Welcome to a Day dedicated to the visionary record producer Joe Meek. I could barely hope to scratch the surface of his prolific output, but here's hoping it serves as a useful primer.
Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter.
His best-remembered hit is the Tornados' "Telstar" (1962), which became the first record by a British group to reach No.1 in the US Hot 100. It also spent five weeks atop the UK singles chart, with Meek receiving an Ivor Novello Award for this production as the "Best-Selling A-Side" of 1962.
Meek's other hits include "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" and "Cumberland Gap" by Lonnie Donegan (as engineer), "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, "Just Like Eddie" by Heinz, "Angela Jones" by Michael Cox, "Have I the Right?" by the Honeycombs, and "Tribute to Buddy Holly" by Mike Berry. Meek's concept album I Hear a New World is regarded as a watershed in modern music for its innovative use of electronic sounds.
His commercial success as a producer was short-lived and Meek gradually sank into debt and depression. On 3 February 1967, using a shotgun owned by musician Heinz Burt, Meek killed his landlady and then himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Meek
A classic story of rise and fall: This is the life of music producer and pop composer Robert George "Joe" Meek (born April 5, 1929 in Newent, Gloucestershire; died February 3, 1967 in London) - a short life somewhere on the fine line between vision and lunacy, always floating forth and back from the one to the other; oversped, funny, sad, euphoric, depressed; a rollercoaster trip with a dramatic showdown.
It's not only the singer or the song that makes a hit, it's the sound as well. Meek was the first European music producer who completely got that. He saw his sound recording studio as his musical instrument, and he was a virtuoso in playing it. As an extra-ordinary sound tinkerer he can be named in the same breath as Phil Spector, George Martin, Lee Hazlewood, Tom Wilson or the "Motown" or "Stax" studio crews; a Meek production is easy to identify. Although Meek didn't like to stand in the spotlight himself, his influence on the pop music scene is still noticeable.
Jan Reetze
http://www.joemeekpage.info/essay_E.htm
THE STORIES, near unbelievable, are strange but true. In a flat on the Holloway Road, four people bang their feet on the stairs, stomping their way to a '60s pop-defining number one. The microphones that record the din are attached to the banisters with bicycle clips. There are singers in the toilet and string sections in the kitchen. In the bedroom, his feet lost in a carpet of reel to reel tape and tangled wires held together with chewing gum, a thick-set man in a suit sets the controls for the heart of British popular music.
These stories would be fantastic enough without rumours of black magic, gangland threats and a pill-popping climax of paranoia, rapidly declining fortunes and murder. The Joe Meek story is a B-movie script without a home.
From his home, a dank flat with famously rickety stairs above a leather goods shop at 304 Holloway Road, London, Joe Meek created some of the strangest and most wonderful sonic experiments ever to attempt to gatecrash the hit parade. Known to the crazed few as the British Phil Spector, Meek a misguided auteur who single-handedly invented the idea of independence in pop by selling his finished products to the major labels, is seldom credited as the creator of some of the best known '60s records ever.
John McCready
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/hearing-a-new-world-the-joe-meek-story
Meek's musical innovations are still to achieve the recognition they deserve. These include his pioneering use of overdubbing, compression, sound separation, and distortion; his use of his bathroom as an echo chamber; the launch of his own indie label, Triumph; and, in his final years, his recording of some of the most aggressive and essential Mod and psyche acts. In fact, if Meek hadn't pushed the envelope to ridiculous lengths, would British music ever have come out of its tepid doldrums and rocked America and the world?
Owen Gibson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2007/oct/17/blessedwasthemeek
I Hear a New World: an outer space music fantasy is a concept album devised and composed by Joe Meek and recorded by the Blue Men in 1959. It was released in part in 1960 and in full in 1991 by RPM Records. It was later analyzed by Barry Cleveland in his book, Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques.
