Your 10 favorite mellotron moments

[trurl]

Most tron patches are decently in tune, though a few, like the cello, do have a lot of... er... character *lol* But on Rain Song the whole thing sounds out from the guitars on the track. From what I remember anyway, may have to go listen to it.

[3LockBox]

So, there are right and wrong answers... who'da thunk?

[GuitarGeek]

Most tron patches are decently in tune, though a few, like the cello, do have a lot of... er... character *lol* But on Rain Song the whole thing sounds out from the guitars on the track. From what I remember anyway, may have to go listen to it.

So wait, what's out of tune? The Mellotron or the guitars? Are all the guitars out of tune, or is it just one or two? Like say is it the acoustic guitar that's out of tune with the rest of the track or what? Did someone forget to tune up before the take, or did Page think he was going for a natural chorusing effect and end up overdoing it?

I never thought The Rain Song was out of tune, but apparently, there's a lot of things that were out of tune that I never quite picked up on as being so.

[trurl]

Just listened to Rain Song on Youtube and it's not near as bad as I remembered. The thing that's "out" is the infamous cello tape. Overall they tuned as well as you could under the circumstances It must be the live version I'm thinking of, will have to listen to it now!

[llanwydd]

Rain Song is one of the few LZ songs I like but there are far better mellotron moments in Yes, KC, Genesis...

[Chris Kemp]

Everything (almost) on Odessey & Oracle.
Circus by Argent (great intro).
Mellotron Choir on Cinema Show (Second's Out).
Mellotron flute on O Caroline by Matching Mole.
I like Ange but I was under the impression they use some kind of treated organ (that sounds nasty), not a mellotron.

[bigjohnwayne]

Opening to the Principe di Giorno album by Celeste

The juicy section of And You and I by Yes

The choir in Dancing with the Moonlit Night (a song I'm not in love with, but the tron is awesome)

The long outro to Islands by King Crimson

The flute in My Darling by Wilco (from the Summerteeth album, which has more Mellotron than any non prog album I can think of--it has better tron than even Oddessey and Oracle by the Zombies)

Speaking of the Zombies: The strings in Care of Cell 44. There isn't much there, but what's there is awesome

From Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte: those two awesome spots where the rythm drops out and stuff gets gorgeous in Hands of the Priestess pt 2 and also in Star of Sirius

O My Soul by Big Star (That's mellotron right? its hard to tell)

The choir in Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats from the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Blood on the Rooftops from Wind and Wuthering (A little goes a long way)

[WytchCrypt]

I like Ange but I was under the impression they use some kind of treated organ (that sounds nasty), not a mellotron.

According to wiki:

"The keyboard sounds of the '70s-era band, while reminiscent of a mellotron, were in fact generated from a Viscount organ through a modded Hammond reverb. However, an actual mellotron was played on the album Guet-Apens in 1978."

[Progbear]

According to wiki:

"The keyboard sounds of the '70s-era band, while reminiscent of a mellotron, were in fact generated from a Viscount organ through a modded Hammond reverb. However, an actual mellotron was played on the album Guet-Apens in 1978."

They used it on Le cimetière des arlequins and Par les fils de Mandrin as well, but Guet-apens is the only album where they totally went bonkers with it (LCDA only has it on one track).

[WytchCrypt]

They used it on Le cimetière des arlequins and Par les fils de Mandrin as well, but Guet-apens is the only album where they totally went bonkers with it (LCDA only has it on one track).

Really, I never noticed a tron until Guet-Apens. Do you know which track on Cimetiere has tron on it?

[emperorken]

Not mentioned yet.

Genesis:
The Fountain of Salmacis
The Seven Stones
Can-Utility and the Coastliners

Moody Blues:
Legend of a Mind
Have You Heard
Tuesday Afternoon

Strawbs- New World

Strawberry Fields Forever

The Stones- 2,000 Light Years From Home

Also, the entire Nordagust album, "In the Mist of Morning"

[Trane]

albums filled with 'trons:

Flamen Dialis (France in 78)

Morte Macabre's Symphonic Holocaust and Niklas Barker's Ultima Fin De Semana

[Nearfest2]

Opeth, "Damnation"

[r2daft2]

Lots of early Barclay James Harvest

[TheH]

