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I had some dealings with Sandy Stantonlong years ago – early ‘80’s (I traded an old PA for a bunchof Chamberlin parts) – I tried tracking him down 2 years ago but theemail addy in Australia I suspected was him never answered…Anyone got anyclues?
Vance….M2 and two boxes of parts andcrud
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Snyder[mailto:bob.snyder@...]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 20038:07 PM
To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] StanBeard & The Swinging Strings "Snowbows"
I have a copy of Snowbows that was sent to me by(IIRC) Phil Milstein who runs the "American Song Poem MusicArchives". A semi-delightful little piece, as opposed to most of the othersong poem recordings that I've heard.
Song Poems are a fascinating bit of forgotten Americana. Back in the 50's and60's they would put ads in pulpy magazines for you to send in your "SongPoems" (i.e. lyrics) and they would write the music, and producerecordings of your work. People were suckered into paying them money for whatwere hastily written and recorded bits of crap. Some of it was slightlycharming crap, like Snowbows.
Anyway, they discovered that the Chamberlin (this is long before the M series,probably one of the Musicmaster line) made creating the little ditties mucheasier. No session musicians needed!
Here's a quote from the ASPMA's website:
"Stantonalso introduced to the song-poem arsenal a pre-digital sampling keyboard calledthe Chamberlin. Using strips of pre-recorded magnetic tape, the Chamberlin wasable to replicate any instrument in the orchestra as well as human voices andsound effects. Following Stanton's lead, other song-poem companies began usingthe instrument, recognizing it as a less-expensive alternative to live bands oras an efficient enhancement to an underlying band recording. Its eight-secondstrips of tape limited the Chamberlin -- and its better-known Englishdescendent, the Mellotron -- to rather unnatural distortions of the instrumentssampled, although the song-poem entrepreneurs seemed hardly to have noticed. Inthe hands of a sonic alchemist like Rodd Keith this con became a pro, hisdeftness and inventiveness with the instrument proving it to have adelightfully wheezy sound all its own. Sandy Stanton was the LA-areadistributor for Harry Chamberlin's eponymous device, and even sold a unit tohis chief local competitor, Preview Records and their affiliate MSRRecords."
Checkout the site. It's fascinating stuff.
http://www.aspma.com/what_is.htm
Bob S.
mellotrongirl wrote:
I heard this song just today on a just-out compilation on the Bar/None Records label titled "The American Song-Poem Christmas" and given the fact that many of these songs have a children's 1950's/1960's adult contemporary holiday theme about them, imagine my surprise when I heard what sounds like MkII strings and noodling like something off of Harrison's Wonderwall Music flailing about all through the song. I thought it might have been the Big Band Beat Optigan disc for a nanosecond, but the cool thing about this tune was that you can hear the key attacks loud and clear. Upon doing a little research (the CD's liner notes tell nothing), I gfind out the song was the flip of a single from 1977. It sounded like 1962! I thought I was on to some ancient Chamberlin gem at least. I wonder why the band was called the "Swinging Strings"? Someone trying to pull the wool over our eyes on a technicality? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or LexmarkPrinter at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/iWZylB/TM---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:Mellotronists-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/