Magical Mellotron Moments

Posted by: Nick Lees on 11 August 2007

The Mellotron: stuff

The first widely available sampler, albeit accidentally stolen from the American inventor Chamberlin (who sent his assistant over to the UK to source better tape heads and approached Streetly Electronics who thought it was his invention and offered to make the instrument themselves). Later on a bizarre twist of legislation led to Streetly losing the Mellotron brand and briefly having to call their machines Novatrons before sanity prevailed.

Sounds are recorded on strips of tape (three tracks per tape) that were played linearly over a bank of heads before having to be re-wound, allowing a maximum of 8 seconds duration for a note (though Mike Pinder apparently had a set of tapes recorded at half speed to allow longer duration. Mike had a special relationship with Streetly, being a local lad).

They didn’t travel well – any movement in the frame often caused the tape rack to warp, causing breakages, jams, and the famous matter of keeping the things in tune (Robert Fripp: “Mellotrons don’t tune”). Bands such as Barclay James Harvest and King Crimson had serious problems making live recordings when their ‘trons went out of whack on the night, leading either to scrapped recordings or resorting to studio over-dubs (e.g. BJH Live, Starless And Bible Black)

The original models had two manuals, the left for rhythm and sound effects, the right for lead instruments. Later ones had removable tape racks though very few brave souls attempted to change racks during a live show.

Despite being recordings of real instruments they all end up sounding like a Mellotron rather than the original thing – various theories including the notoriously dodgy replay equipment inserting wow and flutter and/or musicians finding it to play at a constant intonation and pitch without reference sounds.

The second best thing to come out of Aston, the third being (the now sadly made-in-Holland) HP Sauce.

Scandinavia must now be the home of the Mellotron, probably having the highest per capita ratio of ownership on the planet. It’s certainly been the cornerstone of the modern progressive revival started by Änglagård.

Princess Margaret owned one.

A wonderful resource for all things Mellotronic is Andy Robinson’s Planet Mellotron site. Virtually every record made with a Mellotron (or related) is here somewhere, and his reviews are very good.

Anyway, I started out thinking I’d list my favourite 5 magical Mellotron moments, but that quickly became 10 follwed shortly by an almost complete collapse of discipline – hence the rather lengthy list below. It could easily include more Anekdoten (worthy of a thread of their own), more Moodies, Crimson, some Cathedral (US version) and Glass (also US), Deadwood Forest (US again), White Willow, Paatos, Änglagård themselves…etc. etc.

Magical Mellotron Moments

So finally, here’s my list (alphabetical order only):





What are yours?
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by bhazen
Gary, spot-on post.

You've already listed the most jaw-dropping 'Tron interlude ever: "The Voyage" by the Moodies, in which Mike Pinder stands revealed as the Jimi Hendrix (if such is possible) of this most psychically evocative of instruments. On this track, he obtained the most velvety, orchestral sound possible from the Mellotron, in contrast to the icy chill that King Crimson went for. Speaking of, if that big diminished crescendo in the middle of "Epitaph" doesn't send a thrill up your chakras, you're probably not sentient.

Another great Mellotron moment is Brian Jones' playing on "2,000 Light Years From Home"; here the Mellotron evokes the cold spaces between the stars. There's some great 'Tron on Heaven Is In Your Mind by Traffic, "Hole In My Shoe" and "No Face, No Name, No Number" proving Steve Winwood a dab hand at ye olde tape sampler. The Moves' great single "Blackberry Way" features a verse custom-made for Mellotron, sure enough there is one. The Beatles made sparing use of the mighty beast, always aware of not repeating themselves; nonetheless 'Tron shows up on "Lovely Rita", "Flying" and "I Am The Walrus", as well as the famous flutes intro to "Strawberry Fields". Pink Floyd were not particularly known as Mellotron users, but sharp listeners will detect it on "Embryo", "Saucerful Of Secrets", "See-Saw", "Sisyphus" and "Atom Heart Mother".

Lots of contemporary artists have rediscovered the Mellotron too, along with its cousin, the Chamberlin. Too many to even begin to catalogue here, but suffice to say one can here tape samplers galore on albums by XTC, Crowded House, Michael Penn, Aimee Mann, Oasis, the Honeydogs, and hundreds more. Ironically, these sounds are sometimes tracked onto records via digital samples, which are more reliable than the wonky, heavy keyboard that is the Mellotron.

