Song of The Day: Kevin Ayers – May I?

Featuring Mike Oldfield on bass, Lol Coxhill on soprano, and Dave Bedford on accordion. Ayers at his most beautifully wistful and romantic.

Song of The Day: Mike Oldfield & Co – Tubular Bells, (BBC 1973)

Take what is already an amazing song and add an all star lineup featuring the Rolling Stones’, MICK TAYLOR (!!!), Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlen from Gong, Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson and John Greaves of Henry Cow, Steve Broughton of the Edgar Broughton Band, and several other key players from the Prog/Avant scene, and you’ve got a mindblowing masterpiece of psychedelia, that is both sublime and epic. Really, this is twenty five minutes long and I’m still left wanting more. Lots more.

Oh, for anyone who is left wondering why they know that melody and why it frightens them so, it became popularly known as the theme from The Exorcist. Tubular Bells gets into your subconscious!

Happy birthday, Mike Oldfield!