Tubular.net :: Mike Oldfield Forums Discussion, news, reviews, fan music, and more.
	Search :: Members :: Help :: Guidelines

Pages: (2) < [1] 2 > [ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Tubularman Group: Awaiting Authorisation Posts: 2304 Joined: June 2004 Posted: Nov. 24 2004, 13:55 i cant understand what flying starts is about? I know its about wine or something  but....? Make the hole world sing; they have no choice? its so; ... about everything.. -------------- Mike Oldfield M i x e s https://soundcloud.com/tubularman Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Nov. 24 2004, 15:45 It's an ironic song about Kevin Ayers and his band, The Whole World, which was the first group that Mike played with. Kevin drank a lot of wine, and maybe still does. The biggest irony is IMHO that Kevin Ayers himself sings this. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

hiawatha Group: Members Posts: 2391 Joined: Mar. 2004 Posted: Nov. 24 2004, 15:46 I recall reading somewhere, perhaps in a FAQ or old Amarok mailing list... the song is about Mike's reconciliation with old bandmate Kevin Ayers (who, of course, sings the song). Does anyone other than me think that Ayers sounds like Kermit the Frog on this song? There is something about the meaning of the song at the University: Analysis of "Flying Start" -------------- "In the land of the Dacotahs, Where the Falls of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak-trees, Laugh and leap into the valley." - Song of Hiawatha Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: Nov. 24 2004, 17:37 Music for drunken pals. -------------- "But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014 "I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011 Back to top

Tubularman Group: Awaiting Authorisation Posts: 2304 Joined: June 2004 Posted: Nov. 25 2004, 21:08 Quote (hiawatha @ Nov. 24 2004, 15:46) Analysis of "Flying Start" It can be read in a Spanish book about Oldfield's life (?), that Oldfield wrote that song after meeting Kevin Ayers, several years after "The Whole World" split and Tubular Bells. Their meeting took place in Mallorca (an island next to Ibiza), a place of sun, Mediterranean sea, warm wind and wine. And the lyrics seems to talk about their relationship, and the great success of Mike Oldfield with his first album (He had problems due to this success). this makes sense   i like the lyricks... in some way it remains me about spain and tenerife. I like going for holiday in spain. And for my case; I drink a little lot of wine   who dosent? take a place in the sun and the warm wind blows..... aaahhhh     -------------- Mike Oldfield M i x e s https://soundcloud.com/tubularman Back to top

familyjules Group: Members Posts: 1190 Joined: May 2004 Posted: Jan. 14 2005, 04:20 I read on the net that Kevin Ayers also did a version of Flying Start for one of his own albums.  Anybody here heard that version?  Is it good and/or very different from Mike's?  Does Mike play on it? Jules -------------- I like beer and I like cheese Back to top

hiawatha Group: Members Posts: 2391 Joined: Mar. 2004 Posted: Feb. 16 2005, 14:19 The Ayers album with Flying Start on it appears to be called "Falling Up". -------------- "In the land of the Dacotahs, Where the Falls of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak-trees, Laugh and leap into the valley." - Song of Hiawatha Back to top

EeToN Group: Members Posts: 845 Joined: Sep. 2001 Posted: Feb. 16 2005, 18:47 Quote (familyjules @ Jan. 14 2005, 10:20) I read on the net that Kevin Ayers also did a version of Flying Start for one of his own albums.  Anybody here heard that version?  Is it good and/or very different from Mike's?  Does Mike play on it? I've got it. It's not very different but there are some changes indeed. Mike doesn't play on it, this version lacks even the guitar solo and the sitar is replaced with a Fairlight-like synth sound - and these make it more boring than the original one. Though there is an interesting twist in the bass line, I usually listen to that idea through the whole song. -------------- If I were music, I would be Enigmatism. Back to top

