Going through a little phase of watching a new feature movie and a 1991 documentary on strange and troubled genius
Joe Meek.
The movie,
"Telstar" is a pretty good summation of Joe's chaotic and troubled life as an eccentric record producer. Credited with virtually kick starting the British singles music industry and creating some innovative studio tricks Joe eventually was outpaced by more talented studio technicians and eventually swamped by the wave started by the Beatles and Stones.
The actor playing Joe really nails his personality and manner and even looks a lot like him.
The film is fascinating in its depiction of Joe's cramped and chaotic studio situated in tiny rooms above a luggage shop. Its amazing how many famous artists recored with Joe but his main hits were with the Tornados and his bleached fancy, Heinz.
After being sued by somebody claiming to have written Telstar before Joe and hounded by a homosexual criminal charge Joe eventually succumbed to addiction and mental illness culminating in him shooting his downstairs co-tenant and himself with a gun ironically owned by Heinz.
The documentary is even better and really shows the sides of Joe's eccentric genius and features an interview with Joe's two brothers who seem a little bemused by Joe's lifestyle.
A profile of the legendary maverick producer and song writer Joe Meek, composer of
the massive hit Telstar who recorded most of his hits in a home studio using
innovative recording methods in Holloway Road.
Meek was obsessed with the occult and suffered from depression and paranoia, and in
1963 had been charged with ‘importuning for immoral purposes’.
If you don't recognize his name, you'll at least recognize the tragic Joe Meek's freaky 1962 instrumental hit "Telstar," performed by The Tornados. The follow-up vocal version, sung by Kenny Hollywood, is titled "Magic Star." Both are available here, as are other Meek songs.
I want to draw your attention, however, to Meek's 1960 concept album I Hear a New World performed by Joe Meek and The Blue Men. The album explores what life might be like on the moon (released one year prior to John F. Kennedy's famous speech to Congress committing the US to setting foot on the moon by the end of the decade). The work is trippy and wonderful stuff unlike anything else from the time, although Meek's music is sometimes mistakenly lumped into the library music category. Justin at Aquarium Drunkard adds,
Meek stepped forward to create this lunar-inspired “music fantasy” record, technologically and conceptually well ahead of the time. Joe Meek: “I wanted to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space. At first I was going to record 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.”...
The music production and engineering for this recording were unique and visionary. In a pre-synthesizer world, Meek used a wide array of homemade electronics and unique instruments to achieve a signature sound. Most notably, perhaps, was the Clavioline, a three-octave keyboard instrument somewhere between an organ and a simple analog synthesizer. The Clavioline handles many of the lead melodies on this record (as well as on "Telstar").
via;
http://phronesisaical.blogspot.com/
GET DOWN HERE
Going through a little phase of watching a new feature movie and a 1991 documentary on strange and troubled genius Joe Meek.
The movie, "Telstar" is a pretty good summation of Joe's chaotic and troubled life as an eccentric record producer. Credited with virtually kick starting the British singles music industry and creating some innovative studio tricks Joe eventually was outpaced by more talented studio technicians and eventually swamped by the wave started by the Beatles and Stones.
The actor playing Joe really nails his personality and manner and even looks a lot like him.
The film is fascinating in its depiction of Joe's cramped and chaotic studio situated in tiny rooms above a luggage shop. Its amazing how many famous artists recored with Joe but his main hits were with the Tornados and his bleached fancy, Heinz.
After being sued by somebody claiming to have written Telstar before Joe and hounded by a homosexual criminal charge Joe eventually succumbed to addiction and mental illness culminating in him shooting his downstairs co-tenant and himself with a gun ironically owned by Heinz.
The documentary is even better and really shows the sides of Joe's eccentric genius and features an interview with Joe's two brothers who seem a little bemused by Joe's lifestyle.
A profile of the legendary maverick producer and song writer Joe Meek, composer of
the massive hit Telstar who recorded most of his hits in a home studio using
innovative recording methods in Holloway Road.
Meek was obsessed with the occult and suffered from depression and paranoia, and in
1963 had been charged with ‘importuning for immoral purposes’.
If you don't recognize his name, you'll at least recognize the tragic Joe Meek's freaky 1962 instrumental hit "Telstar," performed by The Tornados. The follow-up vocal version, sung by Kenny Hollywood, is titled "Magic Star." Both are available here, as are other Meek songs.
I want to draw your attention, however, to Meek's 1960 concept album I Hear a New World performed by Joe Meek and The Blue Men. The album explores what life might be like on the moon (released one year prior to John F. Kennedy's famous speech to Congress committing the US to setting foot on the moon by the end of the decade). The work is trippy and wonderful stuff unlike anything else from the time, although Meek's music is sometimes mistakenly lumped into the library music category. Justin at Aquarium Drunkard adds,
Meek stepped forward to create this lunar-inspired “music fantasy” record, technologically and conceptually well ahead of the time. Joe Meek: “I wanted to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space. At first I was going to record 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.”...
The music production and engineering for this recording were unique and visionary. In a pre-synthesizer world, Meek used a wide array of homemade electronics and unique instruments to achieve a signature sound. Most notably, perhaps, was the Clavioline, a three-octave keyboard instrument somewhere between an organ and a simple analog synthesizer. The Clavioline handles many of the lead melodies on this record (as well as on "Telstar").
via;http://phronesisaical.blogspot.com/
GET DOWN HERE
