Quote:
Originally Posted by Gulliver
Tony Banks of Genesis is said to have bought the mellotron from Robert Fripp which was used on "In The Court Of The Crimson King"...and that it is that very instrument we hear on Watcher Of The Skies. Although he'd rented one for Trespass (1970) it was Steve Hackett who persuaded Banks to purchase one for Nursery Cryme (1971)...Hackett being a Crimson fan.
When Genesis had their first concerts in the USA there was terrible trouble getting their Mellotron to work properly, made worse by the relatively crude equipment they were using to convert 120V to 240V. I think both Collins and Banks have stated that on their first US tour the Mellotron never really worked properly with Banks and the stage technician constantly adjusting it.
There's some hilarious footage of Rick Wakeman playing "the new Mellotron Sound" during recording sessions for Going For The One in 1977. Of course it was Wakeman who played on Bowie's Space Oddity, being considered the only keyboard player who knew how to keep the thing in tune.
I love how it sounds so eerie....despite being recordings of actual instruments and voices it sounds unreal - and I mean that as a compliment. It has character of it's own also imbued by the 7 second tape length and rewind time....no note can last longer than 7 seconds and generally cannot be repeated rapidly. It leads to interesting chord structures (see Watcher) and playing techniques. And sounds glorious in it's own way.
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Funnily enough, this came up in conversation recently with my old mate Pete who comes up from Southend to see me every now and then. Knowing that I'd been re-reading my Mellotron book, he asked why the instrument always sounded so strange and eerie, especially the choral and string sounds.
I didn't know, and the Mellotron book doesn't mention it, but I guessed that perhaps it was a product of the studio recording process at the time, the Mellotron playing via its own amplifier and speakers and being miked-up into the mixing desk. Each step in the chain introducing filtering effects. Dunno, but you are quite right about the weird sound.