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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.
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Houses of the Holy (1973, 38.59) ***½/T½The Song Remains the SameThe Rain Song Over the Hills and Far Away The Crunge Dancing Days D'yer Mak'er No Quarter The Ocean |
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Physical Graffiti (1975, 84.27) ****½/T |
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| Custard Pie The Rover In My Time of Dying Houses of the Holy Trampled Underfoot Kashmir In the Light Bron-y-Aur |
Down By the Seaside Ten Years Gone Night Flight The Wanton Song Boogie With Stu Black Country Woman Sick Again |
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The Song Remains the Same (1976, 99.44) ****½/TTTRock and RollCelebration Day The Song Remains the Same Rain Song Dazed and Confused No Quarter Stairway to Heaven Moby Dick Whole Lotta Love |
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How the West Was Won (2003, recorded 1972, 150.17) ****½/T |
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| LA Drone Immigrant Song Heartbreaker Black Dog Over the Hills and Far Away Since I've Been Loving You Stairway to Heaven Going to California That's the Way |
Bron-yr-Aur Stomp Dazed and Confused What is and What Should Never Be Dancing Days Moby Dick Whole Lotta Love Rock and Roll The Ocean Bring it on Home |
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Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
So what exactly are Led Zeppelin doing with their own page? They only ever used Mellotron on three tracks, as against the multiple album use by many artists, and one of those is minimal. It's not even about the band's fame, although that helps. Basically, their minor 'Tron use is iconic, much in the way that The Beatles' is, not to mention a major misapprehension on the 'Tron front.
Led Zeppelin are the subject of the second most common misnomer in Mellotron folklore (the first is that they use tape loops); when the 'typical' examples are trotted out, along with Strawberry Fields Forever and Nights In White Satin comes Stairway To Heaven. Wrong. Before you leap in saying "But I've seen a Mellotron on The Song Remains the Same", I'm not denying for a second that John Paul Jones used one on stage; this is common knowledge. However, it's the studio track that is being referred to, and I'm afraid there's no sign of any Mellotronic activity on Zep's most famous song.
A close listen will confirm this; the sound is flute-like, but definitely not the Mellotron flute as in Strawberry Fields. In fact, the sound is probably multitracked recorders. I say probably, because different sources give different information; one fairly definitive book on Zeppelin has it that it's actually multitracked ocarinas; you know, the small roundish earthenware things with the holes in them; think of the weird flutey solo in the Troggs' 'Wild Thing'. However, recorders it is.
When the song was first aired live, it produced no particular reaction from audiences; it had yet to achieve the iconic status it would gain over subsequent years. John Paul Jones' keyboard arsenal in 1971 consisted of a Hammond and a Fender Rhodes only, so the 'flutes' were faked with a reedy organ patch, as Genesis would do in 1973, lacking flutes on their M400 tape frame. By Zeppelin's 1972 Japanese tour, a Mellotron M400 had been added to the rig; there are bootlegs in circulation featuring a 'Mellotron solo'.
Their first studio use of the instrument occurs on '73's Houses of the Holy, which I'm afraid I don't personally rate as highly as its predecessors, although I know that view could be considered heresy in some quarters... The most overt 'Tron use in the Zep catalogue, the studio version of The Rain Song actually borders on lounge music in places; rather cheesy chord voicings, particularly on the guitar, with the orchestrated Mellotron part exacerbating the problem. For all that, the orchestration is second to none, with block chords banned outright; Jones' background as a orchestral arranger is very apparent here. This made lugging a Mellotron around the world's stages slightly more cost-effective; two songs instead of one! This may in retrospect seem slightly extravagant, but by this time Zeppelin were playing some of the biggest indoor venues in the world, and one piece of equipment more or less was obviously fairly insignificant.
On 1975's Physical Graffiti, the legendary 'Kashmir' provides Zep's last (studio) recorded example of Mellotron. Actually, it's rather hard to say just how much of the song contains 'Tron, as John Paul Jones has admitted that 'a lot of the strings were real' (not to mention the brass); a cursory listen will reveal violin glissandos impossible on a Mellotron. The 'All I see turns to brown' section is definitely 'Tron playing the violin melody, but that may be it. Once more, the instrument was used to recreate the parts live, with the cello part originally played (rather unsatisfactorily) on a clavinet. It's a distinct possibility that Jones' third sound was the string section, which would be ideal for 'Kashmir'; despite the short keyboard, there's enough sonic range to cover all the parts. There is no official recording of the track live, but there are any number of bootleg versions available from the '75 and aborted '77 tours. I've heard a report of one boot where the Mellotron can be heard breaking down mid-song, and after a dreadful clunking noise, possibly from Jones hitting the machine (!) he carries on playing both parts on the clavinet. By 1977, Jones was using Jimmy Page's twin-keyboard prototype Mk.V (right), although it's difficult to work out what advantage this gave him. 'Kashmir' sounds like it might have two parts running at once, but without a top-quality official recording it's rather hard to tell. The bass parts are probably bass pedals; Jones used various types over the years, although some variety of bass sound on the left-hand manual isn't inconceivable.
In late 1976, Zep released The Song Remains the Same, recorded on their 1973 US tour, or, to give it its full title; Soundtrack From the Film The Song Remains the Same, although it only really approximates that description. Many Zeppelin fans dislike this, the band's only official live album until the late-'90s release of BBC Sessions (****½). Zep were exhausted at the end of their long 1973 US jaunt, and all concerned admit that their playing wasn't up to its usual standard. Nonetheless, Zeppelin on an off night still crap on most bands, and I reckon this album can still hold its own, at least until the band delve into their archives and give the fans what they want. [Note: in 2007, they released expanded versions of both film and album, though, of course, no more 'Tron).
