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Highlighting in album tracklistings denotes 'contains Mellotron'. On 'multi-part' tracks I've tried to indicate which parts contain 'Tron, although this isn't always possible.
Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
The 'T' ('Tron, of course...) rating (0-5) is an only slightly more objective indicator of an album's Mellotronness.
By the way, if you know of any Mellotron albums that aren't listed here, please look at my albums page first! Thanks.
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Bee Gees Beggars Opera Chris Bell |
Belle & Sebastian Ben's Diapers |
Patrick Bernard Heidi Berry |
Besombes-Rizet Better Than Ezra |
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The Bee Gees' 1st (1967, 37.44) ****/TT½ |
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| Turn of the Century Holiday Red Chair, Fade Away One Minute Woman In My Own Time Every Christian Lionhearted Man Will Show You Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts New York Mining Disaster 1941 |
Cucumber Castle To Love Somebody I Close My Eyes I Can't See Nobody Please Read Me Close Another Door |
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Horizontal (1968, 37.13) ***½/T |
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| World And the Sun Will Shine Lemons Never Forget Really and Sincerely Birdie Told Me With the Sun in My Eyes Massachusetts Harry Braff |
Day Time Girl The Earnest of Being George The Change is Made Horizontal |
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7" (1968) ***½/TT Jumbo The Singer Sang His Song |
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Idea (1968, 33.04) ***/T |
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| Let There Be Love Kitty Can In the Summer of His Years Indian Gin and Whisky Dry Down to Earth Such a Shame Idea When the Swallows Fly |
I've Decided to Join the Air Force I Started a Joke Kilburn Towers Swan Song |
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Cucumber Castle (1970, 34.15) ***½/0 |
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| If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else I.O.I.O. Then You Left Me The Lord I Was the Child I Lay Down and Die Sweetheart Bury Me Down By the River |
My Thing The Chance of Love Turning Tide Don't Forget to Remember |
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Trafalgar (1971, 47.17) ***/½ |
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| How Can You Mend a Broken Heart Israel The Greatest Man in the World It's Just the Way Remembering Somebody Stop the Music Trafalgar Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself |
When Do I Dearest Lion in Winter Walking Back to Waterloo |
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To Whom it May Concern (1972, 44.00) ***½/T |
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| Run to Me We Lost the Road Never Been Alone Paper Mache, Cabbages and Kings I Can Bring Love I Held a Party Please Don't Turn Out the Lights Sea of Smiling Faces |
Bad Bad Dreams You Know it's for You Alive Road to Alaska Sweet Song of Summer |
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Life in a Tin Can (1973, 32.18) **½/TSaw a New MorningI Don't Wanna Be the One South Dakota Morning Living in Chicago While I Play My Life Has Been a Song Come Home Johnny Bridie Method to My Madness |
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Mr. Natural (1974, 46.36) **½/T |
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| Charade Throw a Penny Down the Road Voices Give a Hand, Take a Hand Dogs Mr. Natural Lost in Your Love |
I Can't Let You Go Heavy Breathing Had a Lot of Love Last Night |
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Mellotrons used:
Like many people, I first heard the Bee Gees (abbreviated from 'The Brothers Gibb'), Barry , Robin and Maurice, via their mid-'70s disco abominations; Jive Talkin', You Should Be Dancing et al.; it was actually some years before I even realised that this was their second stab at fame and fortune, and they'd had a whole slew of hits in the late '60s. Sadly, I wasn't impressed by them either, and it was many years again before I heard their early album tracks, and realised there was a little more depth to the Gibb brothers than their bland mainstream work.