The singular track I play for people to demonstrate why I love the Mellotron is "Out And In", from the Moody Blues' To Our Children's Childrens' Children; a simple harmonic melody line, placed behind the band in deep reverb, illustrating the song's storyline of lying on your back on a summer's night, gazing up at the Milky Way. Sublime.

However: Princess Margaret owned one? Next you'll be telling me the Queen is an accomplished Delta Blues slide player. I'd believe you; thousands wouldn't.Big Grin
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by manicatel
What would have been a magic mellotron moment for me, is if I'd have actually got to play one. I had one booked in for a recording session way back when, but when we got to the studio, the bloody thing had packed up. I spent a good few desparate hours, surrounded by tapes & gubbins trying to give it the kiss of life.
I failed.
In the same session, we also managed to break the drone string on a sitar, & couldn't find a replacement anywhere. So not the luckiest of times for the band!
My old Prophet 5, although lovely never quite hit the spot like a Mellotron would have, I think.
Oh well, nice thread, anyway.
Matt.
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by bhazen
I played in two different bands that had Mellotrons; here's one story:

I was in Kaye-Smith Studios in Seattle, summer 1980, recording the first (and never-released) album by Hi-Fi (which, at the time, comprised David Surkamp and Doug Rayburn [ex-Pavlov's Dog], Bill Rieflin [future Ministry/Robert Fripp/R.E.M. drummer] and myself, Iain Matthews producing (he joined the group immediately after). One afternoon, the others were in the control room discussing an overdub or something, so I wandered into the recording room where all the gear was set up. I was messing about on Doug's Mellotron, playing the intro to "Strawberry Fields Forever", when I heard excited female voices behind me. I turn around to see Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart) standing there, saying "play that again!!" They are big Beatles fans. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by u5227470736789524
according to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron,(not sure why that doesn't work, but when you get there click the "search for mellotron" link) no Queen, but there was a king. Interesting thread, an instrument I knew "of" but nothing "about", nice to read all your experiences/history.

Jeff A
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by bhazen
Munch,

Yes, it was all David doing the lead vocals, with (IIRC) Iain Matthews helping out with some harmonies. Unfortunately, I lost my cassette of it some time ago (we failed to get a deal for that album). Was it any good? Hmm...I recall very fast tempos, and a very stripped-down, guitar-based sound (Doug's ideas for keyboard overdubs were vetoed by Iain and David, who wanted a more New Wave approach). Next I talk to one of those guys, I'll request a copy!

Cheers,
Bruce
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by bhazen
Yes, on my label Disgruntled Former Sidemen Records.Big Grin

Proceeds to go to my retire-in-Provence fund.

And now, back to the Mellotron thread already in progress...
Posted on: 12 August 2007 by Chris M
RE Mellotron Moments,

Hi Gary, the latest album by The Shins -Wincing The Night Away ,(Sub-Pop)2007, features the Mellotron on a couple of tracks, although not attributed on the sleeve notes. I will endevour to find the names of the specific tracks!

Regards,Chris Metcalf.
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by Nick Lees
Bruce, the ones you mention should perhaps have been on the list in the first place - also Simon Dupree's Kites. Almost all of the first four Moodies could have been in there (I had the pleasure of seeing them live in '68 and was amazed at how close to the studio sound they managed to get).

Chris, I've got that, but never noticed mellotron - I'll have to re-listen!

It occured to me that the more obscure seelections I posted above could do with some illustration, so here goes...

Firstly Sad Rain. Anekdoten started out as a King Crimson covers band so perhaps no surprise that their first album has some seriosly Crimso moment. Sad Rain is only available on the Japanese re-issue of Vemod, goodness knows why - it's 10 minutes of heaven starting here, with this gorgeous bit in the middle before returning to the main riff for an extended ending. This whole album in excellent and just about every Anekdoten track ever has mellotron plastered all over it.

Wobbler are a Norwegian progressive band - part of that started by Anglagard - and they feature analogue keys only with the mellotron to the fore. The main track on Hinterland (the title track) is a glorious 27 minutes long but this sample is from a shorter track Rubato Industry where you get this halfway through.

The next two are less obvious, but in my opinion good examples of how much a 'tron can add to the song without belting out huge riffs in the foreground. The first is from Columbine Confused (lyrics by Michael Moorcock), a slice of Norwegian hippiedom from a band who started off channeling early Pink Floyd.

