The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
November 18th marked the 40th anniversary of the release of Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" a major prog-rock concept album and the last album to include Peter Gabriel as frontman. A few years ago the band members participated in a documentary that, among other things, focused on the making of "the Lamb" (as it was sometimes called). Here is that documentary in four-bits via YouTube:
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four
Mellotron Notes
As noted above, November 18th marked the 40th anniversary of Genesis' prog-rock classic "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" an album that featured the unique sound of the mellotron keyboard--a veritable symphony in a box. It got me thinking about the musical power of the mellotron's sound and if it was simply a prog-rock staple or, in fact, an instrument explored by artists outside the prog-rock genre. I shared my findings on the live show and you can view the playlist here. To help me sort this question out, I found and considered a number of "Mellotron sources." Here are the greatest hits of that search:
- Great site to find artists/albums using both Mellotrons and Chamberlins : absolutely fantastic and encyclopedic site for finding who played what and when.
- Wiki Entry for Mellotron--great pics too
- History of the Chamberlin: A nice overiew of the precursor to the Mellotron and how it lost the musical/mechanical footrace.
- The Mellotron site
- rebirth of the cool: mellotron site
- 120 Years of Electronic Music
- Mike Pinder describes how mellotron works: great video for getting a sense of the mechanics--how a Mellotron works.
- watcher of the skies intro
- Mellotron M4000D Review: digital mellotron
Sir Paul playing a bit of "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the Mellotron
- I CARE IF YOU LISTEN magazine on Android and iOS: Highly recommended.