The album was Meek's pet project. He was fascinated by the space programme, and believed that life existed elsewhere in the solar system. This album was his attempt "to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space", he explained. "At first I was going to record it with music that was completely out of this world but realized that it would have very little entertainment value so I kept the construction of the music down to earth". He achieved this as a sound engineer by blending the Blue Men's skiffle/rock-and-roll style with a range of sound effects created by such kitchen-sink methods as blowing bubbles in water with a straw, draining water out of a sink, shorting out an electrical circuit and banging partly filled milk bottles with spoons; however, one must listen carefully to detect these prosaic origins in the finished product. Another feature of the recordings is the early use of stereophonic sound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Hear_a_New_World
Drummer Dave Golding played on the sessions for New World: "At the time it we didn’t know what he was trying to achieve. He wasn’t talking about space when we recorded some of those tracks. He was going on about lighthouses and lights across the sea, which makes some sense when you hear the record and forget about the titles". Dave recalls the sessions as fraught late night affairs, either at the flat or Lansdowne with Joe attaching knives and forks to his bass drum pedal and insisting he played his drums with pennies spread across the skins. On hearing this record 40 years later you can only comment that Joe is the other lost Aphex Twin, born an age before his time. Charles Ward, whose Thunderbolts record ‘Lost Planet’ is another example of Meek’s outer space obsession, believes Joe was really a child of the times.
"Destination Moon was the film of the ‘50s. In Hollywood they were throwing dustbins up in the air at night and filming them as UFOs. There was plenty of that stuff around, and Joe was listening to as much of it as anyone else". Now feted by electronic cultists like Orbital and Andrew Weatherall, ‘I Hear A New World’s genius is tempered by comic tunes and further warped by Meek’s twisted sense of pop. Aside from the heavily layered effects, these made up the bulk of the record’s musical substance. The sleeve notes, apparently written by Meek, show a man innocently obsessed with aliens, The Space Race, and Sputnik flights into the beyond. Joe dribbles on about the ‘Dribcots Space Boat’. "Owned and built by the Dribcots, it is shaped like an egg," he informs us with barely contained enthusiasm. ‘The Entry Of The Globbots’ is "the sound of, happy jolly little beings. As they parade before us you can almost see their cheeky blue faces."
It’s believed that only 100 of the records were originally pressed. There wasn’t much call for fledgling electronica in 1960. With I Hear A New World Joe had revealed the template for his way of thinking, a personal Space Race. This was his particular way of hearing things, with all his secret sounds out on display. It was statement of intent, often underlined in the next seven years.
"Looking back at it now, it’s clear that Joe did have a plan for the record", says Dave Golding. "It was only when ‘Telstar’ came out three years later that it all began to make sense to me."
John McCready
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/hearing-a-new-world-the-joe-meek-story
Joe Meek would have a hand in creating some of the biggest hits of the time – and worked with well known artists such as Lonnie Donegan, Petula Clark, Shirley Bassey, Gene Vincent, Frankie Vaughan, Acker Bilk, Anne Shelton and Tom Jones.
His most famous song "Telstar" which was recorded with The Tornados earned him both an Ivor Novello Award and the title of becoming the first ever single recorded by a British group to hit #1 in the US Billboard chart. The single also spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts.
Other hits Joe had a hand in included John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" and The Honeycombs' "Have I the Right?" which was another #1 in the UK charts and entered the US charts at #5.
However "Have I the Right?" would be Joe's last big hit. Joe had gained a reputation as being difficult to work with, he was very controlling and would often become angry and violent if musicians didn't do as he told them to.
Joe's fascination with the unknown would take a darker turn when he would experiment with the occult. He would engage in séances and leave recording equipment in graveyards to try and contact his hero Buddy Holly.
It was thanks to Joe Meek's experimentation that techniques such as echo and reverb would be introduced into popular music, a technique used by virtually every artist or band ever since.