Really, I never noticed a tron until Guet-Apens. Do you know which track on Cimetiere has tron on it?

http://www.planetmellotron.com/revange.htm

[WytchCrypt]

http://www.planetmellotron.com/revange.htm

Thanks...great website

[bill g]

Well these come off the top of my head:

The intro to 'Chamber of 32 Doors'
Intro to 'Fountain of Salmacis'
'Firth of Fifth' guitar solo
mellotron 'solo' in 'Sailors Tale'
mellotron stereo swoops in 'One For The Vine'
instrumental bits in 'Appena Un Po' (PFM)
throughout 'In The Wake of Poseidon'
sweeps in the opening song on the cd by 'Ere G'
'And You And I' sections
A couple great swoops in 'Close To The Edge'

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Way too many great moments to confine it to 10, but here's mine:

Fields-The Eagle - the use of the Tron on a slightly modified version of the Pachelbel canon in D is pure genius
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come-The Hymn(Goodge Harris)and Superficial Roadblocks(Victor Peraino)
Groundhogs-Earth Shanty and Snowstorm - pure TS McPhee madness!
Kestrel-August Carole-mainly for the ending
Indian Summer-Secrets Reflected - very subtle and beautiful
Victor Peraino's Kingdom Come-Lady of the Morning -an absolute tour de force!
The Gods-I Never Knew - had to get one Mark II example in here
Barclay James Harvest-Crazy City - can't keep these masters off the list

my apologies to Jonesy, Spring, Second Hand, Earth & Fire, Web, Gracious and many others for just missing the cut!

[Lopez]

I'll add four cuts by American bands using a Mellotron

Don't Ever Want to Lose Ya - New England
Ice - Crack the Sky
Save for a Rainy Day Theme - Jan & Dean (that is correct, sir, the Jan & Dean; well, actually they used a Chamberlin in 1966)
Purple Haze - The Fibonaccis

[Dave (in MA)]

And in the most out there category:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mog35sOV4pE#t=91
http://www.amazon.com/Mellotron-Impr.../dp/B0010WNCR0
http://www.amazon.com/Mellotron-Impr...dp/B0010WPF3O/

[miamiscot]

The Revealing Science Of God
Watcher Of The Skies


(Damn, I'm a predictable symph-weenie!!!)

[trurl]

Also, Mike Dickson's Mellotronworks. Probably the epitome of Tron!!

[Progbear]

I'll add the end of 'Kung Bore' on Hybris

I’ll offer a second vote for that one. Also:

• “Lovely Luna” off of See See the Sun by Kayak (none at all for the first ¾ of the track...then WHAM! Big-time strings!)
• “Masquerade” off of Keeping Up by Jonesy (it’s not often that you hear Mellotron strings side-by-side with the real thing. Borderline overkill, yet oddly wonderful.)
• “A Bridge to Alice” off of Glory of the Inner Force by Finch
• “På gata (1 & 2)” off of Blå vardag by Atlas (two more that save up the Mellotron for the big climax)
• “Starless” off of Red by King Crimson
• “We Love You” by the Rolling Stones (Brian Jones really made that Mark II brass spit like a cobra!)
• “Holstenwall Fair” off of Hats of Glass by Eela Craig (nice choirs and brass!)
• “Watcher of the Skies” off of Foxtrot by Genesis (hate to be totally obvious, but that intro is just SO iconic!)
• “Pictures” off of Symphonic Pictures by Schicke, Führs & Fröhling (the whole track is like a Mellotron tutorial for budding prog keyboardists!)

Honourable mention to Spring for using the exquisitely rare Mark II electric guitar tapes so effectively on “The Prisoner (Eight by Ten)”

[mogrooves]

Don Bradsham-Leather - Distance Between Us

[Yaman Aksu]

More than 90% of the relatively limited amount of prog I've listened to in the last 30+ years were listened to without thinking about (and awareness of) what parts were mellotron. As of mid-1990s, I know what mellotron sounds sound like, so, if I wanted, I could spot them while going through some list of key songs, but that's unlikely in the near future.

In the meantime, I just have to mention the first 50 seconds of Anekdoten's song "Hole" from their "From Within" album as one of the greatest segments ever. After the 50 seconds, lots of slow moody parts, which I'm not crazy about: