Lyric Sheets

Mike Oldfield launched Tubular Bells 3 at Horse Guards parade last night. The latest instalment of his instrumental opus is released this month and features a dance beat and techno bassline underpinning the more familiar sound of the tubular bells

Tubular Bells

In Horse Guards Parade

Across St James's Park

The sound drifts over Downing St.

In damp autumnal dark

Reverberates in Admiralty

Across the roofs to Treasury

As somewhere in the M.O.D.

A middle-aged clerk

Remembering the record

Pauses for a second

Tubular Bells?

In Horse Guards Parade?

When he was in his prime

The only sounds in Whitehall

Were cars and Big Ben's chime

And if it all seems strange somehow

When summer's gone you must allow

That it gets late much earlier now

Good Lord, is that the time?

The piece went on forever

In those days it was clever

Tubular Bells

In Horse Guards Parade

An added beat with techno bass

The scoundrel's last resort

But in September's clammy fist

Reminds one of The Exorcist

Forgive me. That's your train you've missed

No acid - mine's a port

It's churlish to decry it

My son may go and buy it