Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

Clay,

Before we close out this subject, I want to say that some of Chris' points were well made. I too think Dianna should have further investigated the background a little more. It's not just about Harry Chamberlin or Chilton & his partner Irving Talentmaker. There's so much more...

I would have liked to see the film include more on what lead up to using recording tape to play back other peoples instruments. Perhaps a small sectio n explaining how recording tape stores and plays back sound. Actually, I've always wondered how they get the oxide to stick to the tape. Oh, and how the oxide was invented... who thought that up?

When one thinks about Harry Chamberlin, who doesn't wonder about that garage where he made his first instruments. Who built the garage? Did Harry's wife (Ethel) ever yell at him to stop fooling with his inventions and wash up for lunch?

And Optigans... They have to be in the film so that people know that there was actually a shittier way to reproduce real instrument sounds for playback on a keyboard than the Mellotron. Where's the fucking perspective? How else would people actually know that Harry's technology reached its pinnacle with the Mellotron and that any attempts to advance beyond that were just a giant nosedive into a pile of crap.

God love the M4000, but it is, after all just a brand new Edsel with a better motor, stickier tires and a substantially larger trunk (boot). ∗

So if your going to make a movie about Mellotron, fuck Kanye, tell us more about something important, like how Harry Chamberlin came up with the idea to house the mechanics in a Formica box years before Jimmy Moore stole the idea for his Mellotron.

Was Mattel the only toy maker to try to build a crappy Mellotron rip off, or was Hasbro thinking of getting into the business as well? Where's the research I ask you? Where is the perspective.

Do you realize that there's video out there of Mattias Olsen playing wine glasses on his Mellotron? Where does anyone thank Ben F∗∗king Franklin for actually playing music on real wine glasses 250 years before Mattias even existed? Where's the perspective?

Mellotrons should be like Harleys... Only old fuckers should have one.

Frank

My Mellotron

My Harley (Yeah, it's a Shovel Head)

∗ I love mine so no one freak out.