Cool thread…
The first time I ever heard a Mellotron was listening to the Moody Blues in the 1960’s at my friend’s house. His mom was pretty cool and she loved the Moody’s, so that is what we listened to. I had no idea that I was listening to a tron, and there were few popular groups back then with such an orchestral sound…
Then it was the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields. I thought it was just another George Martin sonic re-creation of flutes. Then it was the Rolling Stones’ 2000 Light Years from Home. I started to recognize the similar sound…
Then my life changed. August 1969… As a 14-year-old I was sitting in the mud on a rainy Friday night at the West Palm Beach Festival. After a series of amazing sets by Vanilla Fudge, Janis Joplin, and Sweetwater, and a few dozen joints… I heard the most magical sound I have ever heard… King Crimson had taken the stage and opened with Court of the Crimson King. (This was one week before the famous Crimson performance recorded at the Fillmore West.)
Well, I swore I saw a symphony orchestra on stage with them, but I was wrong. What I saw was Ian McDonald playing a large wooden organ, but what type of organ makes that sound? I had no idea. He even had a reverb unit on top of the Mark II that he smashed on the top of his tron during Mars… I was completely blown away!
To my (and the other 50,000+ people in attendance) pleasure, Crimson played all three days of the festival. Among the many stars who performed there (Rolling Stones, Canned Heat, Vanilla Fudge, Sweetwater, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny and Edgar Winters, Grand Funk Railroad, and many more), Crimson was the star of the festival, and I was an instant fan.
Who would imagine that only a couple of weeks later this amazing band would split up? But I was one of the lucky few who saw these guys play, and three days in a row! I consider myself very fortunate. And it changed my musical direction.
I did my research and found a lot of information about the Mellotron, but it was impossible to get one in the states. And even if they were available, good luck trying to afford one. I was performing with a Hammond C3, Clavinet, and Wurlie… No way could I afford a tron.
A few years later the Model 400 was introduced and became available in the US . But that was way out of my price range. I did have a schoolmate who bought one and I played it at his house. What an unruly beast. But it was strangely magical… and I loved it. He was doing some sessions and could not make one. I replaced him and played his Mellotron. A few days later I was called onto the carpet from my union, The American Federation of Musicians. Uh oh…
It was pretty funny going before a “jury” of old Miami Beach musicians lecturing this long-haired hack keyboardist that my playing a Mellotron was putting musicians out of work. So they fined me $100 and I continued playing…
In the 80’s I saw an ad for a SM400 in a Miami paper. I went to the guy’s house and saw the most beat-up tron I had ever seen. There were tapes unraveled all over the place and the keyboard was all messed up. He wanted $500 for it and I turned it down. On my way to my car he said “$100”! Well, I was a dumb kid… and turned him down again.
Fast forward 30 years… Call me crazy, but I found this list and my tron lust returned. One day I received an email from this guy in Texas who said that he heard I was looking for one for my collection. He said that it lived its life in a Dallas recording studio and that he owned it for only a few years. He wanted $2000 for it. The pictures he sent displayed a very nice tron in very good condition. I figured $2000 is not bad and even if I had to spend another $1500 for new tapes and a motor upgrade, why not?
I purchased it and he shipped it to me from East Texas . A few days after he shipped it a chicken truck pulls up to my house with a crated Mellotron inside. After uncrating it I opened up the back and discovered the upgraded motor controller. The tapes looked very clean. I plugged it in and it played beautifully! Amazing.
One of the first things I did was sample it onto my Motif ES so that I could play its wonderful sounds live at my gigs. You can hear samples from this tron at my website www.vintagekeyboardsounds.com .
My tron sits in my studio protected from all danger… I play it occasionally, and its voice sends me back to my days as a 14-year-old musician hearing something that would change my musical destiny…