After several hits in their adoptive native country, Australia (although all were born in the UK, in the Manchester area), the brothers came back to Britain to make their fortune, releasing The Bee Gees' 1st in 1967. It's very much a product of its time, being largely composed of clever psychedelic pop, including many period production tricks (like the vocal effect on Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy Of Arts), with enough mainstream appeal to ensure its success. One of the album's most endearing features is Maurice's Mellotron work on a couple of tracks, although much of the album uses orchestral accompaniment. Red Chair, Fade Away opens with an upfront chordal flute part, complete with pitchbend, although the album's 'Tron (and musical) pièce de resistance, though, is the (quite frankly) bizarre Every Christian Lionhearted Man Will Show You, with its Gregorian-style verses complete with heavily gothic 'Tron strings, leading into a typical Bee Gees chorus. This really is superb, with some excellent pitchbend work on top of the fantastic verse riff.
By the following year's Horizontal, the Gibbs' true colours were already beginning to show, with little psychedelic experimentation and a surfeit of string-laden balladry, although there's still the odd quirky song, notably Harry Braff. As for Maurice's Mellotron, I'm told there's some on opener World, but I'll be damned if I can hear it, although the upfront strings on the title track are extremely clear. As with First, there may be other 'Tron tracks, but most of the strings are real, as are the other orchestral instruments I can hear. Incidentally, the band released the Jumbo 7" soon after Horizontal, with quite noticeable 'Tron string and brass chords throughout. Idea is similar to its immediate predecessor, being largely orchestral pop, without even Horizontal's one interesting track to grab the attention. Perfectly respectable, you understand, just not very exciting for those not into the style. Also like its predecessor, there's one overt Mellotron track, with the flutes on Kilburn Towers, although to my ears, there just might be some background flute chords on In The Summer Of His Years, although the orchestra on the track may well give this the lie.
The ambitious double, Odessa (***½) followed, with its seven-minute plus title track and occasional progressive leanings; definitely an improvement on Idea, although despite rumours, I can't hear any Mellotron. It's credited on Cucumber Castle, an album made without Robin, who was in the throes of a brief solo career, but again, I can't actually hear it, although that doesn't mean it isn't there. The album's better than Idea, but the brothers had slipped largely into mainstream balladry by this point, with large-scale orchestration that would seem to make the 'Tron redundant. About the only place it might be is a few chordal flute parts here and there, but I'll have to give it a '0' for the moment. The overlong Trafalgar looks like it should be a concept album (as did Cucumber Castle, for that matter), but is basically just another collection of weepy ballads, although a few tracks (It's Just The Way, Trafalgar) dig themselves out of this hole. Maurice's credited Mellotron usage is, as was usual by now, largely inaudible, although I think the wobbly flute line on When Do I is the mighty 'Tron.
To Whom it May Concern, with cool sleeve pic of Maurice on white Ricky bass, starts badly, but ends up being one of their better early albums, with several tracks bucking their ballads, ballads and more ballads approach. The slightly eccentric, Greek-flavoured Paper Mache, Cabbages And Kings (and that's papier mâché, chaps; it's French...), I Held A Party, with its 'Persuaders' theme tune feel about it, and the rocking Bad Bad Dreams, among others, stand out from the distressingly familiar dross that clogs up most of these releases. The album also contains their most 'out there' song since Every Christian Lionhearted Man in the moody, synth-driven Sweet Song Of Summer. At last, there's a definite 'Tron Track, too: You Know It's For You has clearly audible 'Tron flutes and strings, sounding a great deal less cheesy than their usual preference for orchestral accompaniment.
Wondrously, the surprisingly short Life in a Tin Can actually gives track-by-track credits, so at last, there's no dissension over Maurice's Mellotron usage. The album seems to be Business As Usual, being a string of syrupy ballads with little real substance, with an unfortunate country edge to some of them. The credited Mellotron on I Don't Wanna Be The One is, once again, totally inaudible, unless Maurice had some different strings tapes recorded, which is always possible, I suppose. Living In Chicago has melodic flute and string parts, which actually sound like a 'Tron, which is nice, but doth not a 'Tron Album make. Mr. Natural charts the Gibbs' move into a more soul-influenced direction, fulfilled on the massive-selling Main Course a year later. Opener Charade is as cheesy a soul ballad as they were to produce, sax solo and all, but the rest of the album is more varied than its predecessor, thankfully. On the Mellotron front, Voices has not only strings, but, for the first (and probably last) time in their catalogue, choirs; or should that be voices? Throw A Penny and the title track have some strings, too, but they're used so 'orchestrally' that it's difficult to ascertain that they're 'Tron at all. There may be some more on the album, but as usual, it's pretty hard to tell.