Secondly Depuis L’Automne by Harmonium. They were a French-Canadain folk-prog band from the mid seventies and Si On Avait Besoin D’une Cinquième Saison was a mixture of early Crosby Stills and Nash and prog (and in quebequois). The Mellotron is used to gently underpin or link the multiple sections that go to make up L'Automne, like this bit. Not a show-stopper but...

To finish this bit off and to do two things. One, to bring to the atttention of anyone who isn't familiar with Starless what they're missing (though I'm not going to illustrate the middle section of guitar mayhem and chaos), but more importantly to show what a wonderful effect the Mellotron has. Take this introduction, which should really be all about the lovely melody carried by Fripp's guitar, but which is magnified (and the show almost stolen) by a few simple 'tron chords: like this.

Then at the end of the improvisory section, what is perhaps the most heart-stopping reprise on all pop culture is, on the face of it, dominated by Ian McDonald's sax again carrying that wonderful tune and John Wetton's bass crashing round the room breaking all the furniture, but again would only have half the effect without the same few 'tron chords backing it up. Spine-tingling bliss
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by Guido Fawkes
Very interesting thread Gary.

You've already mentioned the key pieces plus some music I am not familiar with. I'd add Tangerine Dream's Atem.

ATB Rotf
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by bhazen
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Shaw:

[...] To finish this bit off and to do two things. One, to bring to the atttention of anyone who isn't familiar with Starless what they're missing (though I'm not going to illustrate the middle section of guitar mayhem and chaos), but more importantly to show what a wonderful effect the Mellotron has. Take this introduction, which should really be all about the lovely melody carried by Fripp's guitar, but which is magnified (and the show almost stolen) by a few simple 'tron chords: like this.

Then at the end of the improvisory section, what is perhaps the most heart-stopping reprise on all pop culture is, on the face of it, dominated by Ian McDonald's sax again carrying that wonderful tune and John Wetton's bass crashing round the room breaking all the furniture, but again would only have half the effect without the same few 'tron chords backing it up. Spine-tingling bliss


Ach! How could I forget "Starless"? Everything great about King Crimson wrapped up in one jaw-dropping track. I agree 100% about the "most heart-stopping reprise in all pop culture". I first heard that one live in concert, the summer of 1974, before Red came out. Was I stunned? Was I ever!
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by Nick Lees
quote:
Originally posted by ROTF:
Very interesting thread Gary.

You've already mentioned the key pieces plus some music I am not familiar with. I'd add Tangerine Dream's Atem.

ATB Rotf

Good call. Honourable mention too for Tang's Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares from Phaedra. Not only memorable (phased) 'tron but they also knew a bit about naming tracks in those days!

Apparently Christophe Franke's mellotron was highly doctored in an attempt to get longer than 8 seconds and some extra sounds from it.
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by acad tsunami
Hi Gary,

How do you post those mp3/mpeg link thingies? It would be fun to have a 'name that tune' thread. Somebody did one once and Fredrik was keen to post but it didn't take off - dunno why?
Posted on: 13 August 2007 by u5227470736789439
My computer is simply not up to the demands of the added software. I only have 15% spare room on my hard drive. [C drive].

If I put anything else on there it will not even defrag...

Otherwise I would have kicked it off.

ATB from Fredrik
Posted on: 14 August 2007 by Nick Lees
quote:
Originally posted by acad tsunami:
Hi Gary,

How do you post those mp3/mpeg link thingies? It would be fun to have a 'name that tune' thread. Somebody did one once and Fredrik was keen to post but it didn't take off - dunno why?

You need somewhere on the web to upload them to. I pay a few quid a year for a domain with 100MB to post stuff to. We used to have a Pop Quiz here where we sometimes did guess the tune stuff. Initially it can seem quite daunting, but I can rip a song fragment, FTP it to my web storage and post it in a jiffy now. The two bits of software I use are both free (Audiograbber and SmartFTP) and incidentally both recomended to me here.
Posted on: 14 August 2007 by Jim Ashton
First time I ever heard of a Mellotron was when I read the sleeve of Goodbye Cream, which I'd just purchased. Seem to remember spending hours listening and trying to figure out which sounds the M was responsible for. Sorry if this has already been mentioned - haven't read the entire thread in detail.

Jim
Posted on: 15 August 2007 by bhazen
Jim, there's a bit of 'Tron strings in "Doing That Scrapyard Thing", IIRC during the "wandering around in the zoo" (or whatever he's singing there) bit. I think. No warranties implied or expressed.
Posted on: 20 August 2007 by Pete
I'm sure there should be some Genesis in there somewhere, take your pick from the early stuff though I'll probably go for Los Endos or Entangled from Trick of the Tail. Regarding Mellotrons not travelling well, I recall a radio interview with them once where they described what fun could be had trying to collect half a mile of tape from the carpark of The Black Prince in Bexley having dropped one on an early tour...

