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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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Dawnwatcher Jim Dawson Howie Day |
Deadwood Forest Dear Mr Time |
Death Cab for Cutie Francis Décamps |
Kiki Dee Deep Purple |
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7" (1980) ***½/TT½ Spellbound Hall of Mirrors |
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7" (1982) ***½/TT Backlash Salvador's Dream |
Current availability:
Mellotron used:
While trading NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, for what it's worth) rarities recently, I was pleased to discover Dawnwatcher, from Keighley, Yorkshire. I'd been aware of the band since '81 or so, but had never heard them, so it came as a pleasant surprise to discover that they were an epic, keyboard-heavy outfit, (very) vaguely in the same area as early Magnum. It came as an even more pleasant surprise to hear a Mellotron on some 1979 demos, although I don't feel I can review this material, as it's never been commercially available. There are seven proper studio tracks on my disc, five of whose provenance I can trace, although it would be nice if this stuff was released officially at some point.
Their first single (the preferred format for NWOBHM outfits, over the demo tape) was Spellbound, which appears to be a heavily-rewritten version of an older song. If you're familiar with the era, it sounds more like Geordies White Spirit than anyone, with a similar organ-driven sound, although it's actually its b-side, Hall Of Mirrors, we're interested in here. A seven-minute plus song, it fits all the criteria for epic hard rock of the time, with extra added 'Tron choir in the chorus, played by Peter Darley, 
who frequently plays to, or sometimes beyond his capabilities, particularly on the monosynth lines. Anyway, 'Tron strings later in the song, helping to make it a minor classic of its era.
Single no.2 and final, Backlash, came out in '82, with the band no doubt struggling through financial vicissitude and general public apathy, as they didn't sound like a carbon copy of Iron bloody Maiden. If anything, Backlash is even less commercial than Spellbound, which, while laudable, wasn't guaranteed to sell copies or make megastars of the band. Again, no 'Tron on the a-side, but the flip, Salvador's Dream, opens with some gothic Hammond before (again) 'Tron choirs in the chorus and strings towards the end. Their only other officially available track of which I'm aware is Firing On All Eight from the mostly appalling New Electric Warriors compilation featuring one of the most stupid sleeves of all time, admittedly against stiff competition. Well, a guy with a (cheap) guitar slung round behind him with his back to the camera, standing next to a trials bike in a field, in the rain, watching three other blokes off in the distance, all wearing bike helmets and playing air guitar? I don't think that description does it justice, although I doubt if you can see that much detail on the image to the right. Anyway, don't blame Dawnwatcher.
So, both these singles go for silly money on eBay these days, but recordings are floating around the traders' circuit. They're actually well worth hearing if you're into the style, with some passable 'Tron work to boot. Reasonable.
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Jim Dawson (1974, 36.16) **/0 |
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| The Singer Four Strong Winds Oh No, Mercy Me Montego Bay (Love and Other Things) I First Came From the Mountains The Light of Day Whatever Happened (to You and Me)..? Until I Find Someone |
Somewhere Down the Road The Woman With the Beautiful Eyes Close Your Eyes |
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Jim Dawson was a New York-based folkie, although there isn't an awful lot of 'folk' in evidence on his third album, Jim Dawson. Sadly, there is an awful lot of weak-as-water singer-songwriter stuff, with over-fussy arrangements and the sort of lyrics that you could only get away with for a few years (see: The Woman With The Beautiful Eyes), with 1974 at the epicentre.
Tommy West is credited with Mellotron, but I'll be buggered if I can hear the thing anywhere. Two tracks (I First Came From The Mountains/Until I Find Someone) have real strings, leaving The Woman With The Beautiful Eyes as the only track with any uncredited string parts. Really doesn't sound like a Mellotron, though, so this one may have to remain a mystery. Anyway, a tedious, if heartfelt album, with no obvious 'Tron. Just don't.