Despite the sheer number of 'Tron albums in the Bee Gees' back catalogue, with only two of their first ten releases not being included above (and they may have some buried in the mix), it has to be said that there's surprisingly few Mellotron classics among them. First is a great album, with three all-out 'Tron pieces, but I can only hear another five or six worthwhile efforts over the succeeding nine LPs. It's difficult to know what to recommend musically here, as I don't personally like any of their albums after their worldwide debut, but for fans of their particularly quavery style of balladry, most of the above are probably worth hearing. For those of a more progressive/psychedelic bent, buy First, then approach Horizontal and maybe Odessa with considerable caution. Better still, borrow them and tape the best tracks; I rather doubt you'll fill a C90, I'm afraid.
I actually feel it's quite irrelevant to ever accuse the Bee Gees of 'selling out'; at all stages of their career, they've striven to be as 'commercial' as possible, with the express aim of selling shedloads of records. It's practically impossible to argue with an approach that honest, even though their ultra-clever take on the genre helped to keep The Disco Years going that little bit longer, for which I shall probably never entirely forgive them. Their falsetto harmonies and an excess of teeth ensured that the band were treated as something of a joke from the late '70s onward - the late '90s Clive Anderson TV interview where they stormed out en masse was a classic example, although I'm afraid they did come across as startlingly humourless. Multiple-million sales tell their own story, though, giving the brothers the last laugh. Sadly, Maurice died in early 2003, after years of ill-health; it's often forgotten that he was the band's real musician, equally at home on guitar, bass or keyboards, and it was he who kept their Mellotron flame alive for so long. Despite everything, RIP, Mo.
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Waters of Change (1971, 42.30) ****/TTTTTime MachineLament I've No Idea Nimbus Festival Silver Peacock (Intro) Silver Peacock Impromptu The Fox |
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Pathfinder (1972, 38.27) ***½/½HoboMacArthur Park The Witch Pathfinder From Shark to Haggis Stretcher Madame Doubtfire |
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Beggars Opera (sic) are yet another of those 'proto-prog' bands who operated on the cusp of the '60s and '70s who, unfortunately, never quite adapted to the new decade so, like the dinosaurs, soon found themselves extinct. Which, all in all, is a pity, as many of these bands had plenty to offer, but such is the fickle nature of fashion.
After their debut, Act One (***½), Beggars Opera bought a Mark II Mellotron, and Virginia Scott (credited with just 'Mellotron and vocals') used it to good effect on their follow-up, Waters of Change. They get straight in there on lengthy opener Time Machine, with plenty of 'Tron strings to lift the piece up at relevant moments. The next two Mellotron tracks don't make any particularly special use of the instrument, but Silver Peacock (Intro) has a great brass part under the narration (don't ask), and Silver Peacock itself is fantastic - great song and superb 'Tron. The Fox finishes things off nicely in a similar vein; this is a bit of an essential for the 'Tron fan, and happens to be a damn' good album in its own right.
Album no.3, Pathfinder, loses Virginia Scott, leaving regular keyboard man Alan Park to cover all bases, who mainly sticks to the organ and piano he played on Waters of Change. The album is a little more straightforward, too, as the band gently moved away from their psych/prog roots towards a more hard rock direction. The only 'Tron on the album (and only a few chords at that) is on their interpretation of Jim Webb's classic/ludicrous (delete according to taste) MacArthur Park, although they're unable to match the high camp of Richard Harris' original version, for which we should probably be truly grateful.
