The Mellotron Group

lsf5275@aol.com wrote:

>  
>
>
> Thanks Mike! Nice rendition. What was the inspiration for this 
> undertaking?
>

Not really sure. I was playing the 6 hours+ I have of 1966/67 'SMiLE' 
tapes recently and was struck by how blisteringly original so much of it 
was, and just how in control of the proceedings BW actually was at the 
time.  I'm assured by those 'in the know' (it's a long story about how I 
know them) that he only /really /went off the rails in the early 1970s 
but that until that point he merely lacked focus, having had so many 
musically interesting doors shut in his face. (A lot of the bad 
treatment meted out to him was, it appears, either meant for the best or 
his own fault)

The first time I heard OP I was immediately taken by how much it sounded 
like something Byrd could have written 300 years before. Some people 
speak of a continuum with Gershwin, Ives, Carmichael, Porter, Webb, 
Bacharach leading up to BW. I'm not sure that's very far off the mark.