Welcome Guest
[ Log In :: Register ]

 

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Topic: Crises, Moonlight Shadow, Shadow on the Wall, Mike's sleeve notes< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
CJJC Offline




Group: Members
Posts: 210
Joined: Aug. 2010
Posted: Aug. 21 2012, 08:00

Quote
My then tour manager, Alan Hornshall, mentioned a gifted drummer called Simon Phillips to me. I met Simon and he came down to see me and we got on well. He offered to assist in the production of the Crises album and we gathered together some musicians, as I had done with Guilty, and from those sessions came Moonlight Shadow and Shadow on the Wall.

In the song Moonlight Shadow we had created this fantastic backing track, but then I had the problem of deciding what should be done with it. I spent three months trying our different things. Hazel O'Connor came in to the studio to do a version, called Moment of Passion, but that didn't seem to work. After tearing my hair out for some time deciding what to do with the track, I decided to book Maggie Reilly for a session the following day and that night, I sat down with a very nice bottle of Bordeaux and my rhyming dictionary and spent the night writing the lyrics. Maggie came in and started singing the lyrics in a rock style and I asked her to sing more in the manner of a lullaby as softly as possible. It took some time to get things right and to achieve the lovely closeness of a sound of someone almost whispering in your ear. We virtually recorded the vocal track syllable by syllable and we did a great deal of drop-ins. It took a few days to mix it and it was quite a task. Looking back, I think [it] was very much worth it. It became a huge hit and was number one throughout Europe. Roger Chapman was fantastic on the track Shadow on the Wall. Back in 1969, I went for an audition with Family as their bass player. When Ric Grech had left the band to join Blind Faith, I turned up at the Country Club in Hampstead and Roger listened to my playing and saw some promise in me. The other members of the band weren't interested in me joining the band, but Roger and I had some connection. When I wrote Shadow on the Wall I thought of Roger as the singer. He was a tough, but lovely man and did a great job.


--------------
IMHO
Back to top
Profile PM WEB 
CJJC Offline




Group: Members
Posts: 210
Joined: Aug. 2010
Posted: Aug. 21 2012, 08:13

This is the first time I've heard the Hazel O'Connor take called anything other than Midnight Passion. Am wondering if this is a faulty recollection by Mike or if the previous info was wrong. I tend towards the former.

If it is true that this version was called Moment of Passion then it wouldn't surprise me if most of the lyrics were identical to the later Crime of Passion.

A note on the liner notes themselves - they're not that well transcribed. They are ALL IN CAPITALS FOR A START WHICH MAKES THEM QUITE TIRING TO READ AND SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GIVE SOME THOUGHT TO WHETHER YOU SHOULD USE CAPITALS ON SOMETHING LIKE "COUNTRY CLUB" OR NOT.

Also, comma use is very strange. There are many that seen extraneous and yet sometimes they are absent in places that could benefit from them. I have tried to transcribe them as they are in the booklet. The booklet differentiates between song titles and album titles by using quotation marks around the songs, so Five Miles Out and "Five Miles Out" are not the same thing. I've chosen not to retain this style as context does the job just fine. If a word is clearly missing, I add it but in [these], and I retain all spellings as used in the booklet.

Finally, it's clear these notes are from a person talking and could have been cleaned up more. Too much "and", as well as things like "The other members of the band weren't interested in me joining the band".


--------------
IMHO
Back to top
Profile PM WEB 
1 replies since Aug. 21 2012, 08:00 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

 






Forums | Links | Instruments | Discography | Tours | Articles | FAQ | Artwork | Wallpapers
Biography | Gallery | Videos | MIDI / Ringtones | Tabs | Lyrics | Books | Sitemap | Contact

Mike Oldfield Tubular.net
Mike Oldfield Tubular.net