Beggars Opera used a Mellotron on one more album, 1973's Get Your Dog Off Me, which I shall review when I hear a copy. Note of (possible) interest; apparently, while on tour in Italy in '72, they sold their Mark II to PFM, pretty much on a whim, who put it to quite stunning use on their first couple of albums. So; Pathfinder's a bit so-so, to be honest, but Waters of Change is vastly better, both for material and Mellotron, so if I were you, I'd probably stick to that one.
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I am the Cosmos (1992, recorded 1973-75, 54.18) ****/T½ |
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| I am the Cosmos Better Save Yourself Speed of Sound Get Away You and Your Sister Make a Scene Look Up I Got Kinda Lost |
There Was a Light Fight at the Table I Don't Know Though I Know She Lies I am the Cosmos (slow version) You and Your Sister (country version) You and Your Sister (acoustic version) |
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Chris Bell left Big Star after their seminal #1 Record and after various false starts, recorded the material that eventually became I am the Cosmos over a period of several years, in various locations worldwide, including Heureville (France), London and Memphis. Most of the songs are every bit as good as you'd expect from a Big Star songwriter, although a couple of the rockier numbers are slightly unnecessary. Highlights include the title track, the fantastic, slow-burning Better Save Yourself and Look Up, though there's very little wrong with most of the tracks.
The Mellotron isn't credited, and I don't know where the relevant tracks were recorded, but it seems likely that bassist/organist Ken Woodley's the guilty party. The original version of You And Your Sister has a brief 'Tron flute melody, although I can't tell whether the cellos are real or tape replay. The 'country version' added to the end of the disc has a major strings presence, while the fabulous Look Up heavily features the flutes again. As with Big Star, the Mellotron use is sparse and uncredited, but it's still well worth hearing.
Tragically, after several attempts to reform Big Star came to nothing, Bell died in a car accident in December 1978. It took his brother David nearly 14 years to compile this album, but it was worth the wait. I wouldn't buy it for the Mellotron, but for Beach Boys/Beatles-style clever, intelligent pop, it's as essential as the first two Big Star albums. Buy.
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The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998, 45.21) ***/T |
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| It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career Sleep the Clock Around Is it Wicked Not to Care? Ease Your Feet in the Sea A Summer Wasting Seymour Stein A Space Boy Dream Dirty Dream Number Two |
The Boy With the Arab Strap Chickfactor Simple Things The Rollercoaster Ride |
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Legal Man (2000, 9.27) ***/½Legal ManJudy is a Dick Slap Winter Wooskie |
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Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000, 40.53) ***½/TT½ |
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| I Fought in a War The Model Beyond This Sunrise Waiting for the Moon to Rise Don't Leave the Light on, Baby The Wrong Girl The Chalet Lines Nice Day for a Sulk |
Woman's Realm Family Tree There's Too Much Love |
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Storytelling (2002, 35.28) ***/½ |
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| Fiction Freak Dialogue: Conan, Early Letterman Fuck This Shit Night Walk Dialogue: Jersey's Where it's At Black and White Unite Consuelo Dialogue: Toby |
Storytelling Dialogue: Class Rank I Don't Want to Play Football Consuelo Leaving Wandering Alone Dialogue: Mandingo Cliche Scooby Driver Fiction Reprise Big John Shaft |
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Belle & Sebastian (named after a French TV cartoon) are possibly the most fey band to come out of Scotland, and they're up against pretty strong competition. I'm not sure exactly when they discovered the delights of the Mellotron, but to my knowledge, they first used one on The Boy With the Arab Strap, named in honour of their friends, fellow Scots Arab Strap, in turn named in honour of an obscure sex aid. That's nice, then. I presume it's keyboard player Chris Geddes on the 'Tron, although they don't credit it on any of their albums. All I can hear here is a nice flute part (alongside real strings, by the sound of it) on Chickfactor, but one track doth not a 'Tron album make.
