The Mellotron Group

Apparently in the 50th anniversary edition the mellotron will be replaced with a kazoo.

--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@...> wrote:
>
> This may sound like heresy....
> 
> Does anyone else have the new 40th anniversary edition of 'In The Court 
> of the Crimson King'? I do (as you may expect) and believe it or not, 
> what has been done to it in terms of sonic quality is astounding. It's 
> even better than the 30th anniversary edition (which I thought was 
> outstanding) and comes with some really good extras too.
> 
> But.
> 
> To me, the biggie on this album was always 'Epitaph'. It was really this 
> track that showed me the way and pointed me at a style of music I don't 
> think anyone else in the genre has come /close /to equalling. And it was 
> always the Mellotron that did it. Everything else in the track was 
> great, but the piercing shreik of the Mellotron propelled it from being 
> a /fairly/ standard minor key tune into something really magical.
> 
> Which begs the question: /what the shiny blue fuck has happened here? /I 
> was listening to the track again today having had a feeling of loss in a 
> couple of previous listens, and have suddenly found out where it was 
> coming from. Or not. At the close of the first chorus the Mellotron 
> climbs to the top E as well all know...and never gets there. The note is 
> /not there/. One note. Big deal, you may say, but it is a /sublime 
> /note. As Fripp himself has droned, you '/can play any note they like 
> provided it's the right one/'. And this is the right one. It's sweet and 
> perfect and rounds off the chorus perfectly. So why is it omitted. It's 
> even in tune!
> 
> Worse is to come. /That pitch bend. /My 14 year old jaw dropped on 
> hearing it for the first time. I think I destroyed my first copy by 
> dropping the needle onto at point again and again and again. It is a 
> fantastic, blood-curdling hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck experience. And 
> on the 40th anniversary set it is /sludged out/. The crescendo behind it 
> absolutely overwhelms it to the extent that you can hear the trick; one 
> Mellotron plays a crescendo climbing 'flat' to E-minor whilst the other 
> one bends up to it. Expert fading on the original ensured that the 
> /effect /was heard but that the squeak of strings ratcheted up like that 
> /was not/. It's a superb moment. And you can barely hear it on the new 
> release.
> 
> Has anyone else noticed this or any other weirdness/ It's the only track 
> I have listened to in such detail so far, which makes me a tad scared 
> for the rest now. Actually, I'm playing it now and the clarity of the 
> piece now makes it sound like Mike Giles banging on timpani in a studio, 
> not the far-off and distant /sound of doom /that I know so well. Maybe 
> less is nore. Perhaps Fripp has /tinkered beyond. /Perhaps I'll ask him.
> 
> Musical choices aside, the sound quality is to be heard and disbelieved. 
> A friend with a good 5:1 system says that 21CSM is like having the band 
> play in your front room.  It's that good.
> 
> -- 
> Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
> 
> Free Music Project: http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/ 
> Or http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson
> Or http://soundcloud.com/mikedickson
> Or http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson
>