Cavalier (Lost Version)
Group: Members
Posts: 598
Joined: Nov. 2010 |
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Posted: May 14 2011, 09:59 |
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Sometimes I look at topics that have new posts but several pages and decide I won't bother reading straight away, in case some of the posts from a while back, that I don't have time to read, are crucial to understanding the flow. I'm hypocritical enough to not care if that affects anyone else, so I'll start by saying: Poor Britters! Loved, tolerated or a demonic figurehead of corporate pop, but no-one here thought to point out she co-wrote (and played piano live) on the next release after Toxic, Everytime. Good or bad, it was successful (number one here, for what that's worth) and left her on a career high that she and the world's media were oh-so-careful to demolish in record time. She's been back and away again a few times since, which helps illustrate that you have to fight for your right to the creative limelight (kiss the wrong prince and the tabloids will give you all the personal fame you'd never wish for).
One of Mike's problems, when it comes to rated recognition in polls and the like, is that he has a generally low profile and not a wild, rock-god one on the occasions when he is trying to attract our attention. That doesn't make him unique, of course, but it's a drawback in standing out from a crowd. If we at Tubular Net simply asked each other to name bands that we admire with lead or rhythm guitar players of genius in them, I'd imagine we'd easily go past 200. Factor in a larger voting quorum, with wider music genres and national or regional favourites, and the passing of time and the chances of anyone maintaining consistent fame diminish.
And Mike's reputation also has to deal with the antipathy of generations of journalists and reviewers who worship at the altar of the sacrifice of seventies pomp. I can add a couple of nasty comments off the top of my head. I caught the singles round-up in the New Musical Express when Man In The Rain was out, and if I don't remember it word-for-word, I do remember the unpleasant insult that was included. {If you really want to know, I'll send a PM but honestly, your life won't be any better for it}
The other is more vague (you'll be surprised to learn! in that a family of fellow ex-patriates returned from a visit to the UK and my friend, the son, gave me a newspaper they'd each read about four times across all the trains and flights. It was one of the English regional dailies, but I've no idea which - the family was from the north-east, but whether it was something from York or Newcastle or Middlesborough (or another region entirely! is a detail I've long-since forgotten. Whatever I thought about the news in the Mystery City, I would have been more interested in the entertainment sections and this was the weekly music column day. This was before I was a fan - it's mid-1984 I think - so a mention of Mike Oldfield is a detail, passing like any other, and if it stood out, it's likely that I just thought that the columnist was going a little over the top in stating that he was not a fan either. It wasn't a review of singles, etc, just a column of opinions, so in the absence of any tours at the time, it was probably a reaction to the timing of a release - late Crises maybe, Discovery likely, The Killing Fields possibly. Unless he'd got into the UK papers for something at the time - "Mike Oldfield says: Be nice to sparrows!". What I definitely remember is that Mike was described as "always being a middling-poor guitarist" and that there was no part of the Tubular Bells legend that hadn't been done before, and better, by other musicians that Richard Branson and Mike had ruthlessly trodden on to reach their barely deserved success. I can't recall learning about Kevin Ayers until after I started buying Mike's music, but I fear that he got it in the neck as well - I remember that whosoever the victimised musicians were (McCartney's self-played album was one referenced) it probably wasn't the guy being talked about in "...the only work he managed to get before was with the terminally under-achieving...". Sorry, Kev!
Whether this was a journalist dreaming of working his was way up to the indie press, or someone on the skids from a high-flying past life he typifies many. Mike's talent as a brilliant guitarist in works that I will always enjoy will be lost on many who don't want to know that they might enjoy some or a lot of his back catatlogue. We are long-overdue a cool, independent British band having at least one member who cites him. The rest of the world, I leave up to you!
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"Who was that?"
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,especially Mike's ! ,hope this guy found another job 
). Also, he plays electric guitar with his fingernails, which is something that, as far as I know, no other rock/pop guitarist does (I think Mark Knopfler plays with his fingertips). All of this, I think, combined with the fact that most of his music (especially from the 2000s onwards) is not particularily flashy or virtuosistic, contributes to Mike being perceived as an underrated guitarist. Of course this is only my own point of view. 
