It’s difficult to imagine anyone left on the face of the planet (already familiar with the man’s work, that is) who isn’t aware that singer/songwriter John Wesley Harding and critically acclaimed novelist Wesley Stace are one and the same. Henceforth, he has announced that he will record under the name Wesley Stace, and hopefully never again be asked why he assumed the name of a 1967 Bob Dylan album, misspelling and all. “It’s like what happens at the end of a Spider-Man or a Batman movie,” says Stace. “When the superhero reveals his true identity to his girlfriend.” “Girlfriend” may be the operative word on Stace’s new album, Self-Titled (Yep Roc), in which a 47-year-old man, now comfortably married and living in Philadelphia, reflects back over the loves of his younger life. Stace will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Stace: I’d never really bothered to listen to Tubular Bells properly—turns out it’s amazing! Just like the older kids told me ages ago when I totally ignored them.
Epic, sly, intimate, full of good tunes and riffs: funny, too, as you know. Once you’re seduced by it, and realise that both Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn (the next two) are even better, then you’re in, and you suddenly find yourself listening to Tubular Bells 2 (don’t knock it!), “Don Alfonso,” the ludicrous and lovely follow-up single to the first (the excellently named Mike Oldfield‘s “Single,” a seven-incexcerpt of Tubular Bells) and “Moonlight Shadow,” the much mocked ’80s single, also excellent.
“Don Alfonso,” in particular, is goofy and great, and I would have thought, almost certainly a two-fingered salute to his record company. There’s a contemporary “Carry On Mike Oldfield”-style video for it, starring Larry Martin, later famous on Are You Being Served? (I am on holiday in Rhode Island right now and, unbelievably, Rhode Islanders are still regularly being served Are You Being Served? by PBS). The vocals to this ludicrous number (an old music hall song, perhaps a parody of operetta) are by David Bedford, who recently died, but not before composing some beautiful music, including Star’s End and Instructions For Angels, all of which feature Oldfield slaying away. I don’t know why I’m throwing out a novelty Oldfield song when I could be recommending the majesty of Incantations (the fourth album) or even Oldfield’s excellent cover version of Abba’s “Arrival,” or my personal favourite “(Waldberg) The Peak,” but there you are. If you don’t dig the goofiness, focus on Oldfield’s guitar: the solo at the end is beyond beyond.
I should have known Oldfield was great years ago—he plays lead guitar on the last song of one of my favourite ever records, if not my favourite, Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt, and he started off in Kevin Ayers’ band the Whole Wide World. How bad could he be? He’ s beyond doubt a great player, an old-style finger-picker who mastered the art of making noise as well, and his longform “instrumental” albums (none of them purely instrumental) are all beautiful and rewarding, including his later releases, although Viv Stanshall (R.I.P.)—who was on my very first American record in 1989—was replaced as MC by John Cleese for the re-recording. (On Tubular Bells 2, Alan Rickman took over. Just FYI.)
I’ve just finished Oldfield’s autobiography, and I conclude that Mike Oldfield has never been a very happy man. But his music has made me very happy. The major Oldfield albums have rather replaced the “book on tape” in my life. I just pop on one of the big albums (Amarok!) and listen as I drive along, when once I would have listened to a serialized Charles Dickens. Oldfield always tells you a good story.
Video after the jump.