Zep's Mellotron use in the studio had been pretty minimal; its real forte, though, was on stage, where John Paul Jones couldn't call on string sections or a phalanx of recorder players. This is probably where the 'Mellotron on Stairway' rumours started; there is, of course, Mellotron flute at the beginning of Stairway To Heaven on this album. There just isn't on the studio version. The Rain Song is the other 'Tron track here; removed from its studio setting, it becomes a real tour de force, with the strummed acoustic guitar replaced by picked electric and the Mellotron arrangement finally making sense. Both songs feature Jones' superb orchestral arranging skills to the point where as a callow fourteen year-old, I was convinced on my first hearing of this album that there were real string and woodwind sections secreted away at the side of the stage. One viewing of the film later I discovered the (not so) awful truth.
By 1979, John Paul Jones was using a new Yamaha super-synth, the GX1, allegedly sonic precursor to '80s über-synth, the DX7, although other reports have it that it's actually a monstrous prototype for the CS80, now regarded as a classic analogue polysynth. This seems rather more likely, as the GX1 actually predates the CS80, and was released a good six years before the DX7; several lifetimes in the synth world at the time. This behemoth had three manuals and a pedalboard, and only a handful were ever made. How many survive is a rather moot point; Keith Emerson's was reportedly destroyed in an accident at his studio involving a runaway truck! This was obviously the end of the road for Jones' 'Tron. An interview quote from a few years later had him saying something along the lines of "I must take it out into the middle of a field one day and burn it". Hopefully he never carried out his threat, unlike another famous Mellotronist, who shall remain nameless (although it was actually Rick Wakeman). To this day, rather like Tony Banks, Jones refuses to talk about the Mellotron; using one for so long obviously left deep emotional scars.
Because of our access to samplers and the like, we tend to forget the Mellotron was once the only way of even approximating orchestral sounds live. Playing it live was often an absolute nightmare, as it's never been ideally suited to stage use, especially with the minimal maintenance they often got on the road. While some keyboardists used them for their own sound, many, including John Paul Jones, used them purely to approximate acoustic instruments, and as soon as they found an easier way to achieve the same ends, it was bye-bye 'Tron time.
At long, long last, after over two decades' wait, Jimmy Page finally opened up the archives in 2003, releasing the 5½ hour DVD, er, DVD, plus the triple-live How the West Was Won, taken from two nights in LA in June '72. No lengthy sleevenotes, no 'bonus tracks', just three hours of Zeppelin at their coruscating best, with the only disappointment being that it's a snapshot of the band at only one point in their development, but I suppose that's where the DVD comes into its own. However, the only live version of Kashmir on either release is on DVD, and it's from Knebworth '79, although there's some great closeup 'Tron action on Stairway from Earl's Court '75, which also has a different arrangement to that on The Song Remains.
As far as the CD set's concerned, the only Mellotron is another version of Stairway, with an arrangement very similar to the one already available, but the album's an absolute gem, so I can't say it matters that much. However... Zep scholars will have already noted that JPJ didn't start using a Mellotron live until the autumn of that year, using a muted Hammond patch up until that point. So, howcum we hear a nice clear 'Tron flute part several months earlier? Eddie Edwards at The Garden Tapes thinks it could be taken from a completely different performance, possibly from the following year. His excellent site nails down the multiple edits used on most live Zeppelin, both audio and video, going as far back as The Song Remains..., so it would be no surprise at all to discover that Mr Page had craftily inserted a 'Tron part from a completely different tour. Until we have more reliable information, however, this can only be a matter for conjecture...
So; I reckon Zeppelin never made a genuinely bad record, although In Through the Out Door (***) had some decidedly ropey moments. If you like what they do, buy both Houses and Graffiti, though the latter not especially for its 'Tron, plus the magnificent How the West Was Won. At risk of upsetting some people, I would also unreservedly recommend The Song Remains the Same, although many would say avoid. Two Mellotron classics on one album? Buy!
Since my original version of this page, Brian Kehew has launched his superb The Keyboards of John Paul Jones/Led Zeppelin site. I'm indebted to his Mellotron page for extra information and corrections to my original piece. Visit it immediately!
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IV (1971, 42.41) ****½Black DogRock and Roll The Battle of Evermore Stairway to Heaven Misty Mountain Hop Four Sticks Going to California When the Levee Breaks |
Current availability:
As outlined above, Stairway To Heaven is probably the most famous 'mistaken Mellotron sighting' ever; just for the record, no, that isn't a Mellotron on the intro, but John Paul Jones' multitracked recorders. It doesn't actually sound like a 'Tron at all, if you give it another listen; far too reedy, without the trademark 'warble' of the 'Tron flutes. Of course, just to heavily confuse the issue, after early live performances where Jones used a reedy Hammond patch, the intro was performed on Mellotron flutes between '72 and '77, as you can hear on The Song Remains the Same, recorded in '73, and the recent How the West Was Won, from '72. So that sorts that one out, then.
As for the rest of the album; well, it's superb, with not a duff track in sight. Most of the material sounded better live (to my ears), but it's difficult to knock even the slightly lesser-known stuff like Misty Mountain Hop or Four Sticks, let alone side one's quartet of classics and the mighty closer, When The Levee Breaks, allegedly the most sampled drum intro ever. A classic, though not for anything to do with Mellotrons.
The keyboards of John Paul Jones
See: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant
