TS: Mike Oldfield's <i>TUBULAR BELLS</i> vs. Pink Floyd's <i>ATOM HEART MOTHER</i>

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Battle of the wanky prog instrumentals....

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000WG4.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002U9W.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Obviously, Oldfield's is the more celebrated of these particular two (most folks might sooner pit Bells against, say, Dark Side or Wish You Were Here), but I find these albums technically the most simillar, so take yer pick.

There was a brief albeit misguided point in my life where I truly believed that Pink Floyd were incapable of making a bad album, resulting in my furious championing of the bovine-adorned opus that is Atom Heart Mother. Appended with the more conventional tracks ("Fat Old Sun", "Summer `68"), it has the edge on Oldfield for accessibility, but the sprawling, side-filling title instrumental remains as equally ambitious....if a bit flawed (particularly the very-early-70's vocal freak out bit).

Oldfield's classic, by contrast, could be the most UN-Punk Rock album ever (actually, I cited Yes' Fragile of this very title a while back) given its artistic ambitions and attention to crystaline perfection (Oldfield has since lamented the inclusion of one or two wrong notes struck during the proceedings of the album, which I doubt I'd ever be able to pick out). I think I first latched onto it -- like many, I guessing -- as a result of its connection with William Friedkin's "The Excorcist" (though its appearance in the occult classic is incredibly brief, serenading Elen Burstyn as she wanders through Georgetown on Halloween) and was sucked in by its signature melody.

So, what say you?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:52 (twenty-two years ago)

dude, tubular bells sucks bad.

Yeah, it sold a lot of records back in the day and helped to make Virgin a huge label, but that doesn't change the fact that it sucks bad. This is proto-new age, and I don't think I need to explain why this records completely lacks goodness.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Thursday, 18 September 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

TS: reading about how seminal this record was and how I should own a copy Vs. putting it on my record player and jabbing my eyes out with a dull pocketknife.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Thursday, 18 September 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

So, I guess that's a vote for Atom Heart Mother, eh?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 September 2003 23:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I own both. I listened to Tubular Bells last Halloween, but I listened to Atom Heart Mother last month. So AHM wins, I guess.

― J (Jay), Friday, 19 September 2003 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Atom Heart sure has a great butt. Secondly, it has Ron Geesin as well.
Tubular has neither of those.
Ergo, Mother win-wins!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Mike Oldfield has made two sequels to Tubular Bells, plus a Best Of Tubular Bells album. Pink Floyd pretty quickly dismissed Atom Heart Mother as crap. I don't mind the album, but it could have done with some judicious trimming... maybe if part of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast had been turned into a worthwhile song. In the end, Pink Floyd win for seeing the error of their ways.

― Damian (Damian), Saturday, 20 September 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not a big Tubular Bells fan (Ommadawn on the other hand I find to be absolutely marvellous)
But Atom Heart Mother was just a huge disappointment for me; certainly one of the worst pre-Wall PF albums, as far as I'm concerned.
At least Tubular Bells has lots of neat melodies; what mainly pulls it down for me is the damn announcer part in the latter half of part 1. Two slighhhhtly distohhted guitahs.

― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Saturday, 20 September 2003 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

You will probably not be suprised to learn that I have something of a soft spot for AHM

― Dadaismus (Dada), Saturday, 20 September 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

me too -- i really like that song about groupies, Wright's best i think, (and the title thingie) but Wright's song wins for the genuinely great doomy horn chorus, especially since it's done once one way and then repeated with overlay, leaving you wanting just that first less sad horn chorus the second and third times, creating that "the first time was good, but now it's all tinged with sadness and excess" feeling, which is what the songs supposedly about
but at least the title track has that extra-silly soundtrack-ish brass head at regular brethers, and also the horses and motorcycles -- but the dissonant section of spots 2/3 through the title track is what really makes up for the pseudo-blues meanderings filler for me

the "song" part of t.b. was the most grating part, until i heard the Bonzos do "The Intro and The Outro" and then i understood the significance of Vivian Stanshall's "commentary" on the later record, which then had me ROTFL for both songs

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 20 September 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

tubular bells still gets used in movie trailers all the time, so, uh, I have no opinion actually.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Saturday, 20 September 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Hard to say, I like them both although Tubular Bells' second track is dull beyond belief and the Blue Peter theme doesn't lift the proceedings any at the end.

Atom Heart Mother has some lovely moments (great slide guitar things) and Summer '68 is a great tune. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is a laugh too.

If I had to pick one it would be probably Tubular Bells. Purely cause the signature tune is so good and better than anything on Atom Heart Mother. All in all, Atom Heart Mother is a better LP start to finish.

― Keith Watson (kmw), Saturday, 20 September 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"Tubular Bells" without any doubt. "Atom Heart Mother" is mainly just noise, with the exception of a couple nice guitar based songs that didn't seem particularly "prog" anyway

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 21 September 2003 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Pink Floyd never were all that prog though, really - they weren't good enough at their instruments to be prog.

― Damian (Damian), Sunday, 21 September 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave Gilmour was definitely good enough. Bit more uncertain about the rest.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 21 September 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Summer '68 i agree rewards scrutiny
i think of it as the b-side wins again single version of the title track that sold the album

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 21 September 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Geir - wrong. Gilmour copped a few hendrix/king/green pentatonic moves, a few folky chords and played 'em tasteful - put him against fripp's angular sputtering and he'd be lost. doing 7/4 on 'money' does not make you prog. don't get me wrong, i like gilmour's phrasing, but PF weren't prog - wright's dorian excursions were about as prog as they got.

― geordie racer, Sunday, 21 September 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

gilmour was able to replace syd because gilmour was a notorious guitar mimic -- his party trick

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 21 September 2003 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Robert Fripp sounds like nobody but Robert Fripp anyway

While I wouldn't rank Gilmour up there with Steve Hackett (my all-time favourite guitar player) I think he has a certain Mark Knopfler-like quality to his playing. Maybe not a typical prog style, true, but still a great guitar player.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 21 September 2003 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Gilmour as mimic of Syd's guitar? Not really, because they learnt from each other, they did go to school together after all - Gilmour was quite insistent that he was using an echobox years before Syd.

― Damian (Damian), Monday, 22 September 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

gilmour is an awesome guitarist, irrespective of whether he had the technical makings of a prog guru.

as for atom heart mother, i listen to it about once every three months. i really like the three individual member tracks and thoroughly enjoy certain sections of the suite. it's pretty interesting really. i don't have many records like this in my collection

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Sunday, 19 November 2006 12:44 (eighteen years ago)

"Tubular Bells" = Classic
"Atom Heart Mother" = Not particularly classic.

So......

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 19 November 2006 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

Atom Heart Mother does make me wish that Pink Floyd had done just one album of "conventional" songs, by which I mean stuff like "If", "Summer '68" and "Fat Old Sun". The sort of things you can put on CDs or tapes for people, I suppose. The title track is fine, but there are one or two good ideas that are wasted on "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". Aside from what was used in The Exorcist, I never need to hear Tubular Bells ever again.

― LC (Damian), Sunday, 19 November 2006 14:35 (eighteen years ago)

Atom Heart Mother does make me wish that Pink Floyd had done just one album of "conventional" songs
Mix the song side of Meddle with the vocal tracks from Obsured By Clouds and there ya go.

― Hideous Lump (Hideous Lump), Monday, 20 November 2006 03:01 (eighteen years ago)

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TS: Mike Oldfield's TUBULAR BELLS vs. Pink Floyd's ATOM HEART MOTHER