Klaatu ( from Buttonville - just outside Toronto) were already seasoned session musicians who wrote jingles for advertisements but did work out their song arrangements before they recorded them. Their old mellotron still resides in Toronto as well (as some of you from Tronto will remember).
I don't know whether this proves/disproves the point, but I gather much of the brew-ha-ha about their first album was because it was originally thought to be the Beatles working undercover.
As some of you know the name "Klaatu" came from Micheal Rennie's character in The Day The Earth Stood Still. The spaceship in the movie landed at 3:47 EST hence the name of their album.
Ringo Starr's "Goodnight Vienna" has an album cover with Ringo's head superimposed over the Klaatu character's head which is how the Beatles connection originally was made. The lack of credits on the album added to the rumours.
Of course, this media attention given to first album releases may help to establish a band e.g King Crimson as worthwhile, but I'm not sure it applies across the board. I think it depends on who the musicians are/what state of musicianship they're at.
Late 60's Beatles music has generally more more musical credibility than their early output, some of which is outright tennybopper crap. Ditto Dazed and Confused minus the teenybopper element. The slow riff sounds like it was stolen from Chicagos' 25 or 6 to 4.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] So I fucked up
> Oops. How about Klaatu?
Don't know enough about them to say, but I'd wager there was a lot of previous songwriting experience in the band before they recorded an albums together.