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Stop All the World Now (2003, 52.37) **/T½ |
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| Brace Yourself Perfect Time of Day Collide Trouble in Here Sunday Morning Song I'll Take You on She Says Numbness For Sound |
You & a Promise End of Our Days Come Lay Down |
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Howie Day's second album, Stop All the World Now, is something of a 'sleeper', apparently, taking off two years after release, with tracks ending up being used on various TV shows, all of which impresses me not one jot. Yeah, it's very professional, yeah, I'm sure it's terribly heartfelt, but it all sounds a bit too much like modern U2 for comfort, and his vocal style makes me want to chew the arm of my sofa, which isn't a good thing. Oddly enough, the best track is also the last, Come Lay Down, when Day actually starts to sound like he really means it, but it's too little, too late for this listener.
Les Hall plays most of the album's keyboards, including (natch) Mellotron, but it's not so easy to tell where, precisely. Real strings on several tracks, leaving vague string parts on Brace Yourself, She Says and Come Lay Down, which might be 'Tron, or might be Hall's credited 'synthesizer', which covers a multitude of potential sins. Finally, there's some obvious solo 'Tron cellos at the end of You & A Promise, but that's the only track you can absolutely rely upon, to be honest, so I really wouldn't bother picking this up, unless sub-U2 sounds like your bag.
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Deadwood Forest (1998, 68.45) ****/TTTT |
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| Music From God Theme for the Forest Peace Garden Living the Life in Between Remote She Was a Pretty Girl New Braunfels Pebble Stream |
Basically Nothing Better Go Back Home Heartspill Blow Away Days of Wonder Vital Commentary |
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Mellodramatic (2000, 47.51) ****½/TTTTT |
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| The Pioneer — O L D King of the Skies The City in the Sea Dry Stolen Smile — |
The Ultraviolence Departure |
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Mellotron used:
Deadwood Forest are/were a Texas-based outfit with a heavy psychedelic bent to their sound; it seems the various members can't decide whether the band is in 'indefinite hiatus' or has simply split, so let's hope for the former, as at least it provides some hope. Their self-titled debut is good without being outstanding, although I suspect many of its songs will grow on me with repeated plays. There's very little 'prog' to what they were doing at the time at all, bar the near-15 minute closer, Vital Commentary, but if you're into a sort of psychedelic singer-songwriter thing, Deadwood Forest is definitely worth a listen. Mitch Mignano plays 'organ and Mellotron' throughout, and despite a slow start on the 'Tron front, he ends up sticking it on over the half the tracks, including the aforementioned Vital Commentary, with dirty great slabs of (mainly) strings and choir, with the odd burst of flute. Very nice.
Their second album from two years later, the wittily titled Mellodramatic, is one of those records where the more you play it, the more you hear. An intriguing pot pourri of styles, it's probably best described as psychedelia-influenced progressive rock, with the occasional contemporary touch to throw you off the scent. At least two songs use percussion loops on their intros, but that late-'60s sound is rarely far away, making it an Album For All Eras, maybe. Another specific influence that crops up here and there is that of early-'90s Swedish wunderkind Änglagård; hardly surprising, given that the album is produced by their drummer Mattias Olsson, although in a 'chicken or egg' situation, it's difficult to tell whether or not the influence was there first.
It's also difficult to tell just how much Olsson influenced Mitch Mignano's Mellotron use. The band already owned their machine, but it's to be found on every single track here, with some noticeably Änglagård-like chord sequences in places. Strings, flutes, cellos, choirs all over the shop; this really is a Mellotron fan's wet dream, not to mention an excellent album. Individual highlights are hard to pick out, but opener The Pioneer is especially good, and seems to best capture their eclectic mix of styles. Oh, and the two '—' tracks are basically untitled instrumentals, the second of which sounds for a moment like it's going to quote 'All Things Bright and Beautiful', but thankfully doesn't.
So, one very good album, and one superb one. Deadwood Forest is more straightforward than its illustrious successor, but they're both very worth hearing. Buy for both music and 'Tron.
