...
I throw myself into the arms of mercy,
There's still hope for the runaway son!
See the Light
- I've been waiting at this frontier
And it seems like a hundred years,
But I couldn't see past the gate
I couldn't see past the hate. - Will-power, give me back some to survive,
One more hour and I'm coming alive...
I can see the light!
And there's blue sky breaking
Through the edge of the night...
I can see the light! - Now I climb the steps to freedom,
The open gates, I can see them.
Hands once I knew
Beckoning me through,
As the sunlight touch my face,
I can feel the warm embrace;
Arms surround me,
My life has found me...
Earth Moving
- I feel a rush in the air tonight,
I can feel the Earth moving.
Love is beacon, a guiding light,
can't you feel the Earth moving? - Feel the Earth move!
Now I'm wrapped
In a sweet love's arms,
Reaching out for you... - Reach out, it's a leap in the dark,
But there's no danger of falling.
Give out, give it straight from the heart,
You feel the thunder rolling...
Blue Night
- To whole room her eyes are numb,
As she reads from a true love story.
From the pages of a book her lover comes,
Her heart bleeds, it's a true love story. - Misty path and the night is endless,
She could be a queen
Or a desert princess.
Hero takes her hand and leads her through...
Who knows what this night will do?
Only in the blue night he comes to her
That's when the whole night
Belongs to her.
Nothing But/Bridge to Paradise
- You know it's not too late to leave tomorrow,
'cause I know where I'm going...
I am building a bridge to Paradise!
- HEALTH WARNING: This record could be hazardous to the health of cloth-eared nincompoops. If you suffer from this condition, consult your Doctor immediately. (from the back-cover)
Amarok
- Hello everyone!
I suppose that you think that nothing much is happening at the moment. Ah ah ah! Well, that's what I want to talk to you all about: endings. Now, endings normally happen at the end. But, as we all know, endings are just beginnings. You know, once these things really get started, it's jolly hard to stop them again.
However, as we have all come this far, I think, under the circumstances, the best solution is that we all just keep going. Let's keep going inside, never an ending. Let's remember that this world wants fresh beginnings. I feel here, in this Country, and throughout the world, we are crying out for beginnings, beginnings!
We never want to hear this word "endings". I know you don't want to sit down. Of course, you're looking for the good start. Of course you're looking for a fresh start.
Isn't that charming? Do you know, I really feel I could dance...
Heaven's Open (1991)
editHeaven’s Open
- This is zero hour and there's no way back
Can you feel that power in its arms you're wrapped
All through the night-time
Till the sun comes in?
Now Heaven's Open
Fly right in!
Make-Make
- Make-make...
There's no way out no way in
To the hallowed halls of the inner ring
You're just a face in the crowd
You got no place
When you're down and out. - Monna Lisa, you can stop searching;
don't you know we're not Virgin?
No Dream
- A restless flame
Someone calls your name
Through the empty hall
Casting shadows on the wall
In the sound of emptiness
Isolation
Nowhere left to run
Now the time has come...
Mr. Shame
- Down to the River
Was this all some
Cry for love?
It's a cry for love:
Are you a victim of
That Money Bug
In your blood,
Mr. Shame?
Gimme Back
- I need my hands
I need my feet
Gimme my soul
I'm incomplete
I need my eyes
I want my teeth
Gimme my scope
Gimme my beliefs. - I'm a fire without a flame, desert with no rain...
Tubular Bells III (1998)
editMan in the Rain
- You're the one who's nearly
Breaking my heart;
Had your chance
You just threw it all away.
Living in a world that
You could never be a part of,
And now is a time to walk away. - How's it feel when
There's time to remember?
...Branches bare,
Like the trees in november.
Had it all,
Threw it all away;
Now's a time to walk away.
Far Above the Clouds
- And the Man in the rain
Picked up his bag of secrets,
And journeyed up the mountainside
Far above the clouds;
And nothing was ever heard from him again,
Except for the sound of
Tubular Bells...
The Millennium Bell (1999)
editPeace on Earth
- Heaven and Earth are turning
Round the Earth fire is burning.
Sheltered from the cruel storm
Peace on Earth is new born
Santa Maria
- Far the horizon
Hove to the wind;
We're sailing the sea
To the Edge of the World.
Sunlight Shines Through the Cloud
- "Twas grace that taught
My heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ'd!"
And I want to feel sun on my face,
And I feel a shadow in its place,
With the sunlight shines through cloud,
When we're standing free, proud. - Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'tis grace has brought me
Safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Liberation
- When the birds sing outside
And you see the trees
Changing into green
The sun invites one
To be out in the open air.
When the sky is so blue, then,
Oh! Then I wish for so much!.
Amber Light
- Amber light
Of this new morning,
Amber light,
Clear, bright and warming.
Overnight
The Earth adorning...
Amber light,
A New Age is dawning....
Collection (2002)
editPictures in the Dark
- Follow the light that glows
Through your bedroom window,
Tonight, the fading twilight.
There's a hollow deep in the woods,
Where you know you're crazy to go,
Not even meant to know there are...
Pictures in the dark, I see all around,
Voices calling underground;
And I'm watching the stars since the world was found...
One, two, three... - And in the deepest dark
You come to a maze, in the night,
The fading twilight...
And you shiver the glistening path
Where you know you're crazy to go...
Tr3s Lunas (2002)
editTo Be Free
- (Take a wish!)
My wish is...
...To be free,
To be wild,
And to be just
Like a child! - You're out in the cold,
Sometimes,
As far as you can see,
Misty.
You want to run
Into the sun,
The road is lost,
Sand shifty.
But suddendly, out of the blue,
Some kind of magic
Pushes you through!
You don't know when,
How or why,
But someday can take off, fly!
Quotes about Oldfield
edit- When we made [Tubular Bells], Michael was a mental wreck. He would walk 'round with his eyes wet with tears nearly all the time; he was in a terrible state. He found it an enormous disquiet, … the idea of being mortal flesh … [while] what was going on his head was eternal and beautiful and everlasting. … My heart went out to him.
- Tom Newman, in an interview for the documentary film Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (2013).
