Great China Bike Ride

Raymond McCullough | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 23, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Precious Oil
• ASIN: B000CAAAFS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,199 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound approach to oriental bike ride for charity - Robert McMillen, December 2, 2005

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preciousoil (Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great China Bike Ride (Audio CD)

It's easy to see how the beautiful landscapes of China could awaken the creative spirit in you, but singer/songwriter Raymond McCullough did it the hard way. In October 1999, Raymond went on the Mencap China Bike Ride - despite not having been on a bike for 29 years!

"I thought I'd never do it," he said, "The journey was 444 kilometres long over four-and-a-half days. On the first day we did 40 miles instead of 40 km which was tough, but the following morning, we woke up in this beautiful hotel with the sun shining down on the pomegranate trees, and I had a shower, put the shorts on and thought, `I can do this'. By the third day I had caught up on the lead riders," says Raymond with obvious pride.

The scenery was breathtaking, he recalled, but going up 18 hairpin bends to get the views wasn't all fun!

Even on the flight to Beijing, though, there was a song brewing in Ray's imagination. "Making our way over the Mongolian mountains, about six in the morning, I got this wee tune, three chords, in my head, and that became the chorus of `Ballad of Beijing'.

In the second week, whever I went I heard this particular tune played by three percussionists and I incorporated that into the song as well."

The `Ballad of Beijing' can be found on `The great China Bike Ride', a mini-album with five other songs from Ray's vast repertoire.

`Smoke goes up' is a lovely song about Ireland's smell of turf, which Ray wrote on a journey home from Cork through Ireland's towns and villages. "The smoke goes up, the rain comes down," is an image many will find familiar!

`1989' is about the fall of the Berlin Wall and there is a lovely instrumental called, `Ar tir seo aguinne (Our Land)'.

Review by Robert McMillen - (Irish News - Sat. 2004-01-31)