Spooky Soundtracks! – THE EXORCIST: “Tubular Bells” (1973)

The story of how Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” taught me my very first lessons in horror, art, and outsmarting my parents.

Yeah, I know, I know. It seems like I’m being a totally predictable prick debuting my horror soundtracks section with THE EXORCIST, but it’s not really for the reason you’d think.

You see, when I was little, I was obsessed with a record my parents had indifferently inherited somehow. I played it so often that they actually tried to hide it from me. Unfortunately for them, I soon found the place where it was stashed–behind my sister’s standing wardrobe–and their torment continued.  

This infamous single I cherished was the edit of Mike Oldfield’s 1973 masterpiece, “Tubular Bells”. It immediately rocketed to fame late that year when its opening suite was used as the theme to William Friedkin’s blood-and-thunder horror benchmark, THE EXORCIST. Oldfield’s expansive opus, which included everything from the titular percussion to synthesized, nightmarish mock-ups that sounded of feral animals, was only one of two reasons I loved the record.  

The second was the label.

I had never seen anything like it before. The image–a pair of siamese twins seated before a gnarled tree and flanked by the tail of a horrific komodo dragon-type monster–provided me with some of my very first questions regarding the realms of horror and art. The tree, the komodo, the twins–why were they together, and what did it mean? 

I never did find out. But I did learn years later that the drugs in the 70’s had been really, really good. I also discovered the artwork had been designed by Roger Dean, who’d gained international fame after creating the innovative landscapes adorning all those early album covers of the English prog-rock group Yes. 

Oldfield was never able to step out of the very long shadow of “Tubular Bells”, and its dark, looping jingle will forever be spot-welded to the misadventures of Regan MacNeil. However, it provided him the springboard to an astonishing 50-year career that spanned popular music, gaming, and even the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2012.

#spookysoundtracks #mikeoldfield #tubularbells #williamfriedkin #theexorcist #rogerdean #virginrecords