“Strawberry Fields Forever” would take the music world by storm in February 1967, in no small part, due to the opening flute sounds produced by a tape-driven sampling keyboard known as a Mellotron [link to “Top 10 Mellotron Songs” from Ultimate Classic Rock].
Two years earlier, however, Graham Bond had already employed this radical and revolutionary instrument to great effect on what is widely considered to be the first use of a Mellotron on a popular recording — 1965’s “Baby Can It Be True“:
“Baby Can It Be True“
The Graham Bond Organization (1965)
Recorded in one take on July 1, 1965, “Baby Can It Be True” — strictly an album track, from There’s a Bond Between Us — would never enjoy release in 7-inch form.
Left to right (above)
Ginger Baker; Jack Bruce; Graham Bond; Dick Heckstall-Smith
Ginger Baker is out on tour and will be playing at DC’s historic Howard Theatre – June 19.
Graham Bond Organisation:
Secret Musicians on a Who B-Side
As Graham Bond points out on his own website, the Graham Bond Organisation is the uncredited jazz quartet simply identified as “The Who Orchestra” on “Waltz for a Pig,” an instrumental that was used (for unclear reasons) as the flip side of The Who’s Top 10 UK (and Australia, Netherlands & New Zealand) radio hit, “Substitute” in March 1966.
Graham Bond (organ)
Ginger Baker (drums)
Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor sax)
Mike Falana (trumpet)
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“Waltz for a Pig” written by “Butcher” –
Coincidence?
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LINK to Electronic Musical Instruments on Zero to 180
