Mellotronists

<< There was far more about Mellotrons in Sid's book at one time - I wrote
it. The editors excised it for 'reasons of space'. >>

yep- saw y'r name in the opening credits sequence, which perhaps ought to 
have had fripp down as exec prod or something; I mentioned the lack-o-'tron 
content for exactly that reason-  got my hopes up that the beast might've had 
a chapter in it's own right. 
  
'reasons of space' makes no sense at all. a bit of market research would've 
told them that pretty much their entire target audience would've paid twice 
as much for half as many pages on crimson, and missing out maybe twenty pages 
to shave a quid or two off the price is just plain insulting. 
and anyway, how can there *not* be a chapter on the 'tron when it remains a 
part of their sound despite the many line-up changes? again, I refer readers 
to the sleevenotes of "the night watch" and nr 10 in fripp's list of live 
recording aphorisms: "tuning a mellotron doesn't". he still had two of them 
on stage night after night, though.

in fact, the muso-content is rather low overall; there's a brief anecdote 
from "t. baldy levin" about having 34 effects pedals on the bass and it not 
making any difference whether the thing was plugged in or not.  
there's a picture of a one-stringed bass, but little accompanying text, so 
(even if you're not a bassist like me) you're like, "why?" and thenceforth 
tortured with curiosity. (I saw the violent femmes with a baseball bat 
equipped with a single string and pickup; that made sense somehow, in that 
quirky irreverent context. but the warr guitar just looks like a normal bass 
with one string up the middle of a normal neck. go, as they say, figure).

now, I know we're all here for our fascination with the many-headed monster 
that is t'ronosaurus rex, and that kind of puts us at the anorak end of 
things when it comes to the study of music, but FAR TOO OFTEN with these rock 
biogs, there's scant mention of the contribution of the prevailing technology 
to the art, or how the artists were/were not able to fully develop their 
expression using contemporary tools. I think this stuff is important in 
gaining a full understanding of the modern rock musician.

it's like a book about the shadows without any mention of burns or fender, 
for fox-ache.

the kraftwerk book is similarly lacking, but that's because a) they were 
always quite secretive anyway and b) the drummer wrote it. I mean no 
disrespect in the general direction of the kitchen department. well, not 
much....  flur's recollection of the technology was coloured by the 
claustrophobia he acquired, since he was literally surrounded by electronics 
(hutter and schneider built him a cage with drum-triggers and stood him right 
in the middle of the stage- the thing went wrong but looked cool so they 
persisted until he got fed up and left); he succeeds in interpreting this as 
control-freakism on the part of the two founders and convinced me that they 
were assholes, but that's by the by.
 
a glaring omission, and now we know that it's not sid's fault.
dickson, you was robbed. perhaps you could publish your cutting-room-floor 
contribution on the list instead. we could each give you a quid, if that'll 
swing it.


duncan/m400 nr1098 ("robert who?")