familyjules Group: Members Posts: 1190 Joined: May 2004 Posted: Feb. 17 2005, 05:36 Quote (EeToN @ Feb. 16 2005, 18:47) I've got it. It's not very different but there are some changes indeed. Mike doesn't play on it, this version lacks even the guitar solo and the sitar is replaced with a Fairlight-like synth sound - and these make it more boring than the original one. Hmmmmm, that's quite disappointing.  Especially the Fairlight.  I'd have expected Kevin's version to be more, rather than less, 'organic' than Mike's.  And the 'sitar' and Mike's solo are highlights for me, I can't imagine Flying Start without these elements.  I guess I won't be in too much of a hurry to get my hands on this. Thanks for the heads-up, EeToN (and Hiawatha). Jules -------------- I like beer and I like cheese Back to top

Notarok Group: Awaiting Authorisation Posts: 39 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Aug. 03 2006, 18:27 I think Falling Up is Kevin Ayers best work, very versatile and his voice is at its strong and croaky best. I like his take on Flying Start which is very much in the spirit of the Oldfield version but it is more organic, and less well produced but very much in Kevin Ayers clever and chilled style. Not a disappointment to me as its very Kevin Ayers. If I only had one KA album it would be this, although I'd slash my wrists if I had to lose Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes as this is just tops! Back to top

Wayfarer Group: Members Posts: 308 Joined: June 2002 Posted: Aug. 03 2006, 19:47 Quote (Notarok @ Aug. 04 2006, 00:27) I think Falling Up is Kevin Ayers best work, very versatile and his voice is at its strong and croaky best. I like his take on Flying Start which is very much in the spirit of the Oldfield version but it is more organic, and less well produced but very much in Kevin Ayers clever and chilled style. Not a disappointment to me as its very Kevin Ayers. If I only had one KA album it would be this, although I'd slash my wrists if I had to lose Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes as this is just tops! Btw, Falling Up was released by a spanish record label, with the collaboration of several great spanish musicians (Javier Paxariño, El Reverendo...) It's the only vinyl record from Kevin Ayers I have, as I found it really cheap on a second hand record store. Flying Start here is just a 'cover version', but in my opinion a very good one. Again, about Flying Start, I've heard that the story is about when Mike went to Kevin's house, he knocked on the door several times but Kevin was so drunken that Mike had to wait  a lot of time until Kevin came and opened the door... Knock on the door / but the memory is poor / if there's somebody in , now answer me... It makes sense, doesn't it? ;-) -- Wayfarer -------------- My homepage - www.thewayfarer.info My search - www.cannotbefound.com My community - www.taurusiv.net My luthier - www.artluthier.com Back to top