John McArdle
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2007/01/05/joe_meek_feature.shtml
Technically, the Joe Meek sound is relatively easy to describe: Its typical trademarks are strong reverb and echo effects (his main reverb unit Meek had custom-built from the spiral springs of an old fan heater; nobody ever was allowed to touch this device) as well as massive overdriving, especially the vocals. Besides this, Meek used to speed up the vocals (sometimes to a grade not far from the absurd, sometimes beyond that), often he added a slapback echo to the vocals (as best known from several Sun Records productions), and usually he backed them up with a two- or three-voice female harmony choir (the legendary "heavenly choir"). Reverbs as well as echo effects were usually made artificially. Besides this, Meek provided his records with a massive bass and an amount of compression that makes the music literally jumping out of the speaker.
Jan Reetze
http://www.joemeekpage.info/essay_03_E.htm
Finally, a recent '60s favourite is JOE MEEK, the first successful, fully independent record producer in the U.K. He was barely known in this country, but was an unseen hand in ruling and shaping pop music pre-Beatles in England on a scale the size of Phil Spector ‚ except that his taste was wierder. As a producer, not only did he not play any instruments, but apparently he couldn't sing very well either...yet he was very exacting in getting the sounds he wanted out of musicians. He not only sang the notes to a keyboard person, but was very specific as to how he wanted the keyboard to sound. He was fascinated with Outer Space, and one of his songs which is best-known in the U.S. was the TORNADOS' "Telstar" instrumental; it has an organ sound like no other. And as soon as he found a skiffle band with Hawaiian guitar, there was no stopping him. Remember, "Exotica" was an America-only phenomenon. The only English Martin Denny release I've seen had a generic ocean photo, probably xeroxed off a Mantovani album. Yet here was someone persuing the same outer reaches, but from a completely different angle!
His fascination with sci-fi and ethereal sounds and other-worldly female voices and Outer Space is so unique ‚ you can tell a Joe Meek record a mile away. He recorded the instruments way into the red so that even drums distorted; he used all kinds of wild echo and reverb. I read that not only did he use everything but the kitchen sink ‚ he even recorded in the kitchen sink the sound of running water, blowing bubbles, drinking straws, and half filled milk bottles played by spoons! He also used the teeth of a comb across an ashtray, electrical circuits shorted together, etc. He had problems getting along with mainstream music industrial powers, but eventually got his own studio together above a leather store. It was on three floors, so some instrumentalists would literally be playing on different floors, with the console on the third floor.
Jello Biafra
http://www3.sympatico.ca/rorytate/joemeek/
An instrumental with space sound effects, this is about the Telstar communications satellite, which was launched shortly before this song was written.
This was the best-selling British single of 1962. It was also the first song by a British group to hit #1 in the US. This did not happen again until The Beatles “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964.
Producer Joe Meek was intrigued by the sound of the organ on Dave "Baby" Cortez' #1 hit, "The Happy Organ" - so entrapped by it that he tried to duplicate it with the Clavioline keyboard on "Telstar," which was played by a studio musician named Geoff Goddard, who also supplied the "humming" vocal you hear at the end of the song.
Joe Meek idolized Buddy Holly and claimed he could make contact with Holly's spirit. Meek committed suicide on February 3, 1967, the eighth anniversary of “The day the music died.” (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)
After the Tornadoes had laid down track for this song, Meek wanted to give it more, so after the band left the studio at the end of the day, he played around with effects to get it just right. Latter when he played the demo to the lads, they were not sure. The beginning was just Joe being his creative self, however, the "Ah Ah" voiceover in the final part was a bit much and they expressed some dismay. This mixture of music and voice was usual and had not been done in a Pop tune, yet this track exploded on the music scene. (thanks, Geoff - Sydney, Australia)
The Tornados - a journeyman club band - disliked the song, but Meek added his own distinctive magic at his home-cooked studio above a leather shop in northern London. An overdubbed Clavioline keyboard provoked spooked space effects, while a backwards tape of a flushing toilet evoked all the majesty of a spacebound rocket. (from The Observer Music Monthly)
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11
Thanks to Telstar, Joe Meek is seen as British pop's first great futurist, but the vibe of this Meek production reaches back into our fog-struck, ghost-ridden past. It's an urgent Gothic romance, with John Leyton's vocal clutching at your sleeve, desperate to tell a story of loss and madness. Meek turns the drums into phantom horsemen and fills the record's dark spaces with melodrama – a keening female voice on the chorus rounds the effect off. Pure corn, perhaps, but sold with a dread conviction, which makes this the weirdest and most gripping British record to hit the top yet.
