Re: Mike Oldfield

[ihnp4!utzoo!dciem!jeff]

This is mainly a reply to William LeFebvre's love-hounds article of about two
weeks ago (I don't think I can mail to him directly), but it should be of
interest to most Oldfield fans.  Forgive me for its lateness; I only read
love-hounds when it appears in mod.music, so I'm slow to respond to anything.

> If it weren't for the fact that I already have every LP you listed on
> CD, I would have been very interested in your offer.

It seems that anybody who likes Oldfield is really crazy about him (like me)
and already has all of his albums.  I bought all the CD's anyway, even though
I told myself I can't afford to buy CD's of stuff I already have on record.

> BUT, can you really
> get those 7" things on CD?  You did say you were interested in selling
> those because you wanted to replace them with CDs!  

Yes, except for "Rite Of Man", which is redundant to me because it also
appears on the 12" "Moonlight Shadow", which I have.  Most of the others
are on "The Complete Mike Oldfield".  There are, however, several cuts on
Mike Oldfield singles that do not appear on any album.  I didn't include them
in my list because I want to keep the records, since they're not available
on CD.  (If you want to know about them, send me mail.)

> Has anyone heard anything about possible CD releases of "Incantations"
> or "Exposed"?  My copy of "Exposed" claims that it is a limited edition
> and that only 100,000 of them were made.  I had taken that as a bad
> sign as far as it being released on CD.

Hendik Obbes, a Mike Oldfield expert from West Germany (the country where
Mike Oldfield CD's are made), told me recently that "Incantations" and
"Exposed" are not (yet) available on CD.  I hope they both become available
eventually, especially "Incantations" because my record of it is not very
good, and the whole thing will fit on a single CD so it should be very
affordable.  I don't think my copy of "Exposed" says anything about it being
a limited edition, and I'm pretty sure I've seen it recently in some of the
better record stores here as an import (it was never available domestically).
By the way, for anyone who doesn't have "Exposed" because you weren't sure
it was worthwhile, I strongly recommend it if you can find it, especially if
you don't have "Incantations".

> I have heard of two full-length disks (can't really say "LP" anymore,
> can we) that I don't have copies of:  "Wonderland" and "The complete
> Mike Oldfield."  Are these worth tracking down?  "The complete..."
> sounds like a "Best of..." which would make it much less interesing.
> Is there anything new on these that I am missing?  And are they
> available on CD?

Both are available on CD, and both are "Best of..." LP's.  "Wonderland" 
(I believe the full title is "Mike Oldfield's Music Wonderland", and it
has also been packaged as "Mike Oldfield's Wonderful Music") is a single
LP, and "The Complete..." is a very long double LP.  I don't have
"Wonderland", but if I remember correctly, it contains about three or four
songs that aren't on any of the non-compilation LP's.  However, I think all
of those songs are also on "The Complete...", which also contains several
other songs (about 8 or 9 in total) that aren't on any of the other LP's,
plus an entire side of previously unreleased live stuff including an excellent
rendition of "Platinum".  "Episodes" is another compilation album that I
have seen on CD, but I don't think it contains anything that isn't on one
of the non-compilation LP's.

You may see another Mike Oldfield LP that nobody has mentioned yet, called
"The Consequences Of Indecisions".  Beware of it because it's not really
a Mike Oldfield LP.  It's actually a repackaging of an LP by Pekka Pohjola,
which Mike Oldfield helps out on a couple of tracks.  Fortunately, I realized
that and I waited until I saw it for $5.99 before buying it.  I didn't like
it, but some Oldfield fans might.

> Finally, I have located the extracts from "Hiawatha" that appear on
> side 2 of "Incantations", but I have been unsuccessful at locating the
> final set of lyrics that appear at the end of side 4.  In fact, I don't
> even know if they are from "Hiawatha".  Anyone got any clues on this?

I don't think the lyrics on side 4 are from "Hiawatha".  The album cover
says something like, "Hymn to Diana by Ben Jonson," so maybe that's where
the stuff on side 4 comes from.
--
Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto  (416) 635-2073
{linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsri!dciem!jeff
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff