Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

None. It's been an entire week, and nothing new to report--but:

I just happened to be listening to an old Deep Purple album, and
caught "Anthem" from the second LP, "Book of Talesyn" released in
December, 1968. It's the only Mellotron Jon Lord ever played with the
band. Light strings is all. I always wondered why such a fantastic
hit like "Black Night" was so big in Europe, but was never released
on an album besides an import greatest hits package, and was unknown
in the States. I would think it would have wound up on Deep Purple In
Rock...after all, the single's flip did. What a turnaround--when
their first three stateside LP's were huge here in the USA and
relatively unknown in their homeland. Hmmmm--come to think of
it "Shakin' All Over" never made a Guess Who best of either. Must be
an RCA inclusive thing.

Sad about Wooly Wolstenholme...the double live BJH has such a heavy
dose of his Mellotron prowess in particular, but over the Holidays, I
pulled out the first four albums and listened to them again after
what seems to be at least two decades of gathering dust.

I remember being asked if Keith Emerson ever played Mellotron--and I
said that he had not, but upon reading recent commentary here, I had
completely overlooked his contribution with The Nice. Doh!

And another rediscovery is the incredible cover of "Losing My
Religion" from Slowdive--so lush, seraph and gorgeous with simple,
yet strong deep and dark M-400 strings for the last two
minutes...I've heard their first two CD's from around ten years ago,
but I believe this particular R.E.M. cover was originally on one of
those "Sounds Like Plastic" compilations...The group is basically a
shoegaze band (Creation UK, SBK in the USA) akin to maybe Cocteau
Twins or Cranes, but have some beautiful extruded moments--no mention
of keyboards even being played. At least I was able to lift it from
the days of Napster when I couldn't find the compilation it was on.