dazzler Group: Members Posts: 103 Joined: June 2009 Posted: June 27 2009, 11:10 Quote (Tubularman @ Nov. 25 2004, 21:08) It can be read in a Spanish book about Oldfield's life (?), that Oldfield wrote that song after meeting Kevin Ayers, several years after "The Whole World" split and Tubular Bells. Their meeting took place in Mallorca (an island next to Ibiza), a place of sun, Mediterranean sea, warm wind and wine. And the lyrics seems to talk about their relationship, and the great success of Mike Oldfield with his first album (He had problems due to this success). More and more I have the impression that Mike had already written a bunch of songs in the late 70s early 80. A reservoir of songs he quoted from on his 80s albums. Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: June 29 2009, 08:38 I have on video an interview with Mike i taped off TV-AM in 1988 when Flying Start was released on single.He is asked who the song is about and who it is on the video to which Mike replies "My old boss Kevin Ayres" and he then tells the story of looking for Kevin Ayres on Mallorca and asking all the locals and eventually finding where he lived.The line "two dark eyes from the doorway shine" is a direct reference to the moment when he found the address and knocked on his door and Kevin opened it and tried to recognise Mike  as he hadn't seen him for years.As far as i'm aware the last thing they were on together was the gig with Eno and Nico on which Mike guested with Kevin Ayres in 1974.He also says it was so nice meeting him again that he wrote a song about it. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 29 2009, 18:03 @ Caveman: if the song is really about a nice meeting of two buddies who hadn't seen each other since a very long time, what is the point of some quite biting, sarcastic lines such  as "...so you lost your dreams in a bottle of wine", "made the whole world sing, they had no choice" and "I knew you had to do it your way, fine, but there's none to carry the cross this time" ? Even if we assume the whole lyric to be Mike talking to Kevin (rather than vice versa) those lines still sound a bit risky, to me. Or maybe Kevin was enjoying the fact that Mike was writing about him that all the sarcasm was just part of the game. I think only Kevin could provide a final answer... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: June 29 2009, 20:40 Quote (Ugo @ June 29 2009, 18:03) @ Caveman: if the song is really about a nice meeting of two buddies who hadn't seen each other since a very long time, what is the point of some quite biting, sarcastic lines such  as "...so you lost your dreams in a bottle of wine", "made the whole world sing, they had no choice" and "I knew you had to do it your way, fine, but there's none to carry the cross this time" ? Even if we assume the whole lyric to be Mike talking to Kevin (rather than vice versa) those lines still sound a bit risky, to me. Or maybe Kevin was enjoying the fact that Mike was writing about him that all the sarcasm was just part of the game. I think only Kevin could provide a final answer... Ugo, if you listen carefully, different voices enunciate different sections of the song; it's as though other people's points of view and perspectives are intended to be expressed, without necessarily being endorsed, here. Also, the "had no choice" words could be interpreted as saying something along the lines of "the music was so wonderful people couldn't help but sing along with it". Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: June 30 2009, 03:56 And the bottle of wine references are about Kevin's well known love of a drink and to disappear of to the sun whenever he looked close to becomming really famous. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

dazzler Group: Members Posts: 103 Joined: June 2009 Posted: June 30 2009, 05:46 I always thought it was a charming song about Kevin. But with the underlying message he lost himself a bit in drinking. Where is the old Kevin, the succesful musician he used to be? There's a bit of a pittyful undertone in the lyrics, but I can taste the friendship between them. Maybe letting Kevin sing lead vocals was a way to try and get him back on musical tracks ... Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 30 2009, 07:15 @ dazzler - I kind of agree with you here. If not sarcasm, those lines do indeed imply some kind of irony towards Kevin. But the biggest irony is, as I wrote before, that he actually got Kevin to sing those words. @ nightspore: I don't think that the different voices imply different points of view of different people. I just think that those parts were sung by another voice (Mike? Barry Palmer?) because Kevin couldn't handle them properly (too high, maybe?), or at least Mike felt he couldn't... you can clearly hear him straining to get the high note on "did you find your chateau", and there's an edit in the vocal track immediately after that word. So I think it's a practical matter rather than a lyrical one. After all the lines "so you lost your dreams / in a bottle of wine" are sung by two different voices (the higher voice and Kevin) but I really cannot see a change of perspective or point of view right there. Also, The Whole World is of course the name of Kevin's (and, for a short time, Mike's) band, and "they had no choice" seems to refer to The Whole World as a band rather than to the world in a literal sense. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

dazzler Group: Members Posts: 103 Joined: June 2009 Posted: June 30 2009, 12:18 Yeah, forgot to mention that. Good find: "made the whole world sing in his own voice". It's like Mike looks back very gratefully to the chances he got as a young bass (guitar) player in Kevins band. "I knew you had to do it your way fine ..." sounds like a farewell note from Kevin to Mike when he left The Whole World, but is now used by Mike to describe the way he feels about Kevins carreer. Back to top

3Wheeler Group: Members Posts: 828 Joined: Aug. 2007 Posted: Oct. 04 2011, 14:56 Extended Mix... 12"       The "Drunkstep" Mix  ha ha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLTAyMnDnv8 -------------- We're Flying Aeroflot, We've Got Reservations. Back to top

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ] Pages: (2) < [1] 2 >

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


Mike Oldfield Tubular.net