King Crimson's 51 Year Old Mellotron
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=124922
Printed Date: November 28 2024 at 20:37
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Topic: King Crimson's 51 Year Old Mellotron
Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Subject: King Crimson's 51 Year Old Mellotron
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 00:22
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Admittedly this was out in January of this year, but still super interesting in case anyone missed it!: "Fifty one years ago today, the first incarnation of the prog rock band, King Crimson, gathered in a cramped basement space below the Fulham Palace Cafe in London. One of the instruments the band would use that would come to distinguish their early sound was that strange, iconic 60s instrument, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron" rel="nofollow - Mellotron . Keyboardist Ian McDonald was taken by the sound of this instrument as it was employed by the Moody Blues (and on The Beatles' Strawberry Fields) and thought it would work well with the type of lush and orchestral sound the band was looking to create. Later in the year, in the summer of 1969, the instrument would again appear on David Bowie's Space Oddity (played by future Yes man, Rick Wakeman). Of all of the strange instruments that've worked the edges of popular music (the Theremin also comes to mind), the Mellotron is probably the oddest. Basically an upright organ cabinet filled with tape heads and recorded tape strips that you trigger through the keyboard, the Mellotron is like some crazy one-off contraption that caught on and actually got manufactured. In this video, Allison Stout, of Bell Tone Synth Works, a synthesizer repair shop in Philadelphia, PA, takes us under the hood of a Mellotron MK1 and how it works. One can only imagine how finicky and prone to breakage touring versions of these things must have been." ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
Replies:
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 02:10
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I had already seen that but thanks for posting anyway! If you are interested in the instruments frequently used in Prog may I recommend you this book. So far all the readers' reviews have rated it with 5 stars (except for one 3-stars rating without comment) https://www.amazon.es/Musical-Instruments-Progressive-Rock/dp/8413385997" rel="nofollow - https://www.amazon.es/Musical-Instruments-Progressive-Rock/dp/8413385997  |
Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 02:26
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^Yup aware of your book will be picking it up after holiday vacation dude! ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 02:39
That would be great, wish you a very Happy Xmas!
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Frenetic Zetetic wrote:Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 03:47
My sound engineer friend, who worked with the band England, once told me that the band sawed their heavy Mellotron in half to make it portable when touring. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_%28band" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_(band )
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Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 03:55
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It's like having a folding neck double bass. ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 04:14
Honestly I don't see how would that be possible since the cabinet was the housing for the tapes  Unless what they did was the same that Chris Franke (from Tangerine Dream) did to one of his mellotrons, he replaced the original tapes by closed loop tapes so that the instrument provided an infinite sustain. It was mentioned in the credits of the album Stratosfear as "loop mellotron". Well, it's also possible that they transported the tape frames separately and they sawed the cabinet jut for transport. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 05:18
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^ Yes, England simply rehoused the left-hand manual and installed the right-hand tapes in a new case.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 05:21
Perhaps the legs were removed so that it could fit in the car's boot.  ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 05:42
It wasn't the size of the Mellotron that was the problem - it was the weight. Apparently, a Mellotron is a very heavy piece of equipment, even when it's sawn in half.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 05:46
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 05:48
Well if it had 2 manuals it was a Mk II or a Mk V, and those were indeed very heavy!
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 10:02
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Paul McCartney demonstrates the Mellotron. |
Posted By: Heart of the Matter
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 14:51
| According to Geoff Emerick, when McCartney came up with the famous Strawberry intro it was his first time with Mellotron. |
Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: December 24 2020 at 22:43
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^Doesn't surprise me. Those things inspire creativity, and McCartney has always has bounds of it when it comes to melody. ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |