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Topic: The location of the Chinese Tune< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: June 04 2016, 16:48

I’m never quite sure if I am debuting a revelation or theory about matters relating to Mike.  My typical research is searches on the English-language web, for information already out there in the public domain, so in matters such as the origin of Incantations’ Diana lyrics, all I did was put “Diana Luna Lucina Lumen” into Google and there was the book that may have sparked the idea.

For this latest point, my reference is a magazine from this year already out for about two months.   Perhaps it’s been discussed to death on Facebook; perhaps Spanish, German and French sites have already decoded the information within, or did so years ago from other sources.  As far as Tubular Net goes, it’s a couple of interviews which are not yet in the Archive but one of which is referenced in the FAQs.  There were features in Melody Maker from the 16th of March and also in the New Musical Express dated the 23rd of March, 1974: both of these are now reprinted in the 1974 edition of an ongoing UK monthly magazine, The History of Rock.  (Mike gets a couple of other mentions that I’ve seen so far, in a section interviewing Robert Wyatt, and reviewing his Rock Bottom benefit concert.)

My other research limited to reading all the Hergest Ridge and News topics about the 2010 re-issue ( I think…), it does seem possible that no one else has yet made this particular leap of faith.  I just won’t be that surprised if my ignorance is shown up!  But if you ask me, the Chinese Tune's location is and always has been in part 1 of HR.  Here’s how it appears in the FAQs…

It also indicates that Mike and Tom Newman gave names to the sections of Hergest Ridge. We have the Martian Song (Thunderstorm), the Spanish Tune, and during the sessions a journalist reported a Chinese bit:

"The Chinese bit turns out to be a percussive and jerky foray around the flat and sharp black notes, which immediately evokes pictures of rickshaws and paper fans".
Melody Maker (March 16, 1974)


… and all I can assume is that the people who have been able to read the full text of Steve Lake’s article in the time since the 2010 remix has been available have not appreciated the other key point.  In the first paragraphs - shortly before the “Chinese bit” that Mike and Tom Newman talk about, and which Mr Lake comments on as painting pictures of that region -  Mike is laying down a sleigh bells track.  So there it would seem to be; next to the basses, and together with the sleigh bells to paint those rickshaw and paper fan pictures.  We’ve tended to analyse HR’s themes by the likes of its Anglo-Welsh pastoral setting, or against the backdrop of the passing seasons of the year and so forth, but we’ve known for ages about the idiosyncratic terms the creative teams have used for what they themselves are recording.  The Spanish Tune and the thunderstorm ( Martian or otherwise) worked their way out into Oldfield folklore, but a key element of the Chinese identity got buried in the mix until Mike listened again to the demo and brought it, for good or ill, to the fore in the 2010 versions.

You may now be reluctantly listening again to it now and not hearing anything of the sort; ‘tis but my theory, after all.  I don’t believe that it will be impossible for you to listen to it now without finding yourself imagining a journey to Cathay.  I, for one, associate the sounds of Hergest Ridge with an Ancient Egyptian setting, but that’s another story!


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First_Excursion Offline




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Posted: June 09 2016, 02:52

I recall reading that article 30 odd years ago and coming to the same conclusion because: sleigh bells.

It never sounded remotely Chinese to me though.
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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: July 10 2016, 14:59

Thanks, First_Excursion - just proves there's nothing new under the sun! :D

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2 replies since June 04 2016, 16:48 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

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