Several singles and EPs appeared before their next album, although the only 'Tron track I've been able to trace is Winter Wooskie (aargh!), from their Legal Man EP. A short flute part in a short song; very pleasant, but rather unexceptional. However, it's all over Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (those titles!). It's just a shame it's all so unbearably twee, really; they could be a nice Nick Drake-ish outfit if they chose. As for the Mellotron, apart from the real strings, there are flute melodies on The Model and Waiting For The Moon To Rise, and a chordal strings part on Beyond This Sunrise. Some marvellous chordal flutes enliven the 'how much more fey could they be?' Nice Day For A Sulk, although the solo flute on Family Tree sounds real to my ears.
Storytelling is a sort-of film soundtrack to Todd Solondz's film of the same name, although many of the tracks never got used in the final cut. Anyway, it's still recognisably Belle & Sebastian, adding a surreal element to the mix by incorporating several short 'dialogue' tracks, presumably from the film. There are a couple of more upbeat numbers, too, although much of the album sticks to their tried and trusted formula. This time, practically no Mellotron, although the strings on Freak have to be, although I don't know about the flutes.
So; three extremely fey albums, although if you like the quieter end of UK indie, you may well go for this stuff. Fold Your Hands Child... is the only one that's worth it for the Mellotron, though. More news if I get to hear all their non-album tracks from the period, although there's nothing on 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress.
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Laughter Tracks (2003, 35.02) ***½/T |
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| Happy Man Skylight The Way it's Going to Be for the Rest of Our Lives Sweet Somethings I Wrote a Song About Sadness Hey Rock and Roll Josephine Geraldine |
Huge in Heaven Play Through the Rain Under the Surface Stockholm Sky |
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If I didn't know better, I'd have said that Ben's Diapers were American; I'm sure experts in the genre could probably nail them down to their hometown. Music? Americana. Vocalists' accents? Pure American. Even their name. Saying that, they're really rather good at it, and are probably the best American band in Finland. Stylistically, they seem to cover all bases, from the balladry of The Way It's Going To Be For The Rest Of Our Lives, the country-rock of I Wrote A Song About Sadness or the proper Americana of Happy Man.
Mellotron on one track only, played by Finnish owner Tom Hakava, with a 'classic' flute part (you know, 'Strawberry Fields') on Stockholm Sky, although that's it, it seems. Nothing on their latest release, Little Pilgrims (***½), sadly, but both albums are worth hearing if you're into the genre.
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Exil (1982, 35.57) ***½/TTT½Un et DifférentVoir le Soleil Le Lieu d'où l'on Ne Revient Pas Intérieurs Exil Les Mendiants d'Amour Le Véritable Ami Le Père qui Regarde |
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Patrick Bernard (he feels the need to say, "previously known as Bernhardt", on his site, for some reason) seems to specialise in 'devotional music', lyrically heavily influenced by his many years' study in India. It seems he was actually born in French colony Algeria, and has lived in various places, including France, Britain and Québec, although as he's settled in the latter, that's the nationality I shall list. Amusingly, the discography on his website lists nothing prior to 1989, after what the French Wikipedia describes (in translation) as his 'second mystical crisis'. Hmmm. So, New Age dreck, anyone? Anyway, 1982's Exil (actually his sixth album, it seems) opens with an early 'World'-type piece, Un Et Différent, before shifting into a pleasant, if undemanding kind of fairly straightforward slightly progressive rock, with a largish dose of French chanson thrown in, particularly noticeable on closer Le Père Qui Regarde; not a million miles away from the less proggy stuff Morse Code were doing a few years earlier, I'd say.
Plenty of Mellotron, apparently played by Bernard himself, with high string notes on Voir Le Soleil, making a template for the album's 'Tron use overall; a particularly good example is the opening to Les Mendiants D'Amour ('The Beggars of Love'), with a well-played melodic part before the more 'standard' chordal work later in the song. Cellos, for a change, at the beginning of Le Véritable Ami, alongside the more standard strings, so with only two songs being 'Tron-free, I'd say this is a surprise 'worth getting' album, assuming you can find a copy. Unavailable on CD, as Bernard isn't even acknowledging its existence, the only way I can see anyone putting it out is if the original record company decides there's any sort of demand for it; none of the specialist prog reissue labels will be interested, as it isn't 'progressive' enough. Is there a demand from Mellotron fans? Should I start 'Mellotron Records'? Don't even go there...
