A fistul of ice cream

[JF]

Yesterday I was listening A fistul of ice cream in the car, and then I suddendly understood a Mark's line in the Oldifield book that I had never really understood before.

When talking about the LOG recording sessions, Marks says something like that about Private Investigations (it may be not the exact sentence, but it's the idea) :
"I had this outro (the one from news on the OL tour) and this other theme in italian-score-movie style. They were in the same key and seemed to fit together, so I made a song with these two tunes"

It has always sounded strange to me, because I never thought that Private Investigations sounded like "italian score movie style"...until yesterday !

I had already heard a fistul of icecream before, but not so many times, and was never really interested in

But yesterday, it struck me how it indeed sounds like all thoses scores by Nino Rota or Fiorenzo Carpi in italian movies.
The mandolin (played by Mark ?) adds this kind of sound that immediately goes into this music style.


So I wonder : if Mark said that in the Oldfiled book, does it mean that this arrangement was his first idea, and then it evolved into the one we know for Private Investigations ?
If it is the case, it would mean that A fistul of ice cream does not come from a Private Investigations re-arrangement, but it's the reverse !
Private Investigations is a re-arrangement from A fistul of ice cream !

[Jules]

I don't remember that from OIdfield book but, as long as in "Comfort and Joy" you can listen to some LOG songs, I thought that Private Investigations was first and after he wrote A Fitsful Of Ice Cream...

Actually, Love Over Gold was recorded when Alan Clark was the only one keyboardist in the band, and Comfor And Joy was recorded with Guy Fletcher...

According to the diary, these are the finishing dates of recording of the records:

Love Over Gold 24/9/82
Comfort And Joy 22/7/84

Unless MK already had the tune recorded but without any use yet, before he recorded LOG, what he says in the book doesn't fit with dates

You can check dates here: https://web.archive.org/web/20010420023933fw_/http://www.neck-and-neck.com:80/library/diary/diary04.html

[JF]

Yes you are right, of course the Comfort & Joy soundtrack has been recorded after LOG.

But what I mean is that, regarding what Mark says in the Oldfield book, I tend to think that he had the "italian" arrangement in his head at first.
And when he composed the PI music, he first had this arrangement in his head. Then he changed it during LOG sessions and recorded PI as we know

but, atfer that, when recording A fistul of ice cream, maybe he remembered his first idea and decided to play it the way he thought it in the first place

of course it's just speculation, but this sentence in the book makes me think that

[Jules]

Yes you are right, of course the Comfort & Joy soundtrack has been recorded after LOG.

But what I mean is that, regarding what Mark says in the Oldfield book, I tend to think that he had the "italian" arrangement in his head at first.
And when he composed the PI music, he first had this arrangement in his head. Then he changed it during LOG sessions and recorded PI as we know

but, atfer that, when recording A fistul of ice cream, maybe he remembered his first idea and decided to play it the way he thought it in the first place

of course it's just speculation, but this sentence in the book makes me think that

That makes more sense, yes. So... Comfort And Joy was an easy movie score... one track already composed, two original tracks and the LOG songs 

[Robson]

"According to the diary, these are the finishing dates of recording of the records:

Love Over Gold 24/9/82
Comfort And Joy 22/7/84

The dates of the release of these plates

[Jules]

"According to the diary, these are the finishing dates of recording of the records:

Love Over Gold 24/9/82
Comfort And Joy 22/7/84

The dates of the release of these plates

Probably, finishing date is what it says in the diary. I didnt notice the REL note just next, that for sure means RELEASE

Also didn't notice another notation which says this:

??.01.84    ??.03.84    REC    MK    Air Studios    London    UK       'Cal' (Soundtrack), 'Comfort And Joy' (Soundtrack)

[Robson]

Love Over Gold was released on September 24, 1982. The end date of the recording can not be the same as the release 

[Jules]

Love Over Gold was released on September 24, 1982. The end date of the recording can not be the same as the release 

yes, you are right. Next to the date in the diary says REL, which means release. I read it too fast and didn't notice that before 

[Ingo]

I guess Mark came up with this tune that he considered as Italian. I guess mainly because of some weird chromatic melody lines (e.g. after what have you got at the end of the day...) and some of the weirder chords.

He put it together with the ending they developped for News during the Making Movies tour, put some lyrics on it, added certain effects & sounds to give it a sound-track like quality, and it became Private Investigations.

He recorded the melody with a different arrangement again - with the mandoline, I think it was played by Mark in fact - for the C&J soundtrack. The Italian mood of the tune and the Italian characters in the movie went together quite well.

[JF]

the mandoline, I think it was played by Mark in fact

like he did on the car was the one : a gibson mandolin, maybe it's the same ? I bet Mark didn't buy many mandolins in his career ....