"The Mellotron" - A Tribute to The Moody Blues & the Music of John Andrew Schreiner - 2005
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- "The Mellotron" - A Tribute to The Moody Blues & the Music of John Andrew Schreiner - 2005
©2005 Anthony Ochoa Productions™
The MELLOTRON is a musical instrument that, for some at least, defines the sound of Progressive Rock from the late 60s through the mid 70s. Predating the advent of microprocessors & digital memory, it was the first, as what we know today as an instrument that plays "samples", allowing a keyboardist to play the sound of REAL acoustic instruments, in particular violins, cellos & flutes.
Some of the pop & rock groups that used the MELLOTRON often, were bands like: Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, David Bowie & Elton John.
But, more than anyone else, however, it was an Englishman of a few spoken words that deserved the most credit, in bringing to the world's attention this "instrument", that he humbly took under his wing & truly mastered the MELLOTRON like none other. The part he played in rock music's true first "Concept-Album" in the 60s, enchanted the listener with his mysterious & haunting orchestral interpretations. MICHAEL PINDER stunned both lover's of Classical & Pop Music's critics and everyday folk with his MELLOTRON's memorizing lines, in 1967's "The Days Of Future Passed" by The Moody Blues.
It was The Moody Blues who used the MELLOTRON to their best advantage. When you first tuned into the piece, "Tuesday Afternoon", you really weren't quite sure what you were really hearing! Was it a full orchestra? Maybe a Chamber Section? Violins? Cellos? Or is that a Flute? Or a guy on a camel trying to raise snakes out of a basket! But later as the secrets of The Moody Blues were being revealed, you came to the realization that these "sounds" were coming from a "Keyboard-Instrument" being played, by a single person! How in the world was he "birthing" these sounds that really didn't exist?
Well, this is clearly a case where a picture is worth a thousand (or more) words. You see, the MELLOTRON had about 35 keys, spanning 3 different octaves. As mentioned before, each key had associated with it, a strip of magnetic audio tape, recorded with 3 parallel tracks. Each tape has an 8 second recording of an "ACTUAL" violin, or cello, or flute, playing the note corresponding to the key to which that tape belongs to. This wasn't a "tape-loop" scenario, because the tape always started at the beginning when the musician pressed the key. So in reality the recording had a "perceived" natural evolution, for that instrument.
The body of the unit had yes, a single motor, but had a WEALTH of tape heads, guides, gears, pullies, cogs & sprockets! Now add to this, that each tape actually had 3 musical tracks, with a rather crude lever mechanism, that shifts the playback heads left or right to pick up one of the three parallel tracks. In addition, there is a pitch knob which adjusts the speed of the machine's motor, allowing those weird, bizarre, peculiar and even eerie impossible orchestral slides that Michael Pinder of The Moody Blues was so famously known for.
The MELLOTRON was one of that decades premier in "Electronic-Musical-Master-Science", but there was only one problem. The MELLOTRON was remarkable & beautiful in it's ability to "creepily" reproduce the sound of an orchestra & at the same time, mechanically, it proved to be absolutely dreadful! Ric Wakeman, keyboard & piano player for the rock group YES; it was said, that he succumbed to the common wrath of the frustrated MELLOTRON player, no longer willing to endure it's extreme unreliability to keep pitch when the dang machine over-heated & after loosing & bending it's pitch time & time again, he "respectively" trashed the bloody thing & set it on fire in his studio one day!
As my taste for popular music grew & matured throughout the years, I was hastened to a similar sound of music; one that came VERY CLOSE to the sound of THE MELLOTRON! I once heard a song in the mid 80s, with keyboard sounds that held an unnatural tension that electronic instruments aren't really supposed to do. The music was holding a "Voicing-Of-A-Chord" that I only have heard, years before, as my brain was simmering to the strain of Michael Pinder's MELLOTRON in the music of the MOODY BLUES. Yes, he wasn't playing that same old mechanical GODZILLA that would constantly trip over itself with "meltdowns of a pitch", but was bringing to the Pop world & Christian music world as well, a clear & defined interpretation of the musical chord, that was done, oh so many years ago, but doing so, in the same sphere & with the same breath & tension, that only a true master on the keyboard can muster & that is my good friend: JOHN ANDREW SCHREINER.
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Anthony Ochoa
Writer, Producer, Narrator
"The Mellotron" - A Tribute to The Moody Blues & the Music of John Andrew Schreiner
Initial underscore from "SOLARIS" by Cliff Martinez
©2002 20th Century Fox Films
Orated live at "The Beach House Restaurant", Laguna Beach, CA.
Saturday October 29, 2005
RIP Ray Thomas 2016,Graeme Edge 2022 and Mike Pinder 2024 Your Music Liveth Evermore!!!!