IIRC Fripp's actual quote about tuning was "Tuning a Mellotron doesn't".

They don't really sound like the choirs, strings etc. they were meant to sound like, but they did sound wonderful and not quite like anything else all on their own terms.

They still surface from time to time. I noticed that the latest Rush album features a Mellotron credit for Geddy Lee, and even though they were unashamed proggies in the Golden Age of the 70s I don't recall them obviously using them back then.

Vintage Tull of Aqualung era seems pretty well endowed with those glorious Mellotron sounds...

Pete.
Posted on: 20 August 2007 by JWM
For a more recent example of Mellotron use (though still 7 years!), try Gomez' second album, Liquid Skin.

They tried using it on stage in their tour of that album, and were having trouble with the tape loops at the gig we saw, at Cambridge Corn Exchange.

It wasn't long before they resorted to a more convenient sampling machine for their extensive touring!

James
Posted on: 20 August 2007 by Iron Cobra
John Paul Jones plays Mellotron on Rain Song from Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy
Posted on: 20 August 2007 by Nick Lees
quote:
Originally posted by Pete:
I'm sure there should be some Genesis in there somewhere, take your pick from the early stuff though I'll probably go for Los Endos or Entangled from Trick of the Tail. Regarding Mellotrons not travelling well, I recall a radio interview with them once where they described what fun could be had trying to collect half a mile of tape from the carpark of The Black Prince in Bexley having dropped one on an early tour...

IIRC Fripp's actual quote about tuning was "Tuning a Mellotron doesn't".

They don't really sound like the choirs, strings etc. they were meant to sound like, but they did sound wonderful and not quite like anything else all on their own terms.

They still surface from time to time. I noticed that the latest Rush album features a Mellotron credit for Geddy Lee, and even though they were unashamed proggies in the Golden Age of the 70s I don't recall them obviously using them back then.

Vintage Tull of Aqualung era seems pretty well endowed with those glorious Mellotron sounds...

Pete.


I must admit that the mellotron bits of Genesis are about the only bits I like (which is odd as I like Prog on the whole, as well as really liking the early solo stuff by Gabriel and Hackett, but there you go) especially on Watcher Of The Skies.

According to Planet Mellotron, there is a bit of tron in early Rush,

And you're right that their glory is that they don't sound like they are supposed to!

And Scandinavia is awash with the things - in fact I'm listening to one right not: The Smell Of Incense have just released a new album called Of Ullages and Dottles (see Mervyn Peake), and while it isn't as tron-soaked as the one I mentioned earlier, is still excellent and well worth exploring if you've a bent for old hippie music...

BTW Pete are you still taking beautiful photos from the top of mountains?
Posted on: 28 August 2007 by Pete
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Shaw:

BTW Pete are you still taking beautiful photos from the top of mountains?


I've never been a prolific photographer, so the good ones I get are as much luck as anything else, but I still spend a lot of time up hills so every now and then I get a nice one.

Got married up a mountain just over a year ago, and so someone else took the pictures! http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/wedding/ss.htm

Pete.
Posted on: 29 August 2007 by Stephen Bennett
We used a real 'tron on the debut henry Fool album (www.henryfool.com) along with some nice 'fakes' from my JV1080. For the upcoming new album, I was exclusivly using the brilliant GMedia 'M-Tron' plug-in, but as I've moved to the 'Land of the midnight tron' (sounds like a prog album title Smile) We'll be working with someone with a proper instrument! Oh happy me (apart from the 'Strings' on my plug-in sounding better than most real 'trons')

Regards

Stephen
Posted on: 29 August 2007 by Stephen Bennett
Swedes really love their 'trons. Smile



Music here.

Regards

Stephen
Posted on: 29 August 2007 by seagull
quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
...For the upcoming new album...


Hi Stephen,

How up and coming is the new album? Can we start breathing out yet?
Posted on: 29 August 2007 by Stephen Bennett
I have a lot more time now to work on it. Tim is working on a new No-Man album with Steven Wilson, so the henry fool one will come out after that. I'm hoping early(ish) 2008 - believe me, I'll be pleased to finish it.

So breath a little......

Smile

Stephen