What if Heathaze had mellotron?

  • Sounds fantastic..... You can't miss it...


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  • Quite enjoyed that, thanks. It's a song I'm very partial to, and an example of one I really wish they'd thrown in live once or twice.


    I was curious what the picture on the video is that looks like the IT cover but it's a solid brown hand over an old picture of people.

  • Wow. I haven’t heard Heathaze in a while. It’s always been a favorite of mine and the mellotron makes it even more moving. Truth be told tears welled up in my eyes while listening to this.

  • Wow. I haven’t heard Heathaze in a while. It’s always been a favorite of mine and the mellotron makes it even more moving. Truth be told tears welled up in my eyes while listening to this.

    It's always been my favorite (by a long shot) off of Duke. Adding mellotron brings it up to a completely different level. My biggest beef with Banks is/was his obsession with the "newest" synths and keyboards though I can't really blame him when it comes to the mellotron. I moved one once and they were a beast - not as bad as the B3 I moved (what we do at age 19) but still a massive unit. Now, any $1000 synth has decent mellotron string and choir patches but the first synths in the '80s were terrible when it came to reproducing these classic sounds. There's nothing that sound like a mellotron, owing to the tape banks and the weird technique one has to use to play it before the tape runs out lol! But that weird technique gave birth to things like Watcher of the Skies, so no complaints here..... Cheers, Andre.

  • Quite enjoyed that, thanks. It's a song I'm very partial to, and an example of one I really wish they'd thrown in live once or twice.


    I was curious what the picture on the video is that looks like the IT cover but it's a solid brown hand over an old picture of people.

    You're welcome. I can't speak to the cover, unfortunately. However, the more I listen to the song, then more it sounds like it could have been on W&W or ATTWT - heck, it even has shades of Mad Man Moon. It kind of made me realize, as one who was not a great fan of their 3-man era output (generally speaking), that some of their '80s compositions certainly had a strong '70s vibe to them (especially the Banks stuff), which is highlighted by slight retweaks (in this case - a mellotron part added). Interesting, even though it's all academic 40+ years later :).