I was thinking in my head, just months before the passing of Michael Pinder & Denny Laine (just months apart, I believe) that a LAST & FINAL album, consisting of Moody Blues surviving members Justin Hayward & John Lodge along with BOTH FOUNDING MEMBERS Pinder & Laine, would be both a SPECTACULAR REUNION and a COLOSSAL SOUNDING RECORDING. One of which, unfortunately, could no longer happen.
BolsaChicaRadio
@@BolsaChicaRadio Very much so however as far as i know Mike P never showed any interest in a get together as did Denny the original Bassist went on to other things too.
@@geoffhunter7704 That's the key word, "Interest". I suppose it's one thing to climb up on a Rock & Hall Of Fame stage and accept a long-due award (both Michael & Denny) in 2018, but after all the great brotherhood & camaraderie is done for the night & the shiny awards go home with you in a cardboard box....is there?; would there be?; enough "Interest" for the remaining members, along with longtime FOUNDERS from the beginning days to come back together for a time of long grueling months, to record a new project? That "maybe" had gone through all their spirits & minds during that very brief "get-together" at The Hall Of Fame, but making that into a reality, would have been a whole different endeavor. Pinder departing right after the 1977 "OCTAVE" recording sessions, being picked up quickly by Moraz to tour that album...and Laine (along with bassist Clint Warwick, who earlier passed away in the the mid 2000s) leaving pretty much after the success of their international hit single "GO NOW", never showed such "Interest" in picking up those old stone tablets, to write new songs with Hayward, Lodge, Thomas & Graeme; Thomas already departed this world even before The Hall Of Fame ceremonies of 2018.
As a 62 year old man I am now (I was 43, when I recorded this "MELLOTRON" presentation) I have learned, that "some things" are better left alone...I guess the heirlooms of time, are more easier to cherish, without the mistake of possibly spoiling them, all over again.
I agree with your thoughts & assessment.
BolsaChicaRadio
@@BolsaChicaRadio The Moodies line up of Jan 1967 was by far the best they complimented each other perfectly but Mike left over Band Direction as he was NOT completely happy with Octave and Mike was correct in this as i never bought another MB Album as Patrice lacked Mikes Pure Genius and in his leaving the Moodies lost a vital part.Info from Ginny Scott who still has her Mk4 Mellotron in pride of place in her lounge in perfect Working Order as her children/grandchildren have learnt to play it and she still has spare playing heads,the Manual plus the tools supplied by Bradmatic which now owned by Marshall Amps in London.
Then came the Moog Synthesizer
Progressive Rock moved forward
CORRECT-O! I can think of, the both late, master-keyboardists like KEITH EMERSON of ELP & RICHARD TANDY of ELO. One can also never forget the sounds of multi-instrumentalist, EDGAR WINTER; ALL of which were probably, also very handy on THE MELLOTRON.
BolsaChicaRadio
@@BolsaChicaRadio We attended in March a Justin Hayward Concert amongst others too and even with modern Keyboards not one has yet to Perfectly Emulate Mike's Mellotron Magic not even my cousin a Mellotron Player from 1967 till 1976 could imitate perfectly Mike's Talent though she tried very hard,when she could finally afford a Synth in 1976 she would not part with her Mk 4 Mellotron and now in her 70's it sits proudly in her lounge still in use as her children and g/children can play it too even though they have more compact Keyboards .
@@geoffhunter7704 Thanks for your insights! I myself was in attendance to see the Michael Pinder LIVE ON STAGE at the documentary double feature for "Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie" and "On The Threshold of a Dream" at The Egyptian Theatre in 2010 in Los Angeles, CA...IT WAS INCREDIBLE watching Mike playing THAT OLD BEASTLY GODZILLA; the crowd (INCLUDING ME!) went absolutely wild in awe:
ua-cam.com/video/llhy6GJcyt4/v-deo.htmlsi=MzlEWHdgdVDKMPuT
In terms of ANYONE who could even MERELY touch the surface of possibly even coming close to emulating the way Pinder magically majested the sound & vibe of his playing the Mellotron, would probably be a fella I just recently found here on You Tube; HE COME CLOSE!
ua-cam.com/video/DUAj3ql1DFI/v-deo.htmlsi=RM3dn-Qu3UjDPhLZ
Marco Hoogland - Iconic Vintage Keys and Synths
"Nights In White Satin by the Moody Blues, on my Mellotron M400"
ua-cam.com/video/DUAj3ql1DFI/v-deo.htmlsi=RM3dn-Qu3UjDPhLZ
Marco is the ONLY person in this whole You Tube Sphere that pretty much hits the nail with the hammer, of what the great, dearly missed, Michael Pinder, did ever so effertly.
Even though Marco replicates Ray Thomas' LIVE FLUTE on the Mellotron, I believe this demonstration still towers, as one of the BESTS!
BolsaChicaRadio