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

I met Emerson for the first time in spring 1969. I was working at The Graffiti in Aurora Il. and the Nice played there. Keith started the show with a baseball bat attacking a spring reverb unit plugged into Marshall amps, threw the organ over on himself and began playing. They did two shows so I had a chance to talk between shows. About three weeks later the Nice played a bill at the Filmore with King Crimson where Keith and Greg decided to get together.

He was an amazing player and (in my opinion) trying to push the boundaries of the noises the Hammond could make. Maybe in a Cage/Stockhausen frame of reference? His acquisition of the Moog was a logical extension of his push.

As a high school kid I was just blown away and returned to school on Monday with this wild man story.....

All I got were weird looks until the first ELP album, then redemption!

Emerson always struck me as a guy who wants to explore then move on, leaving the refinment of discovery to others.

Thoughts on a light snow Chicago day.

From: ClayE <ecclesreinson@rogers.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 10:12:22 AM
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Steinberger bass

Five Bridges wasn't much good if I recall. Side one - I don't remember, Sibelius: Karelia suite - Intermezzo had a few good bits,
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=XtIw5AkUEsE
Then the album ended with Country Pie and One Of Those People <- Rubbish!!!

Nice album cover though. (A little play on words...arrrh arrrh)

--- In newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com, "John Wright" <john.wright@ ...> wrote:
>
> I have most of the Nice albums, not including the re-released "greatest
> hits" stuff. I got into them because I was such a fan of ELP first and
> I wanted to explore the bands that led up to ELP. For me, much of the
> music was difficult. Seems like you had endure a lot of Hammond
> bashing and reverb tank boinking noise before the good stuff. However,
> the album artwork was very cool, particularly Five Bridges and Elegy. I
> think these were early offerings by Hypnosis.
>
> ____________ _________ _________ __
>
> From: newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com
> [mailto:newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Chris Dale
> Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 3:25 AM
> To: newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com
> Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Steinberger bass
>
>
>
>
> Yes - Diamond Hard Blue Apples Of The Moon.
>
>
> I used to go on road trips with a couple of friends, and one of them
> loved this song, and the other hated it.
>
> When they'd have a disagreement, the one who loved it played it
> endlessly for the one who hated it.
>
> Needless to say, they weren't together for very long.
>
> Girls especially don't like that song for some reason.
>
> About the Mellotron - it does sound like real brass in most parts.
>
> And Mike is right - the song is awful, but I attribute that to Lee
> Jackson and Brain Davison singing out of tune on it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 1:45 AM, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@ ...
> <mailto:mike. dickson@. ..> > wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I've read someplace that he 'didn't believe in stealing other
> people's music from them' which is what he thought the Mellotron did.
> Considering that he appropriated (and desecrated) so much by Copland,
> Ives, etc etc that seems to be a fairly wild thing for even ∗him∗ to
> say.
>
> He used one once though on a Nice record. Can't remember the
> title; something about 'apples' and 'the moon'. Bloody awful, as you may
> expect.
>
>
> william Beith wrote:
>
>
> One queston I never asked Emerson when I interviewed him
> for a magazine- Why did he never use a mellotron?
>
> Anyone know if he ever answered this?
>

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