Tom Ewing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/31/john-leyton-johnny-remember-me
"Jack the Ripper" is a song by English musician Screaming Lord Sutch, released as a 7" single in the UK and Germany in 1963 on Decca. It was produced by Joe Meek and recorded in his Holloway Road studio in Islington, England. The song was banned by the BBC upon its release.
The song begins with the sound of footsteps and a woman screaming, followed by a rendition of the "Danger Ahead" motif by the guitar and drum kit, accompanied by a ghoulish moan from Screaming Lord Sutch. The song itself is a three-chord song, with a vamp played by guitar and bass, with accompaniment by piano and drum kit, which is repeated throughout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper_(song)
he Cryin' Shames were a six piece band formed from a previous band called The Bumblies.
They changed their name to The Cryin' Shames in 1965. Their first single 'Please Stay' was released on the Decca label produced by Joe Meek in early 1966. It reached no 27 in the charts and was to be his last hit record before his suicide in 1967.
http://www.therealmerseysound59-64.co.uk/cryinshames.html
'Do You Come Here Often?' begins as a flouncy organ-drenched instrumental and stays that way for over two minutes. By that time, most people - had they even bothered to even turn the record over - would have switched off. Had they remained they would have heard two sibilant, obviously homosexual voices bitching, well, just like two queens will.
Nearly four decades on, 'Do You Come Here Often?' remains sad, eerie, funny, and true: you can still hear its vivid vituperation in the gay hardcore dance records of the 21st century. By the same token, it is time-locked, a bulletin from a pivotal point in homosexual history: that moment when an oppressed minority began to claim its rightful place in society. However, that struggle was not without its sacrifices. Like Orton and Epstein, Meek would not live to see the sun, and his August 1966 single remains testament to the lethal power of the homophobia that, once rampant in Western society, is still virulent. Guilty pleasures can kill.
Jon Savage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/nov/12/popandrock28
Joe was now broke, with the ‘Telstar’ case still unresolved. He was hiding from his creditors and the hits had all but dried up. John Repsch’s The Legendary Joe Meek talks of him only eating when assistant Patrick Pink brought food he'd’ stolen from his own family’s cupboard. His new recordings were still being turned down. Séance calls to Rameses The Great and, it’s said, Aleister Crowley for advice, did nothing to help him. Some believe he developed an obsession with Crowley, and say his interest in the black arts had now taken him much further than using an upturned tumbler to ask his beloved Buddy Holly about chart positions.
Among the last dozen recordings that made it to release, among the increasing rejections, was The Cryin’ Shames’ poignant ‘Nobody Waved Goodbye’. At a funeral in his home town of Newent, maybe 200 people turned up.
Joe Meek was largely forgotten until his records began to fester in the minds of a few obsessives in the mid-‘70s. It is only in the last ten years, with the publication of John Repsch’s book, the BBC Arena documentary, and the contemporary appreciation of Joe’s sonic vision, together with the appeal of an irresistibly absurd and tragicomic story, that Joe has become an icon for those able to laugh as they a marvel at his garden Wall Of Sound.
"He turned the British record industry on its head and though they may not have bugged his flat, there were some people who hated him for that, for showing them up. They were having to buy hits from Joe when there were people being paid good money to bring the new groups in house before the likes of Joe got a look in", says Tornado Clem Cattini.
John McCready
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/hearing-a-new-world-the-joe-meek-story
Joe Meek died at the age of only 37 years. Tornados' drummer Clem Cattini stated: "It was dreadful, but without wishing to sound morbid, I couldn’t see Joe dying any other way. He was never going to die a natural death. I don’t think his success brought him any happiness …" - Screaming Lord Sutch, who's career would have been different without Joe Meek, had this to say: "I was amazed as well as shocked and sad when I heard all this, as I had always thought of him as a fabulously successful producer, and it never occurred to me he had no money and only rented his flat. He was a great man and is much missed."