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Grandfather (1970, 44.40) ****/T½ |
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| Birth - the Beginning Out of Time Make Your Peace Your's Claudia Prelude (to Your Country Needs You?) Your Country Needs You? A Dawning Moonshine Years & Fortunes |
A Prayer for Her Light Up a Light On a Lonely Night Grandfather |
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Dear Mr Time were an obscure British outfit who straddled the late-period psych/early prog divide with their sole album, a concept piece entitled Grandfather. It (loosely, of course, in true concept album style) tells the story of one man's life from his birth around the turn of the century to his own death, as recounted by his grandson. Birth - The Beginning makes for a pastoral enough start, but the pace picks up quickly enough as the story races towards the protagonist's experiences as a soldier in the trenches. The rest of the album veers between acoustic and electric, but quality's maintained throughout, avoiding the 'only two or three decent tracks' syndrome. On reflection, the concept actually owes a little to the Pretty Things' seminal SF Sorrow, but it's a very different album and, let's face it, a fairly universal subject.
No-one's credited with Mellotron, so I'll assume keyboard player Barry Everitt was responsible for the excellent MkII strings on Prelude (To Your Country Needs You?) and the rather shorter part in closer Grandfather. Pity they didn't use it more, but there you go. Incidentally, the cellos in Prelude are real.
All in all, this is really rather good, and undeservedly obscure, especially when you consider some of the third-rate stuff that's been available for years. The CD appears to've been pressed from a vinyl copy, but the surface noise isn't too bad, and rather a slightly crackly copy than none at all! A welcome addition to the field of UK psych/prog reissues, with a couple of good 'Tron tracks. Assuming you can find it, buy.
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Forbidden Love EP (2000, 19.37) ***½/T½PhotoboothTechnicolor Girls Song for Kelly Huckaby 405 (acoustic) Company Calls Epilogue (alternate) |
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The main thing I know about the curiously-named Death Cab for Cutie is that they pinched their name from a Bonzos track. It seems they're an 'alternative' (to what?) US outfit, and the Forbidden Love EP is their third release, coming after two albums, Something About Airplanes and We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. Going by the EP tracks, they play a perfectly pleasant kind of semi-intelligent pop, while not really being a patch on, say, The Posies, although they're perfectly listenable, just a little unexciting. Maybe I'm missing the point.
Anyway, despite some faux-tape replay strings on Photobooth, Song For Kelly Huckaby is the only 'Tron track on offer here, with a melodic string part added to the disc's most rocking track, oddly. I'd swear blind it's real, too; the way the pitch wobbles at the song's conclusion is completely typical, and almost impossible to replicate using samples. Hooray! So; one for US college kids everywhere, I think. It actually isn't at all bad, though I'm never going to be the style's biggest fan, I suspect. Putting the word 'cigarettes' in two out of five tracks isn't ever going to endear them to me, either. Anyway, not bad, one nice 'Tron track.
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Histoire de Fou (1979, 38.08) ****/TTDroit Vers le SoleilMalédiction Canicule Amédée le Mal Maudit Apocalypse |
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Francis Décamps is, of course, keyboard player with Ange, by a long chalk France's most successful progressive band, although he seems to've languished in his elder brother Christian's shadow for most of their career. After a decade in the band, Histoire de Fou was his first solo album, and can, in many ways, be regarded as the 'lost' Ange album between their last classic (Guet-Apens) and the beginning of their terrible 'commercial' period. Ah, the '80s; don'cha just love 'em? It's difficult to describe this album without repeatedly mentioning Ange, to be honest, although Canicule's orchestral arrangement is interesting, as I don't believe Ange ever went down that particular path. The rest of the material sounds like, er, Ange, so the most useful thing I can think of to say is; if you like them, you should like this.
