Paul McCartney demonstrates how he used the Mellotron on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
What do ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by The Beatles, ‘Sitting by the Riverside’ by The Kinks, and ‘200 Lightyears From Home’ by The Rolling Stones all have in common? As well as the fact they were all released at the height of the psychedelic era, each utilises an instrument that completely revolutionised the music industry: the Mellotron. Pioneered by The Beatles, this remarkable piece of kit is responsible for the mellow flute sound on ‘Strawberry Fields’, the opening guitar line on ‘Bungalow Bill’ and the portmanteau glides on ‘Here Comes The Sun’. In this footage, Paul McCartney himself demonstrates the instrument.
The Mellotron might look like a synthesiser, but it is, in fact, a sampler. The Beatles used a Mellotron MKII. The instrument was loaded with tapes, each connected to one of its 35 keys, meaning they could be triggered in the same way one might play the piano, which is exactly what Paul McCartney did. Using the flute sound bank (Bank 4) on the right-hand keyboard, he composed a simple, two-hand progression that has gone down in history. In the opening verse, Lennon sings, “Let me take you down / cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields”. When Lennon hit the “Strawberry Fields” part, McCartney used the in-built pitch-bender to modulate the chord, creating a fluid introduction worthy of The Beatles’ most psychedelic album.
Paul has since concluded that The Mellotron was invented for use in cabarets, where the instrument might have offered a cheaper alternative to live bands. Its forerunner, the Chamberlin, was a common feature of American living rooms throughout the 1950s. By 1962 Chamberlin were looking for a manufacturer to produce tape heads for future instruments. The company settled on the tape engineering company Bradmatic, run by Frank, Norman and Les Bradley. The brothers inspected the Chamberlin and came to the conclusion that they could improve the original design. So, in collaboration with conductor and BBC presenter Eric Robinson and a television magician called David Nixon, they set up Mellotronics.
The original idea was simple: to create an instrument that could feasibly replace an orchestra. To achieve this, Mellotronics recorded real strings, organ, percussion, and flute sounds in isolation. This is basically the same process modern studio wizards go through when creating sample packs for use in DAWs. The difference is that Mellotronics were working in a pre-digital world and so made all of their recordings on tape.
Each key of the Mellotron is connected to a stretch of magnetic tape, which is pushed against the playback head when a key is pressed. Obviously, when the key is released, the tape returns to its original position, stopping the recording. The physicality of the Mellotron is one of the reason’s it sounds so unique. Each tape sample contains a certain amount of “flutter and wow” – minor imperfections in the tape. This means that a key never sounds the same way twice. The Mellotron, in this respect, is forever maturing. Like a fine wine.
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