Meek, who described himself as "fairly rich man", had absolutely no money left at the time of his death. His remains were six hundred pairs of shoes and a lorry, besides this he left tax and royalty debts, chaotic bookkeeping and around 100 Winston Churchill commemorative coins, the latter probably giveaways for important customers.
Jan Reetze
http://www.joemeekpage.info/essay_12_E.htm
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p.s. Hey. This weekend we get this incredible treat from the honorable _Black_Acrylic re: the innovative and influential and under-sung producer/ pioneer Joe Meek. He was quite the genius, if you don't know, and _B_A has filled in the blanks in a most masterful fashion. Explore and enjoy and speak to your guest-host between now and Monday, thank you. And major thanks to you, Ben! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Oh, a Day on Oscar Tuazon would be amazing. I think you know that I'm both a fan and a friend of his, so, yeah, that would incredible, if you don't mind. Thank you so much! I didn't notice that tag on the Prurient album, huh, nice. Yes, Wolf Eyes plus *car crash* sounds quite like fate or something, ha ha. Have a most lovely weekend, sir. ** Misanthrope, Cradle that hand, man, and don't ask too, too much of it. I send you telepathic balm. He wants a watch? Does he think you're going to Switzerland or something? Still, can be done. ** Wolf, Hi, pal. No, ha ha, Locust without the 'The'. I thought you might get a kick from the Four Tet/Burial track title, and I must say your potential glee did influence my selection. Laura Ellen Joyce is awesome. Well, I don't know her personally, but her stuff is, for sure. A vegan chocolate Easter egg, yes, that does sound like a real rarity. Slurp. Online course, right, of course, so awesome. Report on the learning if you feel like it. I'm interested. Chipotle Tabasco? No. Chipotle like the American Mexican fast food restaurant chain? I'll see if Paris stocks it anywhere. Bon weekend, big W. ** David Ehrenstein, You think? Something has to explain it, and that seems as good an explanation as any other. ** Bollo, I'll go look at your corner of FB then. Cool. And at your site, natch. Thanks about the mix-tape. Hope you liked some of the unknowns. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John! 'Animal Crossing', yes, that's it. Evil game. My addiction to it got a little wacky. I've stayed away from the sequel and all other games like it ever since. Life's hard and rich enough. Well, try scrapbooking maybe. Problem is, I don't think publishers will necessarily buy a novel based on a scrapbook-shaped proposal. But, jeez, who knows? Maybe the novelty would be a calling card. Oh, I liked your Tin House piece a lot. It was swell. I enjoyed every second. ** Matty B, Hi, Matty! Awesome that you're onto a new novel. I don't know, visual mapping always helps me a lot. I almost always do that in some shape or form. But, yes, having a physical scrapbook to work with/on was like night and day compared to the computer-based 'scrapbooks' that I've done for my more recent novels. Huge difference. I think I'm going to go back to doing them again if I keep writing novels. Obviously, I recommend giving the method a shot. ** Alan, Hi, Alan! Really nice to see you, man! Um, on the novel, I'm not sure yet. At the moment, mm, I think maybe a third of what I had written for the George novel is still in play. But I really can't tell how much of it if any I can keep yet. There's a real connection between what that novel was going to be and what the one I'm thinking of/working towards writing will be, but ... Yeah, I can't tell yet. Right now, that material seems useful, at least as a place to start to build around. How are you? What's going on? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! Thank you so much! Such a great post, I'm thrilled to have it here. You're the best, man. Nice about the McKenzie show at the Stedlijk. Yeah, the head curator/boss there, Ann Goldstein, is an old pal of mine, and she's great. ** Scunnard, Hi, J. The inversion ... nice, yes. Or at least of the LA I used to know. I hear their weather patterns are fairly crazed too these days. I think walking would work with that mix. Or maybe running. Or at least trotting. At least occasionally. ** Ar, Hi, Alex! 