I believe this was Décamps' last Mellotron album, as well as his last progressive one (at least for a while). He doesn't overuse it, as usual, and (again as usual) it's not always easy to tell the 'Tron strings apart from his heavily modified Viscount organ, but it sounds like background strings on Droit Vers Le Soleil and Malédiction, with a far more upfront string part, plus choirs, on Amédée Le Mal Maudit, and a final choir part on Apocalypse. Quick note: the queasy-sounding barrel-organ at the end of Amédée Le Mal Maudit is almost worth the price of admission on its own...
So; do you? (As they say). Well, to repeat myself (again), if you like Ange, you can't go too far wrong here, and some of the material (notably Canicule and Amédée Le Mal Maudit) is quite excellent. It's not exactly a top-notch 'Tron album, although there's probably enough to keep the obsessive happy, but its chief appeal is the quality of the actual music.
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Loving & Free (1973, 39.46) ***/TT |
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| Loving and Free If it Rains Lonnie and Josie Travellin' in Style You Put Something Better Inside Me Supercool Rest My Head Amoureuse |
Song for Adam Sugar on the Floor |
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I've Got the Music in Me [Kiki Dee Band] (1974) **½/½I've Got the Music in MeSomeone to Me Step By Step Water Out of My Head Do it Right Little Frozen One Heart and Soul You Need Help |
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Kiki Dee (1977) **/0 |
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| How Much Fun Sweet Creation Into Eternity Standing Room Only Bad Day child Chicago Night Hours Keep Right on |
In Return Walking First Thing in the Morning |
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After her early career on Motown, Kiki Dee moved into the soft-rock arena with 1973's Loving and Free, with her mate Elton John on keyboards, including Mellotron (two of the songs are also John/Taupin compositions). In all honesty, I can't get too excited about any of the material here; it's perfectly good at what it does, but it all sounds a bit dull with thirty years' hindsight. Anyway, Elt's 'Tron can be heard on three tracks: strings on Lonnie And Josie and Kiki's cover of Stealer's Wheel's You Put Something Better Inside Me, and although the credits say it's on Sugar On The Floor, I not only can't hear it there, but I can hear 'Tron flutes on just about the best song here, Jackson Browne's Song For Adam.
Her follow-up, I've Got the Music in Me contains her career highlight in the title track, a sassy, funky piece of mid-'70s pop, displaying her soul roots for all to see. The rest of the album, sadly, is rather average fare, being very ordinary mainstream pop, with a largish dose of balladry which may have sounded OK at the time, but is terribly dated now. One 'Tron track this time, with keys man Bias Boshell (that's 'Tobias', and he was ex-fabulous British folk rockers Trees, last seen playing with the Moody Blues on a recent tour) playing flutes on Do It Right, along with real strings, to rather underwhelming effect. Don't go out of your way, to be honest. Don't go even less out of your way for her biggest (as against best) hit, '76's Don't Go Breaking My Heart, a duet with Elton, and possibly one of the most irritating hits of the decade, against stiff competition.
Her last album of any relevance to this site was '77's Kiki Dee, and I'm afraid to say, it's a bit sorry. Most of Elt's band were on it, but all they succeed in doing is producing another bloody mid-'70s pop/rock album, with irritating blues piano licks thrown in at every available opportunity (How Much Fun is a notable offender), not to mention the appalling cod-Philly soul of Chicago. Or is it Chicago soul? Dreadful, wherever it's supposed to be from. About the best track is the only one with any credited Mellotron (funny, that), Into Eternity, which is a reasonable ballad with an unusual enough sound to catch the ear, although James Newton Howard's 'Tron is entirely inaudible under the real cellos and string section.
So; Sorry to be so hard on Kiki - she's got a great voice, but everything I've heard by her bar I've Got The Music is pretty ropey. Loving and Free's got a couple of OK 'Tron tracks, but don't go too far out of your way.
