26-10-2015, 04:52 PM
(23-10-2015, 08:11 PM)Brianc Wrote: Another sort of "organ" was a Mellotron which was, in fact, the first form of sampler. It used about 52 3 track magnetic tapes each carrying one note of a particular instrument, the 52 tapes giving 4 octaves of flute or trumpet (say). Depressing a key of the standard layout keyboard cause the appropriate tape to be pulled past a playback head to generate the tone. At the release of the key, the tape was rapidly pulled back ready for the next press! A fantastic piece of mechanical and electromagnetic engineering! Very popular in the 1960s (the Beatles Strawberry Fields flute opening was played on a Mellotron!
I have an ex-BBC unit which is presently at Streetley Electronics for refurbishment - I hope to get it back before Christmes!!
That was Paul McCartney's bit. John wrote the actual song maybe in Barcelona when he played it to Michael Crawford. Paul later put in the Mellotron bit.
Similar thing with Baby You're A Rich Man. It was John that wrote the main song when Paul had handed over the chorus. The song was about Brian Epstein but the beginning uses a Clavioline to get the way out, trippy sound.
George wrote the song Blue Jay Way on a Lowry Organ.
I can get close to a mellotron sound on my keyboard.
The lyrics to Strawberry Fields have deep significance. It's about nobody else being on your wavelength..."No-one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low..." John was saying nobody could tune into his waveband...
I'm a bit fanatical over the Beatles and can talk for hours over the tracks, the band in general and the way the audio engineering side was worked into many tracks.