'Fade Out', awesome record. My vinyl of it is in LA where my turntable resides. In Belgium? I might even get to see that. Please do tell me the when and where once you know. Cool. Great, great weekend to you, master. ** S., Stack! Everyone, the latest Emo-centric macro stack by the stack maestro S. is up and ripe for you. It's here, and it's called 'GET MONEY'. Fair enough. Flesh him out how? Externally or consciousness-wise or ... ? Train? Sex with girls is cool. Confusion is cool. Listening to the new Wire album. ** MANCY, Hey! 'Fade Out', right? Koban and Lie ... yeah, I don't think I know them. Link me up, if it's easy, or I can try to go find them. Thanks! ** Steevee, I need to see it for the first time. Got to do that. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Prurient is very cool. I think you'd like his stuff, actually. I can't remember Kafka's novels very well. I do think I thought they were better than his stories. Franzen is the one who attributed Gaddis's liking to the McInerney novel? So much for that. ** Lee Vincent, Hello, Lee! Welcome! I'm really glad you decided to join in. Thank you a lot! Respect and congrats on PYSSM?!? 3. It was a real beauty. Well, if you're a 'gay stoner with a taste for Black Metal and French literature', or any semblance of that, I'm sure we'll get along just fine, yeah. Thanks about my music tastes, obviously. I can't wait to get to know yours more thoroughly. That was my favorite track on 'Worship is the Cleansing of the Imagination' too. And, to continue the continuity, I agree with you about JK Flesh's tracks. Nice. I loved 'Through the Window'. Wow, you've written on it. I always have to wait to finish the p.s. before I can read anything, or otherwise I'll be sitting here all day, but I'll go over there as soon as I finish this. Great, thank you! Everyone, how about greeting new d.l. Lee Vincent by clicking this and reading his thoughts/ writing on Prurient's 'Through the Window' album? Would be nice and, I'm pretty sure, a boon for you. Is that your blog, or are you a contributor to it? It looks incredibly rich. I know I'll be scouring it thoroughly this weekend. I've only listened to the new Demdike Stare once all the way through so far. Peculiar is a good word. I'm still at 'peculiar', which is, I guess, basically an upbeat assessment, but, yeah, I need a couple of more listens to get a grip on it, I think. So, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you once again, and I look forward to talking a lot more, and you have an excellent weekend! ** Kyler, Hi, Kyler! It has been a while! Great to see you! Ah, the agent is your ex- now. Surely for the best. Sorry you were feeling depressed. I hope the morning's light and having WSP on your radar will have dispelled any internal darkness by now. Fingers very crossed re: the publisher and the agents. Let me know what happens. Nice pic of you! Everyone, go read a little thing about d.l. Kyler plus a cool pic of him. Here. Take care, my friend. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. So exciting about the copyediting and layout stuff on your book! Man oh man, I can not wait for that arrival! Oh, the mix tape: So, yeah, I was just on that road trip or kind of road trip, and we, especially I, had not nearly enough stuff to play in the car via our iPhones, so the gig was kind of a combo of tracks by artists we listened to and tracks that I wish that we had had available to listen to, I guess. I don't have the Criterion DVD of 'A Man Escaped'. I was going to get it, of course, but those extras are pulling me in really fast now. Cool, thank you, man. ** Flit, Hi, Flit. We mind-melded musically again? Cool. The new Shed, yeah, I get that, but it grew on me. Ooh, thank you for the links! Those'll get hit by me in just a few minutes. I almost put Container in the gig. In fact, I think I only didn't 'cos I got spaced out or something. Yeah, thank you, buddy. ** Bill, Hi, B. Wow, it took a while for 'Amour' to get there, didn't it? Strange. A major metropolis like SF. Yeah, that Atom TM guy is still on the ball. It's weird, it's cool. Great that the installation/ event went well. I'm sure the piece felt sparkling new and amazing to everyone assembled. Nice weekend to you, Billster. ** I think that's that. Joe Meek plus _B_A are awaiting you or your return, so go do that, please. Thank you. I'll go have a weekend to remember now, or I'll try. See you afterwards. On Monday.