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The Book of Taliesyn (1968, 43.58/65.27) ***½/T |
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| Listen, Learn, Read on Wring That Neck Kentucky Woman Exposition/We Can Work it Out Shield Anthem River Deep, Mountain High |
[Remastered CD adds: Oh No No No It's All Over Hey Bop a Re Bop Wring That Neck Playground] |
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Burn (1974, 42.25/72.11) ****/T |
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| Burn Might Just Take Your Life Lay Down, Stay Down Sail Away You Fool No One What's Goin' on Here Mistreated "A" 200 |
[Remastered CD adds: Coronarias Redig (remix) Burn (remix) Mistreated (remix) You Fool No One (remix) Sail Away (remix)] |
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Stormbringer (1974, 36.35) **½/TStormbringerLove Don't Mean a Thing Holy Man Hold on Lady Double Dealer You Can't Do it Right (With the One You Love) High Ball Shooter The Gypsy Soldier of Fortune |
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Deep Purple's second album, The Book of Taliesyn (named for a collection of Welsh legends), was a major leap from their debut, Shades of Deep Purple (***), containing material as adventurous as Wring That Neck and Shield that they would never have tackled (or probably been allowed to tackle) earlier. Admittedly, it also 'features' some dodgy covers, not least Neil Diamond's Kentucky Woman and The Beatles' We Can Work It Out, although Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High has a fantastic, several minute proto-prog intro, making the actual song, bombastic though it is, sound rather prosaic in comparison. Rod Evans' cabaret vocals were clearly already hanging around the band's collective necks like a bouffanted albatross, although he lasted one more album, the following year's Deep Purple (***½). Jon Lord used a Mellotron for the first time on Anthem, with a strings part before the real strings later in the song, although that was it for the next five years, despite Lord's symphonic ambitions, realised (poorly) on '69's Concerto for Group and Orchestra (**½).
1973 brought Purple's second major lineup shake-up, oddly enough, both changes being in the vocalist and bassist department; so, Gillan and Glover out, Coverdale and Hughes in. The story goes, Glenn Hughes left Trapeze for Purple on the understanding that he'd reprise his bassist/lead vocalist role, and was more than a little miffed to find that they'd also recruited the previously unknown David Coverdale to sing lead, leading to the uncomfortable compromise of both men singing lead at different points, with much harmony vocal. Anyway, Burn was the first result of the new lineup, and like '72's Machine Head (****½), was recorded with the Rolling Stones' mobile in Montreux, although under less trying circumstances. Unfortunately, it also suffers from that album's poor sound and lack of dynamics, as do most of their studio albums, with the extremely honourable exception of 1970's stupendous In Rock (*****), with live versions invariably crapping on their studio counterparts. Burn contains two cast-iron classics in its title track and the slow-burn blues of Mistreated, but there aren't actually any dogs on the album, even including lesser-known efforts such as Sail Away or What's Goin' On Here. Jon Lord's keyboards expanded from his faithful Hammond to include occasional ARP synths and, on closing instrumental "A" 200, to my surprise, a few Mellotron string pitchbend swells, although hardly enough to qualify the record for Mellotron Album status.
Stormbringer turned out to be Ritchie Blackmore's swansong for Purple (at least in that decade), before he sloped off to form Rainbow, and listening to it, you can see why. The band was essentially being hijacked by new boys Coverdale and Hughes, and Hughes' soul and funk influences were making themselves known on tracks like Hold On and You Can't Do It Right. Saying that, it's not all bad, with the title track and Lady Double Dealer proving to be live faves, although the album's pretty ropey overall. Now, I'd never even considered that Jon Lord may have used a Mellotron here, although I've been alerted to the fact that he layers 'Tron flutes all over probably the album's best track, closer Soldier Of Fortune, later to be Coverdale's vocal tour de force with Whitesnake, before they went down the shitter. Actually, that may be Mellotron strings, too, but the flutes are a definite.
So; I really can't recommend Stormbringer to Deep Purple fans, or anyone else, really, although Burn is definitely worth hearing, as is, maybe surprisingly, The Book of Taliesyn, although none of them are really worth it on the 'Tron front.
