Les JO de Londres et Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield London 2012

Evidemment, il fallait regarder la cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux Olympiques de Londres. Absolument fabuleuse !
Maxine, you did a great job !
Une surprise parmi tant d'autres : Mike Oldfield jouant en pleine forme les Tubular Bells...

Longtemps que je n'avais pas eu une petite pensée pour Mike Oldfield qui a pourtant habité ma jeunesse avec le merveilleux Moonlight Shadow...
Né en 1953, ce grand musicien sort Tubular Bells à l'âge de 20 ans, album instrumental sur lequel il joue l'ensemble des instruments.
Mes albums favoris (moi qui n'ai jamais vu L'exorciste) : avec la voix de Maggie Reilly...

• Five miles out (1982) : Family Man - Five miles out
• Crises (1983) : Moonlight Shadow - Foreign Affair - Shadow on the wall (chant: Roger Chapman)
• Discovery (1984) : To France

M.O a également réalisé la BO du film "La déchirure". Sur des albums postérieurs, des guests stars telle Bonnie Tyler (Island) ont apporté leur collaboration.

Ensuite, j'ai perdu le fil avec Mike Oldfield, mais toujours conservé Moonlight Shadow et consoeurs dans mon MP3. Quelle belle surprise de le voir en forme lors de la cérémonie des JO 2012, à 59 ans.

(et Paul McCartney en final, bête de scène toujours mais la voix un peu éraillée à 70 ans !).

De quoi parle la chanson Moonlight Shadow ?

Un homme se fait tuer peu avant 4h du matin de 6 balles. Une femme essaie de le rejoindre sans succès. Elle essaiera ensuite d'entrer en contact avec lui dans l'autre monde...

Au-delà de ces paroles, on a évoqué un rapport avec le magicien Houdini (cf. le film de George Marshall avec Tony Curtis et Janet Leigh - 1953) et avec l'assassinat de John Lennon le 8 décembre 1980.

"It has been suggested that the lyrics of the song are a reference to the murder of John Lennon despite the fact that the events in the song do not correspond with those of Lennon's murder. Lennon was shot four times just before 11pm, whereas in the song the time is 4am and the number of shots is six. When asked if "Moonlight Shadow" is a reference to John Lennon's murder in a 1995 interview, Oldfield responded:

Not really... well, perhaps, when I look back on it, maybe it was. I actually arrived in New York that awful evening when he was shot and I was staying at the Virgin Records house in Perry Street, which was just a few blocks down the road from the Dakota Building where it happened, so it probably sank into my subconscious. It was originally inspired by a film I loved –Houdini, starring Tony Curtis, which was about attempts to contact Houdini after he'd died, through spiritualism... it was originally a song influenced by that, but a lot of other things must have crept in there without me realizing it.

—Mike Oldfield, "Gareth Randall Interviews Mike Oldfield"" (source : Wikipedia)

Paroles de Moonlight Shadow :

The last that ever she saw him
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
He passed on worried and warning
Carried away by a moonlight shadow.
Lost in a river last saturday night
Far away on the other side.
He was caught in the middle of a desperate fight
And she couldn't find how to push through

The trees that whisper in the evening
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Sing a song of sorrow and grieving
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
All she saw was a silhouette of a gun
Far away on the other side.
He was shot six times by a man on the run
And she couldn't find how to push through

I stay - I pray - I see you in heaven far away x2

Four AM in the morning
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
I watched your vision forming
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Star was light in a silvery night
Far away on the other side
Will you come to talk to me this night
But she couldn't find how to push through

[refrain] - Caught in the middle of a hundred and five (*)
The night was heavy but the air was alive
She couldn't find how to push through
Carried away by a moonlight shadow - Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Far away on the other side.

(*) : Caught in the middle of a hundred and five : non ce n'est pas une expression anglaise particulière, et non l'homme n'est pas non plus pris dans un tir d'AK-105 ! D'après M.O, l'homme se trouve "pris au milieu d'une foule de 105 personnes/hundred and five"... parce qu'il fallait une rime avec "alive".

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