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Heidi Berry (1993, 46.34) ***/½ |
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| Mercury Little Fox The Moon and the Sun One-String Violin Darling Companion Distant Thunder Heart Like a Wheel For the Rose |
Follow Ariel Dawn |
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American-born but British-raised makes Heidi Berry effectively a Brit (this logic is reversed in other places on this site), although her confessional singer-songwriter style is probably more transatlantic than home-grown, ironically. Her music, at least on her third, eponymous album, fits loosely into 4AD's 'house style' (think: Cocteau Twins), being laid back to the point of drifting, although it seems to have little of their appeal. Don't get me wrong; it's perfectly pleasant, but too undemanding to actually grab the listener's attention, although I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.
Credited Mellotron on one track, Little Fox, from Robert Lord, but given that the track already features real strings, all I can hear is a faint background flute part that really wasn't worth recording. So; inoffensive but ineffectual, with next to no 'Tron. Next...
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Pôle (1975, 75.49) ***½/TT½Haute PressionEvelyse Armature Double Lundi Matin Montélimar Rock à Montauban Synthi Soit-il |
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Philippe Besombes and Jean Louis Rizet were French experimental musicians who only properly collaborated once, on 1975's Pôle (named for the independent label on which it was released), a double album of electronic music, sometimes cited as the best French album in the genre. Despite superficial similarities, don't think Tangerine Dream here; Besombes-Rizet were far more percussive, and the music has a completely different feel - comparisons with another French electronic duo, Heldon, are more relevant. Much of the music spread across the album's four sides is quite harsh, albeit interesting; lush melodies and Mellotron soundscapes are notable by their absence, substituted by brittle synth work and manic percussion.
I've really no idea who plays what here; a whole raft of gear was used, including Rhodes (principally on Evelyse), Mellotron M400, MiniMoog, ARP Odyssey and various EMS equipment, mostly to good effect, with several modular-sounding percussive patches finding their way onto various tracks. On the Mellotron front, Haute Pression features male choir throughout much of its length, plus a smattering of strings, but on the side-long Armature Double the duo go completely overboard, utilising Mellotron vibes and percussion, with some vicious tympani and tubular bell work (!), after a rich string intro. Montélimar only has a brief burst of strings on the intro, and that would seem to be your lot.
So; you're not going to find a vinyl original of this, and the excellent Israeli RIO label have gone under, so once their pressing of Pôle has sold out, it's gone. EM fans who wish to venture beyond their 'Berlin School' comfort zone or anyone who wants to hear Mellotron percussion used in anger would do well to invest in a copy while they still can.
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How Does Your Garden Grow? (1998, 58.26) **/½ |
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| Je Ne M'en Souviens Pas One More Murder At the Stars Like it Like That Allison Foley Under You Live Again Happy Day MāMā |
Pull Particle Beautiful Mistake Everything in 2's New Kind of Low Low Coma Waxing or Waning? |
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Although they apparently started life as a proto-Americana outfit in the late '80s, by their fourth album, 1998's How Does Your Garden Grow?, Better Than Ezra had turned into a whiny indie act, with Kevin Griffin's vocals being particularly worthy of opprobrium. It's saying something when a song as weak as the two-part New Kind Of Low can be hailed as the album's highlight, although its first part, Low, provides a much-needed burst of energy just when you'd given up all hope.
Griffin is credited with Chamberlin, spelt properly for once (hurrah!), but amongst a cluttered production, with real strings and something called a 'metasynth', the only places it's at all obvious are a rude outburst of brass in the middle of Happy Day MāMā (dunno why the accents) and a brief flute part (possibly a rhythm track?) at the beginning of the next song, Pull. As a result, this is worth it for neither the music nor the Chamby. Avoid.
