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Topic: What's it got to do with the music?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Gandalph Offline




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Posted: Nov. 29 2003, 12:22

Ok so we all know that QE2 stands for Queen Elisabeth The Second, the name of an ocean liner. And we also know that the artwork is a stylised representation of the ship. But what has all this got to do with the actual music on the album? Even though this makes it into my top eight Mike Oldfield albums I fail to see the connection. The music doesn't invoke images of the ship or anything else remotely nautical. And it certainly doesn’t seem to be in a style that would have been played by the bands onboard during the heyday of ocean travel.

Gandalph.


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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Nov. 29 2003, 13:47

Strangely, the music on here does sound "oceanic" to me. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like that. If not... well, it's not like it matters much, when Mike Oldfield's albums are concerned. I don't think Tubular Bells and Platinum sound any "metallic", and yet, they're named and themed like that. I guess it's just one of those things... I actually prefer the vague concept of QE2 rather than the obssessive Five Miles Out.

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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Nov. 29 2003, 14:14

Recently I´ve been listening to QE2 more carefully and it´s a nice album with nice songs,not only a few tracks like Taurus I and Sheba(my favs).

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wowser Offline




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Posted: Nov. 29 2003, 16:36

imike is using the ship to conote travel, which is the theme of the album. (arrival, wonderful land, ) perhaps anyway

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c_haese Offline




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Posted: Nov. 29 2003, 23:59

Quote (Gandalph @ Nov. 29 2003, 12:22)
...The music doesn't invoke images of the ship or anything else remotely nautical...

The beginning of the title track uses overlapping up-down motifs which invoke the image of waves on the ocean. Another song that comes to mind where Mike has used this "technique" to describe water is the beginning of The Lake on Discovery.

Carsten.
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Nov. 30 2003, 13:03

Quote (c_haese @ Nov. 30 2003, 00:59)
Another song that comes to mind where Mike has used this "technique" to describe water is the beginning of The Lake on Discovery.

Carsten.

And what about the water effect in In The Pool?

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"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
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c_haese Offline




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Posted: Dec. 01 2003, 09:34

Quote (Tati The Sentinel @ Nov. 30 2003, 13:03)
And what about the water effect in In The Pool?

That's a different, much more "literal" technique to describe water. In literary terms, the water effect on In The Pool is analogous to just writing down the word "water," whereas the wavy melodies in QE2 and The Lake are analogous to writing a poem about water.
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wowser Offline




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Posted: Dec. 01 2003, 12:20

all goes back to the sailor's jig in TB

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Ricky Bling
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Posted: May 25 2004, 08:46

QE2 - not nautical!! What about the ships hooter just before the QE2 Finale - the whole of the QE2 track sounds like an ocean liner getting ready to go to sea for me. What a fantastic track!
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Ugo Offline




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Posted: May 25 2004, 18:05

Ricky above here summed it up perfectly, IMHO. The whole of QE2, and especially the finale, conjures up great images of seafaring in my mind - though not the kind of pleasure cruises that you would make on an ocean liner, but rather those ancient, mythical seafaring journeys, Christopher Columbus and the like. :) Okay, I agree that this doesn't connect much with QE2 as an actual ship, but I think it's a great title all the same. :)

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Sysiyo Offline




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Posted: Oct. 26 2004, 07:46

IMO the song does bear a strong resemblance to ocean liners of the 20th century, of which QE2 was at the time the last (now she has been of course joined by the QM2). The overly bombastic soundscape of the track is very close to how I would try to describe an ocean liner, musically. Depending of course a bit on liner in question. (And I feel obliged to point out that a cruiseship and an ocean liner are two different things, though cruise companies these days are eager to call their ships 'cruise liners' or whatever).
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