TW: I love that thing the Mellotron so much. I just used one yesterday.
[Its owner] guards it with his life because it’s such an exotic bird,
it’s complete dinosaur and every time you play it, it diminishes. It
gets old and eventually will die, which makes it more human, you’re
working with a musician that is very old, he’s only got a couple more
sessions let. It increases the excitement of it. And that great trombone
sound…
EC: I used to go to church with my father, and right next to the church
was this big house that Dickens used to live in apparently. It was on of
many houses that he lived in, but this was this guy’s claim to fame. He
wasn’t a musician, he was an executive from the company that made
Mellotrons originally. And one day he got us outside of the church and
he insisted – he used to lie in wait outside of the church for everybody
to come out, and sort of capture them on Sunday morning when they
couldn’t think of any other excuse – and try to sell ‘em a Mellotron.
That was how difficult it was to get people to consider them when they
first came out. They were such a gimmick. It so happened that a few
people who went to the church were musicians, so I guess a few people
got this treatment. And one Sunday morning, I must have been about
eleven or twelve, we were dragged into this big sitting room of this big
old house, and he had this Mellotron that was like Doctor Fife’s organ.
It had foot pedals, as I recall. Maybe I’m embellishing it now with my
cloudish memory. When you go to a childhood house or something, it
always much smaller than the size you remember it.
TW: Those Mellotrons, the first time I actually played one it really
thrilled me. It’s like you touched somebody on the shoulder, every time
I touch you on the shoulder I want you to play a note. It was that real.
(Tom Waits interviewed by Elvis Costello, 1989)
--
Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
Free Music Project:
http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/ Or
http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson Or
http://soundcloud.com/mikedicksonOr
http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson Or
http://www.myspace.com/mellotronworks